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Star Wars Prequels

Fans Book One Last Stay at Disney World's 'Star Wars' Hotel (sfgate.com) 46

Posted by EditorDavid from the may-the-spires-keep-you dept.
Yes, that expensive Star Wars-themed hotel at Walt Disney World is closing September 30th — after opening barely one year ago. But Sfgate spoke to a couple who's already been three times, and before it closes are "currently planning a fourth and final voyage this summer." If you're counting, that's more than $15,000 their travel parties will have spent on the experience. Their first trip was hosted by Disney as a media preview; for the other visits, the pair split rooms with friends to lower the per-person cost. [The couple is Peter Sciretta and partner Kitra Remick, the couple behind the theme park vlog Ordinary Adventures.] "Any time that we went, we were bunking with people in one room to make the price cheaper because if you can fit four people in one room, it ends up being $1,000 or $1,500 each," Sciretta explained. "It's still expensive even when you split it, but to us and to a lot of people who went back, it was obviously worth it...."

"It's so hard to explain what it's like in there," Sciretta said, "and you saw that from Disney's marketing because they were unable to explain what it was like in there. It's like you are in a 'Star Wars' movie for two and a half days — not just inside, but you are part of a 'Star Wars' movie..." If you want to, you can make the fight between the Resistance and the Dark Side the whole experience — but if you don't, you can spend your time spying on storylines happening in darkened corners and stairwells, trying to sabotage other people's missions (which is actually a thing on the ship), going to lightsaber training, seeing a galactic songstress perform or just eating space food and drinking in the cantina.

The space food, Remick noted, was especially good, even those infamous blue shrimp. "Most of the stuff is otherworldly. It is so good," she said. "That was one of the things I was most excited about when we went back, eating all the food again. Not only does it look cool and Instagram-worthy, it actually tastes really good, too. And all the cocktails are amazing." There's even a cocktail, called the Krayt Reactor, that comes with a song and dance by cast members when you order it — it costs $79 but serves four people... According to information provided to SFGATE by Disney representatives, Galactic Starcruiser has been earning some of the highest guest satisfaction ratings in the history of Walt Disney World. It also won one of the theme park industry's highest honors: a Thea Award for Outstanding Achievement from the Themed Entertainment Association.

"I know hundreds of people that have gone at this point, and not one single person didn't plan on or didn't already go back a second time," Sciretta said. "I kind of do feel like even before it opened, [Disney] shot themselves in the foot with the marketing and the price. They were never able to recover no matter what people said about it."
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Fans Book One Last Stay at Disney World's 'Star Wars' Hotel More

Fans Book One Last Stay at Disney World's 'Star Wars' Hotel

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  • Probably too niche (Score:4, Interesting)

    by DrMrLordX ( 559371 ) on Sunday May 28, 2023 @03:51AM (#63556741)

    Some hardcore fans seem to love it. Early impressions in the media were that it was cramped and problematic.

    • At that price though, are they still not turning a profit? Is it undersold?
      • It is basically the `Truman Show Problem`. You have a fluctuating number of guests doing whatever they feel like, and at any moment they may change their mind on literally any possible schedule. If someone feels like doing a little spying for the Resistance at 2:14am, there better be something for them to spy on, meaning casts acting out their story lines just in case someone shows up. It is a rare scenario where entertainment staff often outnumbered guests.

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by r1348 ( 2567295 )

          "Go to sleep, Luke!"

        • You mean a Renaissance Festival set in space with all the encompassing depth and believability. You gotta SUSPEND.

          Posted by someone who ran a show at the KC Fest for 12 years.

        • > If someone feels like doing a little spying for the Resistance at 2:14am, there better be something for them to spy on

          For at least some of that... pre-recorded (or even better, HQ machinima) could be used to provide scenes at a distance. Maybe you get to use macrobinoculars that 'enhance' a scene across a courtyard or something. Or there could be a 'follow that droid' scene... using a real droid. After all, for things like an R2 unit, we can build them for real better than in the (OT) movies.

          Not eve

      • There were rumours of low occupancy, and Disney had been cancelling voyages, offering customers slots for other dates.

        Overall, far too expensive for what it was.it likely didn't help that Disney went all in on new Star Wars (like with Galaxy's Edge), diminishing interest. If I'm paying many thousands of dollars then I'm expecting to get some Skywalker action.

    • Though it probably was a good experience, I think it was just way too expensive. Sharing a room with 3 others and you're still out $1500 for the weekend. $6000 for a family, for that kind of money you can book a pretty decent holiday for a week.
      Maybe it was too niche even for Star Wars fans. Imagine how they would have liked it if Disney had stuffed the place with characters and themes from the original trilogy? I think that's another issue: the setting is supposed to be an exclusive luxury one, like
      • You could stay 7 days at disneys Hawaiian resort cheaper than a family of four for that 2 night stay. Ive also been told its a total slap in the face to older fans of the original trilogy. The only disney magic is separating the consumer from his wallet. I guess they found their upper limit to how much they can bilk their customers out of.

      • Re: (Score:3)

        by tlhIngan ( 30335 )

        Well, it's less a "vacation" and more an "experience". Basically it was to give you the full Star Wars experience where you live a few days doing everything Star Wars.

        You're there to be fully immersed in Star Wars, so it's really an extended theme park ride more than anything.

        It's not that it isn't profitable - it's that it's a relatively high cost operation to provide this 24/7 immersion, so it doesn't make as big a margin as other attractions.

        Of course, that's the official reason. There's always the DeSan

        • Low occupancy seems a bigger issue than anything you mentioned, certain more so than the Florida nonsense Disney got themselves into.

          Although we don't know overall what occupancy rates were, relying more on leaks and rumours, we do know Disney had been cancelling shows due to low occupancy, offering customers slots in other voyages.

          It simply wasn't popular enough, maybe due to pricing and declining interest in Disney's take on Star Wars.

  • "That was one of the things I was most excited about when we went back, eating all the food again."

    Getting stuffed is a primordial need. Not even modern civilization can wipe that out, or even reduce it.
    You can charge no matter how much, so long as the food and drink are great.

    • Easy way to save (Score:1)

      by Anonymous Coward

      Seems like organising special evenings with "star wars"-themed food, have people decorate, have people help each other dress up, have enterprising home cooks come up with good themed food, is easily done at a couple hundred bucks per head. Well, best wait until after this hotel closes, but anyway.

      Maybe it's because the US is so rich in food it eats mostly junk food so cooking is not a valued skill, but it's not exactly hard to paint shrimp blue (with food colouring, thanks) then make a good shrimp cocktail

  • ..when you order a cocktail ??

    Wtf ? Is that an American thing ? I'd be like "Oh god, please stop".

    • Re:Song and dance.. (Score:5, Informative)

      by quonset ( 4839537 ) on Sunday May 28, 2023 @07:03AM (#63556901)

      ..when you order a cocktail ??

      Wtf ? Is that an American thing ? I'd be like "Oh god, please stop".

      From Osaka, Japan [youtube.com].

      A Danish bartender [youtube.com].

      Caracas [youtube.com].

      For reference, the four types of bartenders [youtube.com].

    • Disney turned the Star Wars franchise into a Cold Stone Creamery.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by waspleg ( 316038 )

        At least Lucas's terrible ideas took decades. Now the have fast food franchise trash in the "star wars universe" being pumped out as fast as they can to try to keep streaming subscribers and whatever else.

      • Disney turned the Star Wars franchise into a Cold Stone Creamery.

        To be precise, Disney turned Star Wars into yet another Disney product.

        Years ago, when my kid was maybe in 7th grade, he had a girlfriend who liked the Disney Channel's stuff. So when she'd come over, they'd watch it together.

        It was just simplistic brain-dead pap, with the boys being stupid goofballs, and the girls all being smart and usually fixing whatever mess the boys created. Standard stuff since the days of formula genesis by "The Honeymooners", written for tweens and up. And correspondingly bad

        • I'm very much having a "is this person trolling us?" moment, but on the offchance they're not, Halley Bailey plays the Little Mermaid in the new film. Different last name. She's 23. Which is well in line for the ages of actresses we get to play teenagers.

          • You know it's not the age of the actor that those people are mad about, right?

          • I'm very much having a "is this person trolling us?" moment, but on the offchance they're not, Halley Bailey plays the Little Mermaid in the new film. Different last name. She's 23. Which is well in line for the ages of actresses we get to play teenagers.

            And.. you are correct! And I am lack of research and stupidly wrong. Strike any dopey ageism remarks on my part.

            I have no objections to the so called race swap, with Bailey playing the part, so I have no criticisms to the live reboot before seeing it.

            Though it would be awesome to have Lizzo as the Little Mermaid. Note - Lizzo tried out for the part of Ursula in the reboot. But Melissa McCarthy got the part - I think Lizzo would have been better.

            • Even if you weren't mistaken, I fail to see how you think you're superior for objecting to age swaps but not race swaps. That also sounds like "you problem". Either you think it's fine to change demographics that have little to no impact on the plot, or you don't, and there's little difference between the two.

              • It's been many years since I watched the original animated 'Little Mermaid', but I recall the character's age (and associated lack of life experience) as being quite relevant to the plot. Isn't the main point of conflict that she makes a naive deal with the devil (Ursula) to obtain freedom from her overprotective father and pursue love at first sight with the prince? That sort of infatuation-driven rebellion fits well with a teenaged protagonist.

                • It's been many years since I watched the original animated 'Little Mermaid', but I recall the character's age (and associated lack of life experience) as being quite relevant to the plot. Isn't the main point of conflict that she makes a naive deal with the devil (Ursula) to obtain freedom from her overprotective father and pursue love at first sight with the prince? That sort of infatuation-driven rebellion fits well with a teenaged protagonist.

                  The character was indeed a naive young woman. As you note, that's central to the plot.

                  And even though I was wrong about who the present star was, and readily admitted it, fafalone has to continue to be offended because I dared to expect any sort of continuity of story, I guess in his world, Ariel could be played by Ian McKellen without any effect on the story. I mean expecting a young character to be played by a young person is simply ageist.

                  Speaking of which, we need a coming of age movie starring Ev

              • Even if you weren't mistaken, I fail to see how you think you're superior for objecting to age swaps but not race swaps. That also sounds like "you problem". Either you think it's fine to change demographics that have little to no impact on the plot, or you don't, and there's little difference between the two.

                Well, there's one problem you have - the idea that I'm acting all superior.

                Here's your problem. Humans. We are born young, and we have different sexes. We have different sexual preferences, we have people who have different visual characteristics.

                Maybe not in postmodern times, rules of storytelling are to be discarded? We can even insult an entire country of people who have spent a long, long time in researching their rich history (the Egyptians) by "race" swapping a character like Cleopatra, substi

    • Wtf ? Is that an American thing ?

      No it's a cocktail bar thing. Like seriously have you not been to a cocktail bar?
      That said I think making musicals about singing and dancing away in a cocktail bar is an American thing https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0... [imdb.com]

  • That is an ad! (Score:2, Offtopic)

    by HnT ( 306652 )

    That is an ad! as Jimmy Valmer would say.

    • An ad for a service which is shutting down and closed to any new bookings? What would be the point in that? This is just entertainment news.

    • There's an evil underhanded conspiracy at foot here to fill your head with marketing for the goal that you spen... wait you can't spend, they are closed for bookings. Sorry what was your point again?

  • I wonder how Disney will repurpose the hotel? The "Expereince" may have been too expensive, but getting rid of some of the most costly to provide parts and redoing its focus may be in its future.

    • I wonder how Disney will repurpose the hotel? The "Expereince" may have been too expensive, but getting rid of some of the most costly to provide parts and redoing its focus may be in its future.

      A lot of the Disney failed products just get abandoned, left standing https://www.youtube.com/watch?... [youtube.com] So in 5000 years, some aliens landing on the ruins of post human earth might stumble across the Star Wars Hotel and come up with some strange ideas about humanity.

  • I don't get the appeal (Score:3)

    by DigitalSorceress ( 156609 ) on Sunday May 28, 2023 @10:34AM (#63557177)

    Look, I'm a life-long Star Wars fan - I saw the original in the theater in 1977.

    The idea of this fully immersive experience is great, but with Disney not allowing adults to wear costumes - (and yeah I kind of get why - they don't want folks mistaking visitors for cast etc)

    However, to use an analogy:

    I do both Rennisance faire and also a large Society for Creative Anacronism (SCA) event called "Pennsic War"
    The two are very different - the Renn faire grounds themselves are very immersive and the cast and participants (of which I've been honored to be a part several years) dress immersively, but patrons are free to dress in costume (many do) or not (also, many do)

    so the immersive nature of the faire is diminished - not that it's not fun - it's just .. not fully immersive the way that something like Pennsic War is where all attending make an attempt at pre-17th century attire (the venue staff actually wear specofic green polo shirts and are thus easily identified, but the vast majority of folks are in medieval garb and the immersion level is in many ways much more complete

    Anyway, I do a lot of conventions, LARPs, medieval reenactment and renaissance stuff and I've just always gotten a great deal of joy from the costuming aspect - so for me the Star Wars galaxy event is just kind of not that appealing since the immersion is just totally broken (for me) by the throngs of folks in shorts and flipflops

    Not saying this is a hill I will die on - this is the way they're doing it and that's fine I guess but - even as a life long fan, the lack of full immersion is enough of a "dealbreaker" that I wouldn't be willing to spend the kind of money for the trip that they are charging. If everyone was allowed/encouraged to be in costume, I think I'd have been much more interested... but for the experience offered - to me, what you get is not worth that steep price.

    • Likewise, I don't see many people doing "Ultra VIP" Renascence Fairs for $2,000 a night for a weekend. There is a limit to how much you want to spend and how much time you want to spend doing 1500s cosplay.

    • You can totally wear a costume. I did. You just can't wear a mask and there are a few rules on face painting. People did take dozens of pictures with us.
      • Can confirm.
        I didn't wear a costume, but I feel like half the people there did.
        That added to the fun, really. My aunt was super into it and she did wear a costume. Which I also got a kick out of. That woman was 15 again, and that alone was worth the price.
    • You can wear costumes on StarCruiser- just not masks.
      I feel like it's a fair compromise.
  • This isn't news, it's an ad.

  • A lot of us don't get it (Score:3)

    by 93 Escort Wagon ( 326346 ) on Sunday May 28, 2023 @12:56PM (#63557453)

    Heck, I certainly don't get the appeal of this - any more than I understand the appeal of going on a cruise, or spending a week in Vegas flushing money down the drain. But obviously some set of people enjoyed it and was willing to fork out a lot of dough, so it's just another case where we're not the target demographic.

    I'm sure a significant percentage of those customers would be mystified why anyone would play around with an Arduino or write FOSS code for run.

  • Who were they catering to?
    Not me. With that type of cash I can go for like a 6 months long vacation.
    I really wanted to go but not gonna pay the amount they wanted.

    If it had been priced more accessible and roi looked at from a long view. It could hqvw done well.

  • The people with the disposable income required for such an expensive vacation grew up with the original trilogy. Galactic Starcruiser probably would have survived if it catered to the right audience.

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