Disney can’t figure out why its $3K a night ‘Star Wars’ hotel flopped

[Jokerz79]

Once they announced the price I knew this would either eventually fail or they'd have to lower the price drastically. Unless you're a diehard Star Wars fan or wealthy there are so many more vacation you can take at that price and get so much more bang for your buck heck just a regular vacation to Disney World is cheaper if done on a budget.

[thwhtGuardian]

Once they announced the price I knew this would either eventually fail or they'd have to lower the price drastically. Unless you're a diehard Star Wars fan or wealthy there are so many more vacation you can take at that price and get so much more bang for your buck heck just a regular vacation to Disney World is cheaper if done on a budget.

I don't know, it seems surprising to me as so many people love burning money at Disney on stupid stuff and "experiences" I guess they found the threshold on what people would pay though as I thought it was a near infinite amount of stupidity.

[Zauriel]

Once they announced the price I knew this would either eventually fail or they'd have to lower the price drastically. Unless you're a diehard Star Wars fan or wealthy there are so many more vacation you can take at that price and get so much more bang for your buck heck just a regular vacation to Disney World is cheaper if done on a budget.

Maybe they can't lower the price. If they can lower the price, they would not know how to.

I know how much it cost to build that extravagant hotel, but I have no idea how much it cost to operate and run the hotel. Since It is located in Florida, the air conditioning must be operational at all times, as not to discomfort the guests. Windowless hotel bedrooms and also windowless lobby, dining areas and recreational areas must mean the lights are still on during the daytime. No outside air coming through windowless rooms. So the ventilation is required.

I also say the hotel also has bright computer consoles and computer-generated imagery of outer space and planetoids in some videos. It must cost a bit to operate the computer-generated images.

Maybe they are also paying their cast members a lot of money to cosplay as Star Wars aliens or stormtroopers. But then again Disney is well known for not paying their low-wage-earning employees very well.

[Conn Seanery]

I really wanted to go to this someday. I know it's crazy expensive but it seemed like a fun experience. In the end, I imagine all that goes into making it work just wasn't enough of a sustainable profit. I mean sure, you could lower the price, but I imagine the experience itself would suffer for it. Almost certainly wouldn't have the glowing reviews it received. Probably better to go out being remembered fondly instead of crapping out at a lesser quality.

(Of course, some people probably feel Disney and Star Wars already do the latter enough already.)

[Kirby101]

I thought most of the reviews were "it was fun, but not worth it". Hardly glowing.

[godisawesome]

I've been thinking it over, and probably the hardest thing to do with the concept is set it in space rather than on a planet-in-space that you can festoon with Star Wars elements while still having sunshine and mobility.

It might be better to make one hotel that has "Hyperspace hallways" between different planets, with different sections of the building set up as different planets or something, and using windows and verandas creatively. You could make a "Coruscant Courtyard" that all the Coruscant rooms look out onto or something.

[ChrisIII]

^Sounds basically like Star Tours but expanded to a hotel.

[godisawesome]

^Sounds basically like Star Tours but expanded to a hotel.

...or Star Tours but expanded into a cruise line.

The biggest set-up problem to me is that people aren't going to want to spend all their time in a window-less warehouse unless you absolutely festoon the place with a downright sinful glut of attractions... which would quickly escalate the price beyond accessibility, as it seems to have happened.

If you want to manage the price point down to something sane (if still expensive), then you'd need to have a few of those cheap or "free" amenities like sunshine, open air pools, access to other attractions, or even just places to "recharge" outside of the set-up.

[Zauriel]

...or Star Tours but expanded into a cruise line.
.

https://ziggyknowsdisney.com/star-wa...rcruiser-hotel

Some of the guests who went to the Star Wars hotel have compared it to a cruise. Well, it makes sense since it is based on a galactic starcruiser which is a ship. They say it is pretty fitting seeing that it’s more like a Star Wars Cruise than a Star Wars Hotel, as guests are “cruising” through the galaxy while onboard.

windowless Standard hotel rooms called "cabins" are compared to cruise ship cabins.

[Hiromi]

Don't know what's so hard to figure out, I can go on an actual cruise that takes place in a ship on the ocean with a decent room over 5 days for under 2 grand, a fake cruise that takes place in a hotel in the middle of Orlando shouldn't cost 2 or even 3 times that for half the duration

[godisawesome]

https://ziggyknowsdisney.com/star-wa...rcruiser-hotel

Some of the guests who went to the Star Wars hotel have compared it to a cruise. Well, it makes sense since it is based on a galactic starcruiser which is a ship. They say it is pretty fitting seeing that it’s more like a Star Wars Cruise than a Star Wars Hotel, as guests are “cruising” through the galaxy while onboard.

windowless Standard hotel rooms called "cabins" are compared to cruise ship cabins.

And I think that comparison is apt save for one major difference: on an actual cruise line, you're still on a cruise.

You're still sailing the ocean, you can just relax on deck for as long as you want, you can travel to other islands, etc.

If I'm at a hotel, then I want to be able to leave and go see other stuff (like the rest of Disney World). If I'm on a cruise ship, i want to feel I'm going somewhere and that I'm actually on a boat.

They can't actually take them to space (...yet) so they might as well make it an actual cruise, and the nature of a cruise would let them save some money by cutting some attractions.

[Conn Seanery]

That's not the purpose of Galaxy Starcruiser, tho'. It's a 2-day experience by design, it's not a Star Wars themed resort section of Disney where you come and go as you please at your own pace (though that probably would've been a more sustainable thing to do). From what I understand you can opt out of the immersive side of things and just enjoy the environment, but then what are you blowing all that money for?

[Kirby101]

Don't know what's so hard to figure out, I can go on an actual cruise that takes place in a ship on the ocean with a decent room over 5 days for under 2 grand, a fake cruise that takes place in a hotel in the middle of Orlando shouldn't cost 2 or even 3 times that for half the duration

I am going on a 5 day safari in Africa next year for half the price of this. And the creatures will be real. (that's just the safari cost, getting there cost a lot more than Orlando. )

[Jokerz79]

I don't know, it seems surprising to me as so many people love burning money at Disney on stupid stuff and "experiences" I guess they found the threshold on what people would pay though as I thought it was a near infinite amount of stupidity.

I did the math out of curiosity and the average price for 2 people for 2 nights at the Star Cruiser hotel is 5,000 and that's for the just the hotel. So, I looked up flights, 5 nights at the Disney Century Pop Hotel, and 4-day tickets for the parks for a family of 4 and it came in at 3,500 for everything. You could spend each day at one of the Disney World Parks and on the 5th, day take a ride to Universal, and it would be cheaper than 2 nights for only 2 at the Star Cruiser. Personally, I'd have to have a lot of disposable income in the bank to ever justify a stay at the Star Wars Hotel to myself.

[Jokerz79]

I am going on a 5 day safari in Africa next year for half the price of this. And the creatures will be real. (that's just the safari cost, getting there cost a lot more than Orlando. )

That's awesome have fun.