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Credit: DisneyWhen it opened in 2022, it seemed to be the perfect guest experience. Star Wars fans would finally get their chance to live in a galaxy far, far away, and be a part of the Star Wars universe.
Prior to its opening, one magazine referred to the experimental hotel as “Westworld for Star Wars fans.” Disney CEO Bob Chapek leaned into that description, calling it “the most experimental concept ever.” This is a big statement from The Walt Disney Company, which is known for experimental concepts.
Estimates put the cost of Star Wars: Galactic Starcruiser at $350 million and possibly as high as $1 billion, although Disney has said that it wasn’t that much. With Disney not sparing any expense and a diehard fanbase, what could possibly go wrong?
Almost immediately, the immersive Star Wars experience began to fall apart. The cost for two guests for two days and two nights was $4,800, which kept many people away from the hotel experience.
Those who could afford Star Wars; Galactic Starcruise complained that the activities weren’t that great and relied too heavily on an app that frequently ran into problems. And just like that, after less than two years of operation, Disney’s most “experimental” hotel closed.
Despite the failure and criticism of the Galactic Starcruiser, many guests truly enjoyed their experiences there, and now they have turned it into a new film.
Halcyon Daze
Halcyon Daze: The Final Voyages of Disney’s Star Wars: Galactic Starcruiser goes inside the Disney hotel’s fall, but the film also talks to some of the actors and guests who truly enjoyed their experiences there to get a better understanding of what the Star Wars hotel could have been.
Carrie Coaplen, a four-time Starcruiser guest and director, has in-depth interviews and films from the final days of the Starcruiser. The documentary focuses on people who came together through their experiences at the hotel and asks, “What’s next for them and the fallen Star Wars hotel?”
The film’s website describes the film as:
Halcyon Daze: The Final Voyages of Disney’s Star Wars Galactic Starcruiser is a documentary feature film currently in production following one passenger’s journey from casual interest to full on obsession with Disney’s one of a kind, award winning yet short lived, interactive theater experience, immersing viewers in a universe of live action adventure and colorful characters, as well as in the profound feelings shared by dedicated cast members and fixated fans.
Most of the coverage of the Galactic Starcruiser has been negative. However, there were people who enjoyed their time there and frequently returned to the hotel. This is a different perspective on what has been described as Disney’s biggest failure ever.
With Star Wars: Galactic Starcruiser being turned into office space for Disney Imagineering as they build the new Monsters, Inc. Land at Hollywood Studios, fans have realized that this Star Wars experience will never return.
The film will premiere on July 27 in Dayton, followed by a behind-the-scenes brunch and a test screening. May the Force Be With Halcyon Daze.