What Went Wrong with Disney’s Star Wars Hotel?
One year ago this week, Walt Disney World made the surprise announcement that it would be permanently closing Galactic Starcruiser, its “Star Wars hotel.” This came amidst struggles filling ‘voyages’ despite discounting, but was nevertheless surprising that it happened so fast.
The closure of Star Wars: Galactic Starcruiser itself was not a shock–we predicted that as a high-probably outcome even prior to it even opening–but the abrupt manner after only a little over a year of operations was. Surely, we thought, Disney would attempt to pivot once the initial wave of hardcore fans and affluent enthusiasts got their fix.
Nope. Instead, Walt Disney World announced the Starcruiser would make its final voyages by the end of the fiscal year, taking accelerated depreciation of a whopping $300 million. On the plus side, I guess, Disney did manage to sell out the final voyages in fast fashion as the hardcore fanbase that had quickly formed around Starcruiser–and those who thought they had more time to wait for discounts or whatever–rushed to book spots on the remaining months of voyages.
The struggles of Starcruiser are well-documented. We’ve written a number of articles about it over the years. It was a fascinating and troubled topic even pre-closure. Many fans absolutely adored it, whereas others loved to hate it. Starcruiser crashing and burning so spectacularly after under 2 years of operations has only added to the mystique. It will be deconstructed for far longer than it was constructed and operational.
In the grand scheme of the Star Wars and Disney fandoms, very few people had the opportunity to experience it. We’ve previously remarked about how there were dozens–if not hundreds–of YouTube videos about the Star Wars hotel that were watched by exponentially more people than ever stayed at Starcruiser.
One such video just dropped within the last week, and is singularly responsible for renewed interest in the doomed project:
“The Spectacular Failure of the Star Wars Hotel” by Jenny Nicholson has already racked up nearly 5 million views with roughly 30,000 comments. It has “broken containment” from the Star Wars and Disneyspheres into the broader internet. I’ve had several people ask for my thoughts on it–from regular readers to non-Disney normies (that’s how you know it’s a big deal).
Aside from a scattering of clips I’ve seen on social media, I have not watched it. The video is roughly 4 hours long, which is like a weeklong viewing affair when translated to being a new parent working around the demands of a baby. (I can’t even watch a 2 hour movie without breaking it into multiple viewings.)
I’ve heard the video is incredibly thorough and well-done, and a lot of people whose opinions I trust have said it’s well worth watching and is actually concise because it’s so dense with information. So I can’t really recommend it, per se, but I also haven’t read Anna Karenina and am similarly confident that’s good content despite my lack of firsthand knowledge.
Nevertheless, I can’t open social media without seeing arguments about the video…and people keep asking for my opinions on it…so I’ll offer some indirect, roundabout thoughts on Starcruiser that (hopefully? maybe?) will suffice. Obviously, that’s not the same, but the alternative is writing my “response” in 3 years when I have free time, and I feel like the moment will have passed by then.
Most of the questions I’ve received about the Starcruiser and/or that video have been variations of this post’s title. (The rest have been super-specific stuff, many revolving around “influencer culture,” for lack of a better term.) Spoiler: I don’t have an answer to the titular question because there is no single thing that went wrong with Galactic Starcruiser. It was pretty much everything.
The main problem, of course, was 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 cheered for its failure. (For more thoughts on this expensive pricing, see Is Star Wars: Galactic Starcruiser Worth the High Cost?)
Basically, Walt Disney World had something that was awesome and envelope-pushing, but had astronomical operating costs and even higher price points for guests. The end result is something highly exclusionary that reduced a potentially large consumer pool into a very small one.
The margins on Starcruiser were not nearly as healthy as many fans assumed at first. Yes, the price was high, but the operating costs were staggering due to the high number of frontline Cast Members and performers, as well as the low number of rooms. It was basically a math problem, and I’m still shocked that Disney greenlit Starcruiser knowing it would be so expensive (for them) to run and require high occupancy rates.
Some fans still don’t seem to believe this, which is odd to me. If the only thing Disney needed to do for Starcruiser to be a success was lower prices…they would’ve lowered prices! It’s not like they wanted the thing to fail and to take the tax writedown. Disney would’ve been much better off had Starcruiser succeeded and actually made money.
This is just one of several ways Disney boxed themselves in with Starcruiser and didn’t have much room to pivot. Another example of this is the character choices and setting–as with the land itself, it’s fair to say there probably would’ve been more interest if Darth Vader and other familiar characters and environments were featured. The whole thing made more sense as a “wish fulfillment” experience that would’ve let adults relieve fond memories of formative films from their childhoods.
Then there’s the niche nature of the experience. Starcruiser was a live-action role-playing game and interactive entertainment kinda endeavor–and one that required multiple days to experience. The time and nature of the experience were two big barriers to entry, with the high cost being the third of the trifecta. We heard from so many Star Wars and Disney fans who were curious about Starcruiser and could’ve afforded it as a splurge, but ultimately couldn’t justify the risk of their vacation time for an unknown concept that they might’ve not enjoyed. Hard to blame ’em!
Another issue was the marketing of Starcruiser, with the company having a difficult time conveying what it was (and wasn’t). What most affluent consumers able to afford Starcruiser’s prices actually wanted was a boutique hotel set in the Star Wars universe, but that’s not what it delivered. (On a related note, here’s Why Walt Disney World Will NOT Reimagine Starcruiser Into a Star Wars Hotel.)
This is just a partial list of what went wrong with Starcruiser. (There’s a certain 4 hour video you can watch that I assume offers a deeper dive into all of this and more.) I would’ve loved to see Disney at least try to pivot, but I can also understand not throwing good money after bad. Starcruiser was booking to half-capacity a year after it opened.
While it’s easy to Monday morning quarterback and assert they should’ve done X or Y differently, and that would’ve fixed everything, I’m skeptical that would’ve been the case. The problems were more fundamental and multifaceted. In actuality, I suspect its original creation would’ve had to play out differently for the outcome to differ. (Still, I wish they would’ve tried day trips to the Halcyon.)
I’ve also been asked my thoughts on the video itself–and have seen a lot more of “The Discourse” in the last week on social media. Let’s start with the title, “The Spectacular Failure of the Star Wars Hotel.” It’s weird to me to see people arguing about whether Starcruiser was a failure.
From my perspective, this point is well-settled. Given that the Star Wars hotel closed and Disney took a massive $300 million writedown on it, of course it failed. Going out of business is incontrovertible evidence of failure. So I’m not interested in relitigating this question. If Starcruiser succeeded, you could still book voyages on it.
I guess you could argue that it was actually a creative triumph or the true success was the friends we made along the way. All of that seems like a stretch. Creatives don’t operate in a vacuum, and even if the experience was fantastic for a select number of guests, the bottom line is that it wasn’t booked enough to remain in business.
Again, it resulted in a $300 million loss for Disney. Let that sink in, because it means the bare minimum that Disney sunk on this project was $300 million. It’s possible that Starcruiser lost even more, but they’ve recycled some of the assets and didn’t take a writedown on those. I know Disney has become so adept at losing money with movies and Disney+ that it might seem like Monopoly money at this point, but that’s real money. Imagine losing your wallet full of $300. Would you excitedly tell your spouse about this great success, or feel upset about it?
The fact that something perceived so positively by many/most of those who experienced it still had to close isn’t exactly the ringing endorsement that some fans believe it is. I don’t think that makes it better–it makes it worse! “We had this great thing people loved but it lost a ton of money and also was seldom fully booked until we announced its closure” isn’t something to brag about.
To be abundantly clear, this doesn’t undermine your enjoyment of Starcruiser and passion people still have for it. It doesn’t invalidate the work Imagineers and so many other talented Cast Members undertook to bring it to live, and breathe life into it. There are a lot of people who have (very understandably!) grown attached to Starcruiser, the people who inhabited its spaces, the stories they experienced, and friends they made along the way. That is great–I loved it, too!
But I also don’t need a label of “success” to be the enduring legacy of the project. And I know that, no matter what I or anyone else says, that absolutely will not be how Starcruiser is remembered. It’ll be as a costly and colossal flop that Disney pulled the plug on less than two years after it opened. That doesn’t undermine anyone’s memories. I happen to love the movies Mulholland Drive and Popstar: Never Stop Never Stopping (Sarah says I shouldn’t admit to that) despite both flopping–a fact about which I never think while watching them!
I’ve said this before, but Starcruiser reminds me of the Adventurers Club–but with childhood love of Star Wars and a massive barrier to entry in the price. Both were also immersive experiences that involved a degree of role-playing, or at least had an in-group dynamic. People formed friendships and forged strong bonds through both.
Many fans found their adopted “families” at both, and the closures hit certain people hard. In the case of Adventurers Club, the diehards held out hope for years that it would return–clinging to every bit of speculation, rumors, and/or wishful thinking. It was painful to watch, even secondhand.
It’s probably fair to say that the same thing is already happening with Star Wars: Galactic Starcruiser, which is why so many people are taking this video–or anything negative–personally. It’s perceived not as a critique of the creative and business decisions of a multi-billion corporation, but an attack on family. It is personal. (Not for me. I really liked Starcruiser, but not that much.)
I understand why it’s happening, but it still seems misguided to me to pick apart this video, trying to poke holes in the arguments. Even without watching it in full, I’m glad it exists. And this is without knowing whether I’d agree or disagree with the substance of the video.
In fact, I probably would not agree with some of the specific critiques given that we really enjoyed Starcruiser and she didn’t. (Our full Star Wars: Galactic Starcruiser Review is mostly positive.) But that doesn’t much matter–she can’t invalidate my experience just like I can’t invalidate hers.
It’s not just us, either. There are dozens upon dozens of glowingly positive reviews for Starcruiser all over the internet. And not just from bloggers, vloggers, influencers, etc. Countless average guests considered it the best thing they’d ever done at Walt Disney World. It had one of the highest guest satisfaction scores at Walt Disney World of all-time.
I suppose you could say every one of these people is biased or suffered a mass hallucination after catching Gaya’s gaze. Or there’s the more straightforward explanation…a lot of people who did Starcruiser really liked it?
From what I gather, Jenny’s voyage was a comedy of errors and issues that Disney declined to fix–or did so belatedly. I’ve also seen comments suggesting she did X or Y the “wrong” way, which strikes me as patently absurd and dismissive. Given the price point, the service and attention to detail should’ve been immaculate.
Sadly, this is nothing new or unique. We heard from others who either had negative experiences or for whom Starcruiser didn’t “click.” Although secondhand, there are anecdotes of guests not realizing what they had signed up for and having a disappointing time. To be clear, this was not our experience–ours was amazing and Disney firing on all cylinders at the highest caliber. But we are not everyone.
One thing that is/was key is distinguishing between the terms expensive and luxury when describing Starcruiser. Something can cost a lot of money–as this did–without being luxurious–as this was not. This is a common thread with Walt Disney World. We’ve pointed out time and time again that Disney cannot hold a candle to real world luxury hoteliers, which is why they outsourced that to Four Seasons several years ago. Disney mostly does themed resorts, not luxurious ones.
The specifics here don’t really matter, anyway, since the thing in question is dead and gone, so it’s not like my review can persuade anyone to do Starcruiser or vice-versa. At this point, everything written or recorded about Starcruiser is essentially a postmortem on the project, with much of it serving as a cautionary tale or a prism for commentary on Disney as a whole.
And that’s why I’m glad “The Spectacular Failure of the Star Wars Hotel” video exists. Because–at least from a couple clips that I’ve seen–it essentially views Starcruiser as a symptom of a larger and systemic problem. The company’s proclivity for treating Walt Disney World like its cash cow–nickel and diming guests, charging more and offering less.
We’ve been critical of the company, with Is Disney Ruining Its Reputation? and Disney’s Reputation Falls Further covering the company’s self-inflicted brand damage and loss of goodwill in the last several years. That has happened, at least in part, because Walt Disney World is charging more and offering less as compared to 2019.
Starcruiser is seen as the culmination of this, which was precisely why there was so much schadenfreude among Disney fans about its failure. Fans cheered for Starcruiser’s downfall not necessarily because it was bad in isolation, but because it was the biggest and boldest exemplar of a problematic trend. The most expensive upcharge at a time of ever-increasing upcharges. Starcruiser opened at the height of that, in the darkest days during the Chapek era when everything was being cut…except prices.
Although we first covered the topic many years ago in Is Disney World Eroding Fan Goodwill?, the trend really accelerated post-pandemic during the pent-up demand “era” when Walt Disney World was doing record-breaking numbers regardless of the guest-unfriendly decisions and changes they made. (See also, Top 10 Guest Complaints About Walt Disney World and Walt Disney World Could Fix the Guest Experience by Improving These Things.)
From my perspective, there is way too much uncritical commentary of Disney. This site certainly doesn’t shy away from positivity when it’s warranted–but we also aren’t afraid to offer blunt and frank assessments when those are warranted. One of the reasons Disney Adults are the subject of so much derision (besides the fact that we’re super cool and everyone is jealous of us–clearly) is because there’s so much unflinching positivity or knee-jerk negativity in the community. (Critical commentary is distinct from negativity–you can be reflexively negative by complaining about any and everything without offering thoughtful and coherent critique.)
This is the main reason I’m most looking forward to watching the 4 hour Star Wars hotel video. I don’t really care about Starcruiser itself anymore–what’s done and gone is gone–it’s how the lessons learned (or not) by the company will be applied (or not) in the future at Walt Disney World that really matters to me.
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YOUR THOUGHTS
Thoughts on what went wrong with Star Wars: Galactic Starcruiser? If you’ve watched “The Spectacular Failure of the Star Wars Hotel,” what was your take on the video? Did you also experience the Star Wars hotel? Do you agree or disagree with its 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 do hope that Disney (who has all the info people speculate about) does a deep dive to figure out how to pull off something like Galactic Starcruiser again. It was an incredible experience: the best character performances, an adventurous storyline, passionate cast members at every level, and settings I’ve ever seen matched in any Disney property at any time. The Starcruiser was a couple of days of immersion into what Disney does best — magic for both the guests and the cast members, onstage and off.
Seems like a numbers thing. There weren’t enough people who could or would pay the huge price tag. It seems like it got better likeability scores than the regular parks, but that wasn’t enough to draw in the people who could pay this insane amount. There just aren’t enough rich people– and they might rather go to Paris.
One of the more popular blames for the failure of the Starcruiser was its marketing. I actually think this might be one of the smaller causes. I the the main reason it failed was because the audience for it was too small.
The number of people who are Star Wars fans, in roll playing and can cough up the money needed is incredibly small. Add onto that repeatability and it gets smaller. And if there are people like me whose family isn’t into SW as much as me and weee not locals, that means breaking up the family during a family vacation.
I wasn’t even planning on watching the whole thing and still ended up watching all 4 hours. It is definitely worth watching. She really breaks down all the little nuances that I’ve seen discussed here and in other places.
I wanted to book the Galactic Starcruiser the day I heard they were buiding it. We booked our cruise the day it became available to Passholders and loved every minute of it. That having been said, it was significantly more money than we would normally spend on a 2-day vacation and from the start I didn’t see how it could be sustainable since the price was not out of line for the experience but were are a limited number of people who could or would spend that much money for the experience.
I never stayed there, my apologies cruised the stars, but I found Jenny’s logic super reasonable and everything she said made a lot of sense even without that first-hand experience.
She is absolutely brilliant in her approach and personality.
What she excels at is dipping into the specific instances that were problematic with her experiences but also touch on how that really speaks to broader and deeper Disney issues. Sometimes she is very blunt in calling out these connections, other times it is more left unsaid. So her video – her documentary – is less about a review and thoughts, but really a deep and insightful criticism of Disney writ large.
Anyone with a casual relationship with Disney vacations and experiences can see these trends with negative guest experiences. Her Spirit Airlines comparison has upset many, but probably because it is very spot-on. She touches on several problematic issues throughout the 4 hours, but that one is so on-the-nose it bears mentioning yet again.
I am very curious if Disney will choose to learn anything from this debacle.
The other take-away I had, and wonder if Tom or other people more steeped into Disney management has thoughts on this, is as a guy who worked at a couple of big global Fortune 500 firms, this feels like one of those initiatives that didn’t have buy-in up and down and across the organization. That Bob Chapek wanted his “big thing” at all costs. Regardless if it was initially ideated under Iger, it became a Chapek project, ergo his baby and responsibility. The official clips that Jenny shared about this project makes it sound like, “Oh the Big Boss wants this so Big Boss gets what he wants, but . . . .yeah, this isn’t a good idea.” Disney knows how to make themes. Disney knows how to do guest services. Disney knows how to make a profit. Everything seems to point at choices were made to not do any of that. I think that points to senior leadership under the c-suite not really being on board, but following corporate orders, down to middle management and below who probably rolled their eyes, but also liked a pay check so they did the work. This isn’t a criticism of the guest-facing cast as they too were essentially victims, but throughout the management and decision-maker levels that effectively chose to build a product that the knew would fail.
Zero chance that nobody realized this wasn’t going to work. Yet it moved forward, and that’s a story to be told.
I think there are still assumption that get made which can’t be backed up by evidence
In terms of it Starcruiser was or was not making money and closing proving that it was losing money. Disney was right at the end of their 7k layoffs when this was announced along with Lake Nona being cancelled. Disney was doing a lot of cost cutting due to a predicted upcoming slow down in the economy. Closing an attraction that could cost hundreds of thousands ever y 2 days but was only making 10% back on those costs represents a big financial risk with a low financial gain and that could have been enough to prompt the closure. Given all the indications that the decision to close was made the morning of the announcement or just the day before, it would seem that the financials aren’t the only factor and if it was losing a ton, that decision would have been looked at earlier. We know they had imagineers working on a story refresh for Jan 2024, I’m not sure you plan on more investment if the finances don’t make sense.
In terms of booking, no one outside of Disney knows the true booking percentage nor what expectations were nor the break even point. We know that a handful of voyages were reported to have cut to 1 dinner service due to low booking, but that was only around 10 voyages. The claim that it was booking at 50% is specious.
Also, not sure if you are aware, but Jenny did reference a previous post of yours on Twitter when discussing the guest satisfaction ratings and how we can’t find the origin of the “Starcruiser had the higher guest satisfaction of any WDW project” quote. Do you have any information on where this came from originally?
+1 for your source on guest satisfaction ratings, Tom — a lot of people are saying this about the rating (and you reiterate it here), but without sources cited. Is this from anonymous insiders you speak to?
Would definitely recommend you watch the video if you ever get a long enough break from Megatron — I watched it in six chunks, and it was totally fine, there are lots of natural stopping points. It’s the most thoughtful critique of the modern era at Disney that I’ve seen coming from anyone other than you, with real nuance and analysis.
Here’s what I wrote in reply to an earlier question about this:
I cannot possibly be the only source of that claim–it was a statement released by Disney when Starcruiser closed. To my recollection, Josh D’Amaro also repeated it in an interview shortly thereafter. Or maybe Iger during an earnings call?
Maybe she means that I’m the source of the claim pre-closure? In which case, I had been told that by people associated with Starcruiser. But that was confirmed by Disney on the date that Starcruiser’s closure was announced.
I haven’t seen the video but think there is one BIG issue that was overlooked. This seemed like amazing experience for adults but for parents with small kids it was confusingly designed. Children under 7 could not participate in lightsaber training, but there was no kids club or other alternative for them like on a cruise. The dinners looked fun and creative, but where were the pizza and burgers for picky eaters? And from what I could tell, if your kids aren’t able to stay up past 8pm, you basically miss a huge part of the experience. Yes there are disney adults, but not enough with sufficient income to pay the price tag, and with per person pricing disney profits more when all beds are filled versus a bunch of adult couples filling all the rooms
If you don’t want to watch the entire thing, skip to the part where Jenny compares Disney to the Spirit Airlines method. It’s spot on! It perfectly explains why Disney fans have been so angry with what is happening in the parks these past few years.
A shame it didn’t work out and they can’t reimagine the hotel as something Star Wars related. I would loved to have checked it out , if wasn’t so darn expensive.
I realize this is a bit simplistic, but it seems to me that just doubling the number of rooms built would have helped to decrease the cost to fans (perhaps not by half, but certainly something closer to “willing to pay for this experience.” But I’m no Disney executive, so what do I know?
Jenny does a reasonable explainer on this. Basically she proposes the same thing then walks through why it most likely won’t work.
The gist of it is the max occupancy was ~500 guests (100 rooms at up to 5 each). The atrium, bar/lounge, and dining areas could handle maybe half at any given time. So to double, or generally expand, the number of rooms would require adding on more drinking and dining options. So yet more space, money, staff, resources, etc. The overall storyline is tied to dinner theater shows, so now with more dining there is more story complexity. Also the ‘hotel’ had no amenities like a pool, spa, gym, etc so no place for guests to go other than the prescribed places.
I never stayed there and obviously don’t have Disney executive information, but her logic makes a lot of sense.
What I appreciated about the video is how desperately she wanted to drink the koolaid, she even repeatedly asked for it, but they just wouldn’t give it to her. She came dressed up and ready to role play but her tech never worked and there was no one there to help her. And if your tech didn’t work, there was just not a lot for you to do on the ship because how you interacted with the crew and the built environment itself depended on the tech working.
I am also happy it failed because I was frustrated by how expensive everything is now at Disney when I went last year for the first time in 15 years. I was old enough the last time I went to know what my mom got for free and what she had to pay for. And it’s just not a good value anymore.
THIS. Yes, she’s pretty fair, evenhanded, and comes with receipts, as others have pointed out. But the thing that made me, a person who desperately wanted to go but couldn’t get timing and finances right before the closure, identify with her the most was hiw much she wanted to do this, wanted to go all in, and wanted to have fun–“Drink the Kool-Aid” is apt–and then didn’t for reasons that were not her fault.
To Tom’s statement about “and those who thought they had more time to wait for discounts or whatever,” the “whatever ” was needing TIME to save up the unbelievable sum a family needed to go. We needed monthly savings and not one, but two rounds of tax refunds to make it work and would have gone this spring. And Jenny’s video appreciates that need, not just for the Starcruiser, but for WDW in general for middle-class (read: MEDIAN income). Hearing other people who earlier reported many of the same issues she had on her trip was making us hesitate but not cancel plans, despite having the very real problem of No Second Chances being possible.
The video strikes chords for many different kinds of SW and Disney fans.
Tom, the video is divided into many (30?) chapters, so easy to jump in and out after bite-size bits. Enjoy the hilarious costume changes between sections.
Man, this is a crossover I never really expected!
Tom, if you do find yourself with some downtime, I highly recommend Jenny’s breakdown of Pandora and Galaxy’s Edge too! (Not to mention her epic 4 hour Evermore video, but thats not exactly Disney related.)
You really should read Anna Karenina.
The ‘cheap fix’ was delivering on the promise of a truly immersive experience.
At a minimum, the cheap fix would have included Starcruiser guests being the only people in Galaxy’s Edge.
I may not be into Larping, but had Disney invited Starcruiser guests a few minutes to play in Galaxy’s Edge without guests in Mickey Ears, that would have added to the very poor value proposition to folks like my family who otherwise do/did all the extras like Early Morning Magic in Toy Story Land and/or Fireworks parties.
Paying extra to dress up and playact Star Wars was a poor value proposition when a significant portion of that Starcruiser time included standing on the same lines with the 30,000 daily guests in Hollywood Studios.
For goodness sakes, even just being alone in the Cantina for one drink with just Starcruiser guests would have been Instagramable….because there’s a frame of reference to any potential customer looking for something special.
A $5,000 VIP experience has (luxury) value, Starcruiser never did.
I’m with Tom. The operational costs and attached minimum consumer price needed to break even we’re just way too high for this to work. No marketing or animations change that math (and both would cost money which would mean even higher prices for guests!). This is all on top of the fact that the market for roleplaying Star Wars in real life is wildly niche. Doomed. Doomed. Doomed.
I hate listing problems with no solutions but for the life of me I can’t fathom a way this concept works, with any IP.
What drives us WDW fans nuts are the relatively small cost this the parks have cut back on to build this idiocy. $300M+ could have funded so many things people actually love for many many years.
Exactly. All the cuts to the magic you referring to and she referenced during the build out.
Muppets in history, hollywood citizens, grand floridian Orchestra etc.
It’s all so nakedly hostile and neglectful of the fans and walts legacy.
Tom: Curious to hear your thoughts on the lack of animatronics and physical props.
I was struck by Jenny’s comments about how poorly it compared to the Phineas and Ferb adventure in Epcot.
Why do you imagine the imagineers didn’t include something similar on the Starcruiser?
Mulholland Dr. made $20 million against a budget of $15 million. Not great, sure, but not exactly a flop, especially considering the avant-garde-ness of it.
Marketing was the worst ever. THAT is why it closed.
1) The COST should have been marketed like what the experience was, a cruise. You market a cruise “from $399 per person per day (based on 4 person per cabin)” Which was EXACTLY the cost!!! Sure if you were one person, in one room and all three days you added together is is $4900. But a luxury cruise to the Bahama’s or anything like that is the SAME COST.
2) No marketing was done at ANY of the cosplay events like Comic-con, Megacon, or ANY of them. Just general Disney marketing, which didn’t cut it.
3) No targeted Social Media Marketing, at all. NONE
4) No one knew what it was… I had to explain it every time I talked about it. (I went 3 times BTW) Was is a Hotel? Well, yes but no. It’s a cruise but technically in a hotel. So it’s a Cruise? Well, yes, but no. Is it cosplay? No but you should. Is it like a murder mystery theater an escape room? Kinda of both.. there are actors, and you do things, but you make your own story. No one knew until they went.
THEN you had the people that had money who knew what is was going in, but didn’t want to participate at all and the first thing they asked when they got onto the cruiser was “Where is the spa?”, “Where is the Pool”, “Where do I call room service?” When the answer was “they don’t have that”, they were suprised because they thought it was a hotel or a cruise… Which it was neither one, and both at the same time.
THAT is why it closed
The price calculation here is deceptive.
1) This calculation uses 3 days, even though it should be 2 days. Keeping with the cruise line comparison, the duration should be number of nights, which is 2, not 3.
2) This calculation uses 4 people on Room Rates that were for 2 people. The 4900 number was not available for 4 people.
3) Disney actually advertised the Per Guest per Night rate, and the lowest was $749 for 4 people, if you could find that date. The lowest for 2 people was $1,209.
4) Comparing to disney cruise line, the star wars hotel was vastly more expensive. People could easily find cheaper rates on the new Wish, for longer durations and for better rooms.
The price for the star wars hotel was a massive barrier. Even with better marketing, the star wars hotel was doomed to fail.
I think you’ll appreciate the video as Jenny is very fair in her assessments and comes to many of the same conclusions you do. Although she had a very frustrating game play experience and doesn’t pull those punches, she doesn’t shy away from also praising things that were done well. Much like this blog!