Credit: DisneyNearly a year after Disney closed its immersive Galactic Starcruiser, hints about the future of the shuttered experience remain throughout the Walt Disney World Resort in Florida.
Disney has played coy when asked what it plans on doing with the massive building, which has sat empty since closing last September.
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The Walt Disney Company took an incredibly large risk in creating, designing, and developing Star Wars: Galactic Starcruiser. This theme park cruise ship hybrid experience was one of the most exciting and unexpected projects to come from Walt Disney Imagineering in quite some time, and it cost an estimated $400 million to build.
However, tragedy would strike in 2023, with Disney closing its Galactic Starcruiser a little over a year after it first opened.
Disney’s Starcruiser Troubles
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Disney’s Galactic Starcruiser officially opened on March 1, 2022, ushering in a new age for both Walt Disney Imagineering and the Disney theme parks in general. This new Star Wars experience was advertised as a first-of-its-kind, ultra-immersive experience unlike anything ever seen at a Disney park.
The Galactic Starcruiser was also deeply connected to Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge, a Star Wars-themed land located in Disney’s Hollywood Studios.
Essentially, Disney’s Galactic Starcruiser was a miniature cruise-ship experience, offering guests a two-night, three-day adventure aboard the fictional Halcyon Starcruiser. One part hotel, one part cruise ship, and one part attraction, Disney attempted to blur the lines of theme park entertainment, creating an immersive, fully realized spaceship in which guests could live out their very own Star Wars stories.
During their brief stay aboard the Halcyon, guests would encounter a variety of Star Wars characters, ranging from the friendly Chewbacca to the terrifying Kylo Ren.
However, this experience came with a heavy price tag, costing an average family of four thousand upon thousands of dollars. As a result, bookings quickly dried up for Disney’s Starcruiser, so much so that Disney closed the experience entirely in September of 2023.
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The Galactic Starcruiser has sat empty for almost a year now, though certain clues indicate Disney is not planning to eliminate its Starcruiser experience anytime soon. Guests visiting Galaxy’s Edge can still see the area where Starcruiser guests would be shuttled into the land.
Starcruiser merchandise has made its way into the theme parks, both at Walt Disney World and Disneyland. Guests can also spot various signage around the Walt Disney World Resort that shows them how to get this now-defunct experience.
As shown in a photo from Doctor Disney, road signs still point guests toward the Galactic Starcruiser despite it closing last year.
Over the last several months, Disney executives, like Experiences Chairman Josh D’Amaro, stated the project was incredibly exciting and teased future attempts at creating immersive and innovative experiences like the Starcruiser, “Those learnings are being employed on the next experiences, which we haven’t even announced yet.”
Disney stated that “something” will eventually happen with the now-abandoned Galactic Starcruiser, but the company has remained extremely silent regarding this topic. However, clues about the Star Wars hotel’s future remain sprinkled throughout the Walt Disney World Resort in Florida, indicating it won’t be demolished any time soon.
Given the incredibly high price tag of construction, it’s likely guests will see the space used for an upcoming attraction at some point in the future.
Did you get to experience Disney’s Galactic Starcruiser?