I agree on your point about the vital role of music in immersive experiences. I see it when I play video games and how, later, when I am listening to the soundtrack, I instinctively tense up when a combat song comes on, because I started subconsciously associating it with fighting. I will also never cease to be impressed with the skill of the performers, because being able to keep that many things in mind at the same time, balancing the script they have to follow and improvising based on what the passengers do, is honestly incredible.
I am honestly surprised that they didn't go harder on the story-element of the experience. Like a Star Wars-themed hotel is nice and all, especially for a fan, I am sure, but being told that you can be part of the story might convince even people that aren't die hard fans to go.
I think that with better marketing and more time, this would've surely gotten more successful. Especially since I am almost 100% sure that with the money Disney makes from its parks in general whatever loss came from this was not that much of a hit at the end of the day.
Fine piece, and one of the better explanations of what the thing was all about. I am not a Star Wars fan, but the idea of being in an immersive shipboard experience in *any* property is exciting. It reminds me of the attention to detail in Universal Studios' Hogwarts/Diagon Alley.
While I think your "why it failed" analysis is correct, there is also the factor that folks who love Star Wars THAT MUCH that an immersive weekend like this sounds fun is a relatively narrow niche, add in the pricetag and your Venn diagram overlap of those who CAN and those who WANT TO becomes a narrow sliver. (At the same time, if they're paying the company anything close what they're worth, the pricetag makes sense. It's just too much for a casual fan, though.)
I do not think it's as narrow as some people seem invested in believing it is. It's absolutely possible to enjoy this experience without being as much of a Star Wars nut as I am -- and I know that because I've heard that testimony from others. I watched it play out with a few folks in-person during my trip. The story brings you along with what you need to know about it. You don't *have* to be THAT MUCH of a Star Wars fan -- but you do have to be interested in an immersive experience, and I think the larger failure is in not reaching people who don't yet know they're interested in that because it's a new concept to most people. But once they hear about it and understand what it is, they're interested. *That's* the hurdle.
And, I mean, FFS, Star Wars is one of the world's largest franchises. It's not a niche geek thing anymore. 60000-70000 people attend Celebration.
I am so everloving tired of hearing about the pricetag, to be honest. If you put four or five adults in the room, it becomes comparable to many, many other types of vacation that people don't whinge about. For a family of four, yeah, you might be able to get an extra... oh, I'd say two nights? at a moderate Disney resort? when you factor in food, theme park tickets, and all the other add-ons attendant on your average Disney trip -- and which would still not get you the level of service and attention you get at the Starcruiser, to say nothing of the depth of the entertainment.
It's also certainly not more of expense than a lot of sporting event weekends, concert-going weekends, convention-going weekends, participating in a wedding let alone actually being the one throwing that party... So I'm just really, really tired of people saying "oh the price" as though that actually explains the failure. No. It doesn't.
I mean, to be fair, I'm an exceedingly frugal person who balks at a LOT of pricetags, so that's my biases right there. And I'm not saying the pricetag was wrong-- A troupe of highly skilled improv actors alone justifies the cost! -- but it certainly was a barrier for a lot of folks. You are right that it something like this should have had more opportunity to operate at a loss to build up its base and let people who would need to save up for a few years a chance to do it.
Yeah -- it's definitely not something that can be an impulse purchase for the vast majority of people (although I will tell you I was seriously considering using a FB suitemate finder group to find an open bunk so I could go again literally this month), but if they'd allowed more room... Maybe operated only twice a week, so they'd be at higher capacity, and allowed booking 12-18 months out... I very much think they would've seen that the demands was higher than they realized. People just needed time.
I agree on your point about the vital role of music in immersive experiences. I see it when I play video games and how, later, when I am listening to the soundtrack, I instinctively tense up when a combat song comes on, because I started subconsciously associating it with fighting. I will also never cease to be impressed with the skill of the performers, because being able to keep that many things in mind at the same time, balancing the script they have to follow and improvising based on what the passengers do, is honestly incredible.
I am honestly surprised that they didn't go harder on the story-element of the experience. Like a Star Wars-themed hotel is nice and all, especially for a fan, I am sure, but being told that you can be part of the story might convince even people that aren't die hard fans to go.
I think that with better marketing and more time, this would've surely gotten more successful. Especially since I am almost 100% sure that with the money Disney makes from its parks in general whatever loss came from this was not that much of a hit at the end of the day.
Fine piece, and one of the better explanations of what the thing was all about. I am not a Star Wars fan, but the idea of being in an immersive shipboard experience in *any* property is exciting. It reminds me of the attention to detail in Universal Studios' Hogwarts/Diagon Alley.
Alas. Maybe Musk can buy it... ;)
While I think your "why it failed" analysis is correct, there is also the factor that folks who love Star Wars THAT MUCH that an immersive weekend like this sounds fun is a relatively narrow niche, add in the pricetag and your Venn diagram overlap of those who CAN and those who WANT TO becomes a narrow sliver. (At the same time, if they're paying the company anything close what they're worth, the pricetag makes sense. It's just too much for a casual fan, though.)
I do not think it's as narrow as some people seem invested in believing it is. It's absolutely possible to enjoy this experience without being as much of a Star Wars nut as I am -- and I know that because I've heard that testimony from others. I watched it play out with a few folks in-person during my trip. The story brings you along with what you need to know about it. You don't *have* to be THAT MUCH of a Star Wars fan -- but you do have to be interested in an immersive experience, and I think the larger failure is in not reaching people who don't yet know they're interested in that because it's a new concept to most people. But once they hear about it and understand what it is, they're interested. *That's* the hurdle.
And, I mean, FFS, Star Wars is one of the world's largest franchises. It's not a niche geek thing anymore. 60000-70000 people attend Celebration.
I am so everloving tired of hearing about the pricetag, to be honest. If you put four or five adults in the room, it becomes comparable to many, many other types of vacation that people don't whinge about. For a family of four, yeah, you might be able to get an extra... oh, I'd say two nights? at a moderate Disney resort? when you factor in food, theme park tickets, and all the other add-ons attendant on your average Disney trip -- and which would still not get you the level of service and attention you get at the Starcruiser, to say nothing of the depth of the entertainment.
It's also certainly not more of expense than a lot of sporting event weekends, concert-going weekends, convention-going weekends, participating in a wedding let alone actually being the one throwing that party... So I'm just really, really tired of people saying "oh the price" as though that actually explains the failure. No. It doesn't.
I mean, to be fair, I'm an exceedingly frugal person who balks at a LOT of pricetags, so that's my biases right there. And I'm not saying the pricetag was wrong-- A troupe of highly skilled improv actors alone justifies the cost! -- but it certainly was a barrier for a lot of folks. You are right that it something like this should have had more opportunity to operate at a loss to build up its base and let people who would need to save up for a few years a chance to do it.
Yeah -- it's definitely not something that can be an impulse purchase for the vast majority of people (although I will tell you I was seriously considering using a FB suitemate finder group to find an open bunk so I could go again literally this month), but if they'd allowed more room... Maybe operated only twice a week, so they'd be at higher capacity, and allowed booking 12-18 months out... I very much think they would've seen that the demands was higher than they realized. People just needed time.