A stay at Walt Disney World’s Star Wars-themed hotel, Galactic Starcruiser, comes with an immersive theater experience and a choose-your-own-adventure itinerary. It will also cost up to $6K for a two-night stay, according to pricing details released last week.
Plans for the hotel were first announced in 2017, but R&D personnel said during a roundtable discussion this July that they have been working on it for six years.
Disney's website says that guests are the heroes of this “bespoke experience.” A two-day stay is designed as though guests are on a starcruiser heading to the planet of Batuu.
Upon arrival, they will board a launch pod that takes them to the Halcyon Starcruiser. They will check into cabins or suites that have views of “space.”
Star Wars characters roam the “ship.” As guests attend planned meals or events — like lightsaber training, lessons in a game called Sabaac or droid races — unexpected “story moments” will pop up. For example, guests may be invited to join an elite smuggling ring, hide a stowaway or break a prisoner out of a brig. Dressing up in costume is encouraged.
Stays include two nights in one of the hotel’s 100 rooms, valet parking, food and drinks at an on-site restaurant with themed food and dinner shows that are part of the plot. Entry to Hollywood Studios on day two, which is also folded into the storyline of a guest's stay, is also included. The hotel will open in the spring of 2022.
Pricing details revealed last week show the cost as $4,809 for two adult guests in a cabin, $5,299 for two adults and a child in a cabin, and $5,999 for three adults and a child in a cabin. Disney hasn’t said when it will open bookings.
Critics pointed out that the pricing seemed to compete with a cruise ship experience and that it penalized adults over children.
The Osceola News-Gazette on July 27 reported hotel occupancy data from Experience Kissimmee indicating that travel to the Orlando area has been bouncing back from pre-coronavirus levels.
Hotel occupancy rose from 27.7% in January to 61.4% in June, and the average daily rate of an Osceola County hotel room jumped from $71.96 to $88.52 during that time. Tourist development taxes in May 2021 ($4.5M) nearly matched that of May 2019 ($4.7M), the paper reported.
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