Six months into its existence, the Star Wars Galactic Starcruiser may be showing a lack of luster when it comes to consumer demand.
Consistently I have said that the real challenge for the Star Wars Galactic Starcruiser would come in September. The hotel located adjacent to Walt Disney World’s Hollywood Studios theme park is both lodging locale and role playing super LARP where guests pretend to be Star Wars characters for two days at an exuberant fee. And though the hotel only sports a sparse number of rooms to reach capacity, it also needs to hit that top number (or come close) in order to be profitable for the company. The hotel opened in March and has, at times, struggled to reach capacity by the time guests arrive for their “voyages.” Now, Disney may truly be in a situation where the experience has empty rooms just after six months of operation.
One of the biggest hurdles for the Galactic Starcruiser is the reported lack of international guests staying there. Unlike the parks, which are inundated with world travelers hoping to give their families that Disney vacation post-pandemic, Star Wars doesn’t drive international markets in the same way. And then doubly problematic is that the hotel is so expensive that international guests often don’t want to attempt booking anything when a pandemic lockdown could occur and sour the whole thing. Thus, the hotel is primarily driven by domestic visitors.
As school returns across North America, and most schools will be fully opened after Labor Day, we can see the impending drop-off in capacity days. September basically has half of its days still available. October has nearly all of its days available. Neither of those months are going to be easy to fill. And the adult Star Wars fanatic role players who Disney counted on when designing this experience may be running thin.
Special photoshoot aboard the Galactic Starcruiser.. pic.twitter.com/uRFbJawAVn
— Guild Dad Sharky 🦈 (@Rabsharky) August 15, 2022
For sure, chatter about the Starcruiser is down on all the social media platforms. And for an experience that practically screams for superfans, that’s not ideal. Ultimately, if Disney can’t find a demographic willing to fill the hotel in fall and winter months (December should be fine), this is going to be a difficult business proposition. We’re six months into the existence of this enterprise and we could be looking at the hotel running at a loss or break-even for September, October, November, January, February and March each year. Sure, March of this year did fine, but that was the opening month filled with vloggers and Disney Star Wars’ biggest fanboys and fangirls. I suspect that for the next couple of years the hotel can maintain good numbers during the summer months, Christmastime and Spring Break season. But beyond that it gets far tougher.
And how long would Disney let the Galactic Starcruiser show weakness with available days all over the calendar?
My guess is about as long as they let Lightyear flounder around at the box office before they yanked it to streaming.
Maybe a redux is not too far away…
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I smell a move to the original or prequel trilogy timeline soon. I have no info, just a guess.
The hype for this thing died faster than anything in recent memory. Haven’t heard anything (negative or positive) about this hotel, anywhere… I personally haven’t given it a second thought, since the first couple of months it was open. Pretty stunning, really. Galaxy’s Edge has gotten a lot more attention from fans.
“where guests pretend to be Star Wars characters for two days at an exuberant fee.”
I think you meant to write “exorbitant”. Though suppose “exuberant” could work in a sarcastic sort of way….
Maybe my subconscious was speaking through the words this morning ;)
I’ll say it again. They should change it to The Orville universe and tell everyone your on a space station. They could have cast members of the show make special appearances like Seth MacFarlane. Sorry of what Johnny Depp did at Pirates of the Caribbeans ride.