News Star Wars: Galactic Starcruiser Permanently Closed Fall 2023

[LSLS]

Blaming the marketing when this started to go down - which was almost immediately because it was widely available from about 2 months in…is typical. It’s classic dust.

Disney didn’t fail. The management didn’t fail. The story people didn’t fail. WDI didn’t fail (they actually failed the least…because they are given orders)…

Some faceless “marketing” people did. Those anonymous faces just too STUPID to execute Robert A Ifees well run operation and deliver…
…we all can hate them, can’t we?

I think you are hitting on it, there is a ton of blame to go all around. The design, the pricing, a lot of the concept all can be called into question. But I won't discount how much everyone around here laughed or just sat in jaw-dropped shock at how awful the thing really looked in the marketing materials as well. The "Light Saber training" with Josh, bridge stuff, etc. Marketing absolutely failed at this, but so did just about everything else with this. To me, the only thing that was not a fail was the initial idea of building a star cruiser cruise ship. The concept could have been amazing in my mind.

 

[Buried20KLeague]

I still think this is sort of thing is the future of themed entertainment. And I’m glad Disney took the risk on trying something new/different.

I think it WAS…. Till Disney screwed this so badly.

It will take serious guts for them or someone else to attempt something similar again. And a LOT of changes would have to be made.

 

[RoysCabin]

I just don't know how much LARPing really is the future of themed entertainment, though. Not saying there's no place for it, there's obviously a market for people getting to live out something from a story they really like, but I think the video posted before makes a key point of how exhausting the whole experience was, from the sense that you need to do every single activity to feel you're getting your money's worth, to having your day's schedule laid out very meticulously, to having what amounts to a pretty set "bed time", etc.

At the end of the day, theme parks can be exhausting, but they're still meant to be part of a vacation - a chance to get away from rigid schedules, to take things at a pace you want to take them at, to choose if you want to go more high intensity or a slower speed, that kind of thing. Really highly organized LARPs don't really allow for that.

Beyond that, I also wouldn't really call the starcruiser a risk in terms of its content; the whole idea seemed to initially be that everything in it was meant to be in the park, but basically got put behind a +$3,000 per person paywall, instead.

 

[MagicHappens1971]

Starcruiser was not inherently a LARPing experience. You didn’t have to assume a different persona & MOST passengers did not.

I think Disney will replicate elements of Starcruiser into something new eventually, the experience was groundbreaking for the themed entertainment industry. Most of the elements of Starcruiser are hard to scale into a theme park due to their intimate nature. For example, the Lightsaber Training Pod was an amazing experience (nothing like the video Josh put out) but could only take 20 people and was ~20 minutes. Very hard to scale that into a theme park.

The poor marketing & expensive price tag were the major killers of this experience, not the experience itself.

 

[Basil of Baker Street]

Though it won't close like Star Cruiser, I consider GE is a failure as well. It feels like a lifeless concrete land. Almost depressing. Such a vast difference to Pandora.

 

[danlb_2000]

Though it won't close like Star Cruiser, I consider GE is a failure as well. It feels like a lifeless concrete land. Almost depressing. Such a vast difference to Pandora.

GE is an incredibly immersive land, it's just not a land that I, even as a huge Star Wars fan, wants to be immersed in.

 

[Brian]

GE is an incredibly immersive land, it's just not a land that I, even as a huge Star Wars fan, wants to be immersed in.

I'm the opposite. I couldn't care less for Star Wars, but find the land to be visually impressive, though I suspect if I were a hardcore fan, it would be somewhat disappointing for me.

 

[Fido Chuckwagon]

I think it WAS…. Till Disney screwed this so badly.

It will take serious guts for them or someone else to attempt something similar again. And a LOT of changes would have to be made.

I think this thing could have done very well also. But any company that tries something like this again needs to figure out how to do it at a much lower price point.

 

[_caleb]

I just don't know how much LARPing really is the future of themed entertainment, though. Not saying there's no place for it, there's obviously a market for people getting to live out something from a story they really like, but I think the video posted before makes a key point of how exhausting the whole experience was, from the sense that you need to do every single activity to feel you're getting your money's worth, to having your day's schedule laid out very meticulously, to having what amounts to a pretty set "bed time", etc.

At the end of the day, theme parks can be exhausting, but they're still meant to be part of a vacation - a chance to get away from rigid schedules, to take things at a pace you want to take them at, to choose if you want to go more high intensity or a slower speed, that kind of thing. Really highly organized LARPs don't really allow for that.

Beyond that, I also wouldn't really call the starcruiser a risk in terms of its content; the whole idea seemed to initially be that everything in it was meant to be in the park, but basically got put behind a +$3,000 per person paywall, instead.

Like @MagicHappens1971 said, I don't think this fit squarely into the LARP category. That was one way to experience, it, but not the primary way.

And I agree that overly-programmed vacations can be stressful. One thing that ruins our Disney vacations is the sense of "Hurry, we're missing out!"

I think another part of the issue with interactive/immersive storytelling is that they need to keep the barrier to entry extremely low. There needs to be several options in between "not playing at all" and "I've developed an in-depth backstory for my character and made this film-accurate costume, please refer to me as Your Eminence, Senator Count Vurk Concorkill until the end of our vacation."

It's different for everyone, but I think it's becoming increasingly common for people to get bored really easily. We can bemoan the lack of imagination or whatever, but gamified experiences (when done well) can be really fun thing to do on vacation (see the MagicQuest games at Great Wolf Lodge or A Pirate's Adventure: Treasures of the Seven Seas game in Adventureland). It doesn't have to be taxing/tiring to "get into" the experience with just a little bit of "choose your own adventure."

And guests who don't want to participate can enjoy watching those who do.

 

[_caleb]

I think this thing could have done very well also. But any company that tries something like this again needs to figure out how to do it at a much lower price point.

I'd LOVE to know what Disney's operating costs were for the Starcruiser.

 

[LSLS]

I'd LOVE to know what Disney's operating costs were for the Starcruiser.

Honestly I'm trying to envision a scenario where it could be more than an actual ship, and I just don't see any way. Even with a lot less people, there are so many extra costs associated with being on the water than stationary on land. Which is why I thought this was such a cool idea when I thought it was just essentially going to be a cruise ship where it feels like you are in space.

 

[Ayla]

I still think this is sort of thing is the future of themed entertainment. And I’m glad Disney took the risk on trying something new/different.

Playing dress up and pretend isn't the future of themed entertainment.

 

[Bocabear]

If you go by what the rest of TDO is doing, the "Future of Themed Entertainment" is staying at an unthemed, mid level Marriott hotel for double the price.....

 

[_caleb]

Playing dress up and pretend isn't the future of themed entertainment.

I was referring to 360º/4D/multisensory theming, gamification, puzzles to solve, personalized interactions with characters, overnight stays, and variable story outcomes that depend on guest choices.

 

[ChrisFL]

I just don't know how much LARPing really is the future of themed entertainment, though.

Not directly related, but I was on the MIB ride (Shooting dark ride with "laser" guns for anyone who might not be aware) where 2 of the guests on the vehicle with me just sat there doing nothing the entire ride. The point being is that there's many different types of tourists out there.

When Jenny went over the bingo and line (?) dancing sections, I know it was joked about when those first videos came out, BUT people were actually doing those activities, which means it's not entirely stupid, right? Silly games are such an integral part of the cruise experience, and this is like a "cruise in space".


On a separate note, one idea I had to make this feel more like what we know of Star Wars is for another ship from the resistance to "dock" with yours and do a lot of missions on the type of ship we expect to see being used by the resistance and has a lot more familiar look to it. And you could have another character from the Sequel movies like Finn or Poe there.

(Honestly I still think the entire land should be themed to the OG trilogy but that's a whole other conversation )

 

[fgmnt]

he epitaph on this - until further notice - is that they could have taken a poll in 2012 of 10 fans and learned in an hour of what to do and what not to do with Star Wars…

But managed to pooch it on a spectacular level. It’s stranger than fiction…to be honest.

Terrible management.

For some reason, there is one anecdote about Iger that has been etched in my mind forever, and it's one he volunteered about perosonally reviewing and approving pages for Star Wars. You cannot divorce the creative product of Lucasfilm under Disney ownership from the creative (?) mind (?) of Robet Iger. That's why the sequel trilogy movies had no writing or directing consistency. That's why they had to implement an annual release cadence immediately on acquisition. That's why all capital projects in the parks related to Star Wars since 2015 have been firmly in the realm of content produced under Disney ownership and why all EU projects had to be discarded. That's why new Star Wars content is as much of a cornerstone of the Disney D2C service as the WDAS and Pixar libraries.

That's why the Starcruiser was built the exact way to was, regardless of how it never seemed to pencil out financially for consumers or Disney. It all had to be done Iger's way. He wanted the custody of Star Wars to be his legacy. Let him lie in the bed he made.

 

[larryz]

Is it closed yet?

 

[ChrisFL]

For some reason, there is one anecdote about Iger that has been etched in my mind forever, and it's one he volunteered about perosonally reviewing and approving pages for Star Wars. You cannot divorce the creative product of Lucasfilm under Disney ownership from the creative (?) mind (?) of Robet Iger. That's why the sequel trilogy movies had no writing or directing consistency. That's why they had to implement an annual release cadence immediately on acquisition. That's why all capital projects in the parks related to Star Wars since 2015 have been firmly in the realm of content produced under Disney ownership and why all EU projects had to be discarded. That's why new Star Wars content is as much of a cornerstone of the Disney D2C service as the WDAS and Pixar libraries.

That's why the Starcruiser was built the exact way to was, regardless of how it never seemed to pencil out financially for consumers or Disney. It all had to be done Iger's way. He wanted the custody of Star Wars to be his legacy. Let him lie in the bed he made.

So like Eisner was....sort of, creative and occasionally had good ideas(?), but worse?

 

[Sirwalterraleigh]

So like Eisner was....sort of, creative and occasionally had good ideas(?), but worse?

Eisner had a creative background

Iger does not.

Huge difference

 

[_caleb]

For some reason, there is one anecdote about Iger that has been etched in my mind forever, and it's one he volunteered about perosonally reviewing and approving pages for Star Wars. You cannot divorce the creative product of Lucasfilm under Disney ownership from the creative (?) mind (?) of Robet Iger. That's why the sequel trilogy movies had no writing or directing consistency. That's why they had to implement an annual release cadence immediately on acquisition. That's why all capital projects in the parks related to Star Wars since 2015 have been firmly in the realm of content produced under Disney ownership and why all EU projects had to be discarded. That's why new Star Wars content is as much of a cornerstone of the Disney D2C service as the WDAS and Pixar libraries.

That's why the Starcruiser was built the exact way to was, regardless of how it never seemed to pencil out financially for consumers or Disney. It all had to be done Iger's way. He wanted the custody of Star Wars to be his legacy. Let him lie in the bed he made.

Of course Bob claims to have "personally approved and reviewed" each of the Star Wars films/series. That's PR, as he's the CEO of Disney.

We've seen an example of Bob's creative input into attractions:

You think Lassiter, Bob Weis, Kevin Rafferty, Kathy Magnum, et. al. aren't just nodding to shine him on, with no intention of incorporating his input?

I don't understand how folks imagine Bob Iger as some micro-managing dictator who jumps in to subvert the detailed plans of high-profile (and highly-paid) creatives across a broad scope of disciplines.