Disney wants more 'Star Wars' in its theme parks

[ShadowX81]

I don't have the answers but that all sounds pretty rad. Maybe that's why the room rates are out of this world ( ).

Haha, have fun. Personally il pass. My Disney vacations are always stressful enough without spending my nights being held prisoner in a windowless room with no fresh air, just for the chance to see a stormtrooper poster in the hallway, a droid behind a cage in the lobby so kids can't touch it, and a staff that says "to the spires" for the first two weeks after opening before they all go back to talking like normal people.

 

[DARTH ANIBAL]

Haha, have fun. Personally il pass. My Disney vacations are always stressful enough without spending my nights being held prisoner in a windowless room with no fresh air, just for the chance to see a stormtrooper poster in the hallway, a droid behind a cage in the lobby so kids can't touch it, and a staff that says "to the spires" for the first two weeks after opening before they all go back to talking like normal people.

I live here, in central FL, and my father works at Disney World. Disney vacations for us mean randomly heading to the park for a few hours on an afternoon/evening with nothing on the agenda. I don't take that for granted because I know that if it weren't for that, I'd never spend that much money to maybe get on 3-4 rides. Even less so if I had to plan the logistics of an entire vacation around it. If he gets a deep enough discount on the rate, I'd love to stay a night, but unless/until then, it's a hard pass for me, too.

 

[DBoz]

Definitely one thing that bugged me about the new version. Threepio's not a pilot, darnit. How often has he complained about hating space travel?

He is not a pilot in the current Star Tours either. He is running some diagnostics or something in the cockpit when it takes off on autopilot then R2 takes over. He complains the whole time. [emoji38]

 

[LMTetewsky]

Have seen images of the construction of the Halcyon at Hollywood Studios. We thought that's where it might be staged (the old entrance to the park), facilitating access to Galaxy's Edge. We always thought a SW Cruise on the ships was a good idea, but realized there might not have enough content to sustain a 4-7 day cruise.

 

[ShadowX81]

I live here, in central FL, and my father works at Disney World. Disney vacations for us mean randomly heading to the park for a few hours on an afternoon/evening with nothing on the agenda. I don't take that for granted because I know that if it weren't for that, I'd never spend that much money to maybe get on 3-4 rides. Even less so if I had to plan the logistics of an entire vacation around it. If he gets a deep enough discount on the rate, I'd love to stay a night, but unless/until then, it's a hard pass for me, too.

Yea, im an annual passholder at Disneyland myself. On long weekends il drive down and spend a couple days at the park.

What's weird is that apparently you can't just stay at the hotel for one night. They are calling it a "vacation experience" in which there are a certain numbers of nights you stay for; no more, no less.

 

[cboath]

I thought they were two night packages.

 

[DARTH ANIBAL]

Yea, im an annual passholder at Disneyland myself. On long weekends il drive down and spend a couple days at the park.

What's weird is that apparently you can't just stay at the hotel for one night. They are calling it a "vacation experience" in which there are a certain numbers of nights you stay for; no more, no less.

Is that so? I don't know that they'll be able to sustain it at the rate they're charging. A Disney visit is expensive enough, this is just plain unaffordable for most families.

 

[PantheraGem]

Is that so? I don't know that they'll be able to sustain it at the rate they're charging. A Disney visit is expensive enough, this is just plain unaffordable for most families.

Especially now. I realize Disney is in a tough spot, but they need to show a little give to accommodate the situation many will now find themselves in.

 

[cboath]

I'm wondering if they find this to work to their advantage. Nearly everyone says the parks are too crowded and lines are too long. If you have to hold capacity at 20%, should alleviate all that.

They keep raising rates to try and hold down attendance. It just isn't working like they'd hope.

 

[Zombie_61]

...They keep raising rates to try and hold down attendance. It just isn't working like they'd hope.

See, that's where their greed comes into play. The parks belong to Disney, and they can adjust the daily attendance at each park however they feel is necessary. "We're sorry folks, but we've just hit our maximum capacity of 30,000 for today and will have to wait for guests to leave before we can let anyone else in." Done. But no, they've chosen the method that keeps money flowing in. "Well, we wanted to keep attendance under 50,000, but these people just keep coming here with their money and demanding we let them in. What are we to do?"

 

[cboath]

And they've built what? 20 hotels at those parks? Gotta strike a balance. I'm not sure the capacity of the parks, but there's what? 4 of them in DW?

The flip side of reducing attendance caps will result in prices being driven higher. They're not going to not listen when people are told there are no openings and they say 'what if we pay x% more?' You really think that wealthier people won't pay double or triple? And the more they do that, the fewer and fewer tickets available at more affordable rates. I mean, you can already buy access and VIP experiences and to jump the lines, etc. Your 'average folk' aren't paying for that stuff.

In looking it up it does appear they do have a capacity limit, but it's rarely ever reached. As far as I know, those limits are set by the fire department or other local entities, not the parks themselves.

I have to say, though, that when your wait times for rides are measured in hours, you've let too many people in.

 

[Cephus]

All they have to do is what a lot of conventions have done. No tickets at the door. You can only buy tickets online and when they're sold out for a particular day, they're sold out. There's nobody to argue with or negotiate with.

 

[LMTetewsky]

I thought they were two night packages.

Yes, a stay at the Halcyon - The STAR WARS Intergalactic Cruise - is a maximum 2 night interactive experience. You board the cruise and are transported to the orbital ship for a day and night in space en route to Batuu. On day 2 you arrive at Batuu and are ferried down to Black Spire Post for a day at Galaxy's Edge. You return to the ship at the end of day 2, and overnight are returned back to the planet of origin where you check out.
It is expensive, but we will try it once. Trying to find out if they will perform weddings or renewal of vows onboard - 2022 is our 40th anniversary.

 

[cboath]

All they have to do is what a lot of conventions have done. No tickets at the door. You can only buy tickets online and when they're sold out for a particular day, they're sold out. There's nobody to argue with or negotiate with.

To an extent. Most, if not all, of those other tickets though allow park hopping. So you have 200k people with under capacity tickets that could conceivably all want to to go one park at once. People at conventions can't move from convention A to B to C, etc, as there are no other conventions.

They're all large outdoor spaces, so, capacity requirements - legally - won't be overly restrictive on them. On top of that, the rides all have max occupancy dictated by the ride that can't be exceeded. Restaurants a fixed number of seats, etc.

As soon as the arbitrarily set limits, people will flip out.

I would agree though, that they should stop same day ticketing at the doors. Only online or over the phone purchases that keep things at a designed capacity level. I can't imagine the walk up business is big enough to mandate it never go away.

 

[Riceball]

Actually I'm fine with them changing it up. Nothing wrong with some variation. But being that its a screen based ride, it'd be awesome if every once in a while they could load up the original footage with Rex piloting. Or has George suppressed that edition as well? Lol

It would be impossible to do randomly because the Rex animatronic has been replaced by a 3P0 animatronic. So, if they wanted to a nostalgia Star Tours, it would take not only putting in the original film and motions, but replacing 3P0 with Rex. At best, they might take one or two ride vehicles and convert them making it semi-random. However, since they also changed the pre-boarding video it wouldn't take long for guests to figure out which vehicle is old school and which are current.

Definitely one thing that bugged me about the new version. Threepio's not a pilot, darnit. How often has he complained about hating space travel?

True, but at the same time, he is a reluctant pilot. It's not like he chose to pilot the ship, he got stuck in there and was left with no choice.

 

[Riceball]

All they have to do is what a lot of conventions have done. No tickets at the door. You can only buy tickets online and when they're sold out for a particular day, they're sold out. There's nobody to argue with or negotiate with.

That's exactly what they're doing now or will do once they open back up in the US. You have to buy your tickets ahead of time, online and there's reduced capacity. The downside is that, as of right now, their plan is to only allow people to reserve up to 30 days ahead and (I think) everybody in your party, at least the adults, have to buy their tickets individually and, I think, one day at a time. I haven't heard anything on how this will work for AP holders, Premium (the highest tier) AP holders in particular, a lot of them aren't going to be happy if they don't get to go into the parks any time they want on any day, COVID-19 restrictions or no COVID-19 restriction.

 

[Ron]

It would be impossible to do randomly because the Rex animatronic has been replaced by a 3P0 animatronic. So, if they wanted to a nostalgia Star Tours, it would take not only putting in the original film and motions, but replacing 3P0 with Rex. At best, they might take one or two ride vehicles and convert them making it semi-random. However, since they also changed the pre-boarding video it wouldn't take long for guests to figure out which vehicle is old school and which are current.



True, but at the same time, he is a reluctant pilot. It's not like he chose to pilot the ship, he got stuck in there and was left with no choice.

Right. It would necessitate permanently reinstalling Rex in one of the vehicles. If I recall correctly, Disneyland has 4 vehicles and Disneyworld has 6 (not sure about Japan and Paris). Perhaps having one dedicated vehicle at each park? As for the pre-boarding video, I guess you would simply have to concede that it won't be random and anyone who's boarding that particular vehicle is doing so knowing it's the original experience. I haven't been there in years so I don't remember how the queue ends as you approach the ride but if there was way for riders to branch off in separate directions? One way for the modern version, one way for the retro version if one should desire. Probably not feasible but it would be cool.

I mean who wouldn't love the idea of riding next to a Wookie? (Talking about the pre-boarding video)

 

[LMTetewsky]

Rex has been repurposed as a DJ in Oga's Cantina. Been a long time since we've done STAR TOURS (we of the back backs), so I'm not sure who's piloting it.

 

[DARTH ANIBAL]

Rex has been repurposed as a DJ in Oga's Cantina. Been a long time since we've done STAR TOURS (we of the back backs), so I'm not sure who's piloting it.

C3-PO is in the transport with you, running diagnostics, then R2 overrides the controls and pilots.

 

[LMTetewsky]

Perhaps someday we'll work up the stamina to try it again.