#starcruising

[aleatoryw]

the reason Jenny Nicholson's review of the starcruiser hotel is so damning imo is that she went in completely non-cynically. if you've watched her previous videos it's apparent she loves both star wars and theme parks; she's basically the ideal customer for an experience like this. she was clearly trying to engage with the story elements and experience everything the trip had to offer, she likes kitschy animatronics and special effects - and she still had such a bad time! it's blatantly obvious the actual customer experience was an afterthought to things that would make good photo ops and tiktoks, and the whole trip relied on the functionality of an app that seems thrown together last minute. as someone who also loves star wars and theme parks, it's a real let down - but this is basically what disney has been doing since they bought the star wars ip, so I guess I'm not surprised.

[the-uncanny-dag]

Screenshots of favourite comments on Jenny Nicholson's Star Wars hotel video in no particular order

[esperderek]

I have to have a chuckle at the Screenrant article posted recently about the Galactic Starcruiser, which totally wasn't about Jenny Nicholson's video honest.

In part, because early in Nicholson's video, she talks about how unnatural it is to have your influencers speak in adcopy and copyright rather than the more colloquial nicknames, and how it makes the people speaking about the product seem very insincere and, well, paid off. Because normal humans don't speak that way, but advertising does.

What's the first two lines in this article?

"As a life-long fan of Star Wars, there was nothing quite as exciting as finding out that I would be working on the immersive Star Wars: Galactic Starcruiser experience. Located at the Walt Disney World Resort, the Galactic Starcruiser opened on March 1, 2022, and welcomed passengers to board a two-day, two-night cruise through the stars, during which they could live out their own Star Wars adventure."

No one talks like this naturally. No one writes like this naturally.

This is supposed to be your passioned defense of the place you worked at, the people you worked with, and the memories you made along the way. C'mon! Why don't you open with a story, perhaps an anecdote about the best moment you had working there, or the devastation of the day you lost your dream job. We need to feel your humanity! But there's nothing of that here, to the point where you can just hear the TM behind Galactic Starcruiser.

The first half of this article continues in this vein, reading like a press release Disney marketing put out, just with past tense rather than present or future tense:

"Essentially, the Starcruiser experience was a 48-hour movie that passengers were actually a part of. It was all facilitated through the "datapad," which was accessed through the Play Disney Parks app."

"To facilitate the overarching immersive experience and storytelling, the Starcruiser built a jam-packed itinerary for each and every guest that would consist of a variety of important activities: the captain's toast at muster, a bridge training exercise, lightsaber training, and more. These types of events were essential to understanding what was happening, as they would give passengers the chance to interact with characters and build their story. This is why the Starcruiser could never be just a hotel; every part of it was designed for enthusiastic interaction."

Like, c'mon. I used to work in television. I've seen and used adcopy in my former job, and this is some serious adcopy. It honestly wouldn't shock me if the author dredged up some old adcopy they had lying around about the topic and just transferred it over, changing the tense. You're not here to sell us this product, because there is no product to sell. It's gone, it's been gone for a year, you don't have to sell us on IT. Speak about your experiences.

The next part is yet another topic that Jenny Nicholson pointed out, the bad faith excuses that influencers and advertisers made for the extreme price point:

"What many people don't know, however, is that the price included much more than just a room. The passengers' food, park tickets, recreation activities on board, non-alcoholic drinks, and more were all included - with merchandise being one of the few additional costs on board."

Which is absolute bad faith reasoning, especially when there are plenty of other vacation options that are ALSO all-inclusive, but are MUCH cheaper and offer MORE amenities than the Galactic Starcruiser did! Including Disney Cruises, owned by the same company! Seriously, you can go on a halfway decent sounding cruise or all-inclusive resort somewhere warm for, like, a week or two and spend far less than GSC cost.

Then the last part is essentially: "All the workers liked working there and the bad reviews afterwards make the workers who worked on it feel sad. :("

Which, like, companies have been hiding behind that reasoning for ages. Curiously, the author never offers....any reasons or stories. WHY did working on it impact you so much? What set it apart, what were the people like, what did you like about working there, why are you so passionate about it even a year later? There's nothing, just a generic sort of "We worked hard." and "We're sad it's gone." Why? How? What happened? The video you're obviously writing this in response to is filled with personal anecdotes and stories, it's the backbone of the video! Again, you need to give us something to show your humanity!

Especially when you consider that Nicholson repeatedly points out that the only highlight about her experience, the only thing that kept the damn thing going was the workers.

She had nothing but praise for them, and nothing but contempt for the higher ups who wasted and abused that enthusiasm, to the point where one of her last points was "Hey, Disney is basically exploiting labor."

Much like Jenny, I'm also not condemning anyone who had a good time working there. Good! If you were having a good time at work, that's great. If you have good memories about the people, awesome. But I'll note two things:

a) That doesn't meant you weren't being exploited, and

b) That doesn't mean you have to be a useful idiot for the corporation you worked for afterwards.

I'm not conspiracy brained enough to go "Oh, Disney TOTALLY forced this article into being.", because a cursory examination of the author's prior works and such suggests a lifelong passion for Star Wars, she did work at the hotel, and she's a Star Wars Editor (whatever THAT means in this day and age) for Screen Rant. Apparently one of the heads of Screen Rant says that Disney had no hand in it either.

Though, I can see why people would think that way. It READS like a press release, not something a normal human being would write about an experience they feel passionate about.

[lythefairystan]

succession au where jenny nicholson releases a 4 hour deep dive on all the problems with brightstar adventure park, which domino effects into the complete and total destruction of the roy family empire

[tygerbug]

star wars, jenny nicholson, galactic starcruiser

[dianapocalypse]

I entered a fugue state and drew Amethia Tope, Jenny Nicholson’s failed Galactic Starcruiser OC. Rip Amethia, space fascism’s favorite influencer 😭

[agentjazzy]

finished up jenny nicholson's newest video, and in a comment someone suggested taking a peek at the galactic starcruiser subreddit and. 💀

[theforswornelite]

The new Jenny Nicholson video dropped

And she's had enough

[daughterofmyth]

[kald-dal-art]

Video Essay so good I had to draw fan art for it, I will give you justice Amethia Tope one day 🙏

[i-am-confused-by-life]

[the-uncanny-dag]

[lillikoifish]

Jenny Nicholson’s new star wars cruiser video and her experience reminds me of when i went to star wars land with my boyfriend. Im the one who actually cares about star wars and loves it, he was literally just tagging along to spend time with me and we’d have a good time riding rides while i geeked out. Characters all went right to him to interact with his phone, and a stormtrooper literally told me to go away because he wanted to do soundboard lines to my bf’s camera.

I was really sad at the end of the day, like i felt like a bad person and like i did something wrong for wanting to interact with the land as someone who loves star wars. My bf had a great time tho. Good for him.

[redneonmoons]

Legally Blonde poster redraw for Amethia Tope

[klaipeda-witness]

$2USD per minute and they seated her behind a pole

[walkawaytall]

I just finished Jenny Nicholson’s four-hour video about the Star Wars hotel (RIP), and all I can think about is the fact that Disney has time and again had the structure for something very cool and then decided greed was a better way to go and it is so frustrating.

I can’t imagine how deeply disappointing this pattern must feel to the creatives actually involved in having their work cheapened horrifically until it’s basically only good as a tax write-off.