Remember the infamous Star Wars Hotel, officially known as the Star Wars: Galactic Starcruiser? This immersive hotel experience had a short run (and a high price tag), closing just one year after opening in early 2022. Ever since the building, which is located just outside Disney’s Hollywood Studios, closed in 2023, Disney fans have wondered what would happen to the hotel. Well, in a new report by Drew Taylor at TheWrap, it seems like Disney has no plans to welcome guests back inside this building.
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Star Wars Hotel cabin
TheWrap reported that sources close to Disney revealed that the Galactic Starcruiser building will be used as office space for Walt Disney Imagineering. This means the hotel rooms may soon be converted into offices.
The report explained that Disney Imagineers “will be using the building as a hub for several expansion projects,” including the new Pueblo Esperanza land coming to Disney’s Animal Kingdom, the Cars and Villains Land in Magic Kingdom, and the Monsters, INC. land in Disney’s Hollywood Studios. Several of these projects are an active work-in-progress in Disney World.
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©Disney
While many Disney fans speculated that this hotel could be converted into a unique dining experience (given that the hotel already has a large restaurant and dining space inside), “TheWrap has now been told, quite firmly, that the building will not be accessible to guests at all.”
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Galactic Starcruiser
To access the Star Wars hotel, guests had to take a special shuttle from Disney’s Hollywood Studios or drive through an area close to Disney’s Hollywood Studios Cast Member parking. It’s possible that Disney opted to shield the hotel from guests to avoid the hassle of transporting people to and from the hotel — otherwise, Disney would have to break the immersion of Disney’s Hollywood Studios or make the restaurant a park-exclusive offering not accessible via car.
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INSIDE the Galactic Starcruiser
That said, it seems like Disney is testing a “potential dining experience in the theme park” inspired by the Star Wars story. TheWrap reported that Cast Members have been playtesting new experiences that could be part of a new dinner theater experience similar to what was available on the Galactic Starcruiser.
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Ouannii
Back when Disney first announced the concept for its Star Wars-themed bar, Oga’s Cantina, the idea was a little more grand than what was eventually created. The initial plans called for a dinner theater-type experience but were eventually cut back to a smaller, space-themed bar. It’s possible Disney could mix elements from the Star Wars: Galactic Starcruiser and Oga’s Cantina to make something new.
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Oga’s Cantina Concept Art ©Disney
Back when Disney announced its new hotel was closing, the company said, “Star Wars: Galactic Starcruiser is one of our most creative projects ever and has been praised by our guests and recognized for setting a new bar for innovation and immersive entertainment. This premium boutique experience gave us the opportunity to try new things on a smaller scale of 100 rooms, and as we prepare for its final voyage, we will take what we’ve learned to create future experiences that can reach more of our guests and fans.”
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Dining on the Galactic Starcruiser
The true reason for the hotel’s closure is still widely discussed among Disney fans. Between the price ($6,000 for a two-day trip for a group of four), the confusing marketing, and the bad publicity, the hotel got off to a bad start.
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Chewbacca in the engineering room
Ultimately, this was a niche experience for a very specific group of Star Wars fans. This wasn’t just a regular Disney hotel! The Star Wars: Galactic Starcruiser was a two-day, two-night all-inclusive “hotel experience,” which was basically a mixture of a murder-mystery-dinner-theater adventure, escape room, cruise, and choose-your-own-adventure game, all wrapped into one experience. While the first few months welcomed hundreds of guests to sold-out bookings, interest quickly dwindled and Disney seemed unable to fill its rooms.
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Captain Kevan of the Halcyon
Disney has not commented on its plans for the building. In the meantime, we’re always on the lookout for the latest Disney news, so stay tuned for more.
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What do you think about this decision? What would you have done with the space? Let us know in the comments!
This hotel was so much fun! I wish they could do a dinner show experience or something similar. We still listen to the Gaya soundtrack! Dinner and a Gaya performance would a great addition to the parks.
Why, Disney, WHY?!?
It would be so easy to simply make this a Star Wars themed hotel!
I have been a SW fan since ’77 (showing my age here!), and I would gladly pay deluxe-hotel prices to stay in this hotel, but I didn’t want to play along or have LARP-style experiences. I just think it would be cool to stay in a SW-themed hotel – maybe with back-door access to Galaxy’s Edge.
Disney’s definitely leaving a lot of money on the table here.
Hopefully that means they’re gonna get rid of the offices that are in the middle of Hollywood Studios.
I agree making this a Star Wars hotel does seem like a lost opportunity. Though only at 100 rooms, it would definitely be the smallest it sounds like unless they added more rooms by presumably gutting the other experience areas. Plus with an exclusive potential entry to HS would be appealing too.
On a conceptual level this ‘hotel experience’ was a very hard sell. We talked about going there until I told my wife what it entailed (2 days being in Star Wars doing side missions) and we watched a few videos from our favorite Disney vloggers. Disney already requires a level of pre-work to make the trip ‘worth the investment’. The Star Wars Galactic Starcruiser felt like a buffet with a bunch of secret menu items. Yeah, you could enjoy yourself, BUT if you knew a few other things you could have had a truly magical experience. It does appear that Disney might have learned something from this ‘hotel’, the Disney Destiny has been reported to have a Hero and a Villain story where you can choose which path you would like. Now imagine taking that simple step of choosing Resistance, First Order, or Scoundrel and having a basic path before you with some twists and turns to make it unique.
Surprised they didn’t turn this into a DVC resort! Everything else is becoming DVC.
Fitting Imagineering offices!
Agree with you Kurt!
What a shame! I would have loved to visit for a dinner and characters. Maybe someday after all the new plans are completed.
It’s a shame that this is being turned into a non-guest area, but I hope the Imagineers do enjoy it. I find it very hard to believe that even going in to the project, Disney thought that there would be sufficient demand at the price point to keep it going. I almost wonder if they knew it would have a short lifespan, like some sort of huge market test. We could have gone, and would have liked to eventually, but for us it was more about preferring to do other things with our money (and limited vacation time). The idea that even people who could afford it would choose this over other things to do with not just their money, but their time, was a misread. As Kurt said – hopefully this means moving the offices that are taking up precious park space in HS, and we can see some genuine expansion in that area eventually and not continue having to lose something in order to get new things.
I am also disappointed and agree that it should have been a “Deluxe” hotel experience, without the mandatory immersion – but I am sure the finance team did the maths. Hopefully, they will learn something from this and continue to create other opportunities for even deeper immersion for the average visitor!
Wish they would just build a Star Wars resort hotel (like Animal Kingdom Lodge, The Polynesian, etc.) that would be so much fun, and available to those not able to spend that kind of money for two days, with so many restrictions.
Awww, I am sad I never was able to experience galactic starcruiser. I wish they could have kept it as just a resort on a level to reach more people. However, maybe someday they will do something similar on a cheaper version. So long Star Wars hotel!
Why not keep it a hotel & dining experience. Disney is so hung up on making money, they have a gold mine there. Keep it open to car traffic so those not attending Galaxies Edge can use it.
I was hoping they would make it a Pixar Place Hotel (similar to Anaheim) and rename Hollywood Studios “Pixar Park”.
Wow. Powerful vision and imagination, Bob and Josh! How long did it take you to come up with this idea?