Disney World Closing Star Wars Hotel
Walt Disney World has announced that it will be permanently closing Galactic Starcruiser, its Star Wars “resort.” This covers the official announcement of the closure, dates & details, plus our commentary about the decision.
According to Walt Disney World’s official announcement, the final voyage for Star Wars: Galactic Starcruiser will take place September 28-30, 2023. In other words, it’s one of the first cuts to be made and revealed before Disney’s new fiscal year starts on October 1, 2023.
“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 experience gave us the opportunity to try new things on a smaller scale of 100 rooms, and we will take what we’ve learned to create future experiences that can reach more of our Guests and fans,” Disney shared in a statement.
Walt Disney World will be contacting guests booked for voyages departing on or after September 30, 2023 to discuss their options and modify their plans. To prioritize these guests with previously-booked reservations, Walt Disney World is pausing new bookings until May 26, 2023.
The company’s statement goes on to say that they are so proud of all of the Cast Members and Imagineers who brought Star Wars: Galactic Starcruiser to life and look forward to delivering an excellent experience for Guests during the remaining voyages over the coming months.
We want to start by addressing Star Wars: Galactic Starcruiser from a planning perspective. Probably an odd approach, given that it’s closing. However, you will likely have a chance to book it after the dust settles for voyages between now and the end of September 2023, and there are still discounts available for summer voyages.
For those who are on the fence about doing Star Wars: Galactic Starcruiser, we highly recommend it. Not because you’ll have bragging rights a decade from now as one of the very few fans who experienced this limited time offering. Rather, because Star Wars: Galactic Starcruiser is awesome.
The experience is definitely not for everyone, but we think it’s more broadly appealing than some might assume. Star Wars: Galactic Starcruiser is an incredibly well-done, memorable, and personalized experience. Everything about it is amazing. You become emotionally invested in the outcome of the storyline and the whole thing is just immensely satisfying.
Turning to commentary about the closure of Star Wars: Galactic Starcruiser, this is sad but unsurprising news.
Before it even opened, we predicted that Star Wars: Galactic Starcruiser might struggle to find an audience once the initial wave of hardcore fans and affluent enthusiasts got their fix. We also predicted that Walt Disney World would be slow to pivot, and would quietly offer targeted discounts to Cast Members and other groups to avoid publicly “admitting” that the Starcruiser was not a big success. The exact things that have been done to date.
With news of discounts and reduced departure dates, we expressed frustration. Our perspective was that if the status quo was maintained, the Star Wars resort’s woes would only get worse over time. Galactic Starcruiser debuted during a period of pent-up demand and free-spending consumers. Its first year largely exhausted the supply of hardcore Star Wars and Disney fans who have the money and interest in an experience like this. The tides have since turned, and in a big way.
Our point was that those measures did not fix any underlying issues. Namely, they did not expand the audience or appeal of Star Wars: Galactic Starcruiser. It’s a band aid approach that simply resulted in Starcruiser losing less money and failing slower. As we said months ago: if this is Walt Disney World’s only fix, then failure is inevitable.
To that point, another prediction we made even before Star Wars: Galactic Starcruiser opened was that if it failed, it would close. There were possible pivots (past tense), but converting this building to a standard hotel is not one of them. Many Walt Disney World fans seem to assume this is a plausible or inevitable outcome even with the “experience” of Star Wars: Galactic Starcuiser ending. It is not.
Starcruiser does not have a laundry list of amenities that a normal guest would expect of a hotel–everything from a pool to outdoor common areas to working windows. Part of the reason Starcruiser has been such a challenge to market is because it is fundamentally not a hotel. It’s an immersive experience that offers a place to sleep.
Starcruiser is also very small. The entire thing is only 100 rooms. The scale does not work as a hotel, especially given the level of investment that would be required to convert this into a standard hotel. It would be like throwing good money after bad.
Honestly, even if Starcruiser could somehow be operated as a hotel without any material changes, it’s not viable. The operating costs of staffing, servicing, and maintaining it–even without entertainment performers–are too high given the low number of rooms. (The margins on Starcruiser are not nearly as healthy as many fans assume. Yes, the price is high, but the operating costs are staggering.)
If you’re a newer Walt Disney World fan, you might be shocked at the idea that the company would just abandon the building entirely. If you’ve been around the block as a Walt Disney World fan, you might remember Pop Century’s Legendary Years, River Country, Disney Institute, Discovery Island, etc.
Heck, you could argue that even Reflections – A Disney Lakeside Lodge and Play Pavilion are similar to this (albeit not quite on the same scale). In short, Walt Disney World has a time-honored tradition of abandoning buildings and letting them rot. It’s as much a part of their rich 50-year history as The Wand, Sorcerer’s Hat, Giant EPCOT Dirt Pit, or in-park tombstones!
Like some of the other aforementioned failures, maybe the physical infrastructure of Star Wars: Galactic Starcruiser will eventually be repurposed. It’s possible the ‘day trip’ concept to the Halcyon that we’ve mentioned previously will still come to fruition at some point, but departing out of Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge and with totally different branding for the experiences. (Color me skeptical about that at this point.)
Regardless of what happens down the road, don’t expect that announcement anytime soon–and don’t be surprised if it never happens. Walt Disney World has let plenty of things rot in plain sight before; this would not be a first. (Starcruiser isn’t really in plain sight–it’s behind Cast Member parking at DHS, and the odd location is arguably part of why it won’t be converted into anything else.)
In other words, this news that Star Wars: Galactic Starcruiser is permanently closing is not going to be followed by another announcement that a “brand-new” Star Wars Resort is opening. That is not going to happen. But who knows, maybe they’ll turn it into a prison–it has the right look and we’ve heard there’s interest in one of those around Walt Disney World!
One of the things that makes this closure news so sad is that guest satisfaction for Star Wars: Galactic Starcruiser is excellent. We’re talking higher scores than just about anything else at Walt Disney World. I have heard this from multiple people with knowledge of the Halcyon, and I have no reason to doubt them. (This also comports with our Star Wars: Galactic Starcruiser Review, which is incredibly positive about everything except for the price.)
I have no issue calling out the many mistakes that Disney has made with this, but the actual experience is not one of them. Star Wars: Galactic Starcruiser having some of the highest guest satisfaction scores of anything at Walt Disney World should be entirely unsurprising for anyone who has actually done a voyage.
For those who haven’t, it’s an incredibly well-done, memorable, and personalized experience. Everything about it is amazing. You become emotionally invested in the outcome of the storyline and the whole thing is just immensely satisfying. Walt Disney World has had its hits and misses in recent years, but this delivers in just about every regard. Star Wars: Galactic Starcruiser is classic Walt Disney World–a true triumph of Imagineering.
How much fans would love the Galactic Starcruiser experience if they could afford the cost is without question the most saddening part of the news that it’s closing. We know a lot of bloggers or vloggers who have axes to grind with Disney or Star Wars. There are plenty of people who have been openly hoping for the failure of Starcruiser. We are not among them. We were cheering for changes because we really, really wanted this to succeed and for more people to be able to afford it. It’s such a shame that so few fans will get to have experienced Starcruiser.
The main problem, of course, is the price. Not to belabor the point here, as the overwhelming majority of discourse about Starcruiser has revolved around the prohibitive pricing. This was patently obvious to just about everyone from the beginning, and one of the biggest reasons why so many fans have been cheering for its failure. (For more thoughts on this expensive pricing, see Is Star Wars: Galactic Starcruiser Worth the High Cost?)
Again, guest satisfaction is incredibly high, but there’s selection bias at play. That only surveys those who did Star Wars: Galactic Starcruiser, which means it’s the perspective of those who could afford to do it. Not polled are the ~95% of the potential audience for this that either could not afford it or don’t want to invest the time in a multi-day live action role playing experience.
Basically, Walt Disney World has something that’s awesome and envelope-pushing, but has high operating costs and even higher price points for guests. The end result is something highly exclusionary that reduces a potentially large consumer pool into a very small one.
The only viable solution would have been expanding the consumer-base. This is accomplished by offering something that’s more approachable, both from a pricing perspective and also a time commitment one. It’s not either/or, it’s both.
Due to the scale and operating expenses, there’s likely only so much cost-cutting that can be done to reduce pricing on the 2-night experience while still maintaining profitability. That’s fine, because price is not the only impediment to people doing Starcruiser–it’s also investing 2 nights of limited vacation time into an experience that might not be for everyone.
As we’ve suggested before, the solution is/was debuting ‘day trips’ aboard the Halcyon. Walt Disney World could offer 8-hour experiences that condense key moments of the storyline into a single day visit. The branching script could be rewritten in a way that hits the major high notes, basically turning the Halcyon into a boutique theme park or interactive narrative experience. (Somewhat like Meow Wolf, but exponentially more expensive.)
This shorter experience would have been very attractive to a wider cross-section of Star Wars and Walt Disney World fans. It also would’ve been significantly cheaper. It would have introduced a whole new audience to Starcruiser, and whetted their appetite for even more. It could have resulted in even more bookings of the 2-night voyage as people learned how good Starcruiser really is. Sadly, all past tense now.
It’s really sad that Walt Disney World didn’t even test this before opting to instead permanently closing Star Wars: Galactic Starcruiser. Perhaps it was hemorrhaging more money than we thought, and was deemed unsalvageable. It just seems like the only attempts made at turning things around–discounts and cutting voyages–were half-measures at best that never would’ve been sufficient. Again, very hard to say from the outside looking in.
Ultimately, we really wanted to see Star Wars: Galactic Starcruiser succeed. That’s why it was so frustrating that Walt Disney World did not make changes to fix the underlying issues, but instead made half-measures causing it to circle the drain a little slower. Now, everything is going to be flushed away at the end of Disney’s fiscal year. This decision has big “we’ve tried nothing, and we’re all out of ideas” energy.
We understood why so many fans were frustrated by the Starcruiser and openly cheered for it to fail. It was dumb of Disney to make this so exclusionary, both in pricing and appeal. There are dozens of ways Disney could’ve approached this so it didn’t alienate so much of the audience. Yet they opted against all of that and remained steadfast in their refusal to fix the underlying issues. In a sense, Disney is getting what they deserve with Star Wars: Galactic Starcruiser failing.
However, this is not what the creative team behind the Starship Halcyon deserve, nor do the passionate performers who poured their hearts and souls into making these characters and the whole experience come alive. It’s also not what Star Wars or Walt Disney World fans deserve–and that includes those who have bashed it. There are so many fans who have done so out of justifiable frustration, but who would actually love the Starcruiser if given a chance to experience it.
Star Wars: Galactic Starcruiser is actually awesome, innovative, and a leap forward for the world of interactive storytelling. Imagineering created something outside the box that offered full immersion, interactivity, entertainment, and personalization in a highly-themed environment. It’s an absolute shame that more fans will not get to experience this, and that Disney is now throwing away the millions of dollars in physical infrastructure and R&D by permanently closing Star Wars: Galactic Starcruiser.
If this news makes you happy or gives you a sense of schadenfreude, that’s certainly your prerogative. However, if you think Star Wars: Galactic Starcruiser closing is going to “teach Disney a lesson,” you are sadly mistaken. Unless the lesson that you want the company to learn is that they should be more risk-averse and push the creative envelope less, in which case: mission accomplished!
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YOUR THOUGHTS
Thoughts on Walt Disney World permanently closing Star Wars: Galactic Starcruiser? Think the company will convert it to a regular resort, reopen it as something else, or abandon the building forever? Would you have preferred a more conventional hotel stay at a Star Wars-themed or decorated hotel? Do you agree or disagree with our assessments? Any questions we can help you answer? Hearing your feedback–even when you disagree with us–is both interesting to us and helpful to other readers, so please share your thoughts below in the comments!
Certainly not in the camp of being happy that it’s failed, but I am in the camp that the experience was far too expensive, regardless of how good it is. It’s not that we can’t afford it, we can, but justifying that cost for two days is quite the stretch to say the least. I’m more into horror than Star Wars so I can relate a bit better when comparing to that. I figure if Universal were to do the same thing at Epic within the Monsters Universe, would I do it? No. It really is a long time to take out of your trip and at such a high cost, I personally wouldn’t take the risk. 2k? Maybe.
As soon as I heard they were building the Starcruiser I said I had to go and we did. We were thrilled with the experience and it was worth every penny. I am generally opposed to high priced exclusive experiences but I don’t think this could have been done any other way without fundamentally changing it.
I think the *best* use for the Starcruiser building would be to convert it into storage or whatever, so they could free up other backstage space and expand the park itself. Too bad it has to close, though.
Very sad it’s closing, it was one of the best experiences we had in entertainment. We were planning on taking some family to do it in the coming years.
Oh well, maybe try and sneak another in before October.
I’m so devastated by this. We were hoping to do this by the end of next year, so we’re just a year too late. I wonder if the potential signs of an economic downturn and the already deflating park attendance affected their timing of this decision. With it already being so expensive to run even with solid bookings, I can’t imagine what an albatross it would’ve been to run this thing during a recession. If it was struggling anyway, they probably didn’t want to take any more risks, even limited experience ones. I’m personally very sad about this, though. And I’m not even a Star Wars fan! I was just interested in the novelty.
Very good points. I wonder if, after seeing bookings following the release of the last discounts and also forward-looking forecasts for Walt Disney World as a whole in 2023-2024, they decided to just cut their losses and not even pursue any pivot. Might’ve been deemed a complete lost cause, unsustainable regardless of the pivot. Still wish they would’ve tried.
One day, I’d love to read an insider’s take on the design decisions that led to the creation and downfall of the hotel. By all accounts, the Imagineers nailed the production and the execution. But there was a disconnect between the fantastic experience that was created and what the market could bear. They seemed to build a Ferrari in world accustomed to Fords. That disconnect (at least at that scale) seems very un-Disney to me. Even the cruise line, which I’d say is a superior product to both Disney parks and most every other cruise line, seems to walk the line of high price/high demand. The hotel apparently did not walk that line, but there has to be a reason why they decided to go in that high price/non-scalable direction rather than a hotel that looks sorta like the Falcon, with a Cantina, and a chance to bump into Chewie or BB8 at a price point many more could reach (without the experience, of course).
“They seemed to build a Ferrari in world accustomed to Fords.”
I love that sentence, and it’s so true.
As for the explanation…I know everyone loves to blame the “beancounters” for bad decisions, but this seems to me like a case of creatives having too much freedom and making an experience that was, essentially, economically unworkable.
I’m not shocked but I’m definitely a little surprised it’s completely stopping, although the timing makes sense. I thought they may try something like 1 or 2 day trips each day during the week with a full voyage over the weekend to see how it would go. I’m curious, and hopeful, to see if they try to move any of the experiences over to Galaxy’s Edge.
This is what when you get too big for your britches!
My friends and I would have loved to do this, but none of us could justify dropping 5k on such a short trip. To put this into perspective, I didn’t spend 5k on three weeks in Europe for three people including lodging and airfare. I don’t know a single person who would have thought that price was worth it and I know a lot of diehard Star Wars fans. I was hoping that the price would either decrease or they would do a day trip style event that wouldn’t break the bank.
I think they missed out by not having exclusive after hours access to Galaxy’s Edge for guests tacked on to the experience
This is absolutely heartbreaking. Cost is the only reason we hadn’t gone yet. We’re now frantically trying to figure out if we can find a way to do this before it closes. *sigh* I can’t believe there isn’t a way to make money from this space that they spent so long and so much money developing.
I’m going to try and make it for a stay before September ends (and on that note, I’m sure Green Day just rocketed to the top of the cast member playlist).
I just pulled up a satellite view of the DHS area and while “offsite,” geographically Galactic Starcruiser isn’t all that far from the heart of Galaxy’s Edge (certainly much closer than Fantasmic, TOT, Aerosmith coaster, etc. ). Those who have been following the GE development saga know that many of Imagineering’s best ideas for the land were made reality at this hotel.
The following are also true:
1. Jedi Training Academy was very popular yet discontinued
2. Star Wars Launch Bay serves a purpose but is likely a placeholder for a future non-Star Wars attraction
3. Conceptual plans for GE included a table service restaurant with entertainment
4. Conceptual plans for GE called for additional (much needed) attractions.
You can probably see where I’m going with this but I think it makes perfect sense to incorporate Galactic Starcruiser into a future GE expansion — it can serve as a restaurant, Jedi Training Academy (with added upcharge?), and meet-and-greet site (possibly repurposing some guest rooms for private character interactions). They could even keep number of guest rooms for VIP/high-roller/Make-a-Wish overnight “in-park” stays.
This could be done as part of an elaborate expansion of the land (requiring relocation of some parking and backstage facilities) OR by using a “Hogwarts Express”-style shuttle between Batuu and the starcruiser. In fact, as a temporary solution they could just add to the existing “shuttle fleet” using the same means Starcruiser guests get to and from Batuu today. I’d imagine the process as being a bit like getting into Space 220 — except that those with dining/training reservations actually board a moving vehicle.
Tom, given Iger’s commitment to spend billions in the parks over the next decade or so, any chance you think something like this comes to fruition?
“Tom, given Iger’s commitment to spend billions in the parks over the next decade or so, any chance you think something like this comes to fruition?”
Probably not. Based on everything I’ve heard, SWGE is not viewed internally as the success it was expected to be. However, that was the perspective as of around the time the parks closed–so Rise of the Resistance really hadn’t made its full impact yet.
I’d still be very surprised to see them bet so big on Star Wars at this point. I think the expansions in the 10-year plan will all be animated IP. Personally, I think that’s great news and the wise choice; the (good) newer WDAS and Pixar films have been largely overlooked for meaningful park expansions. Same goes for some of the best 90s ones.
Who knows, though. Maybe they’ll use shuttles for a dinner show or repurpose it further down the road?
Very sad news. I grew up with the original Star Wars, had all the toys, etc. I had planned to someday experience it which would have been the ultimate capper on my childhood. We have a big trip to Disney coming up first week of June, if I had known, would have maybe incorporated the Starcruiser. Won’t be able to afford it now by September after this trip. Ugh, sad!! Maybe turn it into an adults only resort sans amenities , I’d definitely stay there.
Above and beyond the daily operational costs of this resort, the future will bring very high costs to start replacing expensive technical components. The attraction has been open for 14 months, which means all the electronics and computer elements are at least two years old. Disney would need to start rotating in new components in another year. Planning for that is done far in advance, Disney probably knows the replacement and upgrade costs over the next few years will be very high. Those are future expenditures that can be cut now. Add to that, Disney’s plans for another park on the property and more hotels, and Starcruiser becomes a distraction. Also, in all likelihood, it’s not an initial investment Bob Igor might have made. Now that he’s back, he likely as other priorities.
The building is not likely to “rot”. While it isn’t appropriate for another hotel, Disney could easily repurpose it for maintenance shops, craft shops, a data center, project management offices, etc..
As an Engineer I think about that maintenance constantly…which is made trickier by having so many guest interfaces and so little downtime for repairs. I don’t doubt that it was a factor, though one that could still have been offset by other changes which might have made the Starcruiser more profitable.
Excellent analysis, Tom. Disney needs to hire you as a marketing consultant. You could save them millions with your common sense. But PLEASE don’t stop your blog! 😉
Galactic Starcruiser should be a one-day experience.
So it’s hard to get people to pay 5000 to 6000 dollars to roleplay for 2 days. let me guess, it’s our Governors fault. 10 nights in great hotel rooms at WDW while enjoying the parks, or 2 days stuck in a game. I get it but it’s the new Disney exclusive only for the rich theme. Abandoning it is proof that that’s truly what is was for by not trying to reinvent it for a more reasonable premier price even for a day. Money comes and goes, but the true fans keep you in business.. stop alienating them.
“let me guess, it’s our Governors fault.”
I don’t see anyone else saying or even implying that. Can’t imagine it even crossed any minds here, as the issues with Starcruiser are fairly evident.
Alienating? Like charging for things that used to be free?
What a shame!
We are there when the last voyage will go but just can’t justify the cost with a toddler who is too young to appreciate it and will impact our ability to fully participate. I even rang and spoke to a cast member about it a few weeks ago but they suggested that our son is too young and that we should wait a couple of years gutted that it won’t be around long enough for us to go
Very fortunate we were able to experience it when we were in the US in December. It was an incredible experience and, despite the high cost, we could absolutely see the value. The food, the performers and the attention to detail were really excellent. I do feel the adverse headlines about the cost when it opened probably killed it.
Not surprised by this at all. They definitely pulled a major profit in the short time but most guests wouldn’t pay for this- it was absurdly priced IMO.