The following is "in general" and not directed directly at
@danlb_2000, directly.
I don't accept that premise. I know that's what's pushed here: "You don't like the new thing / have problems with the new thing / don't think the new thing is up to snuff!!! Why do you want Disney to fail????"
It's sort of like not wanting new taxes to "feed the children" and then being categorized as, "WHY DO YOU WANT THE CHILDREN TO STARVE???" <- that would make me a horrible person, right?
... or maybe.. I'm just saying there is a different, and perhaps better, way.
When people get on this forum and talk negatively about something Disney is doing it's because, at least on the surface, it looks like a HUGE mistake. This mistake may break some of the founding principles of the park such as:
- Sight lines
- theming
- original intent
- doing things on the cheap / ending up with something less than it could have been
If anything, this isn't, "I want Disney to fail!," but more along the lines, "I really want them to succeed!"
I could argue that sitting idly by just allowing them to spoon feed you whatever and charge you more actually does more harm than good. It allows them to sit on their laurels and not progress.
It just seems to be such a misunderstood thing in today's society and it's simplistic thinking of, "Well, if you're not 100% for us, then you're 100% against us!!" - and that really isn't the case either on this forum or in society. Just because someone criticizes something doesn't mean that they hate that something. In fact, it may be that they really care for that something and don't want to see it changed (it's going to change, however) / get sloppy / ruined.
Six Flags used to be a pretty good set of theme parks. Not back in the early 200s but going back to the 1970s. They're now the discount park. They're the Walmart of theme parks. You don't really want to go but, yeah, you'll go because your cousin is in town. That's how it is now. It's not how it used to be. They've had decades of "We're the discount park!" crap where they just added coaster after coaster with no theming (the originally had theming), and now? They're kind of a crappy regional theme park with decent sized coasters. Not the best coasters, but what do you expect from a discount chain?
During all of those decades you could have made all sorts of commentary, much like is written here, that, "They really shouldn't be doing that.. That's not a good idea... At some point they're going to have to pay on that debt for all of those coasters..." and, if you think about it, you were hoping they wouldn't become some crappy amusement park chain but others, using today's logic, would have said, "Why do you hate Six Flags and want to see them fail???"
Getting back to Disney:
- I still think the Star Cruiser is not a great fit. Others disagree.
- I still think Disney has shown, through their actions, that they're not really intent on paying for street performers in their parks. They've got rid of quite a few of them in recent years and used COVID to do some of that. Galaxy's Edge was supposed to be teeming with them but, outside of the first month or so, they seem to be mostly missing. I think you can extrapolate from that that you'll likely have something akin to a meet & greet with Vader or whomever at the hotel and then there'll be the necessary employees to make things work (like manning the attractions (light saber training / bridge) or staffing the bar / dining room / kitchen. Sure, maybe in the first month or two they'll do something more elaborate, but, long term, they're just not committed to that idea (as seen by their own history).
- from the previews: It doesn't look well themed. It doesn't look like Star Wars. It looks "generic 1970s-ish space props".
- It doesn't look like it has much and, how can it based on it's size? (another ding against the whole "cruise ship" idea
- box truck <- You're paying, min, $6K to be taken in a box truck over to the park. You can come out of it, and with the amount of money you've spent I could see you saying, "it was the best box truck ride, EVER!" - you still paid $6K to be carried in a box truck. Of all of the ideas of how to get customers from the star cruiser to the park, how did they land on "box truck". Build the hotel closer to the park and have a room with TV screens for windows that shakes a bit and you have your shuttle to Galaxy's Edge. No no.. Box truck. You can see how they've done something very similar and clever with the entrance to RotR - they could have done that!
- The inside of the cruiser looks like a regular hotel with dry wall and all that.
From what I can tell, Disney has built this to maximize profits (I mean that to an extent of: Whatever you thought they could charge someone for something, they multiplied it by 10). How much money can they charge for the least amount of effort? I don't think that is a recipe for success. I don't think it's a recipe for repeat customers. I think, at the same time, and I'm not even against this notion, it prices out everyone else (unless they start offering discount passages for $1000/stay and your ride in stowage - imagine the immersion of paying $1000/stay and your riding in stowage through space)
Along the same lines: Imagine if they were going to build a 300ft coaster right behind Cinderella's castle. I'd argue:
- That doesn't belong there.
- It screws up the sight lines.
- I'm not sure that's the kind of park the Magic Kingdom is.
- How do you theme something at 300ft?
Others would argue against me:
- You don't know it'll look bad until they're done
- Wait until it opens and THEN make your decision
- Disney will just color it go-away-green and you'll never see it
- They're going to have character cut outs all up and down the lift hill to immerse you!
- Why do you hate Disney and want it to fail?