I went to Disney’s hyped Star Wars Galactic Starcruiser experience – I’m gutted it’s closing after just 18 months
DISNEY World announced this month that its Galactic Starcruiser hotel will be closing down this year.
Despite only opening last March, I’ll be raising a Star Wars themed glass and declaring “Ta’bu e tay” (the in-universe version of “cheers”) as the final voyage takes place in September.
When Disney World announced a hotel to support its sprawling Star Wars land in 2019, fans immediately suspected that a hotel with just 100 rooms wouldn’t come cheap.
And their fears were confirmed when it opened in May 2022 and prices for two nights started at $4,800.
There’s no doubt that the price is high – you could go much further and stay in a luxury hotel for the same price.
But this was never really a hotel. A hotel’s somewhere you sleep, enjoy a meal and relax by the pool – not dash around dressed up as a Star Wars character trying to smuggle secret plans.
Although not everyone wants to play dress-up and live through an escapade in the world of Star Wars, most of us do deep down.
It’s a lot like Secret Cinema – the immersive one-night events that culminate with a film screening – but instead of being in a converted warehouse, it’s a permanent, bespoke building with serious Disney money and design know-how behind it.
Disney World’s Galactic Starcruiser isn’t just Star Wars themed; everything about it is within the fictional universe and it’s all executed to an exceptionally high standard.
It hasn’t failed because the quality is lacking.
The quality makes it very impressive, but what makes it unforgettable is how involved you get – after all, the heist only goes off without a hitch if you can ad-lib the most outlandish, Star Wars themed marriage proposal to distract everyone.
As you’re experiencing the Starcruiser though, it becomes clear why it is so expensive to book a stay – the number of employees, the well-trained actors, the technology, the maintenance costs, the links with the theme park.
Your average hotel room doesn’t have a screen where a droid pops up who can hold a conversation with you.
It’s not hard to imagine how quickly these costs get out of hand and it’s no surprise that Disney World has struggled to make it sustainable.
While opening it as a regular hotel might sound like an obvious solution, the whole thing is clearly designed for the very specific story that it tells.
There are none of the usual hotel amenities, so it can’t really operate as regular accommodation.
It would be nice for theme park guests to be able to book a dinner and enjoy the atmosphere of the themed dining hall.
There might be plenty of people who want to ‘play’ Star Wars, but there’s a limited pool of people who can justify those eye-watering room prices to do so.
And even those high prices apparently can’t cover the running expenses, suggesting it was all too ambitious to begin with.
But too much ambition is no bad thing, so hopefully this won’t close the door on these sorts of immersive experiences forever – Disney has always pushed the envelope when it comes to theme entertainment.
It’s the seemingly wacky dreams of adults who want to play that have delivered some of the most creative-themed entertainment in the world.
The company should keep taking bold swings and trying new things that have never been done before.
Sure, they might not all work out and even lead to the wrath of angry online fans – but if there’s one company in the world that should be
experimenting in this way, it’s Disney.