Disney Is Struggling to Book Rooms in Its $5K Star Wars-Themed Hotel
Disney World's latest Star Wars attraction, the Galactic Starcruiser hotel, is reportedly struggling to attract bookings for its $5,000 rooms. Galactic Starcruiser sees guests taken aboard a starship from the Galaxy's Edge park. The attraction opened to guests of the park in early March.
Taking place within Galaxy's Edge sequel-era theming, Galactic Starcruiser sees guests of the Florida park board the Chandrila Star Line's starcruiser Halcyon for a two-night cruise across the galaxy. Departing from the Batuu-inspired Disney World park, guests can see themselves immersed deeper in the Star Wars universe, taking part in lightsaber training and Sabacc games while sampling food and entertainment inspired by the franchise, or for more adventurous fans, they can take part directly in the First Order/Resistance conflict, choosing a side during their journey and forging their own Star Wars story. Though early reviews praised the Galactic Starcruiser's immersive experience despite a lackluster story, the hotel is reportedly struggling to attract bookings.
As reported by the San Francisco-based SFGATE, the hotel which has a capacity of 100 rooms has been shown to have plenty of vacancies throughout the 2022 availability calendar. According to the original article, almost every day of the second half of 2022 from August is available for bookings. The hotel also has bookings available throughout June and July, including many weekend dates. While the experience has received predominantly positive reviews, the attraction is struggling to attract many bookings beyond the initial few months of opening.
Galactic Starcruiser has not been free of controversy across its development and opening. In December, Disney deleted a scripted promotional video for the attraction amidst widespread criticism from fans of the franchise and theme parks. The video featured a walkthrough of many of the hotels' attractions by Walt Disney Parks Imagineer Ann Morrow Johnson and The Goldbergs' Sean Giambrone. Following its release, the video quickly received numerous dislikes on Twitter and YouTube, with users commenting to criticize the hotel's quality and Giambrone being chosen to take part rather than a celebrity with closer ties to the franchise. A later video was released in early March which saw Oscar Isaac, who starred as Resistance pilot Poe Dameron throughout the sequel trilogy, attend the attraction, with the actor reacting positively to the hotel.
While the video's backlash was followed by Galactic Starcruiser cancellations, it is likely that the hotel's current troubles come down to the cost of the attraction. Not only do the hotel's two-night stays cost between $5,000 or $6,000 depending on the number of guests, but this is also on top of possible travel costs from attendees outside of the U.S. While Disney may currently hope to recuperate the costs of construction and development for the Star Wars-themed hotel as soon as possible, it could be possible that the park adjusts prices and packages to bring in future interest if necessary.
Source: SFGATE