On Christmas Day of 2021, The Walt Disney Company kept a particular holiday tradition alive by hosting a Christmas Parade Special on ABC. At ten in the morning, eastern time, viewers were treated to the festive décor of the Magic Kingdom, regaled with the musical talents of Gwen Stefani, Norah Jones and Kristin Chenoweth, and otherwise enticed to one day journey down to Orlando for a visit to the happiest place on earth. The holiday special is an annual opportunity for Disney to provide a very merry infomercial to large numbers of major network viewers.
Usually, this also means that Disney takes the chance to advertise all the cool things that are new and soon-coming to the resort. However, this year was a bit different than other Christmas Specials in the past. For some reason, the company decided not to feature the upcoming Star Wars Galactic Starcruiser hotel experience in any of the promotional materials in the holiday special. Was this because the company is fully booked? Or is it because the company needs to regroup in how to approach marketing this concept?
From the booking side of things, Disney continues to have availability in the first months of the hotel’s opening. While we don’t endorse the opinions of Drunk 3po in this video, nor do we disavow them, we give him major credit for continuing to shine light on the constant openings that continue to show up on the Disney reservation website:
Writer TP2000 had the following to say on the WDW Magic Forums about the upcoming hotel being left out of any mention during the special:
So… WDW’s Christmas Day TV Special didn’t mention Galactic Starcruiser at all. It apparently doesn’t warrant mention to the TV audience at home.
What’s your thought on that news? Are they not mentioning Galactic Starcruiser because they’re already booked up solid? Or are they no longer mentioning Galactic Starcruiser because of all the bad PR it’s already gotten and they are panicking on how to fix it in the next 45 days?
I’m betting that Disney is no longer talking about Galactic Starcruiser not because they have more bookings than they know what to do with.
My bet is that Disney knows they have a flop on their hands and are rushing to fix what they can ASAP before they dare mention it again.
Even websites that are apt to carry Disney’s water when needed are recognizing the issues the hotel is seeing with reservations. Screen Rant is noticing the same pattern of new availabilities, likely from large number of cancellations out of early buy-ins for the hotel:
The cancellations have been made evident by an increase in available bookings, which were pointed out in a Tweet from user @SirBrayden, the creator of Mickey Views. The availability of certain dates in March and onward is odd, considering that the hotel had originally been sold out upon its opening. In addition to availability popping up in March, the month of July shows an abundance of openings, too, which is strange considering July is generally Disney’s busiest month.
Meanwhile, at the Starcruiser… pic.twitter.com/JZHkdkmwx9
— Brayden (@SirBrayden) December 21, 2021
It would seem that Disney has an issue on their hands, and now it’s time for them to figure out some sort of bandaid until a better fix can be implemented. Let me know in the comments what you’re thinking about Star Wars Galactic Starcruiser. At what price point would you be willing to try it out for two nights?
Running this hotel will cost more than scrapping it. Disney should consider it an expensive lesson on listening to the woke Story Group.
Per other reporting, Disney reused ideas/technology that was originally meant for Galaxies Edge. The “Story Group” had little to do with the Star Wars hotel. Which in my opinion, makes the potential failure of the Star Wars hotel much worse.