With the Galactic Starcruiser at Walt Disney World closing at the end of September 2023, I was able to visit a second time and made a lot of notes on this amazing experience. This is part of a series of posts as I contemplate what made it so unique, why it was cancelled, and what may happen with the building after September
Number of Voyages
First Sailing: March 1st -3rd 2022
Final Sailing Sept 28th-30th 2023
There are 576 days between those dates, so 288 voyages were possible
Sailings Canceled:
Sept 27th and Sept 29th due to Hurricane Ian
Nine voyages were said to be canceled due to low attendance, but probably were filled since the termination was announced: (July 4, 12, 17, August 1, 7, 15, 27, September 4, and 12)
Total Voyages: 286 voyages
How many guests are on each voyage?
I’m looking to arrive at two different numbers: the absolute maximum capacity, and the expected capacity, since not every room is filled to the full capacity all of the time.
Available Cabins:
I found this graphic from wdwnt.com:
Based on the above floor plan from wdwnt.com, I calculated 102 total cabins, with maximum occupancy of 504)
- 72 regular cabins (up to 5 guests)
- 24 suites (up to 4 guests)
- 6 captain suites (up to 8 guests)
But that is assuming the same layout on each of the three floors. Another of their articles cites 100 cabins, which consists of 94 Standard cabins, 4 Suites, and only two Grand Captain Suites. That equates to 506 possible guests, so basically the same number.
It’s important to note that both of these calculations are with every bed of every room filled to capacity. However cabins frequently only have two guests per cabin. So how can I estimate the expected capacity? I did this by counting the number of seats in the dining room.
Dining Room Seats
Version One – My observation
- Higher Level, outside bench seats
- 13x 4 seaters (52 total)
- Floor level, outside
- 11x 4-seat one side (44 total)
- 6x 4-seat other side (24 total)
- Floor Level, inside
- 2x 8 seats (16 total)
- 1x long 12 seats (12 total)
- 2x round 5 seats (10 total)
- Captains table with 12 seats (12 total)
- 2x round 5 seats (10 total)
- 1x long 12 seats (12 total)
- 2x corner 4 seats (8 total)
Total by my count: 200
Dining Room Seats, based on Floor Plan:
- Higher Level, outside bench seats
- 13x 4 seaters on (52 total)
- Floor level, outside
- 42 on bottom (42 Total)
- 28 on top (ramp takes up some space) (28 Total)
- Floor Level, inside
- 0x 8 seats 0
- 2x long 12 seat 24
- 4x round 5 seats 20
- Captains table with 12 seats 12
- 2x corner ~6 seats 12
Total Seating Capacity, based on image: 190
Since there are two dinner seatings, around 380-400 seems to be the max planned capacity, which equates to an average of 4 guests per room.
Total Guests experiencing Galactic Starcruiser:
Some early voyages were filled to capacity, and we know that some of the latest voyages had few enough guests that the voyages were cancelled and there was only one dinner seating, so those must have had fewer than 200 guests. Both times that I visited (once when it was pretty new, and once after the cancellation was announced), the dining rooms were mostly full. So I’m comfortable guessing an average of about 320 guests on an average voyage.
With 285 voyages, that means around 91,200 guests will have been able to experience the Galactic Starcruiser
Repeat Visitors
Some guests have been able to visit the Galactic Starcruiser more than once. On our first visit, just a couple months after it opened, the security guard mentioned that “some crazy Club 33 member” had been eleven times already. Antecdotally, from the couple facebook groups I’ve been a part of, and from talking with others while there, I’d estimate 5% of guests on any voyage that have visited before, so I’l estimate that around 86,000 unique guests will have been able to experience it before it closes at the end of September, and around 4,000 guests have been able to visit it more than once
Cast Members:
How much staff does it take to operate the Galactic Starcruiser? Below are my estimates, based on observation and some reasoning.
- Entertainment Staff:
- Actors (17 roles x 2 cast members per roll = 34 + a couple shadowing/training)
- Raithe Kole
- Gaya
- Ouannii (musician)
- Sandro
- Captain Keevan
- Cruise Director Lenka Mok
- Sammie
- Lt Croy
- Chewbacca
- Stormtrooper
- Stormtrooper
- Rey
- Kylo Ren
- 4x Saja
- Back Stage (estimates)
- Tech Crew: 6
- Makeup 6
- Costuming 4
- Actors (17 roles x 2 cast members per roll = 34 + a couple shadowing/training)
- Food & Beverage
- Servers 15
- Bartenders (Chemists) 8
- Cooks/Kitchen 15
- Valet: 2
- (Educated Guess. Perhaps they valet on arrival day and drive the shuttle between Batuu on the other day)
- Housekeeping 8
- (100 rooms, 12 rooms each = 8, again every other day)
- Merchandise: 8
- Estimate, based on observations
- Front Desk / Guest Service 8
- Estimate, based on observations
- Management
- Food & Beverage 3
- Hotel Operations 3
- Entertainment 3
What do you think? Did I miscalculate anything or are my estimates way off? Do you have any additional knowledge that you’d like to share? Anything I missed that you’d like to see? Please let me know in the comments
Love this. This was such a fun experience that I still think of all the time.
I did observe that many of the Front Desk / Guest Service cast members and the Merchandise cast members were the same and they just rotated jobs. You separated those jobs out, but they could be combined.
But your estimates make complete sense and I would assume are probably pretty close!
Great numbers. But on our June 26 th voyage the greater majority of people we talked with had been on multiple times I would say well over 50% of them. With many of those more than a few. One guy 6 times
Thanks for putting this together. When Broadway shows close they always announce how many performances they ran for, but I suspect that won’t happen in this case, and I’m glad somebody’s trying to track it.
I can add one little known fact: the July 21, 2022 voyage was canceled. I had originally booked that one and a Disney representative called to help us reschedule and offer some compensation. They gave an in-universe explanation like the ship needing some refurbishment in dry dock, which I’m guessing is somewhat close to the real reason, which may have been some remodeling to add special effects or help with traffic flow or modify a part of the storyline.
I must say I’m skeptical of the wdwnt article you quoted about the summer 2023 canceled voyages. I expect they did receive reports for customers about their voyages being canceled, but I doubt their conclusion that every voyage marked as unavailable on the Disney calendar had been canceled. That calendar uses the exact same “not available” icon for voyages that are sold out as they do for those that are canceled. In particular, I would think the July 4 voyage being a holiday weekend is more likely to be sold out than canceled due to low attendance.
And some minor notes on the list of performers: The second evening saw an additional two stormtroopers, sometimes with all four of them in one scene. It might also help to note that Rey and Kylo only appear on the second night. That doesn’t change the averages (4 people for half of the days adds up to the 2 you had listed for both days), but is a good detail to have.