News Star Wars Galactic Starcruiser coming to Walt Disney World 2021

[21stamps]

If the experience really is 2 days, as I think the survey and/or insiders have intimated, I could see this being a more restricted experience. Checking in, taking in the hotel/starship areas, participating in (some) LARP activities and an expected visit of some duration at GE during the voyage really would make for a very full 2 days.

I personally don't believe access to electronic devices will be limited, but I also do not think there will be buses to other parks during your brief stay, nor any outside facilities at the hotel.

You are buying a voyage on a spaceship from Orlando to Batuu and back, with all that a journey on a spaceship would entail. I certainly don't expect a starship to have an outdoor pool to enjoy during my trip!

Given the expected high price and the posited short duration of the stay/voyage, I am not sure why anyone would want to leave for another of the parks in the first place. As much as $2,000 per person for a 2-night stay and you want to leave in the middle to park hop to the Magic Kingdom?

As for the worry about whether a boutique park can survive long term, Sea World has been operating Discovery Cove for 18 years now. The park has a high price point and limits access to 1,200 guests per day. You are paying extra for the exclusivity at an all-inclusive, but slide-less water park with a 30-minute dolphin encounter. I have taken my family twice and loved every minute of both days.

I would. If it’s 2-3 nights, I would absolutely want to go to the parks/pay for tickets..and absolutely want to stay in that hotel.

I know that some people try to squeeze “value” to it’s very last drop.. there also a lot of people who look at value as an overall thing. A morning or evening at Galaxy’s Edge and returning to an awesome hotel and changing into your SW wardrobe- totally worth it.

I do not expect that Disney is going to set this up as a “don’t leave the hotel for X amount of days, until you check in to your next Disney hotel to enjoy the parks.”

Doesn’t sound one bit realistic in my opinion. Not everyone wants to spend a week at WDW.

 

[Rodan75]

Given the small size and large scope of this resort/LARP space cruise, I would imagine that it will have a guided reservations process to ensure folks know what they are getting into. And any limitations/differences that the experience has compared to a Grand Floridian resort stay.

 

[flynnibus]

I wonder if the themed hotel could actually be a ship with a single port of call - Batuu (SW:GE). You board from the WDW space port on earth, get transported to Batuu, get an isolated experience when no other outside (non SW hotel) guests are able to be at SW:GE, and you are not allowed to exit SW:GE. That dedicated time could be special evening hours, like MNSSHP/MVMCP. SW Guests do the quest like others have shared, return to the ship and the return journey back to WDW. I'm not sure that I would pay $2000, but it sure sounds cool!

FWIW... that's what the original pitch sounded like. But when pressed if you would have exclusive access to the park... (my brain was thinking... park to yourself with how many people??) they suggested no. The park piece sounded like 'after checkout, get extra perks/benefits in SWGE'.

I could imagine them doing 'early access' or something... or could just be 'heres a FP and the meet&greet guy will know your accomplishments on your mission'

 

[MisterPenguin]

I have a feeling that @MisterPenguin was a great D&D DM at some point in his life.

DM? Real role-players are GMs!!

D&D is just a gateway to GURPS, Paranoia, In Nomine, Amber, etc...

And I know the source of @Fizban257's avatar without looking it up.

 

[nickys]

all I gotta say is... they better top what paramount did with the Star Trek experience decades ago.

I still have the video of DH and I with another family. It is so embarassing, we've never watched it since we first played it when we got back! At least I got to play Kirk .....

 

[flynnibus]

All of those make perfect sense. It does sound just like a cruise. Including that I wouldn't expect that package entertainment to be fully scheduled, but allow for downtime and for not attending all of it, but skipping some

Yup - they heavily emphasized the importance of allowing people to pick their own level of participation. This is also why I don't subscribe to the "this won't be for families" naysayers... Disney knows who their big spenders are and they know people don't like being split up. So they have to have a menu that allows those that just want to tag along, those who need some 'me time' and those who just can't get enough

Now, does that mean there will be 20min bus rides to the MK? I hope not. Does that mean people are locked in? Of course not.. but I wouldn't expect a big open lobby encouraging people to float in and out either I hope.

Lots of post keep assuming an extreme one way or the other

<whipser> That's because they are trying to come up with reasons why it wont work.. instead of legit concern <whisper>

 

[mmascari]

Now, does that mean there will be 20min bus rides to the MK? I hope not. Does that mean people are locked in? Of course not.. but I wouldn't expect a big open lobby encouraging people to float in and out either I hope.

My expectation is there will be some type of direct access to SWGE that is themed and prevents people from seeing the backstage area's (without requiring the entire outdoor transit corridor to be themed). They'll probably need to include DHS park admittance as part of the stay, or at least encourage you to buy it.

There's some interesting logistics this creates for SWGE too. On the assumption that you enter from Grand Avenue and exit at Toy Story, and that crowd size in SWGE is controlled at Grand Avenue not letting to many people in at one time until enough exit to Toy Story. If you're staying at the hotel, presumably this is the route back to the hotel from DHS. They'll need to have a bypass line for hotel guests, and probably need to reserve enough capacity in SWGE to allow hotel guests back in, even if they are not letting others in. The dirty looks from the crowd waiting as you walk past all of them will be intense. Maybe crowd size will be less of an issue by the time the hotel opens. The hotels smaller size helps make this less of a problem too.

The exit to the earth side street may not be as inviting as the main public areas (may not even be the lobby but adjacent to the lobby), no sense having a constant visual of doors opening to the real world. But, I completely expect there will be a bus loop out front with transport to EPCOT, MG, AK, DS. Even if guests aren't going to use it a ton. The draw of selling extra park hopper tickets and supporting character meals and other park dining will be to strong to eliminate this. Plus, they'll need it for transition days anyway.

More interesting might be what type of restaurants they have in the hotel, and who they let use them. While a typical quick service wouldn't need to allow any non guests in. A signature restaurant, or a character meal might need the extra traffic. Another use for the bus loop, getting other diners to the hotel, even if it's just limited restaurant access. Using the cruise ship analogy, the main dining (that might be included in the price) wouldn't need to be open to any non guests. But, any up-charge dining experience might need the extra crowd draw. Or, it could be fine with the smaller guest pool to draw from. As with all things Disney, the sense of scale is hard to judge on how big things really are and how small boutique really means.

 

[flynnibus]

My expectation is there will be some type of direct access to SWGE that is themed and prevents people from seeing the backstage area's (without requiring the entire outdoor transit corridor to be themed). They'll probably need to include DHS park admittance as part of the stay, or at least encourage you to buy it.

There's some interesting logistics this creates for SWGE too. On the assumption that you enter from Grand Avenue and exit at Toy Story, and that crowd size in SWGE is controlled at Grand Avenue not letting to many people in at one time until enough exit to Toy Story. If you're staying at the hotel, presumably this is the route back to the hotel from DHS. They'll need to have a bypass line for hotel guests, and probably need to reserve enough capacity in SWGE to allow hotel guests back in, even if they are not letting others in. The dirty looks from the crowd waiting as you walk past all of them will be intense. Maybe crowd size will be less of an issue by the time the hotel opens. The hotels smaller size helps make this less of a problem too.

The exit to the earth side street may not be as inviting as the main public areas (may not even be the lobby but adjacent to the lobby), no sense having a constant visual of doors opening to the real world. But, I completely expect there will be a bus loop out front with transport to EPCOT, MG, AK, DS. Even if guests aren't going to use it a ton. The draw of selling extra park hopper tickets and supporting character meals and other park dining will be to strong to eliminate this. Plus, they'll need it for transition days anyway.

More interesting might be what type of restaurants they have in the hotel, and who they let use them. While a typical quick service wouldn't need to allow any non guests in. A signature restaurant, or a character meal might need the extra traffic. Another use for the bus loop, getting other diners to the hotel, even if it's just limited restaurant access. Using the cruise ship analogy, the main dining (that might be included in the price) wouldn't need to be open to any non guests. But, any up-charge dining experience might need the extra crowd draw. Or, it could be fine with the smaller guest pool to draw from. As with all things Disney, the sense of scale is hard to judge on how big things really are and how small boutique really means.

But trust me... this is nothing like they pitched and would be completely self-defeating to Disney.

It would be really hard to sell these multi-thousand dollar experiences if someone can just make a reservation for dinner and come in and experience it themselves for the cost of a dinner show.

The draw for this experience was NOT SWGE - It was the stay at the property itself... and Disney will want to make that exclusive to ensure the price point is defendable.

 

[Fizban257]

But trust me... this is nothing like they pitched and would be completely self-defeating to Disney.

It would be really hard to sell these multi-thousand dollar experiences if someone can just make a reservation for dinner and come in and experience it themselves for the cost of a dinner show.

The draw for this experience was NOT SWGE - It was the stay at the property itself... and Disney will want to make that exclusive to ensure the price point is defendable.

They could partially get around this by theming the Florida entrance as a spaceport where you board the starship. Once each voyage has begun, the port would still be accessible to guests in Orlando for sales and a preview of the "ship" while the rest of the ship is off limits.

In essence, two lobbies so the ship has one for guests on their voyage and the port has one for ongoing sales, etc.

But the restaurants would still be inaccessible during a voyage.

Maybe there are days when the ship is docked and open for day guests before departing?

There are ways to open this up to guests more broadly while protecting the immersion during a voyage.

 

[bclane]

I was thinking they could build a second planet on the backside of the hotel (kind of like the private islands that the cruise lines have) that would provide an exclusive destination for the starliner guests after the first night of hyperspace travel. That way, the two day trip wouldn’t have to be all inside. Would alleviate some of the concerns people have about being inside the whole time. Obviously it would have to be on a much less grand scale than Batuu but would really up the appeal imo for those that aren’t already convinced that two days immersed in Star Wars is worth the money. Of course for me, i’m ready to sell a kidney to get in and experience whatever they have planned already.

 

[flynnibus]

There are ways to open this up to guests more broadly while protecting the immersion during a voyage.

Practical solutions yes -- productization reasons... no. It is self-defeating.

You are creating an experience that is so unique you want to be demand amaz-ball pricing for it. Anything you do that commodizies that product hurts your ability to demand top dollar.

And when would your restaurant not be serving your own local guests? You'd want the property to be populated and turning guests 7 days a week.

We've already discussed the 'demo' elements before. I wouldn't be suprised if you found DVC-equivalent kiosks in SWGE... followed by some sort of appointment/sales pitch concept.

 

[21stamps]

But trust me... this is nothing like they pitched and would be completely self-defeating to Disney.

It would be really hard to sell these multi-thousand dollar experiences if someone can just make a reservation for dinner and come in and experience it themselves for the cost of a dinner show.

The draw for this experience was NOT SWGE - It was the stay at the property itself... and Disney will want to make that exclusive to ensure the price point is defendable.

Is there any reason to believe that this interactive/immersive experience would not incorporate SWGE? I just can’t imagine why Disney would want to pass on intertwining the two.

 

[MisterPenguin]

Wanting to drop by the SW Resort for dinner while a $2000 event is going on is like wanting to drop by the lobby of Hamilton on Broadway for a few drinks at the lobby bar.

1. You just don't seem to understand what a big budget Broadway play is all about and the difference between a bar and a Broadway lobby-bar;
2. The management ain't going to let you listen in on a $500-ticket show for the $20 you're spending on drinks.

 

[Lensman]

Is there any reason to believe that this interactive/immersive experience would not incorporate SWGE? I just can’t imagine why Disney would want to pass on intertwining the two.

Maybe they'll be a mysterious viewport where you'll accidentally see the overpopulated planet of Batuu?

 

[mmascari]

It would be really hard to sell these multi-thousand dollar experiences if someone can just make a reservation for dinner and come in and experience it themselves for the cost of a dinner show.

Definitely not the same show, or as in depth. More like a teaser to what's possible.

But, it really depends on two things.

First - Are they able to build the restaurants that might allow external guests in a way that allows external guests access without access to the rest of the property. That's a consideration that needs to be done before construction, since it's really hard to change after the fact.

Second - is there enough internal guests that take advantage of upsell restaurants to cover the expense of having them. This is where the size and scale of the number of guests, any included restaurants, and any upsell restaurants all come into play. On an actual cruise ship, they have both quick service and main dinning included in the price and upsell restaurants requiring reservations and costing extra. Clearly there is a scale of the different variables that still makes it work. Falling back to allowing external guests means the scale wasn't predicted correctly. It's a hedge against making that mistake, or a grab for more money or perhaps even a teaser type experience. On a real cruise ship, the guests are all literally captive, which helps with the math. Here, they may have all paid to be captive, but other stuff is just a short ride away.

Until they build it, maybe even then, we will not know if they hedged their bets or not. At open, I would expect that only guests are allowed. But, at some point, if they screwed up the math, that may need to change. We will not know until we see the actual restaurant access if they hedged for this outcome or not.

Obviously, they wouldn't let non guests into the entire hotel. Hence needing to build with limited access in mind. For instance, can't you eat the Rainforest Cafe at AK without actually going into AK. I don't know why you would, but it's outside the gate.

 

[21stamps]

I was thinking they could build a second planet on the backside of the hotel (kind of like the private islands that the cruise lines have) that would provide an exclusive destination for the starliner guests after the first night of hyperspace travel. That way, the two day trip wouldn’t have to be all inside. Would alleviate some of the concerns people have about being inside the whole time. Obviously it would have to be on a much less grand scale than Batuu but would really up the appeal imo for those that aren’t already convinced that two days immersed in Star Wars is worth the money. Of course for me, i’m ready to sell a kidney to get in and experience whatever they have planned already.

One more question, I keep seeing the “2day” timeframe mentioned, but do you really believe this will be how it plays out?

To have everyone basically forced to do a split stay? Again, I’m skeptical of that.
I think you can have the interactive experience and have outside time, I don’t see anything in the announcements to contradict that, but I don’t have any inside info.

 

[21stamps]

Definitely not the same show, or as in depth. More like a teaser to what's possible.

But, it really depends on two things.

First - Are they able to build the restaurants that might allow external guests in a way that allows external guests access without access to the rest of the property. That's a consideration that needs to be done before construction, since it's really hard to change after the fact.

Second - is there enough internal guests that take advantage of upsell restaurants to cover the expense of having them. This is where the size and scale of the number of guests, any included restaurants, and any upsell restaurants all come into play. On an actual cruise ship, they have both quick service and main dinning included in the price and upsell restaurants requiring reservations and costing extra. Clearly there is a scale of the different variables that still makes it work. Falling back to allowing external guests means the scale wasn't predicted correctly. It's a hedge against making that mistake, or a grab for more money or perhaps even a teaser type experience. On a real cruise ship, the guests are all literally captive, which helps with the math. Here, they may have all paid to be captive, but other stuff is just a short ride away.

Until they build it, maybe even then, we will not know if they hedged their bets or not. At open, I would expect that only guests are allowed. But, at some point, if they screwed up the math, that may need to change. We will not know until we see the actual restaurant access if they hedged for this outcome or not.

Obviously, they wouldn't let non guests into the entire hotel. Hence needing to build with limited access in mind. For instance, can't you eat the Rainforest Cafe at AK without actually going into AK. I don't know why you would, but it's outside the gate.

The resort could be sold as an all inclusive package with an option for an upcharge dining venue.

 

[MisterPenguin]

One more question, I keep seeing the “2day” timeframe mentioned, but do you really believe this will be how it plays out?

To have everyone basically forced to do a split stay? Again, I’m skeptical of that.
I think you can have the interactive experience and have outside time, I don’t see anything in the announcements to contradict that, but I don’t have any inside info.

The Disney survey asked about a 2 day stay. So, this is coming from Disney, not some fanboi's imagination. So, take this up with Disney.

 

[21stamps]

The Disney survey asked about a 2 day stay. So, this is coming from Disney, not some fanboi's imagination. So, take this up with Disney.

As in 3pm Check In, 11am Check Out the following day?

Do surveys always end up producing a reality that’s exactly like the survey? I’m asking because I don’t know.

 

[po1998]

I wonder how much of what is being discussed here has even been nailed down yet? Maybe they are coming to this thread for meeting discussion topics. LOL