Disney CEO Bob Chapek recently had the opportunity to visit the Star Wars: Galactic Starcruiser as so-call “playtests” continue as Cast fine-tune the experience ahead of the March 2022 grand opening. As you’d imagine, Chapek had positive things to say about the experience but also peeled back the curtain a bit into how leadership is thinking about the next generation of Disney hotel experiences.
If this works, and I have every reason to believe it is, it’s going to be the model of what our hospitality can be in the future. Not just functional hotels as nice as they are, and as lightly themed as they are, but for people who want to go deeper, this could represent the next generation of hospitality in our resorts.
While Chapek didn’t elaborate more on what Disney might be planning, there is a deep intellectual property database under the Disney umbrella. With expansions in the planning stage for the Disneyland Forward project in California, perhaps we could see a highly-themed hotel experience make its way to the west coast in the next decade. Chatter about a hotel in or very close to EPCOT could also lead to another boutique, highly-themed hotel experience here at Walt Disney World.