Star Wars: Galactic Starcruiser

[Parkscope Joe]

Just like with many studies, they made the results say what they wanted more than likely. Ask a Star Wars fanatic if he would like to play Star Wars for two days and be in a mission and he would say "Yes". Build it, put a $5,000 price tag on it and that fanatic suddenly decommits.

Reminds me of a survey I took in Disneyland in 2002 about DCA. They asked why we came to Disneyland and there were a dozen BS reasons. Then they put the real reason, THE RIDES, in a catch-all category with other cheap things Disney could do cheaply (fireworks, concerts, etc).

 

[quinnmac000]

I think it was a good idea, however, it seemed like a mandatory LARP rather than join in if you so choose and just enjoy your time on the starcruiser. They should've treated it like a real cruise vacation with a bunch of activities that catered to passives who just want to relax and maybe not be all active in the experience as well as those who wanted to enjoy everything the space cruise had to offer especially at the price point they were charging...it felt like a rip off.

 

[shiekra38]

I do think if this was built more into Hollywood Studios, like actually "in" the park (see Tokyo Disney Sea) you would really have something cool

I also don't get why it had to be in space, the only people who spend a ton of time hovering around in space is the Empire

I find it much more creative and engaging to suggest there is an Inn in Battuu that is functioning as an undercover shelter for the rebel alliance

Also, pulling an "extra magic hours" and letting people into the park at night would have been fantastic

Add in the possibility of these entertainment offerings being available for park guests, but taking on more depth for hotel guests, and you have a winner


I would have also thought a Star Wars Hotel in general would have worked (think the Star Wars version of Cabanna Bay)

 

[Tobias]

Can't say I'm surprised which how this is going down, it's yet another case where higher-ups seriously misjudged well, most everything. Sure, one can gesture to a random photo of Star Wars Celebration and claim, "there's your audience", but by that silly logic I can gesture to videos of friends in their Storm Trooper outfits and say "They might go?" and guess what, they didn't!

 

[SeventyOne]

Doing Quick Maths:
Assuming maximum occupancy and an average rate of $2K (+$80 in merch/additional spend) per person for the entire voyage, and assuming ~$6 mil in employee costs + $300 cost of food, utilities, etc. per guests... your looking at a whopping ~78% gross profit.

Of course this is very rough, but at maximum occupancy this thing is profitable.

Because every review I saw was from either a gushing shill on Disney's perk list or a Rey-hater with an axe to grind, I never got a real sense of just how many actors this resort employs. But that would be the clear difference-maker here. Roughly 15 years ago I remember hearing Adventurers Club was a little over $1k a night to run -- that was 8 actors plus a sound tech and I think a supervisor for 6 hours. But a couple dozen actors at 9 hours a day would start to add up, especially when you can't cut back for low attendance like you could say Mousekeeping or restaurant servers.

I'm sure this place printed money at even 90% capacity. But the minimum occupancy rate to make money is probably much higher than other WDW hotels.

Can't say I'm surprised which how this is going down, it's yet another case where higher-ups seriously misjudged well, most everything. Sure, one can gesture to a random photo of Star Wars Celebration and claim, "there's your audience", but by that silly logic I can gesture to videos of friends in their Storm Trooper outfits and say "They might go?" and guess what, they didn't!

How many of those people in elaborate costumes at Celebration are sleeping 5 to a room at the Motel 6? Then sell them this, where they can't even wear their cosplay. On its face a natural fit to a c-suite normie, but if you think about it, very little practical overlap.

 

[Parkscope Joe]

Can't say I'm surprised which how this is going down, it's yet another case where higher-ups seriously misjudged well, most everything. Sure, one can gesture to a random photo of Star Wars Celebration and claim, "there's your audience", but by that silly logic I can gesture to videos of friends in their Storm Trooper outfits and say "They might go?" and guess what, they didn't!

I saw those replies on Twitter and it’s amazing how they’re like 0/3 on it.

 

[Mad Dog]

Funny thing is this falling apart almost exactly like the timeline many of us on this forum predicted when it opened.

 

[Nick]

Can't say I'm surprised which how this is going down, it's yet another case where higher-ups seriously misjudged well, most everything. Sure, one can gesture to a random photo of Star Wars Celebration and claim, "there's your audience", but by that silly logic I can gesture to videos of friends in their Storm Trooper outfits and say "They might go?" and guess what, they didn't!

But the thing is, even if all the sweaty's went, there's only so many. No one is doing this more than once unless you just have ridiculous money and are spending it irresponsibly. The target demo for this - a lot of them just can't afford to go if they wanted to and it looked so lame that even if they wanted to at one point they probably forgot it existed by now.

 

[UniversalRBLX]

What bothers me the most is the amount of wasted resources and talent for this thing.

 

[Nick]

What bothers me the most is the amount of wasted resources and talent for this thing.

Scott freakin' Trowbridge was put on this. Think of literally anything else he could've been doing and it would've been a better use of his time.

 

[Parkscope Joe]

No one is doing this more than once unless you just have ridiculous money and are spending it irresponsibly.

Facts

 

[JoeCamel]

Dang they misjudged the gullibility of the marks...... this time


on to new horizons and bright suns!

 

[HandsomePete]

You can tell I‘m behind here since I wasn’t joining in on the HAAAAA

All lol’ing aside though, that actually makes a lot of sense from a yield perspective - by operating it every day, they only got one voyage that really leveraged a weekend every other week (meaning, one week the voyages would be Friday-Sunday and Sunday-Tuesday while the “bad” weekend was probably Thursday-Saturday and Saturday-Monday). By now they know which days work and don’t work - I doubt the nominal dollars of running it part time and focusing on the valuable days are higher than 7 days a week but the margin absolutely is.

Also from a staffing perspective - you can cover 4 days a week with one set of CMs while every day operation took a second set. And Jerome probably deserves a 4-day work week after what he’s gone through.

Add to that - if they can find a way to use the dining hall on Tuesday-Thursday as an upsell out of Galaxy’s Edge, they can probably get $80 per person minimum like Space 220 (only problem is that looks like an actual spaceship compared to Starcruiser). Hell, create the Hoop Dee Doo Galactic Review. I think this is easier said than done though since the transport/box truck doesnt carry that many people and you’d need to turn the restaurant (like how they basically kick you out of Hoop and there’s a crowd of people waiting to come in).

Anyways, this is exactly what a “how are we fixing this for FY24” exercise would look like. Salvage it for what it is. I never thought partial operation was viable because they’d be giving up on actually paying off how much it cost to build, but at this point that’s a sunk cost so they’re probably just looking at it from a WDW P&L view.


Edit to add: I’d say most of my takes in this thread have been close to solid, but scrolled back to my first post in Feb 2020:

They’ll discount rooms to fill it before closing if it’s struggling financially - better optics to let underwhelming revenue disappear into the total WDW picture than send up a red flag by closing it a few days a week.

Whoops

 

[Parkscope Joe]

30% off for APs nearly all cruises April through the end of June.

 

[queenmetroid]

In other words, pricing it closer to where it should have been in the first place. Next stop, promotional pricing for everyone.

As other people have noted when this project was first announced, they are well on the inevitable road to turning it into a regular hotel. I'm almost tempted to go before that happens but it's STILL an unreasonable amount of money even discounted.

 

[Jake S]

In other words, pricing it closer to where it should have been in the first place. Next stop, promotional pricing for everyone.

As other people have noted when this project was first announced, they are well on the inevitable road to turning it into a regular hotel. I'm almost tempted to go before that happens but it's STILL an unreasonable amount of money even discounted.

This is what got me — I looked at the lowest price offered, took 30 percent off and still nearly choked on my coffee when I saw the price (nearly $3,400 for a two-guest stay). I'm good, thanks!

 

[HandsomePete]

In other words, pricing it closer to where it should have been in the first place. Next stop, promotional pricing for everyone.

As other people have noted when this project was first announced, they are well on the inevitable road to turning it into a regular hotel. I'm almost tempted to go before that happens but it's STILL an unreasonable amount of money even discounted.

To be honest, this is how they yield all of their hotels because they’re stuck on archaic rate cards that get discounted down instead of using dynamic pricing.

 

[Jake S]

folks, it’s dead.

 

[Parkscope Joe]

folks, it’s dead.

 

[Clive]

Wow.