The opening of Star Wars Galactic Starcruiser is fast approaching, and it is not a secret to anyone that has been following this new hotel's development that this is not exactly a beloved project. As more details came out about this, it began to get a lot of critiques.
A lot of this is likely due to the fact that star wars has had a lot of controversies in the fandom recently (a lot more than will be discussed in this article). But there is a question that is beginning to emerge, is Star Wars Galactic Starcruiser, the new immersive hotel opening this year at Walt Disney World, going to flop.
First of all, a rundown of what Star Wars Galactic Starcruiser is. This hotel is intended to be a sort of cruise ship on land, basically working in the same way that a cruise ship out at sea would work. Everyone enters at the same time stays, for a set amount of time (in this case two days) and there is a variety of included entertainment, restaurants, and places to explore. The only difference here is you don't go anywhere.
The hotel does include a trip to Star Wars Galaxy's Edge, but that's it. The rest of the experience guests will remain at the hotel, not entering the theme parks of Walt Disney World.
It is worth mentioning that Disney has worked to create experiences outside the theme parks that you pay for in the past, and some have been quite successful. It could even be argued that the now-defunct Disney Quest is somewhat similar to this concept, of offering a theme park-like interactive controlled experience, although on a much smaller and cheaper scale. Even that eventually flopped and closed down due to a lack of investment, as did its NBA-themed replacement.
This is a super expensive hotel really aimed at only the wealthiest of Disney visitors. So is there a market for this? Are there enough extremely wealthy Star Wars and Disney fans to sell out a relatively small immersive Star Wars hotel?
Currently based on sales that is still an open question. After the first few weeks following the opening, there are not a lot of sold-out dates. Beyond the opening demand, the only sold-out dates are in the month of June, probably due to it being the beginning of summer vacation, allowing families their first chance at the hotel. Really the only dates that are sold out are major holidays and weekends, and even then as of the writing of this article in mid-January, the first May 4th at this hotel is not sold out.
This could be seen as an indicator that the popularity of this may not be where Disney wants it to be. Star Wars Galactic Starcruiser is an incredibly expensive experience, but it's also a relatively small hotel and a hotel that Disney was probably expecting to sell out nearly every voyage. As of right now, it doesn't look like they're doing that. Now things could change of course once the hotel actually opens and there starts being some buzz people could get more into the idea. But public perception is not on their side at the moment.
Basically anytime Disney has put out any kind of promotional information on this hotel it has been received negatively. Especially the recent few videos and photos they've revealed.
The verdict is still out on whether or not Star Wars Galactic Starcruiser will be a success but there are starting to be indicators that it's struggling, at least as much as a new Disney hotel can struggle. It will be interesting to see how this develops over the hotel's first couple of months of operation.
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