Star Wars Galactic Starcruiser at Walt Disney World to permanently close

May 18, 2023 in "Star Wars Galactic Starcruiser"

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Posted: Thursday May 18, 2023 3:20pm ET by WDWMAGIC Staff

After being in operation for just over a year, Walt Disney World's Star Wars: Galactic Starcruiser will make its final voyage on September 28, 2023 and will then permanently close.

Then Disney CEO Bob Chapek at Star Wars Galactic Starcruiser

In announcing the closure, Disney told news outlets, "Star Wars: Galactic Starcruiser is one of our most creative projects ever and has been praised by our guests and recognized for setting a new bar for innovation and immersive entertainment. This premium, boutique experience gave us the opportunity to try new things on a smaller scale of 100 rooms, and as we prepare for its final voyage, we will take what we've learned to create future experiences that can reach more of our guests and fans."

Star Wars Galactic Starcruiser overview

Disney is contacting guests booked on the cancelled Starcruiser voyages and says it hopes to relocate Cast Members to other roles at Walt Disney World.

The official Star Wars Galactic Starcruiser website has been updated with a message confirming the the closure.

The final voyage for Star Wars: Galactic Starcruiser will take place September 28-30, 2023. We are so proud of all of the Cast Members and Imagineers who brought Star Wars: Galactic Starcruiser to life and look forward to delivering an excellent experience for Guests during the remaining voyages over the coming months. Thank you to our Guests and fans for making this experience so special.

For Guests who previously booked a voyage on or after September 30, 2023, we will be contacting you soon to discuss your options and modify your plans. As we prioritize these Guests, at this time, new bookings are temporarily paused and will reopen on May 26, 2023.

Carrying a lofty price tag of around $5200 for the two-day, two-night experience, Star Wars Galactic Starcruiser launched on March 1 2022. After stronger-than-expected initial sales, Starcruiser bookings quickly stalled, forcing Disney to look to save costs and boost reservations.

Star Wars Galactic Starcruiser overview

Most recently, Disney began canceling voyages in the summer that had very few bookings, moving guests to other dates with a 50% discount for the inconvenience. Disney also offered various discounts, including Annual Passholder and Disney Vacation Club deals.

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JoeCamelJun 23, 2024

Update: The note was removed....... Think they made a sale?

Disstevefan1Jun 20, 2024

HA! you got me! PERFECT!!! I love when Universal does things like this!!

danlb_2000Jun 20, 2024

Looks like this is from the Universal Men In Black ride queue.

Disstevefan1Jun 20, 2024

Is this real or a meme?

JoeCamelJun 20, 2024

And trying to get back on topic.......

cjkeatingJun 19, 2024

Just to help correct this slightly, may still not be 100% accurate. Updates in bold. I think the only full face character actors on each voyage were: Captain Riyola Keevan Cruise Director Lenka Mok Sammie Gaya Raithe Kole Sandro Alimander Rey - day 2 only First Order Lieutenant Harman Croy First Order Colonel Grav Talis - on screen only Then a list of characters that can be done by multiple actors on the same voyage SK-62O Ouannii - believed to have been played by 2 actors per day due to the prosthetics The Saja - their numbers varied cruise by cruise and potentially day by day, 4 per day would be a good average Chewbacca - sporadically throughout both days Kylo Ren - grand finale only First Order Stormtroopers (x2) - 2 on day 1, 4 on day 2 Also I would say that all characters were 'at work' for 12 hours a day. Their start times on stage were staggered and some would be on stage more or less based on their makeup/prosthetics requirement. I did some rough maths using your $100 figure and came to the following figures... Group 1 Actors - $18,000 Group 2 Actors - $24,000 So $40,000 is probbaly a good figure. I'd love for someone to share how many on stage 'blue shirts' were on the ship each day as it felt heavily staffed but then many of them were multi-skilled. Then add in off stage staff like the chefs, technicians, transport drivers, security etc it increases further. When calculating the 'total cost' to Disney to employ the staff including all training, benefits, tax etc and looking at all backstage, admin, managerial support roles etc I could see the daily Starcruiser staff cost being in the $100,000 range.

danlb_2000Jun 18, 2024

These are just the actors, how many other CMs are needed on stage during a voyage? $100 may not be unreasonable because you have to count salary and benefits.

asianwayJun 18, 2024

Only if an illness necessitated a swap

PurduevianJun 18, 2024

Understood. I guess it's not as easy as saying Sammy makes $100 an hour for a 12 hour shift 7 days a week ($8400 a week). However, it might more be like both Sammys make $4500 a week whether it's there 4 day week or their 3 day week ($9000 for both Sammys)

flynnibusJun 18, 2024

Sammy 2 and Sammy 1 are both on contract and on staff even if they aren't working that day :) That's my point. That employee is costing you overhead even when off shift because you need him trained and committed to you. You have multiple people on staff for the role.

PurduevianJun 18, 2024

Right... but if Sammy 1 is working Cruise A, C, and E. and Sammy 2 is working Cruise B, D, and F... There is still only 1 Sammy per day working/Cruise. I don't think they ever had multiple actors playing the same face character on the same cruise but I could be wrong.

natatomicJun 18, 2024

I think “hours” are calculated really weird with equity actors. My husband is in that union, and while he is not scheduled 8 hours (it’s closer to 6, and even then, most of that time is breaks), he gets paid 8 hours. The Nemo Show is something crazy - like, they do something like 3 shows and get paid 8 hours. I might be off on that one, I can’t remember exactly what it is, but it’s something like that. I couldn’t even begin to imagine how something like the Cruiser cast was calculated. ETA: I think it’s called “show value.” Each show had a specific show value of X number of hours. Someone can correct me if I’m wrong. I’ll ask my husband when he gets home if I remember. 🙃

flynnibusJun 18, 2024

Keeping it simple... remember there is more than one person who fills a role. People don't work every shift themselves, etc. People are allowed to take days off, etc. But those people are still on payroll, etc.

PurduevianJun 18, 2024

Yeah I was just trying to count the actual actors and using "worse case" scenario. Outside of the actors, there was a support team (not sure how many people that would be). However, I guess I was just trying to show that I can't see the actual actors costing over ~$11k a day which doesn't seem like the back breaker many people make it out to be.