What’s Up with Star Wars Galactic Starcruiser?
With Star Wars: Galactic Starcruiser less than three months away from opening, Walt Disney World has embarked upon its final marketing push for the Halcyon hotel. This has resulted in some “interesting” moves by the company, fan backlash, theories, and more. In this post, we’ll try to answer the question: what the heck is going on with Star Wars Galactic Starcruiser?! (Updated December 25, 2021.)
This Star Wars story starts with the “The Wonderful World of Disney: Magical Holiday Celebration” that aired post-Thanksgiving and featured Imagineer Ann Morrow Johnson and actor Sean Giambrone of the Goldbergs. The two take a brief tour of the starship Halcyon, which only really showcases the bridge, bar, and some hallways.
This video was criticized for a lot of different reasons. Personally, I was mostly confused that Disney would advertise a boutique experience that’s very expensive and (was) sold out for months during a holiday special airing on ABC and aimed at mainstream audiences. Beyond that, my biggest frustration is a rehash of my perpetual complaint that Walt Disney World talks down to consumers, as if we’re 8 years old rather than adults. I’ve come to assume this is a “me problem” as few other fans seem to share this sentiment.
To my surprise, some widely-read tech and pop culture sites did take issue with the condescending and cringey tone of the video. (Perhaps Disney needs to do better with knowing its audience and “turn off” the juvenile tone in marketing that’s aimed at normal people who aren’t super fans?) Those critiques also took issue with the substance of what was being shown, which honestly, I mostly missed in frustration about the presentation.
Walt Disney World is no stranger to poorly-received marketing in 2021, so this in and of itself was not particularly notable. However, Disney’s response is:
Disney deleted the video from YouTube, and totally scrubbed clips of the walk-through from social media. This is noteworthy for a couple reasons. First, because there were a lot of articles–including puff pieces–that embedded the clip while criticizing or promoting Star Wars: Galactic Starcruiser, and now those have almost no marketing value. Articles hyping up an ‘inside look’ at Star Wars: Galactic Starcruiser fall flat when that video is replaced with the above.
Second, only a few months ago, Disney released a handful of Genie+ and Lightning Lane related videos, one of which went on to be Disney Parks’ most “disliked” video of all time. (The others performed similarly.) Despite that, they’re all still up. This led many fans to speculate that there was more to the story and a deeper explanation for Disney taking the extra step of scrubbing Star Wars: Galactic Starcruiser’s sneak peek from YouTube and social media.
December 25, 2021 Update: Adding fuel to the fire that something is up with Star Wars: Galactic Starcruiser, it was conspicuously absent from the ABC Disney Christmas Day Parade. This may not seem noteworthy, as the company cannot conceivably promote everything.
However, the broadcast is approximately 75% synergy and marketing for upcoming films, movies, Disney+ programming, and theme park additions. Star Wars Galactic Starcruiser is literally the only thing with an opening date in 2022 at Walt Disney World that was not mentioned during the broadcast. In isolation, perhaps that would’ve been a calculated move since it’s a premium-priced product and doesn’t make sense to mass market. However, Disney had been promoting it aggressively in the mainstream up until the Thanksgiving special backlash. Which brings us back to the original point…
The theory is that the clip during the first holiday special caused cancellations of existing bookings, which is why it was pulled from YouTube. As you might recall, one month ago during the quarterly earnings call, CEO Bob Chapek boasted that Star Wars: Galactic Starcruiser was seeing strong guest demand and was “virtually” fully booked for its first four months of operation.
However, availability has been popping up for March in the last couple of weeks. This has led many to speculate that–unlike the Genie videos where dislikes simply translate to fan frustration over an inevitable product–the Galactic Starcruiser video is actually counterproductive, driving cancellations instead of new bookings.
That’s one scenario. Another is that final payment is due 90 days before “sailing” aboard the Star Wars: Galactic Starcruiser. That mark is now being reached for those early reservations, and they’re the ones that are disproportionately cancelling. It’s entirely possible that some of those guests are not liking what they see from the latest marketing, and proactively cancelling their reservations as a result.
It’s also possible that some of those bookings were “aspirational,” or bookings made by guests who hoped to be able to afford Star Wars: Galactic Starcruiser, were on the fence, or uncertain about their plans. Basically, people who just wanted to lock-in the option to do an early ‘cruise’ before availability sold out. We know this is a possibility because it always happens with Walt Disney World reservations.
One of our first pieces of advice when it comes to booking Free Dining is to lock-in a reservation early even if you’re unsure of plans because availability goes fast. Another piece of advice is to check back ~48 hours later if you couldn’t get what you wanted because that’s when courtesy holds expire.
When it comes to promotions or literally anything Disney reserves that is refundable or not pre-paid in full, more availability always opens up later because people hoard reservations or make aspirational bookings. It’s such a wholly unremarkable and expected phenomenon that it’s a common component of advice for scoring reservations.
The key distinction is that Walt Disney World doesn’t delete marketing materials about Free Dining or other promotions when placeholders start falling off. In other words, there’s definitely a deeper reason for Disney deleting the Star Wars: Galactic Starcruiser video, and it’s probably the straightforward one–fears that it was doing more harm than good.
However, there’s also the reality that availability had been fluctuating for a while–we mentioned it back in the November update to our Guide to Star Wars Galactic Starcruiser. It’s entirely possible this video exacerbated cancellations by a significant amount. It’s also possible the company is extra-sensitive here because it’s a new and unprecedented product, and there’s a lot on the line.
In judging fan response, I’m guessing there’s absolutely truth to the former explanation–that a lot of people aren’t liking what they’re seeing. In seeing that new availability is disproportionately for the earliest dates in March, I’m guessing there’s also truth to the latter explanation. If it were exclusively a matter of the experience looking bad, cancellations should be evenly distributed across all months–but they’re not.
It’s also worth noting that rebookings happen pretty quickly. What’s on the calendar differs from hour to hour–within the last few days, I’ve seen availability open up for the first few sailings open up, book up, and become available again. I’ve even seen nothing at all for March through June on one occasion. The point is that the current calendar isn’t set in stone, and could represent as little as a single available room.
On a related note, we’ve noticed that there are a lot of Walt Disney World fans who are actively cheering for the failure of Star Wars: Galactic Starcruiser. I suspect there are a range of reasons for this, from schadenfreude to spillover from unrelated guest-unfriendly decisions to generalized frustrations about Disney’s handling of Star Wars to perceptions of pricing. Some of aspects of this I “get” even if I don’t agree.
Personally, I think there’s a big difference between hoping this will fail and wanting After Hours, Genie+ or some other upcharge to be rejected by fans. In the latter scenarios, the company might be forced to backtrack on price increases, nickel and diming, or other cutbacks. Consumer pushback is perfectly healthy, and can result in improvements on those fronts or other offerings that can be easily changed.
That will not be the case with Star Wars: Galactic Starcruiser, which includes physical infrastructure that had over one hundred million dollars invested in it. Whatever “lesson” you think Disney will learn if this fails, I can assure you that won’t be the company’s actual conclusions.
The takeaway won’t be that they’ve raised prices too much or lost touch with the middle class. It won’t be that people don’t want Disney’s version of Star Wars. It won’t be that they should build more rides instead of expensive accommodations. The company already has broader market research about all of that, and those decisions will continue forward without regard for a niche product’s reception.
For better or worse, Star Wars: Galactic Starcruiser is an undeniably envelope-pushing concept that gave Imagineering tremendous creative freedom. This is one of the biggest risks that the company has let Imagineering take in a long time. It’s easy to miss that because we all often wear blinders or have biases based on our personal preferences. Setting those aside, it should be easy to see that Galactic Starcruiser is big, bold and relatively unprecedented.
Specifically, Imagineering created something outside the box that offered full immersion, interactivity, entertainment, and personalization in a highly-themed environment. If Galactic Starcruiser fails, the conclusion is going to be that guests don’t want immersion, interactivity, entertainment, personalization, or highly-themed environments. Presumably, those are things most people reading this do want, just not in this way or at this price point.
If Galactic Starcruiser succeeds, there will be lessons learned about immersion, interactivity, entertainment, personalization, and highly-themed environments. To the extent they can scale, some of those will be ported over to new additions to Walt Disney World’s theme parks.
There’s a tremendous amount of potential with all of this stuff–it’s just a question of whether guests want it and how it can be implemented in the parks. Galactic Starcruiser provides something of a play test or incubator for ideas that ultimately could make their way to Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge or other lands in some form. But only if the concept is deemed a success in the first place.
I’d also caution those of you who will derive some satisfaction out of Star Wars: Galactic Starcruiser’s potential failure…we probably won’t know for years. Sure, there will be YouTube videos and think pieces about it being a disappointment. I can assure you that those will exist regardless and were a foregone conclusion as soon as this was first announced. That’s the nature of the internet and fandom–there’s a huge market for negativity. People want to feel “vindicated” when something doesn’t comport with their preconceived notions about what it should be. I’m still waiting for that conversion of Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge to Agrabah.
Here in reality, the company isn’t just going to issue a press release stating “Star Wars: Galactic Starcruiser was a failure. We screwed up big time by building it, and not listening to the every whim of all-knowing fans.” To the contrary, Disney will claim it has exceeded expectations on earnings calls regardless. If bookings are soft, they’ll release discounts to Cast Members or travel agents for select dates and quietly try to improve its viability behind the scenes for at least a few years. This is not the NBA Experience–it’s not just going to be shuttered by 2024.
This isn’t to say Star Wars: Galactic Starcruiser won’t fail in the long-term. One topic we’ve discussed at length in other posts is how the hotel will evolve over time as it (presumably) exhausts the supply of hardcore Star Wars fans who will save and splurge on the concept and pivots to more affluent clientele. It should go without saying, but those two types of guests have dramatically different expectations, and it’s hard to see this having the range to accommodate both.
Part of me wonders whether such a pivot is even possible. I love that Disney bet big on this, going all-in on the immersion. However, in so doing, they left no safety net. There are no windows. There is no pool. There are no gardens or “grounds” to speak of. There’s no space outside to add any of that, either. It’s hard to imagine this becoming a luxury boutique hotel given the circumstances.
Despite the high price points, my assumption is that Star Wars: Galactic Starcruiser needs to operate at a pretty high occupancy rate to be financially viable. This might surprise some of you, but again, it’s an issue of scale. The Halcyon only has around 100 rooms, which is tiny by hotel standards.
On top of that, it’s undoubtedly expensive to operate. There’s a lot of technology and accompanying maintenance needs, plus performers and the guest to Cast Member ratio is much, much lower than a traditional hotel. Even the supporting soft infrastructure is more costly–dedicated phone lines and agents trained specifically on Galactic Starcruiser, costly marketing for this one resort, etc. Pop Century is undoubtedly far more lucrative for Walt Disney World than even a “successful” Star Wars: Galactic Starcruiser.
Ultimately, this saga is not over. Although the ABC Disney Parks Magical Christmas Day Parade has come and gone without any added marketing for the resort, it’ll be interesting to see what happens next. Will Disney continue the Star Wars Silence or have another big marketing push in February 2022? Will there be blockbuster media previews, or will Disney hope word of mouth sells the experience? We shall see!
For our part, we probably won’t be covering Galactic Starcruiser much more until experiencing it ourselves (we’ve already made final payment, so we’re locked in at this point!) for a couple of reasons. First, this is an expensive experience that a very small percentage of guests will be able to afford. From a planning perspective, it does not ‘deserve’ disproportionate coverage–it’d be like if the only hotel rooms we reviewed were suites and grand villas.
Second, I’m honestly a little worried about this and don’t want to do what amounts to PR for a product that gives me pause. My perspective is that anyone reading a Disney blog is already aware of Star Wars: Galactic Starcruiser, and most have strong opinions have made up their mind one way or the other–to book or avoid. Those who are still on the fence deserve an objective review, rather than half-baked hype or hate predicated upon superficial marketing fluff. While I really want to love Star Wars: Galactic Starcruiser, whether I actually do is entirely dependent upon its quality as a finished experience. We’ll keep you posted on any material updates between now and then, but otherwise, stay tuned for a full review and whatever else in March.
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YOUR THOUGHTS
What do you think about the ongoing ‘saga’ of Star Wars: Galactic Starcruiser? Any theories as to why Disney pulled the video? What has been your perception of marketing for Galactic Starcruiser thus far? Are you hoping that this fails to teach Disney a lesson? Or, do you want this to succeed in the hopes that it’ll be a incubator for similar in-park experiences? Predictions about Star Wars: Galactic Starcruiser’s short or long-term future? 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!
I agree with the previous poster who mentioned Disney fans who have booked trips already but already expressed a notion of not returning afterwards. That basically sums up me and my family. We have a trip booked next early December as we feel our 9 year old and 6 year old boys will be at prime age to enjoy that type of vacation. Based on the direction Disney is going my wife and I have already decided this will be our last trip to Disney, and this is coming from a family who use to go every other year and spend a lot on a Disney vacation experience (club level rooms, dessert parties etc). For us it’s not a matter of money but more on perceived value and experience. We already broke ranks this past February and took a short getaway to universal with only a day trip to Disney, we found that experience much more pleasant and enjoyable. This whole Star Wars hotel intrigued me initially but getting further details just confirms the fact that Disney has gotten too big, lost its core values and has established a total disconnect with their fan base and their expectations. I’m sure plenty of people can afford and are willing to pay those type of prices, but they won’t given the subpar experience(s) Disney has been putting out
I like Star Wars, but I definitely wouldn’t consider myself a hard core Star Wars fan. Long term, I think it’s people like me that Disney will need to get on board if they want this hotel to be a long term success. How many hard core fans will keep this afloat by returning over and over, especially as the years go by? I would never pay these prices for a TWO NIGHT stay. I would prefer to take a week long Disney cruise to the Caribbean at a MUCH cheaper per night price. I hate to say it, but I am kind of in that “I want this to fail” group. Not because I hate Star Wars, but because I hate many of the decisions Disney has made over the last two years.
On that note, I may need to find some support group to get me off the jaded edge I am standing on regarding Disney. I fully recognize that. We are long time Disney fans and have either visited WDW, Disneyland, or taken a Disney cruise every year. We finally took the plunge and bought into DVC in January 2020 (ouch on that timing, right?). Since then, Disney has made decision after decision that has stripped away the magic. Disney is putting on a clinic on “How to nickel and dime the consumer”. It really is disheartening. We have even contemplated selling our DVC membership after only two years of ownership. I am not a “fire that person” type of guy because everyone has family and bills to pay, but I broke down and signed the “Fire Bob Chapek” petition (even though I know it will have zero bearing on his job). I say all this because it all has a bearing on my feelings regarding this hotel. If it fails it will both 1) show Disney that fans aren’t willing to overpay for this sort of experience and 2) not reflect well on Chapek. Something has to hit Disney between the eyes so they wake up to how fans are feeling, and the failure of a multi million dollar venture may just do that.
I am a hard core Star Wars/Disney fan and collector. I appreciate the attempt Disney has made in building this hotel, however, for someone like me I don’t “see” Star Wars! I just see something with space related decorations and characters. Us hard core fans have high expectations when things like this come up. I would have thought to see at least familiar story lines and recognizable characters that make sense in the world of Star Wars! It’s shocking calling something Star Wars and yet there is minimal to nothing Star Wars related! In the adds there appears to be BB8 colors throughout and a light saber experience, but for someone like me BB8 isn’t my 1st answer when thinking Star Wars Droid and the saber experience looks lame and to be more of a photo opp! I’m crushed, as I had really high hopes! It seems lately, that everything I have loved about Disney for 48 years of my life has been letting me down… I’m so sad… Maybe they should just rethink this and go more of a general space route and sell it for what it is… A space decorated hotel!
Galactic Flop
I would hope as some of the picture I have seen that guests will be immersed in the experience. I’m afraid based on this recent TV endorsement it is going to be the other way around. The guest are expected to carry the show and as shown in this TV holiday ad, which I cringed when first saw it, that star wars characters will come out to perform and the guest is expected to carry the believability of the show. It’s not going to be dozen of star wars characters living their lives on the ship. It is going to come off as a show like the TV add had shown Charters are going to be stationed at certain times and perform which is totally different than guest mingling amongst them.
As someone who has two voyages booked (a standard suite on day one and a Captain’s suite in Sept for my friends), I have been looking at articles and getting hyped for a while. But this is…concerning. It reminds me of (Samurai Jack/Clone Wars/Transformers Animated) where you look at still images and cringe, but then see them in motion and are amazed! Only, this is the opposite. On paper, the Halcyon looks great. In practice…
Well, I didn’t see the promo and now I don’t want to. But I track down the video from the welcome email (which despite sailing on the maiden voyage, I did not receive.) It felt strangely like watching the pre-show to Mission Breakout in DCA, and left me feeling tonally confused. I get that it is Disney so this will be a kid-friendly experience, but even the add (which I loved) knows that its target demographic is adults, who may or may not have kids. I feel like I am receiving mixed messages on what to expect and I don’t want that! This is the exact experience I have been waiting for, and it happens to be for a product I have am nostalgic about. Yeah, I’d way prefer it to be set in A New Hope era, but it’s fine. If it fails…then that’s it.
What I had been wishing was that they’d find a way to score on ‘re-rideability.’ Instead of trying to constantly attract new clientele, they switch up the storyline ocassionally to attract previous visitors. The Halcyon is an old ship, so maybe we’d get its Clone Wars story and meet Darth Maul, or something of the like. Keep the actors, give them new makeup and new roles. I’d love for them to do that with Batuu as well (and they would have to anyway to match the Starcruiser,) but we need initial success for that to ever be on the horizon. How cool would a Dark Side voyage be, though? (They offer that as a ‘path’ right now but with only one First Order character vs four Resistance characters, it is not much of a choice. This is another issue I have.)
I’m just…worried. They have such potential for this, but the it’s either spectacular potential or catastrophic potential. As someone who is not only paying a lot of money, but who will be working on my costumes for the next three months…there is only one outcome that is acceptable. I just hope it is the one we get.
I hear you on a lot of this.
I think repeatability will end up being the “solution” with Star Wars: Galactic Starcruiser’s demographics problem (assuming the whole concept doesn’t fail). There’s really no good pivot towards affluent clientele–it’ll need to offer something eventually to entice return cruisers.
That, or it’ll need to pivot entirely and become an “excursion” from Batuu, offering day guests the ability to see a dinner show, do training, etc.
I am betting that Universal is watching this very carefully as they have plenty of room to build more hotel space in the new Epic Universe park they are in process of building. There are some very big lessons to be learned from Disney’s success or failure, and Universal has time to make changes at Epic… I just hope Disney and Universal continue to battle for consumer hearts, minds, and $$ as we will benefit from added content in the Orlando vacation scene!!
“I just hope Disney and Universal continue to battle for consumer hearts, minds, and $$ as we will benefit from added content in the Orlando vacation scene!”
100%. This is what’s great about seeing Universal do so well right now. Even though Disney seemingly doesn’t realize it right now, Universal has been playing the groundwork for an exceptional standalone vacation destination for the last decade. That’s starting to come to fruition, and will be further bolstered by Epic Universe. Competition between the two benefits us as consumers–and will eventually leave Disney playing catch-up.
I find it interesting how they extend the role playing to the park experience but, the cast members in Galaxy’s Edge do not even participate in this anymore, like they did at the opening of the land. I assume the Star Cruiser experience will follow the same trend. I agree with some of the other readers, Disney does not know how to manage the franchise. Why would you make up a new world when fans want to visit a place they know from the movies? This would be akin to Universal creating a different school that is located in the United States or something, but everyone wants to visit Hogwarts when they go on vacation. Just incredibly mismanaged I.P.
Cast Members in Galaxy’s Edge don’t role play because it didn’t go over well with the more mainstream audience of theme park guests. This is a niche offering, and should be able to maintain more complete immersion since that’s why most guests are booking this. Most guests did not book trips to Walt Disney World to hear Cast Members on Batuu speak in riddle.
The plain and simple fact is that Disney has no idea how to manage the Star Wars franchise. It’s quite fascinating.
The hype around the Starcruiser and early bookings are not from Star Wars fans – they’re from Disney park fans. The Last Jedi did a number on the fanbase and Disney’s insistence on doubling down on that era (when the insanely popular Disney plus content just sits there for the picking and can easily be folded into Batuu) is quite baffling. Well it would cost them, so maybe not baffling after all. The hotel’s general sci-fi aesthetic may be cool and the role play aspect sounds good on paper, but it is simply does not feel like Star Wars. At all. Imagine a Disney park themed after Olu Mel. That’s what this is, so the audience here is the park fan, not Star Wars fan. That can keep this afloat for a bit, but the Star Wars fans will stick with ROTR and Millennium Falcon photo opps until Mando and friends get their turn.
“The hype around the Starcruiser and early bookings are not from Star Wars fans – they’re from Disney park fans.”
This is an interesting perspective and perhaps accurate. (Totally anecdotal, but I’m definitely much more of the latter. Same with many people I know who have booked this already.)
I think it’s only a matter of time before Galaxy’s Edge drops–or at least explains away–the timeline and adds the Mandalorian and other familiar characters. Personally, I love the ambition of creating a land set in a unique time and place–it’s basically original theme park IP. That was a creative gamble, and one I appreciate. But there again, I’m approaching that as a theme park fan first, rather than as a Star Wars fan first.
We have it booked for August for my son’s 9th birthday, it’s all he wants for the rest of his life (or so he claims lol) and he is counting down the minutes. On our November trip he got his lightsaber (early Christmas present from the grandparents) and he has been talking about training with it nonstop. If this hotel experience goes badly don’t write the article until aug lol, I won’t be able to handle it! Honestly as expensive as this is, we are all about spending money on experiences so we are looking forward to it and going in with the attitude that it’s a once in a lifetime experience that we want to do at the height of our son’s star wars obsession.
I think you’re going in with the right attitude.
As for reviews…don’t read them. Seriously. Good or bad, it doesn’t really matter. If you’re going to do something regardless, what do you stand to gain by reading any reviews–even spoiler-free ones? Go in blind, form your own opinions, and have fun! 🙂
To Barbara’s point – I used to be a Disney evangelist. I used to tell people how great the WDW vacations were. Someone would ask me for help and I would be excited to do so. But now I avoid it. I expect that they will be disappointed, and I don’t want people to associate that disapointment with me. And a number of people I knew who used to be evangelist no longer even go.
We hear this more and more from people, and it never gets any less heartbreaking. Walt Disney World used to have legions of diehard fans who would go out of their way to “convert” people, explaining why their preconceived notions were wrong, etc.
Now it seems like even a lot of those diehard fans recognize that the appeal to them is based on nostalgia, and aren’t as inclined to help others plan trips. It’s been a brutal couple of years–hopefully management realizes the current path is unsustainable and turns things around in 2022. (With that said, Galactic Starcruiser failing will not be the wake-up call Disney might need. That is not the lesson they’ll learn from whatever happens here. It just isn’t.)
I love Star Wars, but I’m not sure if the Starcruiser is for me. I’ll be REALLY interested in the reviews. Even if it’s not for me, I hope it turns out well, and that people have a good time. ANYWAY, if I had a reservation for March, I’d be getting nervous about what the indoor mask rules will be, since this is a multi-day, indoor experience. I expect Disney will relax the rules by then, but for what the Starcruiser costs, I’d rather wait a little longer to be sure.
Hi Tom,
I enjoy getting your newsletter through my email. I want to book pop century on Hotwire for January 22 until the 23. Jyst the one night. Can you email a picture of what it looks like to book on the site. I followed your wonderful details but there were a few hotels with 3 star eating and 4.45 reviews? Any help would be great as we really want to stay there and it is coming up unavailable through booking Disney websire
What Mark said. I’m in full agreement.
I used to recommend Disney World vacations to everyone, sometimes even planning their trips. No more. In fact, most times I try to dissuade them from taking such an expensive, complicated and not-at-all restful vacation.
This lifelong Star Wars fan says hard pass on the Star Cruiser. It just doesn’t scream Star Wars to me. Outside of Rise of the Resistance the lightsaber build, the actual Falcon not Smugglers run itself and Oga’s I would say Disney has missed the mark of what Star Wars should be for fans in the parks. I don’t mind some role playing once in a while but when is the last time you have heard bright suns in the parks? The Star Cruiser itself looks so much like something out of Star Trek. Also the fact they are making this live between episodes 8 & 9 doesn’t help LOL. Most of us fans want to celebrate all of Star Wars not just a slice of it. I budgeted for this hotel for years and pretty much decided to not even bother until I see a lot of reviews from trusted sources like this blog. I just don’t think they have refined the guest experience in the parks or this hotel when it comes to Star Wars.
I agree with Mark. I wanted to be done with Disney when Genie+ was announced, but my husband isn’t ready to give it all up yet. It’s not possible to parse out the Star Wars hotel from all the things Disney has been doing to erode fan good will over the last few years. It feels like a break up, like someone you cared about made you think they cared about you, and it all turned out to be a big joke. I know it’s not logical. I know Disney is a business that has to look out for its shareholders. However, I, for one, feel betrayed. If everything else were the same as it was a few years back, I’d be hoping the hotel did great and would be signing myself up. It’s just not though.
Regarding rooting for starcruiser to fail –
A lot of Disney’s actions lately have eroded good will built up over the preceding decades. Even people who have trips planned are actively starting to hate the Disney corporation and don’t want to go back after their next trip. 90% of people hate that the company is focused almost entirely on the 10%. A pop century like Star Wars themed hotel would fill up, but instead you need to spend $2000 a night, but that might have had only a 29% profit margin instead of 30%. So long as Disney erodes the core experience of WDW the hate will grow. It’s not a logical reaction hoping Disney will fail because then things will improve. It’s an emotional reaction of feeling like you are being taking advantage of
I’m a huge Star Wars fan, and I have Galactic Starcruiser booked in April. I haven’t watched the video intentionally because I’m very spoiler-averse, and I really want this to be fun. From a general Disney-fan level, I’m fascinated by the gamble the company is taking here and VERY curious to see the final product. I’m hopeful that I won’t be disappointed, and Rise of the Resistance especially has given me a lot optimism that Imagineering does “get” Star Wars. Fingers crossed.
Tom
What I am most curious about is the effect all of the starcruiser guests will have the day of their journey that they descend on HS and specifically ROTR. With all of those people guaranteed a morning ride it might become important to avoid certain days at HS. I changed my August HS park pass so as not to coincide with the park day for the starcruiser guests. Or do you think this is a non issue?