Star Wars: Galactic Starcruiser closing?

[dascoyne]

I'd argue that it was Star Wars, it's just an aspect that we've very little exposure to and they were essentially unexplored territory with aesthetics of the Starcruiser. Over the course of the franchise we've had very good looks at what civilian life in the Star Wars universe is like. Our glimpses have been largely the dirt poor or working class, and some of the ultra wealthy in the form of Amadala and Mon Mothma and even then it was just where they lived and worked. We never saw any middle or lowr upper class citizens, the ones who would go on a cruise like this in real life. And besides sabaac and pod racing, we've never really seen what people in Star Wars do for fun nor have we see the insides of many civilian vessels either, mainly run down freighters, along with tons of Rebel and Imperial warships and each of those have their own aesthetics so saying that the Starcruiser doesn't look Star Wars enough isn't saying much. It's not Star Wars enough because it doesn't look enough like a Rebel/Republic warship or an ISD on the inside? This is the first time that we've been given a look at a cruise ship in the Star Wars universe, so I'd say that this gave them the freedom to do whatever they wanted and having been on a few cruises in my life, it looked pretty cruise ship like to me, about what I'd expect for a cruise ship in space.

True. But if I went to the Avengers HQ in Disneyland and only saw Squirrel Girl, Howard the Duck, Rawhide Kid and Man-Thing with none of the core legacy superheroes it would be just as off-putting, even though you can make the case that they, too, exist in corners of the MCU that we haven't seen before.

It is possible my tolerance is affected by my disdain for KK's footprints in the franchise. An experience designed to be arrogantly exclusive by being prohibitively expensive with little return seems to embody everything that's gone wrong with SW. The notion that the Captain of the Starcruiser was likely designed to resemble KK herself doesn't make it any better.

 

[cboath]

The whole Starcruiser thing must have been at least partially a test of the concept. If it had been a hit, or even near to a hit, they could have done similar things with other franchises.

"It's too expensive!" . . . say the people with $10,000 worth of other SW toys, props, costumes, videos/games, etc.

Disney was not wrong for thinking that a percentage of SW fans might pay several thousand bucks for something. They were just wrong about the specifics.

Even at that, what Riceball said earlier - don't generically theme it. Who has the most money of SW fans these days? The OT fans. PT fans are coming into money now as well. Yet they do a generic post ST theme that largely does not appeal to those with the money. I thought these companies had financial guys that looked over stuff like this? As he said, if they had an OT theme lots more people would've forked out the money. Hell, i was willing to fork out the money when i read the original article. Once they go closer and changed the original idea? pass.

Fwiw, the original article was something like this:
You arrive and change into theme specific attire and board the shuttle to the cruiser. Once there you are having to wait in line to check in to be assigned quarters. As you wait in line, you hear/see a commotion off to the side. Someone runs out being chased by FO order troopers. The guy is headed in your direction and try as you might to avoid him, he runs into you. In the commotion he gets away. In the process the troopers said you're a collaborator and arrest you. You're escorted to a shuttle where you're to be taken to a prison frigate. You're stuck in a seat behind the pilot who takes off and you enter hyperspace. He then turns to you and says, it's going to be a few hours, i'm going to head to the back for a while. A couple minutes after he leaves a message pops up on the screen saying 'get ready, we're coming for you'. Then all of a sudden you see another ship out the window that moves along side. The shuttle jolts and and door blasts open when a couple guys come in with blasters and say 'quick, get in! we're here to rescue you'....

And, that's the beginning of your stay...the rest of the story plays out over the next two days.

I read that, and I was ready to pay whatever they asked.

 

[Rawktrooper]

they lost me at First Order.

 

[batguy]

Pretty much.

The creative decision to base the Starcruiser around the ST was not excusable. That was plain old hubris on Disney/KK's part. They think SW is just a bunch of costumes & props & visuals and the stories/characters can be swapped out.

They could have used their brains. Pay George Lucas a few more dollars (no doubt there would be one legal IP technicality or another), and get a much more popular attraction out of it. That goes for the whole SW theme park.

 

[Riceball]

Pretty much.

The creative decision to base the Starcruiser around the ST was not excusable. That was plain old hubris on Disney/KK's part. They think SW is just a bunch of costumes & props & visuals and the stories/characters can be swapped out.

They could have used their brains. Pay George Lucas a few more dollars (no doubt there would be one legal IP technicality or another), and get a much more popular attraction out of it. That goes for the whole SW theme park.

I really don't think setting it in the OT would have made a difference in the long run. It might have attracted a handful more guests, but it still wouldn't have made it any cheaper. And by the time many who might have wanted to go because of it being set in the OT managed to save up for it, the whole thing probably would still have shut down by then.

Besides that, they probably were aiming to attract families as much as adult fans and le it or not, to a lot of kids out there, Star Wars is Rey, Fynn, and Kylo Ren. Just as a generation of fans before them, their Star Wars was Anakin and Padme. From a financial standpoint, it only makes sense to market the ST and set things in that period in order to draw in more kids and their families instead of trying to pursue the relative handful of OT fans.

 

[Jodo]

I know a lot of people would have preferred an OT theme with the heroes…But I honestly think the most viable theme would have been more generic. Why not just make it a standalone adventure with some new characters (perhaps include a timeless character like Chewie), the enemy could have been pirates, and have the adventure be a dinner theatre ONE night on board the ship. Sure you could have other activities within the hotel, but I’d say dropping the overall role play stuff would reduce a lot of cost.

My other thought is if it reopens, why not just open it as a hotel? It can still be an “experience” in that regard. Or they could make it into a reservation only restaurant. You travel from Hollywood Studios to the Starcruiser in the back of a box truck, just like God intended.

 

[batguy]

A generic all-new SW adventure + use the characters that stretch across the trilogies, etc . . . yeah, that might have been the best way to play it in the long run.

But the raw pricetag still made the whole thing unsustainable. I think we all agree on that.

They will probably seek to utilize smaller helpings of what the Starcruiser did and spread it throughout other theme park stuff.

 

[nickytea]

I really don't think setting it in the OT would have made a difference in the long run.

Not only that, it would not have appreciably altered the shape of the experience.

The designers (who included industry luminaries from outside the company) correctly identified that the franchise's first foray into the immersive medium needed to be anchored by characters that are uniquely drafted to suit that format. The cast is 90% entirely new, original characters. Which puts all the guests -- regardless of their Star Wars entrypoint -- on an even playing field. We're all meeting and discovering them together, and they've been crafted to facilitate the kind of participation the experience thrives on. That would not change, regardless of the era.

If the argument is that folks would like a cavalcade of legacy characters to take selfies with, then they're not really talking about what this project actually is, and what earned it the highest guest satisfaction ratings in the history of the company.

 

[cboath]

Not only that, it would not have appreciably altered the shape of the experience.

The designers (who included industry luminaries from outside the company) correctly identified that the franchise's first foray into the immersive medium needed to be anchored by characters that are uniquely drafted to suit that format. The cast is 90% entirely new, original characters. Which puts all the guests -- regardless of their Star Wars entrypoint -- on an even playing field. We're all meeting and discovering them together, and they've been crafted to facilitate the kind of participation the experience thrives on. That would not change, regardless of the era.

If the argument is that folks would like a cavalcade of legacy characters to take selfies with, then they're not really talking about what this project actually is, and what earned it the highest guest satisfaction ratings in the history of the company.

With the pricetag, i think a generic adventure with no one you know of is a very hard sell. I dont know the events needs to focus on existing characters, maybe existing locales.

Deathstar escape? Vader can be in the background but not featured.
Mos eisley? Something w jabbas henchmen

Im not saying use those, but they would be options.

If you want to price it that high you gotta make something to grab peoples attentions big time. Generic ship, generic characters, and no super in depth story isnt going to do it. That original pitch the gave did that. No question. They just backed off that level of immersion big time. Theme and 3 hiurs of event isnt getting people to fork out that much cash.

 

[nickytea]

Generic ship, generic characters, and no super in depth story isnt going to do it.

The characters were not generics of existing characters, they were new, totally original characters with a great deal of depth -- and the story was not only incredibly layered, it was happening simultaneously across the entire ship, which means you could visit ten times and still gain a unique perspective on the unfolding events -- this medium (which does not share a story language with screen media) has the capacity to be far more "in-depth" than traditional media, and Starcruiser achieved that.

The marketing failed. The experience did not. Again ... highest guest satisfaction ratings in the history of the company.

And the fact that they had announced, before the closure, that they were attempting to consolidate existing demand into fewer cruises per week, but the team was never afforded the opportunity to reach sustainability by finding an equilibrium of supply and demand, means that the decision to close by the higher ups was not based entirely on those metrics. They needed a tax write-off of a certain size by a certain date. That's it. And they did a serious disservice to an entire industry by doing so. Other corporations were planning competing projects in this format, and they cancelled those projects after the Starcruiser closure announcement.

If nobody's ever made a car before, and nobody knows how many cars should be produced in a year to meet demand -- you probably owe it to that industry to give yourself some runway to adjust supply to meet demand and really prove out the idea.

The truth is, every time they released another batch of booking dates for Starcruiser, they had the opportunity to adjust both the amount and the frequency -- and the fact that they didn't for 18 months worth of bookings (and hadn't even planned any modifications until well beyond that window) says that the rug was pulled out from under the team, who was clearly not worried about the state of booking as recently as Celebration Europe. This was corporate maneuvering, plain and simple, which had the unfortunate side affect of playing into the hands of grifters online who are pushing a narrative about his experience that bears no reality to what this thing actually was.

 

[Schlegel]

The characters were not generics of existing characters, they were new, totally original characters with a great deal of depth -- and the story was not only incredibly layered, it was happening simultaneously across the entire ship, which means you could visit ten times and still gain a unique perspective on the unfolding events -- this medium (which does not share a story language with screen media) has the capacity to be far more "in-depth" than traditional media, and Starcruiser achieved that.

The marketing failed. The experience did not. Again ... highest guest satisfaction ratings in the history of the company.

And the fact that they had announced, before the closure, that they were attempting to consolidate existing demand into fewer cruises per week, but the team was never afforded the opportunity to reach sustainability by finding an equilibrium of supply and demand, means that the decision to close by the higher ups was not based entirely on those metrics. They needed a tax write-off of a certain size by a certain date. That's it. And they did a serious disservice to an entire industry by doing so. Other corporations were planning competing projects in this format, and they cancelled those projects after the Starcruiser closure announcement.

If nobody's ever made a car before, and nobody knows how many cars should be produced in a year to meet demand -- you probably owe it to that industry to give yourself some runway to adjust supply to meet demand and really prove out the idea.

The truth is, every time they released another batch of booking dates for Starcruiser, they had the opportunity to adjust both the amount and the frequency -- and the fact that they didn't for 18 months worth of bookings (and hadn't even planned any modifications until well beyond that window) says that the rug was pulled out from under the team, who was clearly not worried about the state of booking as recently as Celebration Europe. This was corporate maneuvering, plain and simple, which had the unfortunate side affect of playing into the hands of grifters online who are pushing a narrative about his experience that bears no reality to what this thing actually was.

Sorry, but as the parent of 2 Disney age daughters, IMHO the quality of execution could never in a million years compensate for the 2 night cost equalling a 7 to 10 day vacation for a middle class family doing almost anything else. That's a demand killer.

 

[cboath]

The characters were not generics of existing characters, they were new, totally original characters with a great deal of depth -- and the story was not only incredibly layered, it was happening simultaneously across the entire ship, which means you could visit ten times and still gain a unique perspective on the unfolding events -- this medium (which does not share a story language with screen media) has the capacity to be far more "in-depth" than traditional media, and Starcruiser achieved that.

The marketing failed. The experience did not. Again ... highest guest satisfaction ratings in the history of the company.

And the fact that they had announced, before the closure, that they were attempting to consolidate existing demand into fewer cruises per week, but the team was never afforded the opportunity to reach sustainability by finding an equilibrium of supply and demand, means that the decision to close by the higher ups was not based entirely on those metrics. They needed a tax write-off of a certain size by a certain date. That's it. And they did a serious disservice to an entire industry by doing so. Other corporations were planning competing projects in this format, and they cancelled those projects after the Starcruiser closure announcement.

If nobody's ever made a car before, and nobody knows how many cars should be produced in a year to meet demand -- you probably owe it to that industry to give yourself some runway to adjust supply to meet demand and really prove out the idea.

The truth is, every time they released another batch of booking dates for Starcruiser, they had the opportunity to adjust both the amount and the frequency -- and the fact that they didn't for 18 months worth of bookings (and hadn't even planned any modifications until well beyond that window) says that the rug was pulled out from under the team, who was clearly not worried about the state of booking as recently as Celebration Europe. This was corporate maneuvering, plain and simple, which had the unfortunate side affect of playing into the hands of grifters online who are pushing a narrative about his experience that bears no reality to what this thing actually was.

Wears probably saying similar things. By generic i mean unaffiliated with anything, unknown. Original would fit as well. And yeah, marketing failed. If you dont markey worth a damn, you have to use established things to create that draw. You want me to spend a bleep ton of money foe 2-3 days? Give me a clear reason. I said before, the fans w the money are not ST fans, so that was strike one. Backing off the original premise and not giving a clear new one, strike 2. Pricing it obscenely high, strike 3.

I get that marketing should solve number 3, but you have to overcome all 3 to drive attendance and frankly, they flat struck out. And to confinue the metaphore, the pitches werenf anywhere near the strikezone.

That isnt a comment on what they created. It is a comment on why people (like me) who were sper excited to spend whatever after their initial pitch....didnt. i also think they ignored the getting there part. So at 5500 for 2.5 days, is actually like 1000 more for travel in getting there. They seemed to think sticking star wars on it meant they didnt have to convince you it was worth it. That sw fans simply have 5k plus to burn on this and that there were so many of them they would always sell it out. Arrogance and laziness imo.

If you go the lazy route, you have to provide a known quantity that people will want to see. They did not ddo that. So, fine. You go the all original route, you cannot also take the lazy approach.

 

[Jodo]

There may be outliers who wouldn’t go because it wasn’t OT oriented, but neither is Galaxy’s Edge itself. It would strain credulity to simultaneously have two timelines going in an area of “in-person canon” where you are not time traveling…yet step off your hotel voyage with the OT cast and then visit GE where ST events are occurring.

I think the overall theme of complaints was the price. My wife refused to pay that amount for two days because “we could go to the Bahamas for 10 days” at the same price. Eventually, we came to the agreement that we would go to the star cruiser late 2024 for me, and then go on her tropical trip to anywhere she wanted a couple years later.

 

[cboath]

There may be outliers who wouldn’t go because it wasn’t OT oriented, but neither is Galaxy’s Edge itself. It would strain credulity to simultaneously have two timelines going in an area of “in-person canon” where you are not time traveling…yet step off your hotel voyage with the OT cast and then visit GE where ST events are occurring.

I think the overall theme of complaints was the price. My wife refused to pay that amount for two days because “we could go to the Bahamas for 10 days” at the same price. Eventually, we came to the agreement that we would go to the star cruiser late 2024 for me, and then go on her tropical trip to anywhere she wanted a couple years later.

I havent been to GE, but is anything physically ST? Or is it just characters? If it is just charactera, thats a super easy and cheap fix. I think they ddopped the ball there big time too. Changed it up every couple months if it is just characters

 

[AnubisGuard]

There may be outliers who wouldn’t go because it wasn’t OT oriented, but neither is Galaxy’s Edge itself. It would strain credulity to simultaneously have two timelines going in an area of “in-person canon” where you are not time traveling…yet step off your hotel voyage with the OT cast and then visit GE where ST events are occurring.

Lucas would 100% have gone for that. I read something about how aghast the Imagineers were when he wanted Star Tours to mix up eras, and he just didn't care.

 

[blewis17]

I know a lot of people would have preferred an OT theme with the heroes…But I honestly think the most viable theme would have been more generic. Why not just make it a standalone adventure with some new characters (perhaps include a timeless character like Chewie), the enemy could have been pirates, and have the adventure be a dinner theatre ONE night on board the ship. Sure you could have other activities within the hotel, but I’d say dropping the overall role play stuff would reduce a lot of cost.

My other thought is if it reopens, why not just open it as a hotel? It can still be an “experience” in that regard. Or they could make it into a reservation only restaurant. You travel from Hollywood Studios to the Starcruiser in the back of a box truck, just like God intended.

A generic all-new SW adventure + use the characters that stretch across the trilogies, etc . . . yeah, that might have been the best way to play it in the long run.

But the raw pricetag still made the whole thing unsustainable. I think we all agree on that.

They will probably seek to utilize smaller helpings of what the Starcruiser did and spread it throughout other theme park stuff.

Reports coming in now that even at the expensive $$$, they STILL were not making money. Now surveys are going out to recent / final guests to see what they liked/didn't like, etc.

No matter what course you chose on the 2 night adventure (side with the First Order / Resistance / do nothing at all and just observe), the cruise's finale was the same... Kylo Ren fights Rey in front of you, he and the First Order Leave, some story beats get tied up, you spend your last night in your hotel room and then your adventure is over.

...I agree with the dinner show idea, but start off SLOW. No hotel rooms, no overnight stay. Pay $100 per person, get transported to the cruiser (you could call it a space station now, or heck... make it Cloud City of Bespin!), have pre-dinner drinks and a mini show, enter the restaurant as usual, have the singing alien(s), go back into the rotunda and have Ray and Kylo fight, then the resistance chases the First Order off the ship, then you "shuttle" back to Galaxy's Edge and your dinner show is done for the evening. Maybe do a lunch show and a dinner show, to get 2 groups per day? Sort of like Medieval times... with Kylo Ren, in SPPAAAACCCCEEEE!

 

[sbaxter]

I havent been to GE, but is anything physically ST? Or is it just characters? If it is just charactera, thats a super easy and cheap fix. I think they ddopped the ball there big time too. Changed it up every couple months if it is just characters

Other than the Falcon, the set-piece vehicles you can see are ST stuff -- an X-wing and an A-wing. I've only been twice (albeit on the same trip), but there were a fair number of relics of the OT scattered about -- smaller things, at least.

SSB

 

[p51]

Is it just me or does this look like a prison on the outside?

 

[ghostryder]

for whatever it's worth:

Star Wars: Galactic Starcruiser 'Never Made Money,' Had Lower Average Occupancy Than Expected - WDW News Today

A new report suggests that Star Wars: Galactic Starcruiser "never made any money," and that average occupancy was lower than expected.

wdwnt.com

 

[Captain Dunsel]

for whatever it's worth:

Star Wars: Galactic Starcruiser 'Never Made Money,' Had Lower Average Occupancy Than Expected - WDW News Today

A new report suggests that Star Wars: Galactic Starcruiser "never made any money," and that average occupancy was lower than expected.

wdwnt.com

Not entirely true…

I know of one “super over-the-top with excitement person” who made money off of the existence of the Galactic Starcruiser…

(Commander Hyperbolic himself…)