Star Wars Hotel Disney World has created a huge impact since its opening day. Here, we tell you why you should too take an interest in what it has to offer!
Disney World offers all its guests an array of hotels to choose from. All these resorts and hotels are heavily themed and unique in their ways.
You have Animal Kingdom resort if you are up for some crazy forest and safari feels. If you want to be taken back to the past, then you have the Pop Century.
If you are a lover of Disney movies, then you can choose to stay at Disney All-Star Movies resort. Most of us are already aware of the list of hotels and resort that you can choose to stay at when in Disney World.
But are you aware of the brand new hotel that could take you on a space adventure? Yes, you heard that right.
Disney World is all set to take their guests on a super thrilling experience on a Galactic Starcruiser. Disney World opened a brand new hotel called the Star Wars: Galactic Starcruiser for those of you who are not yet aware of the big and hot news.
Even though it is termed a hotel, its experience to its guests goes way beyond that term. Disney World promises to give a never-before experience to all its guests.
And that is why many of us are wondering and are curious to know how this hotel can change Disney World.
If you are excited to know as well, keep reading.
What is the Star Wars: Galactic Starcruiser?
The Disney Star Wars Hotel offers guests a cruise-like experience but sitting at a hotel. This hotel is more known to people as the hotel Star Wars. This hotel offers its guests an utterly immersive cruise adventure that goes on for two nights.
To put it more properly, the experience is more like going on a cruise but with tons of other services. Mention some of these activities are excursions, having various fun activities, having a great dining experience. All of these activities are added to the total cost of the hotel.
This immersive hotel is the most heavily themed resort there are. As it promises, this hotel treats all the Disney World guests, especially the Star Wars fans.
What to expect?
The excitement starts from the moment that you enter the hotel. This is because the hotel offers the guests a super exciting immersive storyline.
The story is that there is a ship known by the name The Halcyon, a flagship of the Chandrila Star Line. This ship is transporting you to the world of Star Wars, which is space.
To make this a virtual reality, you would be made to pass through many screens (Windows). As a part of your voyage, you would get to see everything that space can include. These include many stars, planets, and many other ships. The voyage would end once you reach the port of call, Batuu.
The screens surrounding the guests are highly advanced. Hence, not even for once would they feel that they are not in space.
There is one more thing to boost the complete experience and make one feel they are really in the Star Wars universe. Disney encourages all the guests to cosplay the character they love the most in Star Wars.
That literally means, wherever you look, you would see all the Star Wars characters walking and talking. Is that not like a dream come true?
Well, you would be more excited to know that you would be able to choose the way your story unfolds. If you want, you can choose to help the smugglers. Also, you can choose to join the First Order and be a part of the Resistance. It is entirely up to you.
There are various things to do on this two-night, extremely adventurous cruise. You can learn to fly the ship, participate in a fashion show, take lightsaber training and do a couple of many other things.
How can Star Wars Hotel Disney change WDW if it is successful?
Let us look at the areas that might get affected directly if the Star Wars Hotel is a hit:
Price Increase
To put it funnily, Disney World loves the two-word phrase, Price Increase. It is now and then that we get to hear a price increase that has taken place at Disney World.
In the recent past, we have come across many price increases. Disney World announced prices increases in many sectors, including ticket prices, food and lodging prices, and some rides and attractions.
The Star Wars hotel will undoubtedly be one of the most expensive hotels of Disney World. And that is high because of the all-inclusive nature that it has.
Well, to put it more precisely, if you think you would plan the stay at this hotel on a budget, you cannot.
We are sure that you must be wondering why that is so. Well, this is because the hotel follows an all-inclusive procedure.
To follow this, you would have to pay for everything inside the hotel, even if you do not want to do it.
For example, you may not want to go on an excursion or do lightsaber training, but you would have to pay for all. Hence, every guest pays the same price to be at the hotel.
According to Disney World, this is done to encourage the guests to experience everything to the fullest.
That is why they have not kept the option of customizing the package. Additionally, you cannot just walk in at the hotel and have a stroll. For that too, you would have to pay for the complete package.
Ip-immersive Experiences
IP here stands for intellectual property. The Star Wars hotel Disney is the very first of the ip-immersive experience hotel that WDW is going to experiment with.
As we have mentioned previously, this hotel comes with a story that they send their guest to experience virtually.
If this hotel becomes a hit, we are sure to experience many more of such hotels. We are all aware of the multiple options that Disney World can surprise its fans. We mean, who would not want to be a wizard in a Harry Potter-themed hotel for some days. Or, who would not want to live with Winnie, The Pooh, on a Hundred Acre Woods. Or, who would not want to be with the avengers in one such hotel? Well, the list of options is enormous, right?
And we cannot lie; just the thought of such immersive hotels is getting our adrenaline going at its peak.
We have some of these theme-based restaurants already. The first amongst them is the Storybook Dining at Artist Point.
At this restaurant, we get to experience the feels of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. Another restaurant opening soon is the Roundup Rodeo BBQ at the Hollywood Studios.
This Toy Story theme-based restaurant also has come up with a story of its own that you get to live while dining.
However, just like everything else, these hotels also come with their own drawbacks. This is mostly in the case of a group where all of them do not want to do the same thing.
The good thing about Disney World is that there are a variety of options that you would find close to each other.
So even though the group may have to split to experience doing the things they are a fan of, they would also be close to one another.
Galaxy’s Edge would see more crowds
Another thing that we will witness is a lot of crowds at the Galaxy Edge that is at the Hollywood Studios. This is since the guests who would stay at the Star Wars hotel Disney would be taken to Batuu for an excursion. This excursion is a part of the hotel’s itinerary. Batuu is located at the Hollywood Studio at the Galaxy Edge.
To do the quick math, the hotel houses over 100 rooms. Each of these rooms can accommodate two to four guests.
Hence, you would get to see at least 200 to 400 people all at the same time. Hence, you can easily imagine the crowds you would witness if you were there.
We know by now you must be wondering what you can do to avoid the crowd, right? The best thing that you could do is look at the schedule before you plan your day.
Once you get a look at the schedule, you will know the exact days when the Star Wars guests would be at Batuu. Thus, you can avoid being at the Galaxy Edge simultaneously. But then this also has its perks. The crowd at the Galaxy Edge would help reduce the crowd from other places.
However, this would also be problematic for all the guests who would want to be at the attractions Millennium Falcon: Smuggler’s Run and Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance.
The Star Wars Galactic Starcruiser hotel guests would not have to wait in the queue to be here. This would cause problems for the other guests who would thus have to wait in really long and tiring queues.
Controlling stay lengths
Well, we all know that it is us who get to choose the number of days we want to stay at any hotel. But that is not the case when staying at the Walt Disney World Star Wars hotel.
Before, we had mentioned how you would have to pay for the complete package even though you do not want to enjoy certain activities. Continuing on the same point of having the upper hand, here comes our second point.
The Walt Disney Star Wars hotel decides on the number of days you get to stay there. According to the package, you can stay at this place only for 2 nights and 3 days. All the activities of this immersive hotel are planned only to take the said time.
As of now, there is no way to extend your stay at the hotel. However, we are unaware that such a feature will get introduced soon.
For now, once your stay time at the Star Wars hotel is over, you would have to move out and accommodate in some other hotel.
It is said that Disney World is doing to increase the turnover of its guests. That means that they want to make their guests come back and stay for a shorter period. They do not want their guests just to come once and stay for a more extended time.
But that is not so easy to get as one can easily say it. Getting instant rooms in the Disney World hotel is a thing that depends heavily on luck. Hence, the best thing is to plan everything in advance and book your rooms in another resort before your visit there.
The experience will not include theme parks
What we are all very aware of by now is that a stay at the Star Wars hotel is going to cost us all a fortune. And this is more because you cannot customize your package adding and deducting the attractions and activities of your own choice.
Hence, every guest would have to pay the same price to be in the immersive hotel. Along with that, you would be able to stay at this hotel for a period of 2 nights and 3 days only.
But, with all these comes another point. Imagine spending some much money and not being able to see any of the parks. Sounds crazy, does it not?
But that is exactly what you would be doing when you would book a stay at the Star Wars hotel.
The itinerary is planned so that you spend all your time at the hotel itself. Hence, if you want to experience the parks, you would have to book rooms at some other hotel and go there on some other day. But that again would cost you separately.
Why is the Star Wars hotel controversial?
The hotel is undoubtedly one of the most rooted for hotels of Disney World. There is a huge fan base who had been waiting for the Star Wars hotel opening date.
And why not, this immersive hotel will be nothing close to what we have experienced so far at Disney World. This hotel promises 3 days and 2 nights of pure bliss since March 1, 2022.
But along with all the perks, the Star Wars hotel is also subjected to many controversies. That is solely due o how expensive it is.
We are sure many of you are not aware of the cost of staying at the hotel. Let us thus have a look at the same.
The starting price of the ticket is $749 per person per night. The price, however, varies according to the number of people traveling together. Let us look at the price of other packages.
Star Wars hotel price
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Let us look at how much the tickets cost per hour for each guest. We calculated the same, and it costs from $33.33 to $53.43 for each guest each hour. That is undoubtedly a lot.
This massive price for each guest makes it subject to a lot of controversies. A majority of people assume that the hotel might not be at par with the amount it is charging its guests.
The controversy sparked more when Disney World released an official video as a teaser of the hotel. The hotel since then is termed not up to the mark considering the price. The video was shortly deleted after, but the controversy has not died down since.
The rooms are also sometimes becoming available, clearly indicating that people are also canceling their reservations. Hence, we are all somewhere looking forward to how the hotel would eventually turn out to be once it is open to all.
