Disney World’s ‘Star Wars’ experience closed after just 18 months — this travel influencer reveals why
The Force was not with them.
A YouTuber recently released a four-hour video sharing her previous visit to the Walt Disney World Resort’s Star Wars: Galactic Starcruiser experience, revealing why she wasn’t shocked that it shut down after just 18 months.
The Galactic Starcruise opened in March 2022, and Disney announced its closure in May 2023 with the last guests served in September 2023.
YouTuber Jenny Nicholson posted the deep dive early this week looking back at her time at the “Star Wars”-themed hotel and live-action roleplay experience.
And despite its length, the clip has amassed more than 4 million views and mesmerized all with the shocking, expensive mess of it all.
She shared that she spent more than $6,000 for her and another guest — about $2 per person per minute, she calculated — to share one room on the Galactic Starcruiser.
Her verdict: the whole thing was out-of-this-world overpriced and underwhelming, leading to its early shutdown.
“If the value of something is what people are willing to pay, I can objectively say the Disney company charged too much for this experience because time showed that the majority of people on this Earth were not willing to pay it,” she declared in the video.
The Galactic Starcruiser was advertised as an “immersive, customizable ‘Star Wars’ experience” where guests were encouraged to dress up and were guided through a three-day-long franchise storyline complete with a full itinerary played through a special app.
But Nicholson complained about a dinner show with a bad view, mini-games she thought were boring and pointless, and some actors who didn’t engage with her attempts to role-play.
She also noted that the already hefty price tag didn’t cover the full experience as they had to shell out more cash for some features, such as watching a Disney movie in the hotel room.
“Disney has always had high prices, but they also have a reputation for quality,” the reviewer said in the video. “This was more than they’ve ever charged for an experience before, so the logic followed that this would be the greatest experience they’ve ever offered.”
This comes as additional junk fees have become a major point of contention in many industries, including airlines and credit cards.
Some people came to the hotel’s defense in the comments, but Nicholson pointed to the hotel’s closure as her validation.
“Here’s my supporting evidence: The hotel went out of business,” Nicholson said in the video. “If the value of something is what people are willing to pay, I can objectively say the Disney company charged too much for this experience, because time showed that the majority of people on this Earth were not willing to pay it.”
