Can’t really argue with that, but sometimes it’s hard to tell what “too much” is for hardcore Disney fans. Club 33 at Disneyland costs about $25k to join, with a $10k annual membership fee, just to have the opportunity to pay for some very expensive meals (which aren’t even included with that fee) yet the waiting list to become a member of that club is years long.
The Galactic Starcruiser certainly isn’t cheap and I wouldn’t pay for it, but the price does include a couple nights in the hotel, meals, parking, theme park admission, front-of-line priority for the Star Wars rides, and the whole themed show that goes with it. So not way more expensive than a stay in some of their other hotels once you factor in that stuff. To me that’s a better value than the expensive meal at club 33 would be.
I realize that it’s not Star Wars™; but $5k could really cover some upgrades to my windowless monitor bunker; or support a substantial chunk of LARPing if I had any friends.
I went to Disney in 2017. I was there for four days, and went to multiple theme parks. My wife joined me on days 3 and 4. Our total cost was around $1500 for the whole trip. It was a lot, but I’d never had the chance to go, and I was willing to spend it.
I went to Ireland in 2019. We spent a few days in Dublin for Worldcon (including the cost of those tickets), and the rest of our time we traveled around the country in a rental car staying at Bed and Breakfasts and taking in the beauty of that country. With airfare, the total cost for that trip was around $3000. For two people. For TEN DAYS.
Galactic Starcruiser is $10,000 for two people for only 3 nights. It’s a total ripoff for anyone but the really wealthy.
It’s expensive alright but not usually $10k for two people. Are you looking at some super premium package or something? It’s much closer to $5k for two people, and that’s before the new 30% discounts they’re talking about.
I don’t know if you stayed at a nice hotel on Disney property but the prices for hotels and park admission are definitely up from what they were in 2017.
Pre-pandemic stays were a lot more affordable. Now the price disparity between the park hotels and on-property hotels is so insane it just makes no sense unless its an “I saved my whole life for this and will never be back.”
Or if you can get your work to pay for it as part of a business trip that’s a good option too. I’m far too cheap to pay for such extravagances myself but thanks to my job I got to wake up to the scene of grazing giraffes outside my window on a trip last year. No idea how much it cost (I never saw the bill) but I was kinda amazed that the company paid for that.
When I was working for a large British telecom, I ran into our global Exec Chairman of the plc, Sir Someone, at Heathrow on our way to various places. He saw me heading into a cheap dining establishment (Fridays?,) came in, retrieved me, and guided us to a very expensive dinner while we waited for our flights – Sir Someone insisted the company owed it to us for our service. Our US CEO got mad at the Hyatt chain and wanted everyone director or above to stay at the Ritz Carlton. These guys were happy to blow shareholder’s cash on comfort for their team and not ashamed to show it. The company was run for the benefit of the pension plan. People who came in via internet acquisition were regarded as oddities and ushered out pretty quickly.
I can recall SF to London flights at the last minute because someone insisted they must see me in person costing that company $18k.
5k for pretty 2 days is too short, these events need at lest a week first 2 days are training while rest are real experience woth sabacc & pazaak even light saber training. Because for first 2 days your just learning and setting down
In the 1980s Larry Niven wrote some novels about a “Dreampark” where people could go to have immersive adventures. And more recently there was HBO’s Westworld about an immersive Western park (with added Blade Runner style ethical issues). Both sounded fun but there is no way either could be done without being prohibitively expensive (Westworld at least hinted that their customers were the 1%)
You know, I was wondering why the company abandoned their plans to have free-roaming droids in the park after some early tests but yeah, maybe people just couldn’t keep their minds out of the gutter with so many data transfers going on.
I’m just glad to see one more galactic sized vote against immersive theater. I hope this thing tanks before my kid is old enough to want it. My heart goes out to the countless parents, spouses, and other victims of Other People’s Enthusiasm.
The only thing worse than three days of non-consensual cosplay is paying $5,000 for the privilege.
an exhibition that serves as an interactive experience mainly exploring the characters of Luke Skywalker and Anakin Skywalker. The characters are scrutinized by three major themes: their origins, the influences that shaped them, and the choices they made during their lives. This also touches on characters such as R2-D2, Chewbacca, Obi-Wan Kenobi and Yoda, and how their individual relations and roles affected Luke and Anakin.
[…]
The exhibition also explores the factors that shape an individual, such as genetics and familial and social influences, using the Star Wars universe as background
Wow, this sounds… not fun at all, paying money to watch an encylopedia of reconing Lucas’ brilliance?
This shit ain’t hard, I’m not even a big fanboi and I can think of a batch of things instantly.
Slide show of some preproduction art, with exposition about filming and locations then go full 360 video so we can fucking stand on the sand dunes of Tattoine and see Luke go ripping around the place in a landspeeder, only to have a handful of actors in Tuskan raiders outfits popup behind me maybe mess with some people, and then be scared away by a hooded Jedi. That’s 2 quality jump scares and a breathtaking landscape good for 10 solid minutes.
Stand on the bridge of a star destroyer during a rebel battle, cut to the hangar in 360 and gimme a decent light saber battle. Chilling up in an endor tree house, have an AT-AT walk by for scale and have some ewok trip it and run away. Print fucking money.
