Galactic Starcruiser Closing Permanently In September!

[Karin1984]

Something is up with her channel though, I mean she gets around 4m+ views on her videos but only has 1m in subscribers??? something there doesn't add up.

That is not that uncommon. Most channels have many more views than subscribers. I do not subscribe to channels as the algorhythm usually advises the videos anyway.

And yeah, I have seen many of Jenny's videos several times. She makes good points and makes me chuckle.

1 million views on a video in 1 day is successful.

Mr Beast, one of the most successful YouTubers has 259 million subscribers, but his most popular video has over 600 million views.

 

[AquaDame]

The video is about 4hr and 5 minutes to long. It can be summed up in about 30 or so seconds

Care to summarize..? I do not have four hours to devote to this...

 

[Karin1984]

Care to summarize..? I do not have four hours to devote to this...

She talks how the marketing, the pricepoint (and you could only get a price by calling), technical difficulties during people's stay and the pitch of the concept didn't work to make the starcruiser a success. Basically, Disney didn't think it through.

The largest part is about her experience. She was the ideal target group, but a lot went wrong due to technical issues CMs couldnt solve, the game not being thought through, design flaws etc.

Watch the beginning and the end, first 4 chapters and then from chapter 16.

 

[irlandaise]

Something is up with her channel though, I mean she gets around 4m+ views on her videos but only has 1m in subscribers??? something there doesn't add up.

You don't need to subscribe to channels to watch YouTube videos, unless the channel is restricted. There are undoubtedly some private groups that do that, but most YouTube content creators want as many views as possible, so their videos are accessible by anyone.

 

[AquaDame]

She talks how the marketing, the pricepoint (and you could only get a price by calling), technical difficulties during people's stay and the pitch of the concept didn't work to make the starcruiser a success. Basically, Disney didn't think it through.

The largest part is about her experience. She was the ideal target group, but a lot went wrong due to technical issues CMs couldnt solve, the game not being thought through, design flaws etc.

Watch the beginning and the end, first 4 chapters and then from chapter 16.

Thank you for the chapter tips and summary!

 

[SkyGuy]

Something is up with her channel though, I mean she gets around 4m+ views on her videos but only has 1m in subscribers??? something there doesn't add up.

I’m not a subscriber and neither of my (adult) kids are subscribers, yet we’ve all watched the video.

 

[etherealcaitiff]

Here's a summary, I'll leave out all the things that we already know about the Starcruiser history and just focus on her experience.

She found that the role playing aspect didn't really exist. She tried to develop a character to portray while on the SC and was quickly dismissed by the performers who already knew her real name (this info is apparently fed to the performers as a way to enhance the experience, so trying to be someone else ruins that for the performers). So immediately the whole premise of living out your Star Wars dream is ruined, you get to be YOU in a Star Wars shaped environment rather than being a part of it.

For the "story", you're supposed to end up as either a Smuggler, a First Order, or a Rebel (probably got the group names wrong, but it doesn't matter). You're supposed to organically filter into these groups based on people that you choose to interact with, tasks you complete on the ship, etc. However, Jenny did those things and still did not get attached to a specific storyline until the experience was almost over. The app is supposed to show your allegiances/friendship with certain characters and hers did not make any sense based on the people she had interacted with.

This makes her think (and I agree) that there are probably limits on the number of people that can be on each story path, and if you didn't trigger the right things (or if the system didn't properly register them in her case) then eventually you'd just get lumped into a group. She mentioned that you could go to guest relations to get put on a story path, but the goal is obviously to have things workout naturally based on your decisions, so by the time you realize things aren't working, it's already immersion breaking (and a huge waste of your valuable time) and there's no real recovery that guest services could have offered to off-set that.

She mentioned feeling stressed out at one point due to the overwhelming schedule of things you had on the schedule. With the price point she didn't really want to just blow things off (ya never know when something cool will actually happen), so she didn't really have much down time to just unwind.

For the events that she went to, most of them were incredibly basic and quite similar to what I've seen on DCL, just at a larger scale. Nothing really exceptionally mind blowing other than the final show with Rey and Kylo.
For the dinner show they had her at a table behind a pole, so she could not see the performers, and it was so bad that she couldn't even see that 2 of the characters were supposed to be developing a love story. She literally didn't even know they interacted because the view was so obstructed. The food was pretty good by her account, however, she did say that some of the food was pretty obviously just the same food available at Pandora.

On check out day, housekeeping comes by and knocks on everyone's doors hours before their departure. She was turned off by this, because that simply doesn't happen at other Disney resorts. It wasn't the typical early morning housekeeping visit, this was a "wake up and get ready to leave" visit.


I certainly skipped or forgot other details, but that's the gist of it. Basically, not much to do other than scan things with your phone, everything cool can be fit into a tiktok, and the roleplaying experience didn't actually exist.

 

[irlandaise]

She found that the role playing aspect didn't really exist. She tried to develop a character to portray while on the SC and was quickly dismissed by the performers who already knew her real name (this info is apparently fed to the performers as a way to enhance the experience, so trying to be someone else ruins that for the performers). So immediately the whole premise of living out your Star Wars dream is ruined, you get to be YOU in a Star Wars shaped environment rather than being a part of it.

That's weird, I could swear I read accounts from guests who did act out characters. Do you know when in the lifespan of the Halcyon this person went? I wonder whether the CMs' approach changed during the time the hotel was open.

 

[Disney Dad ADL]

Here's a summary, I'll leave out all the things that we already know about the Starcruiser history and just focus on her experience.

She found that the role playing aspect didn't really exist. She tried to develop a character to portray while on the SC and was quickly dismissed by the performers who already knew her real name (this info is apparently fed to the performers as a way to enhance the experience, so trying to be someone else ruins that for the performers). So immediately the whole premise of living out your Star Wars dream is ruined, you get to be YOU in a Star Wars shaped environment rather than being a part of it.

For the "story", you're supposed to end up as either a Smuggler, a First Order, or a Rebel (probably got the group names wrong, but it doesn't matter). You're supposed to organically filter into these groups based on people that you choose to interact with, tasks you complete on the ship, etc. However, Jenny did those things and still did not get attached to a specific storyline until the experience was almost over. The app is supposed to show your allegiances/friendship with certain characters and hers did not make any sense based on the people she had interacted with.

This makes her think (and I agree) that there are probably limits on the number of people that can be on each story path, and if you didn't trigger the right things (or if the system didn't properly register them in her case) then eventually you'd just get lumped into a group. She mentioned that you could go to guest relations to get put on a story path, but the goal is obviously to have things workout naturally based on your decisions, so by the time you realize things aren't working, it's already immersion breaking (and a huge waste of your valuable time) and there's no real recovery that guest services could have offered to off-set that.

She mentioned feeling stressed out at one point due to the overwhelming schedule of things you had on the schedule. With the price point she didn't really want to just blow things off (ya never know when something cool will actually happen), so she didn't really have much down time to just unwind.

For the events that she went to, most of them were incredibly basic and quite similar to what I've seen on DCL, just at a larger scale. Nothing really exceptionally mind blowing other than the final show with Rey and Kylo.
For the dinner show they had her at a table behind a pole, so she could not see the performers, and it was so bad that she couldn't even see that 2 of the characters were supposed to be developing a love story. She literally didn't even know they interacted because the view was so obstructed. The food was pretty good by her account, however, she did say that some of the food was pretty obviously just the same food available at Pandora.

On check out day, housekeeping comes by and knocks on everyone's doors hours before their departure. She was turned off by this, because that simply doesn't happen at other Disney resorts. It wasn't the typical early morning housekeeping visit, this was a "wake up and get ready to leave" visit.


I certainly skipped or forgot other details, but that's the gist of it. Basically, not much to do other than scan things with your phone, everything cool can be fit into a tiktok, and the roleplaying experience didn't actually exist.

I could see the roleplaying being somewhat restricted, since there are only so many performers and they can only interact with so many people. I was not interested in roleplaying, but based on my observations there were some people who were really enjoying the aspect. The "main" storylines are somewhat on rails, mainly based on what answers you gave in the data pad, and didn't necessarily precipitate relationships with the characters, just "events", which were on the more generic side but I found some of them fun and interesting. There was one where you are in a small room with an stolen artifact and Rey sneaks in. They activate it and there's a yoda hologram that I thought was pretty cool.

I thought the more interesting aspects of roleplaying were when the guests and the actors formed relationships with each other, they knew each other by name and interacted like friends almost. I saw the actors recruit people to help them on whatever scheme they were doing. One time the actors got guests to distract the bad guys so they could go do whatever mission they were trying to do, so the guests had to go chat it up with the bad guy while the good guys did their thing.

There were also small moments that happen, even though I was not looking to roleplay at all, I was "hacking" a computer terminal for the First Order and one of the actors caught me and I had to lie about what I was doing, lol.

I think it probably required some effort and maybe luck on the guests part to form relationships with the actors though, I can't say for sure since I didn't try. I would imagine it's partly by design because some people aren't interested in doing so, so the actors probably tried to focus on the guests who did seem to show interest so they don't bother the people that didn't want to be bothered.

I thought the actors were really great though in the way the interacted with people (including me and my kids). Maybe they needed more of them if some people felt left out.

 

[Karin1984]

I think it probably required some effort and maybe luck on the guests part to form relationships with the actors though

At the end of the video Jenny shows screenshots of other guests and their experiences, and how different the advice was from guests who had already been.
"You tried too hard", vs. "You didnt try hard enough".
"You should only talk to the actors, not the app" vs. "You should use the app, don't talk to the actors."

A lot seemed to be based on luck with this experience.

Based on the video, Jenny spoke very highly of the CMs and had good and interesting interactions, only it didn't trigger anything in the game as it was supposed to. That was the disappointing part, not the CMs themselves.

 

[Disney Dad ADL]

At the end of the video Jenny shows screenshots of other guests and their experiences, and how different the advice was from guests who had already been.
"You tried too hard", vs. "You didnt try hard enough".
"You should only talk to the actors, not the app" vs. "You should use the app, don't talk to the actors."

A lot seemed to be based on luck with this experience.

Based on the video, Jenny spoke very highly of the CMs and had good and interesting interactions, only it didn't trigger anything in the game as it was supposed to. That was the disappointing part, not the CMs themselves.

Yeah, it's hard for me to say since I wasn't one who was actively looking to be a part of the roleplay, but if some people who wanted to be part of it felt left out, probably would have helped to make it easier to match guests' desire for roleplay and the experience that they got. Because certainly if you just did the app missions and nothing else, you weren't gonna get that deep into the roleplay aspect (since that was me basically). You would just get the "standard" experience, which basically is the special event at the end of each storyline. Not that it matters any more, lol

 

[KayMichigan]

That's what struck me when I read about the SC when it first opened, how incredibly complicated it all was. You pay all that money and spend the whole time stressed out and rushing around trying to do things so you get your money's worth and don't have any time to actually have fun. Not a big surprise that it didn't work out.

 

[buzlite]

I was on the star cruiser for 1 journey. I think the biggest thing I learned is you have to go with the flow. Say yes to everyone and everything. You have to give up “control”. I wanted the Jedi path and the resistance path. I actually thought I had fallen out of the resistance path and was disappointed. But reminded myself to just enjoy the experience. Then I found out it was a trick and I was helping chewie and was called a resistance hero.
I know some people that were too rigid in their characters that didn’t fit. Like saying they were a Sith or Jedi and the cast would kinda just brush over it cuz it didn’t fit the story. And some people would literally go around saying they were a smuggler because they wanted to be on the smuggler path and that didn’t work. But if you were just looking to get involved in any way then it was a blast.
Our group helped superfan Sandro out of jail which was not really even an official journey but was so much fun.

Our Uber driver explained it best as we were leaving. He was a big fan and had done it too. Disney gave us too much value. The price was high but the quality was higher. They knew no one could afford higher prices and lowering the quality would kill the brand so they decided to close it.

 

[DodgerGirl]

What I also think Disney could've done with a Star Wars hotel was make it an actual hotel rather than a role playing adventure. Because with the popularity of adult oriented themed hotels and resorts in Las Vegas Nevada and the family resorts like the Sandals owned Beaches and the always popular Grey Wolf Lodge chain and the popularity of escape rooms I think Disney should've designed this Star Wars role playing aspect for a mall and built a Star Wars hotel instead of making it a role playing adventure. And it would've had things such as Star Wars themed character breakfasts and dinners and shows and chances for fans to get autographs photos and interact with Star Wars characters but for some unknown reason the Star Wars Galactic Starcruiser was a fine mess from the start. Because when you take a movie or TV show and try to make things based on it sometimes the idea works and sometimes it doesn't agree. Take for instance Las Vegas Hilton did a Star Trek themed experience in the 90's and for Star Trek fans the idea worked but for Star Wars this idea could've worked wonders back in the 90's when The Phantom Menace was released to theaters. I also saw photos of the cabins of Star Wars Galactic Starcruiser and they did not look like cabins to me but reminded me of hospital rooms and I can see why people were disappointed with this resort. Because had they made the cabins actual hotel rooms with Star Wars pictures on the walls and Star Wars themed bedding for the beds it would be a hit but the beds on Galactic Starcruiser reminded me of hospital beds and it wasn't impressive from the photos I saw. To me I think had Disney waited to do more time on this resort and lowered the prices and have TV commercials for it Star Wars Galactic Starcruiser would've been better in my opinion

 

[buzlite]

What I also think Disney could've done with a Star Wars hotel was make it an actual hotel rather than a role playing adventure. Because with the popularity of adult oriented themed hotels and resorts in Las Vegas Nevada and the family resorts like the Sandals owned Beaches and the always popular Grey Wolf Lodge chain and the popularity of escape rooms I think Disney should've designed this Star Wars role playing aspect for a mall and built a Star Wars hotel instead of making it a role playing adventure. And it would've had things such as Star Wars themed character breakfasts and dinners and shows and chances for fans to get autographs photos and interact with Star Wars characters but for some unknown reason the Star Wars Galactic Starcruiser was a fine mess from the start. Because when you take a movie or TV show and try to make things based on it sometimes the idea works and sometimes it doesn't agree. Take for instance Las Vegas Hilton did a Star Trek themed experience in the 90's and for Star Trek fans the idea worked but for Star Wars this idea could've worked wonders back in the 90's when The Phantom Menace was released to theaters. I also saw photos of the cabins of Star Wars Galactic Starcruiser and they did not look like cabins to me but reminded me of hospital rooms and I can see why people were disappointed with this resort. Because had they made the cabins actual hotel rooms with Star Wars pictures on the walls and Star Wars themed bedding for the beds it would be a hit but the beds on Galactic Starcruiser reminded me of hospital beds and it wasn't impressive from the photos I saw. To me I think had Disney waited to do more time on this resort and lowered the prices and have TV commercials for it Star Wars Galactic Starcruiser would've been better in my opinion

Imo this was be such a cheap idea. I’m sure it would have a small group of people go once but honestly would feel like one of those Airbnbs. The Galactic Starcruiser had the highest post trip passenger ratings ever. I get a certain percentage of adults feel uncomfortable with”play” but I wish more people were open to it.
Research has so many benefits for adult play and it was so much fun. If you just want some pictures etc why not go to one of the AirBnbs listed nearby.
The Wizarding World is the baseline against which all other themed lands should be and really are measured and the GSC was better.
In world experiences is the direction all theme parks are going. To live a day or 2 in the world of your favourite characters. Not “ride the movies”. The data backs it up. Unfortunately actors are expensive and they need to be able to lower the price and increase revenue by increasing volume.

 

[Disney Dad ADL]

Imo this was be such a cheap idea. I’m sure it would have a small group of people go once but honestly would feel like one of those Airbnbs. The Galactic Starcruiser had the highest post trip passenger ratings ever. I get a certain percentage of adults feel uncomfortable with”play” but I wish more people were open to it.
Research has so many benefits for adult play and it was so much fun. If you just want some pictures etc why not go to one of the AirBnbs listed nearby.
The Wizarding World is the baseline against which all other themed lands should be and really are measured and the GSC was better.
In world experiences is the direction all theme parks are going. To live a day or 2 in the world of your favourite characters. Not “ride the movies”. The data backs it up. Unfortunately actors are expensive and they need to be able to lower the price and increase revenue by increasing volume.

I thought it was great as it was personally and was sad to see it go. I'm glad they tried it though rather than just a Star Wars themed hotel, even if it didn't ultimately pan out. Probably will never be able to do something like that again.

But maybe they were able to learn something from it. They would need to make it a lower price point though, but maybe that's not possible.

 

[irlandaise]

But maybe they were able to learn something from it. They would need to make it a lower price point though, but maybe that's not possible.

I don't see how they could lower the costs and still keep all the very good actors and singers they need to create that immersive experience. The Halcyon needed way more than just the regular hotel CMs.

 

[RivShore]

getting some press...

Disney World's 'Star Wars' experience closed after just 18 months — this travel influencer reveals why​

https://nypost.com/2024/05/24/lifes...18-months-this-travel-influencer-reveals-why/

 

[greeneyedchick]

Care to summarize..? I do not have four hours to devote to this...

The great thing about YouTube is that you can watch things in double speed.

 

[Jwaire]

I watched all 4 hours of her video. I didn't feel there was that much new information. We've heard most of it before including here, but she definitely struck a nerve with DisTwitter and the Starcruiser defenders.

I can't wait to get the backstory of how it got approved (I'm betting it was Chapek's pet project) and who ultimately killed it (I'm betting Iger).