Quote from: Omega on May 30, 2024, 05:03:14 AM

Quote from: yosemitemike on May 29, 2024, 06:15:45 PMThe basic reason is simple.  It cost $6,000 or more for a family to stay there for a two day stay that isn't even all-inclusive.  That's way too much for a two day stay at a theme hotel.   

It was more than a theme hotel.

It was a hotel combined with a (poorly thought out) LARP.

Based around the sequels, expensive as fuck too.

Has anyone ever released the internal numbers on the hotel?

I know there were only 100 total rooms. So let's say 5,000 bookings a year.

I'm guessing Disney spent an extra let's say $10 million over and above the cost of building a basic hotel, for the snazzy space decorations and the imagineering behind them.

If they wanted to break even in two years, $10M / 10,000 bookings = $1000 per room just to pay for the public spaces.

That's assuming they ran once a week, they could probably run twice a week if they had the staffing. Normal hotels run seven days a week, but Galactic Starcruiser wasn't normal.

It's early in the morning and I haven't had my coffee, so take these numbers with a grain of salt.

Quote from: GeekyBugle on May 30, 2024, 10:55:51 PM

Quote from: Omega on May 30, 2024, 05:03:14 AM

Quote from: yosemitemike on May 29, 2024, 06:15:45 PMThe basic reason is simple.  It cost $6,000 or more for a family to stay there for a two day stay that isn't even all-inclusive.  That's way too much for a two day stay at a theme hotel.   

It was more than a theme hotel.

It was a hotel combined with a (poorly thought out) LARP.

Based around the sequels, expensive as fuck too.

6000$ minimum for 2 nights and 2 people. NOT including other expenses.

And yeah. Sequel era.

Quote from: Lurkndog on May 31, 2024, 08:12:08 AMHas anyone ever released the internal numbers on the hotel?

I know there were only 100 total rooms. So let's say 5,000 bookings a year.

I'm guessing Disney spent an extra let's say $10 million over and above the cost of building a basic hotel, for the snazzy space decorations and the imagineering behind them.

If they wanted to break even in two years, $10M / 10,000 bookings = $1000 per room just to pay for the public spaces.

it was something like 3k per person, but near the end seemed to drop to around 2k before extras. And if you opted to spend part of the stay at Galaxies Edge, that could cost you alot more.

Assuming an average of 3 people then that is 7200 so upwards of what 30mil a year? IF they filled all rooms every time.

We now know what the wrong amount to charge was.

What would have been the right amount to charge for a Star Wars themed hotel? And working backwards from that, what should guests have expected.

I'll start with $400 a night. What that should buy you is themed decor, blue milk at breakfast, and access to a Star Wars themed nightclub with some musical and dance acts, followed by one of the movies. You also get an all expense paid pass to Galaxy's Edge/Disney World.

No LARP. You're going to the park during the day.

I also like the idea of changing the era every year, like the Renaissance Faire does. One year is Original Trilogy, the next it's Prequel Era, then Sequel Era. Maybe even theme them by individual movies. The entrance to the land carries signage that gives a synopsis of the era, very much like the opening crawl of the movies.

Quote from: Lurkndog on June 02, 2024, 05:41:39 PMI'll start with $400 a night.

That's not how Orlando works.

Quote from: Lurkndog on June 02, 2024, 05:41:39 PMNo LARP. You're going to the park during the day.

People did that normally without the hotel.

The high price was supposed ti be an experience like being part of a movie. But unlike the Star Trek Vegas attraction. You did not get a VHS of it afterwards.

I think they had the right idea. But overextended and dropped the ball advertising and actuating some of the things going on there.

Quote from: Omega on June 03, 2024, 03:28:39 AM

Quote from: Lurkndog on June 02, 2024, 05:41:39 PMNo LARP. You're going to the park during the day.

People did that normally without the hotel.

The high price was supposed ti be an experience like being part of a movie. But unlike the Star Trek Vegas attraction. You did not get a VHS of it afterwards.

Right, but it was way too expensive and it didn't work, so I am trying to figure out how they could have scaled it down to something the market would bear.

The basic problems are that it costs too much run for a small hotel with only 100 rooms.  That means they have to charge guests more than the vast majority of people are willing to pay in order to recoup their costs.  What they need to do is to drastically reduce costs.  It might work if they scaled it down to something like dinner theater.  Instead of trying to do this full time immersive LARP thing, there would be maybe 3 shows a day.  They could have a different show for each trilogy.  The rest of the time it would just be a hotel with staff in Star Wars costume.  That would simplify the logistics of it and reduce labor costs quite a lot.  You wouldn't need such a rigid schedule of events to create the experience full time or a staff of actors that are on and in character all the time.  You could also get customers that are not staying at that hotel for showings.  That would greatly expand the potential number of customers.     

I think they tried to do too much with it and underestimated just how much the system could and very did fail if a visitor failed to hit one of the ques. Like the video shows one slip up and your whole experience gets thrown way the hell off.

Too regimented. Which is a pitfall some LARP events can suffer.

One other thing they could have done, but AFAIK didn't:

In the current Star Wars media, characters converse over long distances via holo-projector, where there is a small disc on the bridge of a starship, or in a building, and it projects a small image of the person you are talking to. I guess it all goes back to the holo of Princess Leia R2D2 was carrying in Star Wars.

Anyway, hologram projectors exist in real life. It would be cool to have one, and have it be a way of interacting with taped holos of named characters they can't afford to have on site.

They are also expensive for the good ones.

But yah a holo projector, even a simple prism and mirror arrangement could have been done on the cheap and still look passable.

I do not recall any of the videos showing holograms. But they may have just not shown right.

But you still have the problem if the adventure system being buggy as hell. Without a fix to that everything else falls apart as was shown.

There is a small rumor that they may try to retool it to Marvel. Cant see that working with anything other than Guardians of the Galaxy. They'd sure as hell need to fix the adventure system first.

Quote from: Omega on June 07, 2024, 03:05:49 PMThey are also expensive for the good ones.

But yah a holo projector, even a simple prism and mirror arrangement could have been done on the cheap and still look passable.

I do not recall any of the videos showing holograms. But they may have just not shown right.

In the video, there were a few holograms in the lobby, and one that was part of a scripted event.

2:52:40 on Jenny's video.

For me, the crazy part was that, at $6,000+ for two nights, it wasn't even all inconclusive.  If you wanted to do the lightsaber building thing, that cost extra.  If you wanted to do the build a droid thing, that cost extra.  If you wanted to go to the cantina, that cost extra and there was a time limit.  It just stank of trying to milk more money out of people who were already paying an exorbitant amount.

The lightsaber thing was in the Galaxies Edge theme part outside. Effectively two different places you just had a little window to venture out onto. Which might cost you hotel events.

You had to schedule the lightsaber or droid building stuff no matter. The lightsabers were pretty nifty. But you could likely not carry them around in the hotel since they did not permit alot of things.

But yeah. 6000$ plus add ons adds up to alot really quick. You could easily top 7000$ if you splurged.