Disney’s Star Wars: Galactic Starcruiser has got to be one of the company’s biggest projects in years. Maybe even decades. At a glance, it just sounds like a Star Wars-themed hotel, little different from one of Disney’s other themed locales that you would typically find at the Walt Disney World Resort in Orlando, Florida. However, that veneer is easily punctured when you take a deeper look into the specifics of the project.
A closer look at Star Wars: Galactic Starcruiser reveals that it’s less a hotel and more of a sort of landlocked cruise ship. Visitors are locked into two-day stays there, and they aren’t supposed to leave the hotel save for a brief excursion to Galaxy’s Edge. The entire experience even came with a scripted storyline, with visitors expected to dress up and act along with that storyline. All enhanced by an app…that admittedly was a bit buggy.
All in all, the entire stay less resembled a typical hotel stay, and more resembled a Star Wars LARP-ing session. Which Disney delivered at a ridiculously great cost to themselves. No one knows exactly how much Disney spent on this hotel. However, estimates run as high as $1 billion USD for the total cost of the project. In other words: it was a giant money sinkhole Disney was pouring all that cash into. Which might explain why even minimum room rates costed two people an eye-watering $4,800 USD.
Alas, it’s a money sinkhole that Disney decided was too much even for them. Star Wars: Galactic Starcruiser officially opened on March 1, 2022. Then a mere 18 months on September 30, 2025; Disney shut down that very hotel. Rumors persisted afterwards that Disney might one day reopen that shuttered Star Wars luxury hotel experience. Alas, the latest news have put an end to that. After all, you can’t really do that with a bunch of offices.
Turning Star Wars: Galactic Starcruiser into Offices: Details
TheWrap has just come out with the news that Disney is planning to turn the former Star Wars: Galactic Starcruiser building into a big and expensive office. According to them, several sources (including someone close to Disney) reported that Walt Disney Imagineering will take over the new offices once they’re built.
According to WDI, they want to use the building as a “hub” for expanding into several planned projects for Disney’s Hollywood Studios. This would include a Latin America area for Encanto and Indiana Jones, a Cars area, a Disney Villains area, and even a Monsters Inc. land. With a quiet mention that the last one will replace the beloved Muppet*Vision 3D and the rest of the Muppet Courtyard. Alas, the little Muppets never stood a chance against capitalism.
Even more unfortunately, we have no idea when these other areas will arrive. Even TheWrap can only speculated that it will likely take “years” before any of these projects come to fruition. Honestly, we can only be certain of one thing. That is: we’re probably going to be able to afford these visits, unlike with Star Wars: Galactic Starcruiser.
Source: TheWrap
