Disney Parks and Resorts just announced that reservations for Star Wars: Galactic Starcruiser – WDW Star Wars Hotel two-day and two-night vacation all-immersive experience that will take you to a galaxy far, far away – will open later this year, the hotel itself opening in 2021.
In a new video Ann Morrow Johnson, executive producer for Walt Disney Imagineering explain: “You’re going to live onboard a star cruiser…and you can get wrapped up in the larger Star Wars story.”
New artworks, including for the rooms design, have been released but check first the video and i'll see you right after it as there is more to say about it.
Now, here are screen captures done from the video, and the two first ones show the outdoor entrance of the hotel, when you'll arrive by car, or taxi, bus, or whatever. So far it doesn't look much different from a regular hotel.
Then, after you took the shuttle which will blast guests to the Galactic Starcruiser...
...you'll arrive in the Galactic Starcruiser lobby...
...before going to your room. And here we have a problem, and may be a BIG problem. The original artwork for the rooms was the first one below, showing a room which had a design that could look like a room in the Starcruiser, allowing to believe that you're really in .a Star Wars ship.
Now, the next artwork below shows the new design of the rooms, and probably the final one. And as you can see it now looks much more like a regular hotel room with a bit of Star Wars theming, but not that much, which i'm sorry to say is a very different deal.
Don't go away as there is more changes. Remember the big window in the room allowing guests to see what will be supposed to happen in outer space? The original rendering was this one below, and make sure to remember the size of the window and its proportions with the guests.
And now is the new rendering showing a room and its much much smaller window on outer space. See the difference of size and proportions?
If not, check this closer shot. As you'll see the real window on the outside is even smaller. Which means what? It means that what was looking great, immersive and an illusion that you could believe in - as it look in the first rendering - is now broken. And not to mention that a smaller window will also reinforce the feeling of claustrophobia as guests won't be able to see anything of the real outside during all their stay.
Of course the question is: why did they changed a concept which looked perfect for a design no longer exceptional and even worse, which break the magic? I think there is several reasons for that, the first one being that guests will pay a high price to spend two days in the Starcruiser and Disney may have thought that the comfort of the rooms as shown in the first rendering was may be a bit too much spartan, and that guests won't be happy to don't have a room more comfortable for the price they paid.
A more simple explanation could be that it was simply much cheaper to take a regular design of a hotel room, add a Star Wars theming on it, and that'll do it. As for the size of the window - the biggest mistake in my opinion - it's probably either a technical issue or more surely a question of money. As we know guests will have the illusion to look at outer space when in fact they will be looking at screens. Now, is there screens available as large as the window size in the first concept-art? Of course there is, but it's much more expensive than, let's say, a 65" screen, and i suspect that it might be the reason why the size of the windows have shrunk.
Disney will probably find a perfect alibi to justify that by saying that it's the normal size of windows on a Galactic Starcruiser - which by the way would be probably right if a Starcruiser was really existing - but this is missing the most important point: all the Star Wars hotel concept is to make guests believe that they've been transported high in the sky above Earth, and if the illusion doesn't work then it will wreck the experience. Okay, let's give them the benefit of the doubt until we see the real thing when it opens next year, but there is big doubts now.
The video also include a few more renderings showing activities that guests will be able to enjoy in the Starcruiser, here they are.
Pictures: copyright Disney
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