ORLANDO, Fla. — Walt Disney World is pulling the plug on Star Wars: Galactic Starcruiser, its two-night immersive experience that lets visitors pretend to be on an outer-space voyage amid sci-fi characters, foods and storyline.
The last days of Starcruiser will be Sept. 28-30, the company announced. The project debuted to the public in March 2022.
“We are so proud of all of the cast members and Imagineers who brought Star Wars: Galactic Starcruiser to life and look forward to delivering an excellent experience for guests during the remaining voyages over the coming months,” Disney World’s official website reads.
Galactic Starcruiser, located near Disney’s Hollywood Studios theme park, was announced during D23 Expo in Anaheim, California, in 2017. Details trickled out from Disney over the years, a major one being the initial prices revealed in 2021. The “sample standard cabin rates” listed for a cabin with two guests, was a total of $4,809 for the two-night experience. That broke down to $1,209 per person per night.
Disney considers Starcruiser to be a premium experience with its 100 cabins. It comes with a “Star Wars” backstory with actors in place as well as optional audience participation in tasks and choosing sides between good and evil. Paying customers also participate in lightsaber training.
“It is part immersive theater; it is part live-action role play. It is part video game; it is part luxury-service experience. It is all of these things at the same time,” Scott Trowbridge, portfolio creative executive with Walt Disney Imagineering, said a few months before the experience’s debut.
Each Starcruiser cabin has a digitized view of the cosmos, and participants are served themed meals alongside intergalactic entertainment. The experience also includes an afternoon excursion to Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge, a land within Hollywood Studios, where the storyline continues.
“It’s a sad event for the whole entertainment industry as far as they tried something new,” said Matt Roseboom, editor and publisher of Orlando-based Attractions magazine. “People had ideas of ‘Oh, stay in the Harry Potter hotel some time,’ you know? ‘The Star Wars hotels may pop up all across the country.’ And that’s all kind of been shut down.”
Roseboom said he was surprised by a total shutdown.
“I couldn’t imagine that they would shut it down without trying something else. You know, dinner, and a show. … come and see a dinner and a show and then leave or spend extra to stay,” he said. “And maybe they will do some of those things, but to just shut it down and have it sit empty seems shocking.”
There are no immediate plans for the Starcruiser building, Disney said.
Starcruiser pricing had been an issue for consumers, Roseboom said.
“We don’t know [Disney’s] expenses, and maybe to make it even worth having the doors open they need to charge that much,” he said.
Fernando Vieira, who runs a YouTube account called “Theme Park Dude,” said he was disappointed to never have boarded Disney’s starship. The immersion factor appealed to him, he said.
“Having droids roaming around and having alien creatures interacting with you and being part of an actual story … was, like, a dream come true for Star Wars fans,” Vieira said.
“It was something that I was hoping to save up money for, eventually,” he said. “I thought this was going to be something that was going to last for years and years and years.”
Disney will contact people who had booked a voyage for Sept. 30 and later to discuss options and alternative plans. New bookings are temporarily paused to deal with those changes, and bookings are scheduled to reopen May 26, Disney says.
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