Disney's Star Wars Galactic Starcruiser -- Spend $5k or more for a 2-night hotel stay in Florida?

[Dan Druff]

Last year, Disney opened up a new attraction near Walt Disney World which was eagerly anticipated by Star Wars fans: Star Wars Galactic Starcruiser.

This was likely inspired by beloved 2020s Disney attraction Rise of the Rebellion. Rise is part indoor surface ride, part motion simulator ride, and part live-action performance, where you become one of the characters (a prisoner) in an original Star Wars story. The attraction is so popular that Disney charges $35 to use the Genie+ fastpass service on it, and people very happily pay it.

The problem with Rise, of course, is that it's just a Disney attraction where they cycle through thousands of guests per day. Therefore, the entire experience is over in about 18 minutes, including the pre-ride and pre-show.

What if the concept could be expanded, into an immersive, live-action Star Wars experience which lasts two days?

That was the concept of Disney's new Star Wars Galactic Starcruiser, which involves a 2-night hotel stay where you're "boarding a ship to space", and living the story complete with a ton of live actors, as well as "missions" you're given to complete.

The price tag? At best, it's $5000 for two people, but that's during the lowest season of August and September. At other times of the year, you can't get a room there without dropping $6k -- and that doesn't include the cost of flights, incidentals, alcohol, or tickets to Disney World itself. There are also some extra-cost activities, such as a lightsaber workshop.

Here's a very good review and description of it from The Verge, by a guy who got to go on an abridged version for free, as a preview for journalists: https://www.theverge.com/22949905/st...d-photos-price

Unfortunately, unlike Rise of the Resistance, the Galactic Starcruiser is not a ride. It's a weird, windowless hotel, transformed to be essentially a 2-day improv experience based upon Star Wars.

There are tons of characters roaming around -- both major ones you know, minor ones you forgot, and new characters created just for the attraction. You do have some control over what you do and where you go. When you roam around the "ship", the various characters talk to you and engage with you, and some invite you on "missions" and "adventures". However, you are never in full control in any of these missions, and in general you're a side character along for the ride, while the mission proceeds anyway. Apparently there are some alternate paths the missions can take depending upon what decisions guests make while on them, but the main structure is already pre-laid-out.

Food is included, but alcohol isn't, and apparently it's very expensive.


One big criticism, aside from the insanely high pricetag, involves the rooms. There's only 100 of them, yet somehow they are almost all tiny -- like an inside cabin on a cruise ship. This doesn't make sense to me. On cruise ships, space is at a premium, so they need to cram as much as possible into a finite area. However, Galactic Starcruiser sits in a building on expansive Disney property in Bay Lake, FL. Why couldn't they have simply built it bigger, and made the rooms a lot more spacious? The fact that there are no windows also adds to the claustrophobic feeling of the rooms. In fact, there are no windows anywhere on property, except for one outdoor area called "The Climate Simulator" for those who really feel they need fresh air.




I'm surprised they don't offer free alcohol to people already paying $6k for a two night hotel stay. Maybe they want to discourage people getting too drunk? But I have to imagine that people already paying that much money will spend the money to get drunk, if that's what they want. Seems tacky to have an upcharge for anything, at such an expensive place.

Another problem is the fact that there's no motion involved in any of the "space" travel. Unlike Rise, where you really feel like you're going places, at Galactic Starcruiser, you're seeing space pass by on a screen, but not feeling anything actually move.

Some have described the whole thing as a 2-day improv or dinner theater experience.

Still, it could be cool if you're a Star Wars fan and want to try something different. But that price tag? Oy, vey. This Jew could never spend that type of money for something like this.

So how is it doing? Read on...

[Dan Druff]

Galactic Starcuirser opened on March 1, 2022. It was initially a huge success, selling out every single night. Then it started to slow down a little. In recent months, it has REALLY slowed down.

Disney realized something which should have been obvious from the start: Only the biggest Star Wars fans (who also have $6k+ to burn) will go for this thing, while everyone else will either say it's too expensive or not have enough interest in it.

Now it's completely failing. I am seeing ads for it pop up constantly on Facebook, and apparently no date is sold out for 2023 aside from President's Day weekend. They only have 100 rooms to fill! Ouch!

Disney also realized that they'd have a problem with repeat business. This just isn't the type of thing you do more than once, even if you love it. The price tag essentially ensures that each family will visit once and only once. So how can this thing have a future?

In November, Disney finally relented and offered 30% discounts to members of their DVC timeshare club. This month, they are offering up to $700 off if you also book a nearby Disney hotel before or after. Still, nothing is selling out, and the entire project is in trouble.

I really can't believe Disney didn't see this coming. Had this been described to me beforehand, price point included, I would have instantly told them it was going to flop after the initial Star Wars superfans came and went. In what world did they see this thing sustaining itself for the long term -- or even the medium term? It's less than a year old and already failing miserably.


In general, Disney hates lowering prices. They might have to do it here. Others have suggested that they could convert Galactic Starcruiser into a much cheaper, pared down experience, with fewer actors and adventures, but a pricetag much more affordable to everyone.

The question remains how low the price can go for it still to be profitable. Are they charging so much because they thought they could, or because they have to, in order to turn a profit? I have to imagine that they can take it down a good deal, as most of these actors work fairly cheap, and without many moving parts, the "ship" couldn't be too costly to operate or maintain. If they could make the whole thing $2000 for a 2-night stay for a family of 4, I bet it would get a lot of takers.

If I were designing this thing, I would have built some motion rides into it, as well. Why not? You have the space to make the building as big as you want. The way it currently runs, everyone is taken into Disney World at the end to ride the two new motion Star Wars rides, Rise of the Resistance and Smuggler's Run. But at that point you're clearly in a theme park, and you've more than broken the fourth wall -- you've smashed it to pieces. Wouldn't it be cool if you could just get into a motion simulator and fly -- maybe even allowing a guest "pilot" to cruise around space? That shit would be fun... and would definitely break the monotony of spending 2 days of playing pretend with adult actors.

[Sanlmar]

To think a Star Wars fan would have $6000.

Fortunately, most Star Wars fans are likely single so that would keep the costs down to one person.

[Entropy]

I was just reading this article before seeing this thread.

Ex-Disney exec Geoff Morrell who botched ‘Don’t Say Gay’ made $119,505 a day
Disney’s former communications chief — who was partly responsible for the company’s botched response to Florida’s “Don’t Say Gay” legislation — amassed a gargantuan payday from his brief stint in Hollywood.

Geoff Morrell, who was hired as chief corporate affairs officer last January, worked for a three-month period that spanned 70 weekdays during which he reeled in $8,365,403 in total compensation, or roughly $119,505 a day, according to Disney’s securities filing Tuesday.

When payouts associated with his termination agreement are calculated, that per-day figure increases to $176,746.

Disney also shelled out roughly half a million dollars to move Morrell’s family to Los Angeles from London and then another half-million dollars for them to move away when he lost the job. After he left the Mouse House, Disney bought the $4.5 million Southern California home that Morrell had

[The Boz]

Living in Florida I am an annual pass holder, the cheap one for Florida residents with no weekends and other blackout dates.

Went last week, a midweek in January and the parks were packed. I did notice many foreigners from listening to them, but still the lines and crowds are unbelievable.

While I agree with Dan the GS is a disaster, I’m still shocked at the money Disney Parks bring in on a daily basis. The stock is valued at around 50% of what it was in the past 18 months because of the markets focus on streaming. But never underestimate the amount of money Disney fans are willing to spend on a trip to the park.

Average daily admission is $150+ and even a 4 day pass is over $100 per day. I don’t understand how an average family of 4 gets away for under $5k with travel, hotels, meals and souvenirs. And now it’s almost a requirement to spend $15-$20 a day per person for Genie+ if you want to skip a few lines a day.

I still wonder how much credit card debt is being created and truly believe it’s the next financial crisis we will be facing in America.

[FRANKRIZZO]

Looks pretty spartan to me for that much moneys.

[FRANKRIZZO]

Living in Florida I am an annual pass holder, the cheap one for Florida residents with no weekends and other blackout dates.

Went last week, a midweek in January and the parks were packed. I did notice many foreigners from listening to them, but still the lines and crowds are unbelievable.

While I agree with Dan the GS is a disaster, I’m still shocked at the money Disney Parks bring in on a daily basis. The stock is valued at around 50% of what it was in the past 18 months because of the markets focus on streaming. But never underestimate the amount of money Disney fans are willing to spend on a trip to the park.

Average daily admission is $150+ and even a 4 day pass is over $100 per day. I don’t understand how an average family of 4 gets away for under $5k with travel, hotels, meals and souvenirs. And now it’s almost a requirement to spend $15-$20 a day per person for Genie+ if you want to skip a few lines a day.

I still wonder how much credit card debt is being created and truly believe it’s the next financial crisis we will be facing in America.

I went with my son for few days, memorable is space mountain and a water park where son went down completly vertical slide. Iwalked back down. The hotel was log cabin type could and did take water boat to very populated restaurant section. I bought new sneaks and got really bad blister had to go into site hospital and have them treated. Good memory for my son and me.