Star Wars Galactic Starcruiser Discounts Dropped
After announcing that Star Wars: Galactic Starcruiser will permanently close in Fall 2023, Walt Disney World has shared additional details about discounts (or lack thereof) and what prompted the closure. This covers official statements and details, plus more commentary about the decision and whether you should do a last-minute voyage.
In case you missed it, the final voyage for Star Wars: Galactic Starcruiser will take place September 28-30, 2023, according to Walt Disney World’s official website. This makes it one of the first cuts to be made and revealed before Disney’s new fiscal year starts on October 1, 2023. (Usually, these cost-cuts are announced a few weeks before the new fiscal year starts, but with the nature of Starcruiser, more advance notice was necessary.)
“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.
The company’s statement continues: “We 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. Thank you to our Guests and fans for making this experience so special.”
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.
Prior to this announcement and the suspension of new voyage bookings, Walt Disney World had offered 50% off discounts for Cast Members, as well as 30% off discounts for Annual Passholders and Disney Visa Cardholders. There was also a special offer for $700 off Deluxe Resort stays booked as part of a Star Wars: Galactic Starcruiser vacation package. These discounts were available for almost all voyages between now and mid-September 2023.
All of these discounts have now been pulled from the official Walt Disney World website. According to the company, discounts will not be offered for the remaining voyage dates when bookings resume on May 26, 2023. However, guests who were booked on voyages after September 30, 2023 will have the opportunity to move to an earlier voyage at a discount of up to 50% off (h/t Scott Gustin).
This is somewhat unsurprising. Although Walt Disney World has had difficulty filling voyages even at 30-50% off, there has also been no sense of urgency among potential guests. Many readers here have indicated that they’re waiting for “better” deals or have been putting off Starcruiser for various other reasons. That will no longer be an option. Everyone who wants to do Star Wars: Galactic Starcruiser has a firm deadline of September 28, 2023.
Then there’s the reality that even Stitch’s Great Escape played to packed houses on its final day, and that was “only” its unofficial end. Ditto Ellen’s Energy Adventure, the random exhibits in Innoventions, and just about anything Walt Disney World has ever closed. There’s a certain truth to the saying that even unpopular attractions become beloved in extinction.
It’s also fair to point out that Star Wars: Galactic Starcruiser is no Stitch’s Great Escape. While it has polarized the fandom and there are no shortage of people dancing on its grave, Starcruiser has a group of ardent adherents. Many of those who love it…really love it.
To that point, Walt Disney World released another statement emphasizing that the closure of Star Wars: Galactic Starcruiser is a “business decision” and not based on guest feedback. To the contrary, the company boasted that Star Wars: Galactic Starcruiser is “unlike anything that’s been done before” and pointed out that it has received widespread praise and recognition throughout the themed entertainment industry, winning some of the industry’s highest honors.
The company also contended that it has received some of the highest guest satisfaction ratings in the history of Walt Disney World from the thousands of guests who have experienced it firsthand.
This is also not surprising. If you’ve read our various posts about Starcruiser this year, you’ve probably seen the repeated references to its excellent guest satisfaction scores. Many of you didn’t believe this, presumably preferring the narrative that everyone hates it. And in the broader Star Wars and Walt Disney World fandoms, that’s probably true. The degree to which Starcruiser has inspired anger and contempt–rather than indifference–is relatively unprecedented.
However, we’ve also offered the important qualification that these scores only measure the guest satisfaction of those who have experienced Star Wars: Galactic Starcruiser. So if you’ve made dozen vlogs ranting about how much it sucks but have never done it, your opinion doesn’t count…officially.
Necessarily, the surveys are only taking into account the opinions of those who could afford to do Starcruiser, desired that type of experience, and were willing to spend the vacation time necessary to do it. There’s definitely significant selection bias at play, as the overwhelming majority 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–is not polled.
With experiences like this, there’s probably also a bit of confirmation bias. (We know that, for example, the most difficult ADRs have that issue. So it’s safe to say that the same is true here.) These were actually some of our big concerns when there were rumors that Starcruiser was going to see changes based on guest satisfaction surveys–the absolute worst way of revising the concept, aside from the option they actually chose (do nothing and hope for different results).
Suffice to say, Starcruiser is not comparable to something like Happily Ever After when it comes to guest satisfaction. Just about everyone who visits Walt Disney World can surveyed on the latter, whereas an exceedingly small number offer feedback about the former. To the best of our knowledge, Happily Ever After still holds the crown as having the highest guest satisfaction scores at Walt Disney World–but the incredibly large crowds and chaos to see it could be dampening those numbers a bit.
With all of that said, we’ll reiterate our advice about the remaining Star Wars: Galactic Starcruiser voyages from a planning perspective. You will likely have a chance to book it after the dust settles for voyages between now and the end of September 2023, as there simply are not that many people who will be willing and able to move their dates forward from October through December.
If you’re 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. (Although bragging rights are the key currency of the WDW fandom, it would seem.)
Rather, because Star Wars: Galactic Starcruiser is awesome. It is definitely not for everyone, but we think it’s more broadly appealing than some might assume. We are not LARPers. We do not have a particular affinity for the new trilogy or Disney+ shows. We are not even hardcore Star Wars fans. We are fans of Walt Disney World and themed design/entertainment, and this is a quintessential example of both, just wrapped in a layer of Star Wars. We loved it. (See our Star Wars: Galactic Starcruiser Review for an exhaustive and spoiler-free look at the experience.)
I have no issue calling out the many mistakes that Disney has made with this, but the actual experience of Starcruiser is not one of them. 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, and Starcruiser certainly joins the list from a “knowing your audience” perspective. However, when it comes to the substance of the actual experience, Star Wars: Galactic Starcruiser is classic Walt Disney World and a true triumph of Imagineering.
Obviously, that’s easy to make this claim without reference to price–the fatal flaw in the Starcruiser saga. This recommendation presupposes that you are willing and able to spend that much time and money on this experience…and that’s simply not going to be true for the vast majority of people reading this. Hence it closing. For those who can potentially do it and are debating it, we recommend it. (For more thoughts on this expensive pricing, see Is Star Wars: Galactic Starcruiser Worth the High Cost?)
Ultimately, you have basically 4 months to step inside Star Wars: Galactic Starcruiser before it permanently closes. If you’re debating doing it, you really should. If it’s not for you…well, it’s not for you. Again, that’s going to be the vast majority of people–the miscalculations that Disney made in bringing this to fruition are well-documented and we’re not going to relitigate those here, since they are now “confirmed” as being true with the closure news. That argument is settled; Starcruiser’s critics won.
Instead, we’re reiterating all of this again because there’s this pervasive sentiment that now through September 2023 isn’t actually the “last chance” to step aboard the starship Halcyon. There’s this misplaced trust in Walt Disney World to not abandon this completely and instead fix it and reintroduce it. In our view, that’s odd sentiment–especially when it’s coming from the haters.
Walt Disney World has refused to “fix” Starcruiser despite known issues for the last year (arguably longer, since the exact complaints that led to this point predated its opening!) and has a time-honored tradition of abandoning past failures. There is no reason to believe they won’t do the same again here; it is the most logical course of (in)action. (See the closure announcement post for more commentary about why it won’t become a regular resort.)
Maybe the optimists here are right and Walt Disney World has a grand plan to repurpose Star Wars: Galactic Starcruiser and turn it into something for everyone. We highly doubt it, and certainly would not gamble on that outside chance. Not just for the multitude of reasons why Starcruiser isn’t viable as a regular resort, but also because Walt Disney World tries to save face whenever possible in announcements like this, rather than conceding defeat.
Over three years later, we still haven’t received official statements that the Mary Poppins ride, Spaceship Earth reimagining, Play Pavilion, or Reflections Lakeside Lodge are cancelled. Just that Walt Disney World is “re-evaluating” the plans. That’s an awfully long time for a secondary evaluation. If Walt Disney World had any intentions for potentially repurposing Starcruiser, the news of its closure would be softened with wiggle words implying that it has some future. They did not because it does not.
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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!
Just a quick note that the title of the article is confusing? I think you mean “canceled” as the discounts that were previously available are no longer available. Is it just me or does a “discount being dropped” usually mean a new discount is now out? At least that is what I always say! 🙂
This whole thing is so disappointing. We are HUGE Star Wars fans who DESPERATELY wanted to experience this. We even live locally (my husband is a cast member). But even with the 50% cast discount, it was never something we could afford. When you’re living paycheck to paycheck, $2,500 is still very out of reach, even if it’s a “good deal” by comparison. However, I always assumed that we would eventually get to go. That someday when finances were different we would get to experience it. Now, knowing that an amazing Star Wars experience existed, and so close to home, but that we will never get to do it… well the disappointment is immeasurable.
I don’t begrudge the pricing. I’m actually on the side of Disney charging what they can get. But I think the number of people who want this experience and can afford it are a small group. And while raising pricing always lowers demand, I think it was always a small group who would want to pay for this much less more than once. I could afford it, I just would rather spend my money on really traveling than on this. $6k for a family of 4 is halfway to a decent 7 day European trip.
And the pricing for most isn’t merely 2 nights. You’re also looking at getting to Disney and then likely the cost of a “normal ” Disney is experience on top of that.
At the end of the day, I can’t tell my friends I spent $6k to LARP no matter how wonderful the experience.
Some thoughts: Disney experimented with a high quality and niche entertainment product that relied on high income amusement park consumers that would value a very interactive experience. This sub market for amusement parks is apparently small and the return rate limited.
This failure doesn’t mean that Disney can’t be exclusive: Adventures by Disney and Golden Oaks proves that they can leverage their IP for (very) upscale amenities. But there’s a ceiling for such significant capital and labor intensive programs.
Well IMO it’s not just expensive and niche. It’s LARPing in a fantasy world. I’m fine with that but there’s fewer people willing to pay for that than an exclusive experience in Paris by ABD.
My older son and I went as an exploratory mission last summer, hoping to decide that my special needs younger son could manage to go on a later date. We were both in awe of everything we found, and in tears when we left, both for sadness that it was over, and joy that it would be something the younger one would be enthralled with and welcomed into with open arms. Unfortunately, that trip will never happen, as we were planning it for January 2024, and because of his health issues he cant manage summer weather in FL. I would have loved to see it open till the end of the year so we could squeeze it in even in November or December… or possibly some changes to include rotations between the 3 trilogies, which could have enticed more repeat visitors, or visitors who arent as thrilled with the newest trilogy. I can just imagine a few Ewoks or Gun Guns as cast members wandering around, cant you? My hope is that maybe they come up with something to salvage the property in some fashion for guests/visitors other than office space (although with the elimination of the new billion dollar office complex that they were going to build they could repurpose it for at least part of that… ?)
I am sad that this is going away. I was hoping to take my twins when they became tweens. Right now they love Star wars but don’t really understand it.
I added a lengthy comment on the previous post about the chances Galactic Starcruiser will be converted into part of a future SWGE expansion, even if just augmenting the current “shuttle” system to bring guests to and from lunch/dinner shows, Jedi Training, and other premium experiences (I can only imagine the insane profit margins at Savi’s Workshop… corporate brass is surely asking for “more of that, please”). Despite Tom’s pessimism that this outcome might in the cards in the near future I think it’s almost inevitable. Not because Disney is averse to mothballing assets, but because there is still so much earning potential. The costs of providing both hospitality and high end entertainment to Galactic Starcruiser guests must have been extraordinary but they could certainly provide an awesome experience with only a fraction of the staff/cast (and more lower paid workers that are easier to hire and train).
I believe that Disney won’t even hint about future ambitions until at least October because telegraphing that the Halcyon will be accessible to a broad audience in the future undercuts the value of upcoming voyages. Why not use scarcity to enhance demand and make guests feel special, rather than saying “you’re going to pay through the nose now for things that’ll be much cheaper in a year”.
will you publish a spoiler-full review after it closes?
I will never try it but I’d like to live it vicariously through your experience!
I second this!
I don’t suppose come October you would be interested in putting out a spoiler-FULL review of the experience? I’d love to find out what I missed if I don’t manage to sneak in a voyage, and I’m one of those rare people who prefers reading to video. >D
Gentle pushback here, though I have never gone on the Starcruiser (never wanted to do it for various reasons, though I very much hoped it would succeed to encourage future creative investments).
FOMO is rampant in Disney World vacations, and in my experience giving in to upcharges that don’t appeal to you rarely offers value. If your gut was to skip this, I’d recommend skipping it. I’m not suggesting this is a low quality experience… just that it’s easy to lose sight of your own internal value-for-dollar calibration when you become a Disney hobbyist. Things that I onced scoffed at (why would I pay for a fireworks viewing spot?? there’s an additional charge for a Halloween party ticket and then people wait in a 2 hour line to get a picture with who??) start to seem like necessary add-ons. It’s lucky I have a non-fan spouse to bring me back to earth.
I pay for lots of Disney upgrades, often from this blog’s advice, with great great results. But I’ve rarely gotten value from things I was initially skeptical about. [To be clear, I still love reading about the stuff I know I won’t do! Like I said, Disney hobbyist.]
I really wish Disney offered a discount for people who have to go solo, because I don’t want to spend 72 hours listening to my best friend rant about The Last Jedi again.
On a personal note, my daughter worked there for about 8 months. She recently transferred to another resort. She and her former cast mates were just heartbroken to find this out yesterday. (And, yes, they only found out about 30 minutes before it was made public information.) They received endless hours of training. They all put their everything into making the cruises exceptional experiences for the guests. At the same time, she was afraid it was going to fail all along. Numbers were low on most cruises and leadership was somewhat unsteady/mixed.
I think you were right in suggested 8-hour/1-day type experiences to keep the ship alive. I’m surprised they didn’t try something different before abandoning it altogether…
“The degree to which Starcruiser has inspired anger and contempt–rather than indifference–is relatively unprecedented.”
I’m just curious—why do you think this is? Is it sour grapes from people who can’t afford it? Resentment of the price? Star Wars fatigue ?
All of those things and more.
I also think it opened at a time when Walt Disney World fans had (rightful) reason for being upset at a lot of guest-unfriendly changes, and this just became symbolic or symptomatic of larger issues. It was easy to point to Starcruiser as shorthand for ‘Walt Disney World losing its way/being out of touch.’
I don’t agree with a lot of the conclusions people drew, the anger and so forth–but it’s hard to fault the frustrations. Most of that does have basis in reality, and is totally understandable. (Excluding the cottage industry of vloggers and others who seize on anything Star Wars to fan the flames of culture wars. Those people are mostly insincere grifters.)
Let me start by saying I am EXACTLY the target guest Disney had in mind when they created the Starcruiser. We are massive Disney fans who make multiple trips to the properties every year in addition to a DCL cruise each year. We’re in our forties, massive Star Wars fans (my oldest is named Luke …) and we are pretty affluent, relatively speaking at least. If anyone was going to fall all over themselves to book the Starcruiser, it should have been me.
SHOULD HAVE BEEN.
To be honest, the entire way the Galactic Starcruiser was handled has been infuriating to me. I’m not sure when, if ever, I have been this turned off by the way Disney mismanaged something.
The concept is truly top tier, and the execution could not have been better (from what I’ve heard and read from all the blogs and vlogs I trust, this one included). Yet somehow, in what can only be described as a disaster of Chapekian proportions, the experience has flamed out in record time. I can’t fathom how someone with decision making power didn’t just slash prices last fall when the chorus of reviews shouted in unison, “this is the greatest thing Disney ever produced in terms of parks and resorts, but it is about 225% more expensive than it should be.” (reference: DTB post titled something along the lines of “Here’s all the other/smarter things you could do with the cost of a Starcruiser voyage.”) Hearing almost universal feedback and continuing to maintain a myopically stupid course for the sake of ego and hubris is baffling. I know the thought of Bobby C being naked is not appealing to most, but SOMEONE should have told the Emperor he needed to throw on a tunic or something.
Admittedly, I REALLY wanted to experience this. I have been dying to go to this since it was announced, but the cost was simply too damned high. As much of a SW fan as I am, I could never pull the trigger to drag my wife or kid(s) along with me instead of on a Disney cruise, week at the parks, or some other use of our time and money.
Once I heard it was being cancelled, I immediately went into “now is the time” mode. My daughter is a CP and could technically get the 50% discount, but even still … I couldn’t pull the trigger. We have a week at WDW planned in June and a cruise on the Dream in October already booked, and the mental calculus of canceling one of those experiences in order to overpay for the Starcruiser — AND TAKE FEWER PEOPLE WITH ME– almost felt like it would be somehow enabling the corporate overlords who are ultimately responsible for this “fecal presentation” to begin with. I’ll always wish I had been able to experience it, but not enough to sell what little soul I have left to do so.
“…in what can only be described as a disaster of Chapekian proportions…”
Totally understand your perspective, and I think this sentence is actually very apt for a lot of people–even if they don’t necessarily articulate it that way.
The way Starcruiser was marketed and positioned from the moment it was announced was off-putting. I can’t fully articulate how or why, but it had ‘big Chapek energy’ in that regard. The same way he had an almost active disdain for fans and an egotistical attitude about things…so too did this. It also didn’t help that it was an open secret that much of what existed at Starcruiser was purposefully cut from SWGE and held back for the ‘hotel.’
So on the one hand, I have to (begrudgingly) give Chapek a lot of credit for empowering Imagineering to swing for the fences on this. A lot is said about how he’s just a beancounter, but this is a project that he championed (as head of DPEP, not CEO) and he allowed it to flourish.
On the other hand, Chapek also allowed it to be crafted in such a way that made its pricing prohibitive for most and caused a lot of alienation. So he’s not deserving of a ton of credit, even here.
I think the breakdown here isn’t that it was more expensive than it needed to be, but more expensive than everyone who desired to go wanted it to be. Disney prices according to what the market can bear, but that still has to be above the bottom dollar required to return a profit, and being unable to resolve the two is likely what sank this ship. It really doesn’t appear to be stubborn ego or hubris that prevented them from lowering the prices, otherwise they probably would have opted to do that versus closing. I believe you’d really enjoy it if you can see things from that ‘certain point of view’– to look past the mask and find the world of good beneath it.
I wish they would take this opportunity to pull things like the dinner show that were initially planned for SWGE and pulled to the starcruiser instead back into SWGE for day guests but I have no confidence that will actually happen
I don’t have any confidence it’ll happen soon, but it definitely SHOULD…and probably will, eventually. There is still space set aside for the restaurant and it could pretty easily be added with minimal additional work to the design of the land.
Oga’s Cantina still does great numbers, and I suspect a dinner show would sell out on a regular basis. It makes more sense to build the restaurant in SWGE than to shuttle people over to Starcruiser, too.
After reading all the comments on the previous blog, I noticed a great many people believe this was priced for the rich and was thus another example of Disney trying to cut out the middle class. Having done the Starcruiser twice (once in the Captain’s suite) on less than a six figure income, the stakes of it being an experience that was ‘worth it’ were significantly higher for me. But…more than it absolutely managing to blow my expectations out of the water – twice – it was obvious once I was there that they were not pricing the Starcruiser at a particular demographic. The cost for it was literally the cost that was needed to maintain the structure, technology, and high-class actors and staffing requirements. I really don’t think they could have shaved off much and still ran at a profit. Really, it reminds me of the Simpsons episode where Homer designs the perfect car for the ‘average man,’ but the cost to make it was too prohibitive for anyone like him to buy. The fault here isn’t Disney trying to cater only to the rich…the fault was Disney creating a product that was so good, that only the rich or truly dedicated could afford it.
I’d also like to reiterate that although the same amount of money could buy an excellent vacation elsewhere…there is nowhere else that you can buy this. I have done Omega Mart and it was incredible, but there isn’t a dedicated staff there assisting you on your journey and your individual character growth. I have gone with people who do not Larp and who are not into Star Wars, and they still gush about the experience over a year later. This isn’t a vacation – it’s an adventure. For me, it was a life changing one.
Mostly, I am sad that more people who need or really want this experience won’t get the opportunity. If this is something you are considering, definitely find a way to go. I’m lucky that a work friend has a trip on Sept 20th already scheduled and I can tag along with them. I really wish they’d do something else with the space…but Tom’s points are excellent ones and it looks like this really might be it. Truly, this is not the way.
Very well said.
In defense (?) of the people saying Starcruiser was only for the rich, comments have also said the same thing about Art of Animation, Genie+, Extended Evening Hours, and Walt Disney World as a whole…and that’s just to name a few examples from (literally) the last week.
In general, I think there’s a human desire to find as many ways as possible to be dismissive of things that aren’t uniquely appealing to, or targeted at, us. Somewhat similarly, most people self-describe as middle class and view anything above their budget as aimed at the wealthy–even if it’s not.
I will always wonder if there was a way to scale this slightly larger to make it more financially viable. I’m not talking about a regular hotel wing or going up to 500 cabins a night. But if had been 50% larger (so 150 cabins instead of 100), would they have also needed 50% more staff? Or would they have only needed say 10-15% more staff, which would drive down the per guest cost? I honestly don’t know the answer, and it could well be that yes, you’d have to increase running costs by 50% as well. As a huge Star Wars fan, I will always wish I had gotten to do this, but we’re already a bit overextended on our vacation budgets this year so adding such a pricey long weekend isn’t in the cards for us.
“The fault here isn’t Disney trying to cater only to the rich…the fault was Disney creating a product that was so good, that only the rich or truly dedicated could afford it.”
Exactly. Quality is almost always accompanied by expense: think watches, restaurants, clothing, movies, cars, and yes, amusement parks.
Yes. I work in an industry whose products are often considered to be outrageously and unreasonably expensive, but at one point I designed software to track the cost of production for prototypes at our company. No matter how expensive the starting materials were, the biggest cost of this production was always, always labor.
Even leaving aside the technology, the cast-to-guest ratio is a big part of what drives the boutique pricing here. I agree that they likely could not have brought the price down much and still found themselves profitable. I wonder if sluggish reaction even to discounts was part of the nail in the coffin, showing that even the elasticity they could leverage wasn’t enough.
I’m thinking it could be used for corporate retreats.
“…we think it’s more broadly appealing than some might assume. We are not LARPers. We do not have a particular affinity for the new trilogy or Disney+ shows. We are not even hardcore Star Wars fans. We are fans of Walt Disney World and themed design/entertainment, and this is a quintessential example of both, just wrapped in a layer of Star Wars”. This describes us as well. We finally did it last month and are now super sad to not be able to do it again someday.
I know myself and two of my kids would have absolutely loved to have experienced this, but there was not way financially to justify the cost for our family. With that being said, can’t help but think the location now has some of the infrastructure in place and could maybe become a Hollywood Studios adjacent DVC? “Reflections of Hollywood?”
If it’s used for anything, backstage office space for DHS/TDO/WDI the most likely candidate.
DVC is highly improbable…but I guess maybe they could bank on buyers not reading that maintenance fees are ~$30pp (and that’s without entertainment).
I meant more tear down the existing building and build new but use the infrastructure that has been put in place (utilities, parking, etc).
I would have loved the experience but the price is for people who have a great deal of money or income. I’m not surprised it’s closing. Disney has made some stupid decisions.