News Star Wars: Galactic Starcruiser Permanently Closed Fall 2023

[JD80]

Nobody “hates” man-children who play dress up and come up with made up names and backstories while line dancing with plastic toy light sabers.

I'm pretty sure people don't like those who mock other people for having fun.

 

[Epcot81Fan]

RIP, Galactic Starcruiser, RIP…

 

[Fido Chuckwagon]

That was discussed before. It will have been changed to work. That happens all of the time. From attractions in park to entertainment venues. Who said failure was permanent? It only is with hubris and giving up. That goes back to my entire point with Disney Quest. Never worked regionally. Fit right in with Mini Golf and Waterpark add ons.

The Galactic Failcruiser was always destined to fail and stay a failure forever.

 

[Screamface]

To pretend the LARP’ing (and clearly seeing on the videos who is attracted to this experience) did not turn people off to the entire concept is either being disingenuous or delusional.

I wonder if someone could make a documentary about the way Hollywood laundered the idea that larping was actually something more than really fringe and then fell for that delusion. As part of the larger complete misunderstanding of fandoms informed by their fictional versions of them.

I still don't fully understand what has gone on where all the decision-making for hiring people to cater to specific audiences, whether large or small has somehow incentivised hiring people that don't know the material, don't know the properties, don't know the fandoms, don't know what people want and encourages them to make products no one wants.

Something is fundamentally broken.

People like to blame fans, as if they can't be pleased. Yet there are massively obvious mistakes in most properties the fans aren't happy with that most people could express. So why is no one making for these audiences capable of knowing this?

How many of us when we first heard about the Star Cruiser thought it was a dumb idea for all the reasons it has now failed?

 

[cjkeating]

They didn’t market it at all in the UK. There was no information on the UK site, you had to call to find out anything about it.

Which is really odd. There was a lot of interest in certain SW fandom forums. And yet in an email to me when I queried why they hadn’t updated the website the response was “ we include information we consider of interest to our UK visitors”. That suggests a conscious decision NOT to market it here. Odd when most people go for 2 weeks so a 2 night stay would have been easy to add in without taking away park time.

I’m still despondent I didn’t book it for our trip last year. I thought we’d do it on our next trip rather than over Christmas.

I found this very weird as well. Their biggest international market and from memory I'm not even sure the UK Galactic Starcruiser website even made it clear that the Starcruiser had opened.

Something else I found really odd was when I told someone I know who works for Disney UK that I was going on Starcruiser he said "How? British guests from the UK aren't able to book it?" I can't deny it did throw a seed of doubt in my mind what I wasn't going to be able to board when I arrived.

When I visited WDW in August I heard a Cast Member in the park speaking to someone else and they said "Everyone here is British right now." which it did feel like at times, yet when I was on the Starcruiser a couple of Cast Members seemed taken aback to hear a British accent, I assume they had very few international guests.

 

[nickys]

I found this very weird as well. Their biggest international market and from memory I'm not even sure the UK Galactic Starcruiser website even made it clear that the Starcruiser had opened.

Something else I found really odd was when I told someone I know who works for Disney UK that I was going on Starcruiser he said "How? British guests from the UK aren't able to book it?" I can't deny it did throw a seed of doubt in my mind what I wasn't going to be able to board when I arrived.

When I visited WDW in August I heard a Cast Member in the park speaking to someone else and they said "Everyone here is British right now." which it did feel like at times, yet when I was on the Starcruiser a couple of Cast Members seemed taken aback to hear a British accent, I assume they had very few international guests.

That StarCruiser page never had any active links behind each of the sections. I assumed if you called you’d be able to find out about it, but from what you’re saying I suspect you wouldn’t.

The more I think about it, the sadder I am that I didn’t do what I was planning to do and try and book it between Christmas and New Year.

 

[asianway]

When this thing went live was the pricing seasonal? What was the difference between Christmas and say the first week of October?

It doesn’t seem that they applied their typical revenue management strategy to this at all. DVC was being offered a discount like right before they announced the shutdown?

 

[flynnibus]

When this thing went live was the pricing seasonal?

It was always by the calendar

 

[pdude81]

When this thing went live was the pricing seasonal? What was the difference between Christmas and say the first week of October?

It doesn’t seem that they applied their typical revenue management strategy to this at all. DVC was being offered a discount like right before they announced the shutdown?

Pricing tracked similar to other resorts they were selling. For example, I went during Easter week 2022 and it was definitely more expensive than if I wanted to go the following week. There were charts for the DVC point conversion posted in the announcement thread at some point, and they tracked somewhat with the cash rate change percentages.

Before the closure announcement, there were discounts for AP and for DVC, though I believe the DVC discount required you to book at least one passenger on points.

 

[asianway]

Pricing tracked similar to other resorts they were selling. For example, I went during Easter week 2022 and it was definitely more expensive than if I wanted to go the following week. There were charts for the DVC point conversion posted in the announcement thread at some point, and they tracked somewhat with the cash rate change percentages.

Before the closure announcement, there were discounts for AP and for DVC, though I believe the DVC discount required you to book at least one passenger on points.

Ah yes the lack of a discount at all for the various classes. WDW has conditioned guests like Kohls where there’s always a sale to make you think you’re getting a deal and it took them a year to put it in place

 

[JD80]

Often the discounted room you get is the same price as the rack rate if you just booked a few months earlier.

Haven't looked in a while but that was the case pre pandemic.

 

[asianway]

Often the discounted room you get is the same price as the rack rate if you just booked a few months earlier.

Haven't looked in a while but that was the case pre pandemic.

Oh most if it is psychological I just don’t know why they waited so long

 

[FettFan]

"We have Ahsoka at home."

Ahsoka at home:

View attachment 751245

 

[brettf22]

Saw this novelty desk sign and thought it would be a good purchase for Disney when they re-open Starcruiser in its new form, whatever that is. Maybe they could even sell them in the gift shop.

 

[Andrew M]

I wonder if someone could make a documentary about the way Hollywood laundered the idea that larping was actually something more than really fringe and then fell for that delusion. As part of the larger complete misunderstanding of fandoms informed by their fictional versions of them.

I still don't fully understand what has gone on where all the decision-making for hiring people to cater to specific audiences, whether large or small has somehow incentivised hiring people that don't know the material, don't know the properties, don't know the fandoms, don't know what people want and encourages them to make products no one wants.

Something is fundamentally broken.

People like to blame fans, as if they can't be pleased. Yet there are massively obvious mistakes in most properties the fans aren't happy with that most people could express. So why is no one making for these audiences capable of knowing this?

How many of us when we first heard about the Star Cruiser thought it was a dumb idea for all the reasons it has now failed?

I dunno, take a look at Comic Con on both coasts and the sheer amount of people that dress up and stay in character.

I don't think they underestimated the demand. My kids would have absolutely loved to do this, and I really believe the demand is still out there. It's just the ridiculous price tag that put it immediately in the category of 'well we're never going to be able to afford that, so nevermind'.

I'm still shocked it lasted for that long at that price, but eventually you're going to run out of die-hard Star Wars fans with enough disposable income to drop $5K+ on a 2 night vacation. I just went on a 4 night Disney Cruise out of NY and it was still cheaper for a family of 5 than what we would have had to pay for this.

 

[TheMaxRebo]

I dunno, take a look at Comic Con on both coasts and the sheer amount of people that dress up and stay in character.

I don't think they underestimated the demand. My kids would have absolutely loved to do this, and I really believe the demand is still out there. It's just the ridiculous price tag that put it immediately in the category of 'well we're never going to be able to afford that, so nevermind'.

I'm still shocked it lasted for that long at that price, but eventually you're going to run out of die-hard Star Wars fans with enough disposable income to drop $5K+ on a 2 night vacation. I just went on a 4 night Disney Cruise out of NY and it was still cheaper for a family of 5 than what we would have had to pay for this.

I am really surprised they never altered anything about it - even for people that could afford it and interested in it and did it, how many were super existed to pay that much for the same storyline, etc. multiple times?

Assume the feedback and surveys and stuff showed that no tweaks would being enough people to make it profitable

 

[_caleb]

The Starcruiser experience wasn't the same thing as a LARP.

 

[Incomudro]

I dunno, take a look at Comic Con on both coasts and the sheer amount of people that dress up and stay in character.

I don't think they underestimated the demand. My kids would have absolutely loved to do this, and I really believe the demand is still out there. It's just the ridiculous price tag that put it immediately in the category of 'well we're never going to be able to afford that, so nevermind'.

I'm still shocked it lasted for that long at that price, but eventually you're going to run out of die-hard Star Wars fans with enough disposable income to drop $5K+ on a 2 night vacation. I just went on a 4 night Disney Cruise out of NY and it was still cheaper for a family of 5 than what we would have had to pay for this.

If Disney gave these fans the Star Wars they really want, instead of the Star Wars Disney insists on giving them - it would have done better for a longer period of time.
Fans balked at the price, then again at the content.

 

[Tha Realest]

The Starcruiser experience wasn't the same thing as a LARP.

Yes - people still have the ability to experience LARP’ing.

 

[_caleb]

Yes - people still have the ability to experience LARP’ing.

I mean, not at WDW, but my point is all those people who keep saying "the Starcruiser failed because Disney gambled on LARPing" don't seem to understand the Starcruiser or LARPing.