Disney Closing Star Wars Hotel


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That really gets at the heart of the problem. Normal rich people don't want to pay for the dingy, lived-in aesthetic of Star Wars. That is the exact opposite of a premium resort experience to them. So this was exclusively a place for proper fans who had an extra $5k to spend on a Star Wars resort experience. When you then also subtract away the many die-hard fans who are too at odds with "Disney Star Wars" for whichever reason to hand over amounts of money so large to it and the many people too introverted to want to pay for an immersive experience with actors and such... well they must have had dozens of guests.

If they had built a Naboo palace luxury resort, that had some Star Wars theming for fans but was mostly just another fancy resort for the people that like those and pay for them, I would find it way less interesting, but it would probably have been a more viable business endeavor.

Which ironically makes a Star Trek Hotel a better idea, as long as its not a Klingon ship, accomediations should be much nicer.
 

MGibster

Legend
That used to be true, now ot seems like the only major Star Wars merch I see is Baby Yoda and how long can that last when Mandolarians ratings tanked in season 3?
Star Wars mechandise ebbs and flows with the release of movies. By 1985, the Star Wars merchadising had pretty much ceased to be a thing despite the Droids/Ewok cartoon. Of course merchandise never quite died out entirely. There was West End Games' Star Wars RPG first published in 1987, there were video games on the NES and Super NES, and there was a series of novels published in the early 1990s. But I don't think Star Wars returned to mainstream toy aisles until the special edition of the original triology was released in, what, 1997? And of course we felt the full might of the fully operational merchadising machien with the release of the Phantom Menace in 1999.

Anyway, it's been almost four years since the last Star Wars movie was released so you're not going to see as many toys in production. But I just went to Hobby Lobby today and saw a ton of Lego Star Wars sets. Though come to think of it, I bet Harry Potter is giving Star Wars a run for their money in the merchadising department. I also saw some Harry Potter lego sets, and I still see tons of Potter merchadise in other places.
 

That used to be true, now ot seems like the only major Star Wars merch I see is Baby Yoda and how long can that last when Mandolarians ratings tanked in season 3?
There is absolutely no shortage of Star Wars branded products of all sorts available, even if you only happen to see the Grogu ones. I think you must just be tuning out as a given the constant coming and going of Star Wars video games, Star Wars t-shirts, editions of Star Wars Monoply, etc., etc. etc.

However if your baseline is Star Wars prequels era level of Star Wars branding then our current epoch is never going to live up to it. Hasbro and Pepsi paid Lucas way too much for star wars merchandising and tie-in rights at the time and we went through an era of Star Wars merch and branding saturation the likes of which will probably never be seen again as these companies tried anything to make the most of their bad investment (not that Star Wars merch is a bad investment, but the amounts they invested only would have made sense if the prequels had been a merch buying bonanza an order of magnitude greater than the original movies).

Meanwhile if your baseline is original trilogy era level of Star Wars merch even the current inter-movie era may actually surpass it in absolute volume of stuff available, but it is but part of a vast competing cacophony of pop culture merch, whereas the cultural impact of Star Wars licensed products in the late 70s and early 80s was was far greater when it was redefining the very idea of movie tie-in merch.
 
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Zardnaar

Legend
Star Wars mechandise ebbs and flows with the release of movies. By 1985, the Star Wars merchadising had pretty much ceased to be a thing despite the Droids/Ewok cartoon. Of course merchandise never quite died out entirely. There was West End Games' Star Wars RPG first published in 1987, there were video games on the NES and Super NES, and there was a series of novels published in the early 1990s. But I don't think Star Wars returned to mainstream toy aisles until the special edition of the original triology was released in, what, 1997? And of course we felt the full might of the fully operational merchadising machien with the release of the Phantom Menace in 1999.

Anyway, it's been almost four years since the last Star Wars movie was released so you're not going to see as many toys in production. But I just went to Hobby Lobby today and saw a ton of Lego Star Wars sets. Though come to think of it, I bet Harry Potter is giving Star Wars a run for their money in the merchadising department. I also saw some Harry Potter lego sets, and I still see tons of Potter merchadise in other places.

Shadows of the Empire multimedia was 1997 iirc.

Everything but a movie (novel, merch, game etc).
 

S'mon

Legend
If they had built a Naboo palace luxury resort, that had some Star Wars theming for fans but was mostly just another fancy resort for the people that like those and pay for them, I would find it way less interesting, but it would probably have been a more viable business endeavor.

How about a Jabba's Palace resort in the desert outside Vegas? :D
 

Zardnaar

Legend
So if any of you nerds have a spare 5k I can give you a guided tour of "rohan" in New Zealand (born there live close by).

I'll throw in my favorite swimmimg spots coastal or lake/river your choice and eating spots, camping spots, and various local knowledge.

Or drink beer on the mountains.


You can also hire a helicopter and fly up onto a glacier.
 

Ryujin

Legend
Star Wars mechandise ebbs and flows with the release of movies. By 1985, the Star Wars merchadising had pretty much ceased to be a thing despite the Droids/Ewok cartoon. Of course merchandise never quite died out entirely. There was West End Games' Star Wars RPG first published in 1987, there were video games on the NES and Super NES, and there was a series of novels published in the early 1990s. But I don't think Star Wars returned to mainstream toy aisles until the special edition of the original triology was released in, what, 1997? And of course we felt the full might of the fully operational merchadising machien with the release of the Phantom Menace in 1999.

Anyway, it's been almost four years since the last Star Wars movie was released so you're not going to see as many toys in production. But I just went to Hobby Lobby today and saw a ton of Lego Star Wars sets. Though come to think of it, I bet Harry Potter is giving Star Wars a run for their money in the merchadising department. I also saw some Harry Potter lego sets, and I still see tons of Potter merchadise in other places.
Well if the sexy Hallowe'en costumes are anything to go by, then Harry Potter is winning the battle. Then again it could just be that crop-top Hufflepuff sweaters make more sense than a metal bikini, in Fall weather.
 
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GreyLord

Legend
I went to it and thought it was a GREAT experience. I don't even like the New Star Wars stuff. If you are a fan of Star Wars and a fan of the Disney Star Wars...even at that cost, I'd say it's actually worth the money.

It is your ONE chance in a lifetime (or more if you can afford it) to actually be in something very close to the Star Wars universe. Everything about it was awesome.

Those griping about no windows...it has replica windows which look out into space. Face it, if you are going to be in a supposed space ship...you need windows that look into space. You don't have windows looking out onto the front lawn...that would be just stupid.

The windows are 3d and actually are constantly changing. You go into hyperspace and you visit different planets and spaceports. It actually can be fun at different ports to see how many of the different ships you can identify.

In all honesty, there's not enough time to do everything onboard the ship itself. If you pay for the extras while on your "excursion to Baatu" you get a trip to the lightsaber shop, the canteena, and making droids. The only thing that has ever come close would be Star Trek the Experience (also, sadly closed down), but you weren't living and breathing that 24/7 for a little while.

The food was actually quite cool (though the blue milk and green milk are NOT nutritious, I'm pretty sure it's just sugar upon more sugar in them), and I liked the character interactions with the different characters wandering around the ship.

In a degree I find it sad that they are closing the entire thing. Even if they stop the story line and the actors in it, the hotel itself is still very cool. It has an engine room to explore, the bridge, the bar, and other places.

I think people are just angry because of the cost. They should be angry in general at the cost of Disney world (honestly, have you checked the prices of the Grand Floridian recently? Even Riverside is up there...the next 3 days at Disney world I spent after the Galactic Starcruiser cost me JUST AS MUCH as the Star Cruiser did). It's the angry vibes that some have about it. Once again, I would reiterate, if you are a Disney Star Wars fan, especially a hardcore one, this is THE experience you WANT to experience...period.

I'm sad they are closing it down and not seeking a way to salvage it. If I were a Disney Star Wars Fan (and I'm not, and I still was somewhat impressed), I'd save every penny I could just to experience it. That could take while on a low wage, but I still feel it would be worth it. The sad thing is with how long that could take, with it closing down, someone in that situation may never be able to get to it because saving may take longer than it will be open.

Edit PS: Some thoughts on other things that I've been on that could be comparable. Someone mentioned cruises. You have the junk cruises these days where you have no idea who will be on them. They are so cheap you could get fights, illnesses galore, and other things on them. That's not comparable in my opinion. On a higher end cruise (We'll go with a Disney cruise since it's the same company) you'll spend 4-5000 USD. It is around a day longer on the shorter cruises, or if you spend one or two thousand more for a longer cruise, a lot longer. The cabin sizes for that price are comparable to what you get in the Star Cruiser.

Of course, you can also get a MUCH NICER suite, but it will also probably cost 8-12,000 USD, depending on size and length of the trip. No space windows (seriously, the 3d windows were actually pretty darn cool, I just see people who are angry at the cost mostly griping about this idea of the windows). On a cruise you might not even have THAT on the cheaper rooms (no windows), and the more expensive rooms are probably going to be something you complain about on top because they can actually be MORE expensive than what you pay for the star cruiser if you are complaining about the Star Cruiser. The activities on a Disney Cruise or the more expensive cruises run the gambit on port calls, but in general you can expect to pay something from $125 to $400 per person on the activities at port. That can equal another $500 to $1000 on top of that.

Another experience would be rails in the U.S. A Cross Country Round trip right now could cost me around 6-10,000 USD for two people (well, for a cabin at least, I'm not going on seats/coach or one of the small roomettes). Even those cabins are smaller than what you get on the galactic star cruiser. You are also stuck on a train.

I think much of the complaining are from people who don't like what Disney did with Star Wars (and I can understand that viewpoint), those wanting Disney Star Wars to fail and gloating over anything that happens like this (which is kind of cruel in my viewpoint), or those that are just having sour grapes over how expensive it is. There are others, but I think many fall into those categories and I think their venting is sort of unfair in relation to what the Galactic Starcruiser experience is.
 
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