Innovation Lessons From Disney‘s Ill-Fated ‘Star Wars’ Cruise Experience
I grew up going to amusement parks like Kings Dominion, Action Park and Great Adventure. Little did I know back then that my career would take me toward innovating on the next generation of entertainment for companies including Disney.
In addition to film and TV production, I had worked in the live event/location-based experience (LBE) space. But it wasn’t until I began working at Lucasfilm that I saw how the interplay between story and three-dimensional space can further extend a storyworld. In balance, space and storytelling invite people in to fall in love with and connect to stories and characters personally, to express their enthusiasm and imagination however they wish.
Though I was long gone from Lucasfilm when the Star Wars: Galactic Starcruiser themed hotel opened at Walt Disney World in March 2022, I was sad to hear it was closing on Sept. 30. But in the run-up to this last voyage, what should not be lost in all the Monday-morning quarterbacking regarding the reasons it shut down (including in The New York Times) is what a creative leap forward Starcruiser was.
Star Wars: Galactic Starcruiser is unlike anything that currently exists in narrative live entertainment because it offered so many things at once: a “cruise” in which you are a guest on the fictional Halcyon starcruiser, with a view of space as you move through a galaxy far far away; a hotel with four-star service from the food to the rooms; traditional theater enabling passive viewing so you can watch a story unfold; immersive theater transforming that passive audience into active participants; an interactive adventure enabling gameplay, puzzles, personalization and actions rewarded based on participation; a costume party where you can roleplay; and, true to its DNA, a theme park (where a “cruise” excursion is offered to the planet Batuu, equating to an IRL backdoor pass to Disney’s Hollywood Studios).
As a board member of the Immersive Experience Institute, we have watched the explosion of creativity within the immersive and LBE space over the last decade, especially within the last three years, driven by an audience base craving in-person experiences and authentic engagement. But the Starcruiser charted a different path that was the sum of many and varied moving parts that all managed to move in unison.
Creatively, the Starcruiser understood the assignment: to be an invitation. There had to be care first and foremost for that person walking through the door: what they see, do and feel; what the designed journey is and where to leave room for their own discoveries; how to create a safe space for all levels of play, as well as for disengagement; how all five senses are authentically activated, as well as touch the brain, heart and eyes (through the story they are being told), the art (visualization of that story) and the experience (how they engage with it, process it and express it).
And no one does this better than Disney Imagineers. There was precision, wonder, story and room to breathe. In addition to the Imagineers, there were other craftspeople, technicians, creative technologists, narrative designers, chefs, musicians and so on who came together to create an all-encompassing experience that welcomed everyone.
Whether a casual observer or hardcore fan of Star Wars, people were swept up and just enjoying themselves. It all worked because excitement, fun, surprise and delight are infectious.
A different point of view pokes into the notion of what it means to endeavor not only to be the first in the pool but the first to invent the pool or, specific to the Starcruiser, to innovate on what else the pool can be. To be “unlike anything that currently exists” is the dilemma of innovation.
It’s easy to throw around the word “innovation,” but in practice it carries complications. How do tried and tested business operations adjust — what’s the marketing? What would a 30-second TikTok sound and look like? How does a billboard convey everything one can do? I think it is fair to say that, in pursuit of innovation, none of this is easy.
In this time of disruption across every form of entertainment, this should also be a moment to appreciate all that had to happen to make an idea into a reality and all who came together as one to make it happen, from the creatives to the decision-makers to the production crews to the performers to the guests.
Many will analyze the Star Wars: Galactic Starcruiser for years to come like the Zapruder film, looking at it from every possible angle in search of a spark of inspiration or a lesson to be adapted. And for those who seek to innovate and chart a new course, it can be both rewarding and terrifying. But in the vast landscape of entertainment, it’s the only way to move forward and into the new.
Diana Williams is co-founder and CEO of Kinetic Energy Entertainment, a multimedia venture studio at the intersection of storytelling and technology. She is an award-winning producer with experience ranging from indie films to studio franchises across multiple platforms and media including film/TV, video games, podcasts and location-based experiences.
