The following article is based on information conveyed by two sources that worked on the Star Wars Galactic Starcruiser at different points during its development, as well as from additional sources. WDW Pro nor That Park Place guarantee that every detail within this article is absolutely true, and parts of this article should be read as subjective opinion. WDW Pro believes the reporting is true to the best of Pro’s ability.
Are you ready for a deep dive into how the Star Wars hotel turned out so badly?
In order to understand how the Galactic Starcruiser went so awry, we have to go all the way back to 2017. Well, we could go even farther back, to a point when Disney was developing a traditional all-of-Star Wars land expansion in Hollywood Studios at Disney World. That expansion was to go where the current Indiana Jones Epic Stunt Show Spectacular is located. However, all of that was wiped out when Kathleen Kennedy convinced Robert Iger that the future of Star Wars was the Disney-originated sequel trilogy… and so should be the new expansions at Disney Parks. For both Disneyland and Disney World, Imagineers were told to start from scratch working on an all-new planet world based around stories between Episodes 8 and 9. At Disney World, the expansion would be bigger, as the Star Wars land would be connected with a hotel that would allow hardcore fans to truly live out their Star Wars fantasies.
To help make sure that the Disney Parks Star Wars lands were in line with Kathleen Kennedy’s vision, the Lucasfilm Story Group was partnered with Imagineers to insure everything was as it should be. The group was, at the time, all-female and led by Kiri Hart — a lady who had quickly become close with Rian Johnson and his thoughts on what Star Wars could become.While we know how all of that turned out with The Last Jedi and Rian Johnson’s potential trilogy, what is less known is how this affected the parks. Early in development of what would become Galaxy’s Edge, Bob Chapek (then head of Disney Parks) determined that the lands should be identical at Disneyland and Disney World in order to cut down costs. This meant that Hollywood Studios’ version of Galaxy’s Edge would be moved from what would become a new cast parking lot to going over the top of Hollywood Studios’ Streets of America area. Galaxy’s Edge in Disney World, therefore, would not be expanding attraction capacity for the park (one of the primary needs for the park at the time).
When Kathleen Kennedy changed the original plans for Galaxy's Edge from Tatooine to a random made up world with FO troopers and Rey wandering around the reason she gave was that she wanted to cater to new generations not 50 year olds. Fans of original Star Wars how old are you?
— Princess Sparkle Krogan (@NiftuCal) December 21, 2020
The placement change for the expansion at Hollywood Studios meant that the hotel could no longer be attached to the land, due to water management and existing infrastructure.Thus it was determined that the hotel experience would be placed across the parking lot and a tram system could deliver guests to the Galaxy’s Edge area. Unfortunately, further budget cuts meant that Galaxy’s Edge at both Disney World and Disneyland would be delivered in multiple phases. Once the pandemic hit, all future phases for Galaxy’s Edge were put on indefinite hold… and the expansion access point for the land was turned into the bus terminal for guests arriving from the Star Wars hotel. This effectively signaled that Disney was no longer interested in the future phases that might have included an X-Wing thrill ride and a luxury restaurant.
Further indicating that Disney was done with near-term upgrades to Galaxy’s Edge, many of the ideas Imagineers had conceptualized for Galaxy’s Edge were instead repurposed for the Star Wars Galactic Starcrusier hotel. A special effects and pyro-heavy spectacular featuring Kylo Ren and Rey was dropped from Galaxy’s Edge Phase 2 and moved instead to the hotel. Lightsaber training also was shifted. The restaurant which was a huge part of the original Galaxy’s Edge plan was lifted completely and put into the Starcruiser.
Because so much of the Star Wars Galactic Starcruiser content is recycled material from thrown-away Galaxy’s Edge material, the experience was always stuck with using material pulled from Rian Johnson and Kiri Hart. The captain being a placeholder for Kathleen Kennedy? Straight out of an era when Kennedy was ultra-popular and powerful post The Force Awakens.
But not all of the Galactic Starcruiser collapse in quality is due to the connection with Kiri Hart and Rian Johnson. Up until late 2019 the hotel was still on track to deliver incredible quality, even if the narrative was from a Star Wars vision many had already abandoned. In order to understand how that occurred, you need to first see two images of what hallways were supposed to look like versus what they became:
Hallway Concept from BlockMickey.com
Actual Hallway from Pirates and Princesses:
In this case, the hallway loss of quality isn’t a result of any sort of Lucasfilm incompetence. Rather, it is due to two factors: 1) pandemic budget cuts, and 2) lawsuit avoiding architecture.
Look at the concept art above. See the sloped floor molding and the sharp edges near the bottoms of the doors? That’s just waiting for a child to trip and a forthcoming lawsuit to occur. Worse, what if someone catches the wheel of their wheelchair on something like that? And making things out of metal and glass is ripe for injury. It’s far safer to create a floor that is perfectly flat, smooth, and without any source for injury. It’s far safer to create walls that have smooth, rounded plastic.
The same is true at the “bridge”. Those control panels that look like they’re designed from eighties electronics companies… they’re all made so that a child falling into them is less likely to be injured. There are no jagged edges, there are no hard metals. This is a theme park hotel, and it is built to be utterly safe for all who visit it.
As for experiences like the Lightsaber training, that is a combination of budget cuts and failed tech. Back in 2019, Disney held prototyping sessions for the lightsaber systems in empty ballrooms at the Contemporary resort. The original system used Pepper’s Ghost techniques driven by mirrors and fiber optics built into the walls and ceilings. The lightsabers were intended to be the same that was shown in the reveal last year with the “impressive” saber extension effect. A charging rig was built that would extend the lightsabers out from a wall in dramatic effect. Shields were developed that non-saber wielding “players” could use to block deflected laser beams. I’m told the playtests proved to be a bit too easy, but overall it was a very impressive system.
Note the shield being held in the background of this concept art:
So what happened?
Well, in this case, money is greatly to blame. Money could have been used to fix technical issues. But other than a lack of will to spend the money, the system didn’t work as well as hoped for once normal people were given the chance to play. The expensive lightsabers were not sturdy or durable enough. Laser connections weren’t always detected. Players using the shields didn’t rate the experience very highly. And so, finally, a last ditch plan was made to just have a toy lightsaber connect with a laser beam in a hazy room. It was the best that could be done.
Clearly Disney knows they have a problem. They wouldn’t be deleting promo videos if they thought all was well. They wouldn’t have cancellations ruining their narratives and their budgets if all was well. But the Galactic Starcruiser is a lesson they may or may not learn well. The end product is a result of stripping down and stripping down and stripping down. The hotel is a hand-me-down of theme park experiences cut due to budgets. The location is less than ideal because Disney didn’t want to spend money on unique expansions on the different coasts. The interior is bland to protect the company after attorneys found every way someone could be injured. The activities are scaled-back Plan B’s to make sure the hotel launches as soon as possible, even if the intended technology didn’t pan out.
Now if the consumers don’t pan out the way Disney had intended, should it be any surprise?
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