Welcome back to the blog! In our previous Disney post, we discussed the history behind the creativity and innovation Disney was known for. We also discussed the shift away from Disney’s core ideas and the unfortunate move towards greed. In today’s post, we will discussing the highly backlashed Star Wars Galactic Starcruiser Hotel. May the force be with us because we are definitely going to need it.
History
Let’s take it back to the very beginning. In 2017, the Star Wars franchise released Star Wars: Episode VIII – The Last Jedi and there was a lot of buzz regarding the film. It was also around this time Disney was in the process of creating Galaxy’s Edge at both Disneyland and Walt Disney World. With all the buzz, Disney decided to gauge interest in an exclusively Star Wars themed resort. Without surprise, the interest in the project was incredibly high. Shortly, after this the concept for the hotel was born. Let’s take a look at the concept art that first came out.
Concept Art & Announcement
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Anyone Order Some Disappointment?
Obviously concept art is meant to be a proof of concept where the idea is put down on paper and visually created in the form of sketches, renderings, etc. Throughout the stages of creation concept art is of course subject to change. Generally when changes are made, it is usually for a variety of reasons such as financial, construction restrictions, permit issues, or any other factors that affect the operations or guest experience. Usually, what we see is when the concept changes from the art, elements from the original design are still present along with the changes.
What Disney did here was kind of the opposite and it honestly is just a complete downgrade from the concepts. You would think with how Disney is they would under promise during the concept then over deliver in the actual product. In the announcement video fans were promised an “immersive, interactive Star Wars experience” where we are the characters of our own journey in the Star Wars universe. When I first heard this, I was pumped about this project and couldn’t wait to see it. However, that feeling of excitement soon turned to disappointment. Everything shown and promised was either really watered down, not done or just cheaply done.
Now to be fair, we haven’t fully seen the product yet, since it just opened, so it could possibly be better in other areas of the resort we haven’t seen as much of yet. Also with the resort just opening, there may be improvements and expansions being planned that we may not yet know about. But at the same time, it could also go the opposite direction too where the resort is worse in quality and what Disney has shown us really is the best they got. If that’s the case, that is just really sad. Regardless, the Disney community has really been full of activity during this time.
The Disney Community
Generally when Disney announces a new project there is always a split opinion between Disney fans. There is always a group that isn’t in favor, a group very much in favor and then there is the other group of fans that don’t really care either way. This project started out very much like this but as time went on, and more previews were released, fans’ opinions all very much disapproved of the project and began calling Disney out. I mean can you blame them? Let’s take a look at what the community has been saying:
Our Thoughts & Feedback
As a fellow Star Wars fan and theme park fan, I am honestly torn on this project. The Star Wars fan in me is excited behind the idea of the project yet at the same time I am disappointed with the execution of the final product. I do agree with the some of the points the community has brought up:
- Promised an immersive, interactive, roleplay type experience. Very watered down version of what we were promised countless times.
- Hallways are generic with Star Wars theming.
- Rooms while the idea is nice, they are very boxy and pod-like.
- Pricing is very high for an average family.
Overall however, I do have to say while Disney did slack big time on this project, I definitely feel like the project is not a total loss. I feel like with some adjustments to price, expansions and improvements, the hotel can be successful.
I definitely agree the promised product isn’t there and the price point does not match the value you get as a guest. I honestly feel like this project was overlooked and really pushed aside since in many areas of the resort shortcuts were made that really hurt the product. For example, the famous welcome video a guest received when they booked a reservation is really poorly done. In one of the YouTube videos linked above, it explores this idea and actually shows how bad it really is. After I watched the video for myself, while it was still floating around, I couldn’t help but agree with the points raised in that video.
I really do think that at some point this project was overhyped by marketing, there was probably some sort of budgeting issue, company restrictions imposed or some other factor that caused the project to really nose dive publicly. I honestly do feel that there is a lot to play here. Was it laziness and lack of motivation from the team? Did Disney handcuff the creativity in the project? Did the company honestly stop caring and wanted to pull out but realized it was too late? All these are very possible. Regardless, as a Star Wars fan I hope to see this project reach its potential and not be an embarrassment. Hopefully the price decreases so I can one day go and experience it for myself.
Touristician 