News Star Wars: Galactic Starcruiser Permanently Closed Fall 2023

[twilight mitsuk]

New Rumor: they'll be changing the experience over to Muppets.

Perhaps View attachment 717213

Or fhloston paradise

 

[matt9112]

People willingly paying for Disney vacations don’t particularly care about who the governor is. Or Florida’s politics in general.

I agree sorry it was satire. I know it was an economic failure. some people are trying to die it into politics.

 

[Robbiem]

I wonder how long before we get an urbex video of the hotel

 

[CaptinEO]

There's only one cabin left on most nights that have vacancies!

Over in the Starcruiser forum a mere week ago I posted this below...



While I'm not the least bit surprised by today's announcement, I'm very mad at myself. I usually preface those types of bold yet easy predictions with the phrase "I would bet ten churros that..." and this time I forgot to type that!

I think I deserve a couple of churros out of this Galactic Starcruiser failure, don't you?!

I always like your honesty. On the DL Forums everyone tried to convince you that sending 200 million dollar movies to Disney Plus was a great business move but you were honest about it and skeptical, which is the same way I felt.

This starcruiser thing for me, as a long time fan of George Lucas' Star Wars, seemed like a mom throwing a Star Wars themed party for their four year old.

There's some space stuff, a light saber, bingo, and a middle aged woman teaching hula as well as some discount Star Wars characters from the dollar store.

Whoever made this project has as much knowledge of Star Wars as a mom throwing a party over at Chuck E Cheese. But at least the mom has good intentions and isn't a billion dollar corporation.

 

[TalkingHead]

^ My face right now. ^

I knew this was going to be the ultimate outcome as soon as I saw that video of Josh D’Amaro flailing around with a plastic lightsaber.

Remember when he brought out the “real” lightsaber prop at D23 years ago and social media went crazy with expectations?

Ok now fast forward to today…

 

[FettFan]

I agree sorry it was satire. I know it was an economic failure. some people are trying to die it into politics.

Don’t you realize you the Satire Button here is broken?

 

[Sirwalterraleigh]

The biggest takeaway from this, might ultimately be that original content pales in comparison to the emotional draw of IP.

…well this ends this thread…
…I’ll see you tomorrow when another proxy fight is announced.

 

[MagicHappens1971]

yeah, like putting it in the wrong trilogy era

That was Iger.

 

[Tjaden]

Oh good, maybe they'll switch it over to Star Trek.


*I know, I know, I'll see myself out*

 

[Brad Bishop]

First, you have to give Disney some credit for trying something outside the box.

...

The vin-diagram (above) is the problem. I also think "employing people to play parts" is a problem for Disney (now). They simply don't want to pay for people to roam the streets and entertain the guests. Remember that Galaxy's Edge was supposed to have all sorts of actors playing their parts to make it immersive... but that costs money. Bob can't see how a random character with no name increases the bottom line on a spreadsheet (which is an on-going problem).

Apart from that. I hold that when it was announced most fan-boys (I don't mean that in a demeaning way - just trying to describe them) thought one of two things:
1) I'm going to be on the side of the Empire and spend the night in the Death Star!
2) I'm going to be on the side of the Rebels and spend the night one of the planets or rebel ships!

...what you got was a cruise through space. No where in the Star Wars movies are there any "cruises". No one was hoping: "I can't wait to get on the Star Wars-themed, land-based, Carnival Cruise line!" Well.. there was one.. I remember him arguing with me on this forum a while back.

What happened was exactly what was expected to happen: Your hard-core Star Wars fans who could afford it did it all in the first few months and then sales dried up.

Star Wars has a few problems:
- it's nearly 50 years old and is waning. Harry Potter isn't there yet but one day will be.
- Disney has screwed up the franchise.
- Disney screwed it up by focusing on the new characters. People wanted to see Darth Vader, a powerful foe, not Kylo, the whiny guy who replaced him (I like the actor - the character is horrible).

I don't even think Kennedy was necessarily wrong on that last bit, she just screwed up the movies because she's (they) are trying to push an agenda instead of making great movies telling great stories. It is, and will ultimately be, the downfall of Disney.

Now that this is shutting down we can go back to the earlier predictions (which I initially stated as 5 years out - didn't think it'd be just over one year): What is to become of it:
- break room for bus drivers
- wig storage
- left to rot (won't be torn down - it'll still be sitting there abandoned 20 years down the road)

I'm not going to lie - I like the Pigs in Space idea. They won't do that because they've let the Muppets rot for 30 years.

 

[Mark Dunne]

"Walt Disney World's Star Wars: Galactic Starcruiser will make its final voyage this fall.

The first-of-its-kind immersive experience debuted in Spring 2022 with a starting price of $4,800 for two guests and just under $6,000 for four guests sharing a cabin for the all-inclusive two night adventure.

“Star Wars: Galactic Starcruiser is one of our most creative projects ever and has been praised by our guests and recognized for setting a new bar for innovation and immersive entertainment. This premium, boutique experience gave us the opportunity to try new things on a smaller scale of 100 rooms, and as we prepare for its final voyage, we will take what we’ve learned to create future experiences that can reach more of our guests and fans," a Walt Disney World spokesperson said in a statement to USA TODAY.

The final voyage will be September 28 through 30. In coming days, Disney will contact guests who had reservations booked for later dates about rescheduling or canceling their plans.

In the meantime, new reservation bookings will be paused until May 26."

Disney World's Star Wars: Galactic Starcruiser will make its final voyage this fall

The immersive and expensive Star Wars experience debuted last year at Disney World.

www.usatoday.com

This is crazy news! And very worrying, they should have stuck to vintage Star Wars storyline, that’s where it’s gone wrong . I love ROTR, but feel that it could have been way cooler boarding a star destroyer, with Vader and stormtroopers aboard, first order just doesn’t work. Plus MFSR again could have been asteroids and fighting tie fighters, much better than the silly story that we have now, and battu should be tattoine , period! Big mistakes were made, again let’s not get started on the merchandise, it’s way better in star tours than battu, why? Because the fan base still 50 years on , prefers Luke, han , leia , chewie, and Vader . Universal would never change Harry Potter to fantastic beasts, it’s just not as good. Mr Lucas was right, Disney have killed SW,

 

[RSoxNo1]

It has become increasingly more evident that the decision makers for the theme parks have no idea what they're doing. The good thing is, they're willing to shutter things quickly in some cases.

 

[TP2000]

I always like your honesty. On the DL Forums everyone tried to convince you that sending 200 million dollar movies to Disney Plus was a great business move but you were honest about it and skeptical, which is the same way I felt.

Thank you, that's very kind of you.

Galactic Starcruiser, and it's very brief Rocket Rods/Light Magic-esque history is sad yet utterly predictable.

This starcruiser thing for me, as a long time fan of George Lucas' Star Wars, seemed like a mom throwing a Star Wars themed party for their four year old.

There's some space stuff, a light saber, bingo, and a middle aged woman teaching hula as well as some discount Star Wars characters from the dollar store.

Whoever made this project has as much knowledge of Star Wars as a mom throwing a party over at Chuck E Cheese. But at least the mom has good intentions and isn't a billion dollar corporation.

Exactly!

I probably was an early and easy skeptic of the Starcruiser because I am not much of a Star Wars fan, just a casual enjoyer of the franchise over the past 50 years but not much more. Once it opened, the cheap short cuts and the super cringe offerings (Captain Kavan, "amaaaazing!" line dancing lessons in the lobby, the entire Crown of Corellia room and dinner show experience, etc., etc.) were easy to spot even to casual fans like me. You could tell this wasn't going to be able to stick around long or fool many people.

 

[jloucks]

This makes me sad.

We went and really enjoyed ourselves.

For me, the dead canary was the fact that it was the same LARP show/experience every time. Virtually no replayability.

I am not so sure it was that is was expensive. If there were 5 different scripts, I would have gone 5 times. Well, maybe not 5, but 2 or 3.

 

[Club Cooloholic]

And they could have slapped a Star Cruiser-like experience right in the middle of it with à la carte options that allowed for escape-room levels of commitment from guests so nobody had to go all-in and so "mixed" families who were not all equally as enthused about the theme had options... like a pool.

This also would have cut out the need for things like the embarrassing intergalactic line dancing lessons and space bingo as filler.

This could have been the Star Wars equivalent of Animal Kingdom Lodge where the non-paying looky-loos were kept at bay but where most rooms just had Darth Vader prints on the pillows, funny doors and Tvs built into the wall that had custom graphics that would/could display when nobody was watching a show and people willing to pay more could have been "up in" the Star Cruiser for a room without a real window.

I actually think if they had set this up on an cruise ship it would have worked well
Lower decks and interior rooms could have had space windows, going to the decks would have been visiting bases outdoors. We don't want to live on a ship we want to travel the galaxy, visit the Ewok village. Have a drink on tattooing, maybe ice skate on Hoth.

 

[MagicHappens1971]

I’m not sure why everyone here who has bemoaned Disney’s cuts on service and guest experience is bemoaning the failure of their most service and guest experience project in decades.

This isn’t going to convince Disney to increase service levels at the parks.

This would be my biggest takeaway from this.

The service on this was top-notch. Guest experience was the driver of this project and Starcruiser also held the highest GSAT scores in Disney history for the entirety of its existence

 

[Fordlover]

As previously noted by me, the experience was a ton of fun and my family loved it. My 7 year old talks about it regularly almost a year later and wants to go back. We were waiting another year to rebook.

I didn’t have many complaints about the experience beyond cost. I’m already paying 6 or 7k for a vacation, and you Want me to pony up an additional 5k?, total of 12k for disney!, and STILL have to battle through genie plus, park reservations, no availability for dining reservations, etc. I am fortunate to be able to lay out this kind of money without financing it, but on principal refuse to do so.

 

[Brer Oswald]

The biggest takeaway from this, might ultimately be that original content pales in comparison to the emotional draw of IP.

The biggest takeaway from this is that Disney shouldn’t be targeting the Uber rich. There’s more “prestigious” places they would rather spend their money.

They should’ve taken this money and used it to add capacity at their 3 under built parks. But what do I know? I’ve only visited almost every year I’ve been alive.

 

[Tha Realest]

Based on the projected final voyage dates could the powers that be convert the cruiser into a derelict spaceship haunted house for Halloween. That could be an overnight experience and salvage something at least near term. Just a thought.

Since Disney has been pulling back in Legends content, I’d love to see them do this

 

[cranbiz]

New Rumor: they'll be changing the experience over to Muppets.

Perhaps View attachment 717213

Take my Money