A horrible rumor to spread

[Beer Me]

I think the big disconnect is that many were expecting a realistic and authentic to Star Wars hotel. Instead we got the Disney-fied version. For $5000 for 2' nights most want the latter.

I think Disney is not happy with the feedback from the preview videos. Why else would they take them down as well as have no mention of the Starcruiser during the Christmas parade when it was announced there would bea preview.

I think many people will be fine with a Disney-fied experience and it will in fact be what they expect. For many a few thousand bucks isn’t that much money so they will take their kids for a unique, fun experience. I think this is who Disney has in mind. Think how many are willing to pay $800-$1000/night right now for a standard room with subpar service and amenities and it’s not hard to believe there will be plenty of people paying more for something a little different.

Hardcore Star Wars fans saving up for a once in a lifetime experience will have much higher, and maybe unrealistic, expectations and are likely to be disappointed.

 

[RamblinWreck]

I believe it's difficult to make such a judgement from a few shots. There are certainly things we have not seen yet that may be inspired or creative. How can you say it isn't when no one has seen it?

Just speaking purely for myself and not others, I think it looks campy.... but then so was Star Wars. If these walls do not look plastic to you, I don't know what else to say...
View attachment 633678

As far as comparing Galaxy's edge, you have to remember that a lot of galaxy's edge is very controlled. It's easy to make something look cool when you don't have people interacting with it. It's a lot more difficult when you have experiences with those items.

Consider the bridge controls. They have to be designed so a CHILD can operate them. They have to be simple, easy to understand and have limited functionality - that's the only way the "quests" are going to work.

I am still reserving judgement until I see how it all comes together. But keep in mind that Disney never expected to win every Star Wars fan. They would have been crazy. There are a limited number of rooms and availability and they only need a small percentage to keep the system busy enough for many years.

I don't want to be rude, but nothing you're really saying here applies to what I said.

Yes, I absolutely can definitively say the words "Nothing I've seen about the Galactic Starcruiser looks like it required an ounce of creativity or imagination. It's completely uninspired."

I can do this because I have, in fact, seen everything that I have seen.

I didn't make the sweeping statement about the Starcruiser that you want to pretend that I did.


However, I will say that generally speaking, these promo videos will make things look better than they actually are. Which is a pretty bad sign, considering how terrible they look.

 

[fatmanatee]

I’m fascinated by the complaints about the ship looking too clean. Valid, BTW! At the same time, the story being told here is of a “cruise” to Batuu. It’s supposed to be a clean experience (with some turbulence, of course). The visitors aren’t arriving via the Millenium Falcon or some other dingy ship. But as mentioned before, a lot of fans probably want an experience that resembles that because it seems more authentically Star Wars.

BTW, the red flag for me was D’Amaro’s vid showing off the lightsaber training. I don’t know if it’s possible to match what they showed in the concept art but it definitely underdelivers. I’d go as far to say that they shouldn’t include it unless the tech improves. I’m saying that as an adult man though, and this is more so meant for kids. Best hope would be that it wins them over in spite of the limitations.

 

[disneyseniors]

I haven't seen the whole video, it got taken down before I could.
I have been a SWs fan from it's inception and loved the original movies.
The newer ones? Not so much, IMO.
I'm not surprised that disney cheapified the SW cruiser; afterall, they cheapified GE too. It was supposed to have fights between the heroes and bad guys in the park, wandering SW people, actual droids that wandered around, and so much more. That all got stopped. You have the actors on the roofs and I did see Chewie come out and wander around. That was nice.
I don't know why they keep dumbing down the attractions. And NO it is all not because of covid, but it's a pretty good excuse.

They could have hired great imagineers and had a fantastic GE like at Universal's Harry Potter if they really wanted to. Universal's HP knocks it out of the park with their immersion, from small areas and items to the big attractions. It can be done if they want to spend the money, and that's the problem. IMO.

 

[TiggerBouncy]

I agree it's not possible and are limited. It still comes down to how over priced it is for what it is. IMO it's going to a gigantic flop.

I would never underestimate how easy it is to separate a fool from his money. And I am speaking as a fool in that sentence.

You are betting there are not 18,000 people a year who are willing to spend $5,000 on this experience. Or 90,000 over 5 years.

Virgin Galactic has already sold 700 tickets at $450,000 a piece. And they do not even have a commercial aircraft yet. DCL prior to the pandemic was often sold out on concierge rooms which are about this price. 18,000 people is NOT a stretch goal. It doesn't have to be perfect to make those numbers. Heck, it doesn't even have to be really awesome to make those numbers. Comic con alone attracts 160,000 - 200,000 people over the course of a few days. And yes, it's a lot cheaper, but Disney only needs a SMALL FRACTION of that to book solid.

A survey conducted found that 32% of males are avid star wars fans in the US. There are 161 MIILLION males in the US alone. So that's 51 MILLION AVID male star wars fans in the US. So they need 0.04% (yes, less than half a single percent) of AVID star wars fans of the male population IN THE US ALONE to be booked solid. That's assuming they do not attract any females (and although a lower number, there are plenty), casual fans (I consider myself a casual fan and not an avid fan), and also assuming zero international guests.

I just do not think they are going to have a hard time filling up all available space once they are not under a pandemic.

 

[TiggerBouncy]

I don't want to be rude, but nothing you're really saying here applies to what I said.

Yes, I absolutely can definitively say the words "Nothing I've seen about the Galactic Starcruiser looks like it required an ounce of creativity or imagination. It's completely uninspired."

I can do this because I have, in fact, seen everything that I have seen.

I didn't make the sweeping statement about the Starcruiser that you want to pretend that I did.


However, I will say that generally speaking, these promo videos will make things look better than they actually are. Which is a pretty bad sign, considering how terrible they look.

And please do not take this as a rude statement, but I do not believe from what I have read from you that you are the target audience Disney is going for. Again, they do not need (and frankly do not WANT) every star wars fan. The place simply is not big enough nor would it be able to handle the capacity and provide the experience they want to provide.

They only need a very small percentage of fools customers (again,
<------ fool / customer)

I am guessing there are EASILY 17,999 other people like me out of the 9 BILLION in the world. That's all Disney has to please per year. They do not need to please everyone.

 

[BrianL]

I am not sure I understand this. People are upset that DISNEY built a DISNEY-fied hotel. I think they need to adjust their expectations. Disney was never going to make anything NOT Disney. I had a friend once tell me he hated his sandwich because it tasted like fish. The thing is IT WAS A FISH SANDWICH. It was never going to be a chicken sandwich.

DCL is not just a cruise line. It's a Disney-fied cruise line. Adventures by Disney is not a tour. It's a Disney-fied tour. What in your experience would lead you to believe that Disney would ever make anything else?

It's important to remember that it's a family friendly concept that is built to have inactivity for kids. This is not supposed to resemble an adult only fully functional spacecraft. It's a fictional concept built around the star wars universe that includes an interactive component. That's what it was meant to be and frankly that's what they delivered. People may have expected and wanted a fully functional simulated starship, but that was never the concept for this experience.

I think there is an issue, just like with Galaxy's Edge, that many of the hard core STar Wars fans are NOT Disney Parks fans - they may have never even been. They don't "get" that part of it, and while I kind of think they built SWGE more for Star WArs fans than theme park fans (and wish for more of the latter), it is still very much a theme park. That's all that it ever could be in reality, but sometimes people see it differently in their head. Now, I'm not sure where people are getting that SWGE is so much more detailed than the Starcruiser - they seem about on par to me. It's a themed experience, and it's for all-ages too (an important note), so it is the way it is for a reason.

 

[BrianL]

I’m fascinated by the complaints about the ship looking too clean. Valid, BTW! At the same time, the story being told here is of a “cruise” to Batuu. It’s supposed to be a clean experience (with some turbulence, of course). The visitors aren’t arriving via the Millenium Falcon or some other dingy ship. But as mentioned before, a lot of fans probably want an experience that resembles that because it seems more authentically Star Wars.

BTW, the red flag for me was D’Amaro’s vid showing off the lightsaber training. I don’t know if it’s possible to match what they showed in the concept art but it definitely underdelivers. I’d go as far to say that they shouldn’t include it unless the tech improves. I’m saying that as an adult man though, and this is more so meant for kids. Best hope would be that it wins them over in spite of the limitations.

I can agree that the lightsaber training thing did look a little sketchy. This is where I think if they can't deliver the tech to make it better, don't have it at all. The part where you are on the bridge looks fun though.

 

[TiggerBouncy]

I think there is an issue, just like with Galaxy's Edge, that many of the hard core STar Wars fans are NOT Disney Parks fans - they may have never even been. They don't "get" that part of it, and while I kind of think they built SWGE more for Star WArs fans than theme park fans (and wish for more of the latter), it is still very much a theme park. That's all that it ever could be in reality, but sometimes people see it differently in their head. Now, I'm not sure where people are getting that SWGE is so much more detailed than the Starcruiser - they seem about on par to me. It's a themed experience, and it's for all-ages too (an important note), so it is the way it is for a reason.

Nope - you are 100% correct. And I think (dare to dream) Disney would love to attract people who are only Star Wars fans. That would be a terrific way to increase their base. But as we have mentioned, they do not need (or frankly wouldn't be able to handle) a huge influx of star wars fans who are not Theme Park fans. Nor would that do them any favors as those people would be sure to be disappointed. They need a very small union of those 2 sets of people in order to fill this thing to capacity. Again - not the FULL union (there are certainly many people who may be Theme Park fans and Star Wars fans who are not interested in this experience).

I am not even sure it would behoove Disney to have to Halcyon attract a much larger subset. People would be very frustrated if the waiting list to get to visit were 10 years long.

 

[BrianL]

Nope - you are 100% correct. And I think (dare to dream) Disney would love to attract people who are only Star Wars fans. That would be a terrific way to increase their base. But as we have mentioned, they do not need (or frankly wouldn't be able to handle) a huge influx of star wars fans who are not Theme Park fans. Nor would that do them any favors as those people would be sure to be disappointed. They need a very small union of those 2 sets of people in order to fill this thing to capacity. Again - not the FULL union (there are certainly many people who may be Theme Park fans and Star Wars fans who are not interested in this experience).

I am not even sure it would behoove Disney to have to Halcyon attract a much larger subset. People would be very frustrated if the waiting list to get to visit were 10 years long.

Agreed. I remember when I first went to Galaxy's Edge - my number one takeaway was "Star Wars fans are the worst!"

Calm down folks, I'm a Star Wars fan myself. It was however apparent that some of the crowd didn't really get the parks mentality, that it was in fact a theme park, and a family friendly one at that! That seems to have calmed down a lot, but that first trip when it was pretty new some of the behavior by these kids (by kids I mean in their twenties!), was pretty questionable, especially at night!

 

[TiggerBouncy]

BTW, the red flag for me was D’Amaro’s vid showing off the lightsaber training. I don’t know if it’s possible to match what they showed in the concept art but it definitely underdelivers. I’d go as far to say that they shouldn’t include it unless the tech improves. I’m saying that as an adult man though, and this is more so meant for kids. Best hope would be that it wins them over in spite of the limitations.

I was never sure where they were going with this. It's not possible with any tech that I know of to see beams of light and certainly not at a speed that a human could react to them. There is no way to do the remote training that they show a picture of in any realistic sense with any tech I am aware of EXCEPT VR. They can do it with VR (in act, Vader Immortal is very much like a realistic lightsaber training program). If they threw a pair of glasses on you and made the lightsaber a remote to the headset, they can KINDA do it. But not quite the way it looks in the concept drawing.

And yeah, I would not have said "it's real" in any case, had I been Josh. It's a cool enhancement to the lightsabers, but it's still not there quite yet.

I'm not surprised that disney cheapified the SW cruiser; afterall, they cheapified GE too. It was supposed to have fights between the heroes and bad guys in the park, wandering SW people, actual droids that wandered around, and so much more. That all got stopped. You have the actors on the roofs and I did see Chewie come out and wander around. That was nice.

I am in complete agreement with you here. It would not be that difficult to throw a few real droids buzzing around. On top of that we were told there would be personalized experiences. Like if we crashed the falcon, it would have consequences on our story in GE and that every person in GE would have individual events. NONE OF THAT HAS BEEN DELIVERED.

However I think they overpromised what was possible when then said and when they show those things. That's been unfortunately a common theme with Disney. The good news is that a lot of those type enhancements can be added (it's easy to add a few costumed actors and droids - they do not require much additional infrastructure, and for all we know much of that infrastructure may be already built in).

 

[RamblinWreck]

I’m fascinated by the complaints about the ship looking too clean. Valid, BTW! At the same time, the story being told here is of a “cruise” to Batuu. It’s supposed to be a clean experience (with some turbulence, of course). The visitors aren’t arriving via the Millenium Falcon or some other dingy ship. But as mentioned before, a lot of fans probably want an experience that resembles that because it seems more authentically Star Wars.

BTW, the red flag for me was D’Amaro’s vid showing off the lightsaber training. I don’t know if it’s possible to match what they showed in the concept art but it definitely underdelivers. I’d go as far to say that they shouldn’t include it unless the tech improves. I’m saying that as an adult man though, and this is more so meant for kids. Best hope would be that it wins them over in spite of the limitations.

They really could have and probably should have gone for some kind of augmented reality functionality here.

I'm not convinced that even a child would find what they did make to be particularly fun.

 

[Nabas]

Disney has been able to pull this off in the past.

A meal at Victoria and Albert's costs roughly $300 per person with a setting that looks like this.



The Galactic Starcruiser costs roughly $2000 per person for a (less than) 2-day excursion, with most of that time spent either at Disney's Hollywood Studios or sleeping in your room.

It is really asking too much to do something truly special for those relatively few waking hours you're going to spend at the Galactic Starcruiser?

 

[FCDub]

Y’all really are a joyless bunch sometimes. It’s freaking Disney World.

 

[Nabas]

Y’all really are a joyless bunch sometimes. It’s freaking Disney World.

Nah, we're just convincing ourselves not to spend $5000 on something we would do if the price was a lot less.

 

[RamblinWreck]

Nah, we're just convincing ourselves not to spend $5000 on something we would do if the price was a lot less.

There’s some truth to that for sure

if I could do it for $500 per person I would at least consider it. Even with how lame it looks.

 

[TheDailyMoo]

As a middle aged Star Wars fan that's become disconnected from it since its' "Disneyfication" I truly think the problem is that there has been and still isn't a unified vision for the franchise that can both encompass the old guard and bring in future generations. I won't get into the debate about the new trilogy but one thing I've noticed with the Mandalorian and now the commercials for Boba Fett is that Disney seems to have "learned its' lesson" and is trying to right the ship back towards what made SW so popular in the first place. I think the Star Cruiser was conceptualized at the same time as GE which was before top brass realized they were screwing up Star Wars. Add to that too many cooks in the kitchen and sprinkle in a ton of being super cheap and cost cutting, and top it off with too high expectations and price tag and voila this is what you get.

IF and I say IF they started the plans for this now...AND had one creative vision that they stuck to...AND were willing to shell out whatever it took...THEN yes they could've made something that was actually worth 5000 for 2 nights. Alas...as with much that is Disney these days things fall short of how great they could've been. May the Force be with you...just not for 5 grand!

 

[BrianL]

As a middle aged Star Wars fan that's become disconnected from it since its' "Disneyfication" I truly think the problem is that there has been and still isn't a unified vision for the franchise that can both encompass the old guard and bring in future generations. I won't get into the debate about the new trilogy but one thing I've noticed with the Mandalorian and now the commercials for Boba Fett is that Disney seems to have "learned its' lesson" and is trying to right the ship back towards what made SW so popular in the first place. I think the Star Cruiser was conceptualized at the same time as GE which was before top brass realized they were screwing up Star Wars. Add to that too many cooks in the kitchen and sprinkle in a ton of being super cheap and cost cutting, and top it off with too high expectations and price tag and voila this is what you get.

IF and I say IF they started the plans for this now...AND had one creative vision that they stuck to...AND were willing to shell out whatever it took...THEN yes they could've made something that was actually worth 5000 for 2 nights. Alas...as with much that is Disney these days things fall short of how great they could've been. May the Force be with you...just not for 5 grand!

It's funny how differently people can see it. In my opinion, most Disney Star Wars has been a bit too slavishly devoted to the OT - the Sequels, GE, The Mandalorian/Boba Fett - they have all been very much an attempt to bridge to the originals. I've enjoyed it overall, but sometimes I think it lacks it's own identity. I don't really think they've changed their tactic much either and I'm not sure what "lesson" was to be learned. I'd probably tell them to scale back the OT devotion and do something truly different.

 

[Jrb1979]

From a poster at WDWmagic apparently Disney has decided to allow CM's a one time chance to reverse their transfer to Star Cruiser and go back to their original positions.

 

[TiggerBouncy]

What comes around goes around. You think Disney is so cruel to do such things, May choke for teasing? With a note in hand signed (Disney enjoy, signed starving kids )
One thing about it: the old man got his due. And Disney will too.

I'm not even.... Okay then. Thank you for your contribution. (?) <boggle>

As a middle aged Star Wars fan that's become disconnected from it since its' "Disneyfication" I truly think the problem is that there has been and still isn't a unified vision for the franchise that can both encompass the old guard and bring in future generations.

It's funny how differently people can see it. In my opinion, most Disney Star Wars has been a bit too slavishly devoted to the OT - the Sequels, GE, The Mandalorian/Boba Fett - they have all been very much an attempt to bridge to the originals.

These 2 quotes are exactly my original point. Star Wars fans are a fickle and diverse bunch. It is IMPOSSIBLE to please all of the fans all of the time. That's why a number of really good directors shied away from doing anything with the Star Wars franchise. Even the best director in the known universe can't please the entire fan base and they are doomed to fail if they try.

If Disney has in fact learned any lessons since they purchased LucasFilm, it's this - you have to do what you do and some people will like it and some people will hate it. It's a terrible position to be in frankly Star Wars takes the hit so much more than say - Marvel - where fans are in a general way more more unified and easier to please (that's not to say easy, or that all Marvel fans are on the same page - but IN GENERAL, it's easier to make a Marvel movie that the majority of fans enjoy). Perhaps it's because the MCU is still a young creature and consistent while the original Star Wars is decades old and there was a 16 year lapse. Or perhaps it's because the entirely of the MCU has been under Feige and a lot of MCU fans are not even from the comics, and those that are never had a live action to compare it with while Kennedy took over something that already had a large following.

In any event, the point is that this is just one example of how Star Wars fans are so diverse and hold varying opinions. I still think that Disney knows this and knows that this experience is not going to be for everyone. Again, it's important to realize that the endeavor is built to be limited in capacity with only 100 rooms. Disney has realized that not everyone is going to love this experience or want to do it. They don't need everyone. They built it to a modest scale in recognition of that.