Inside Disney World’s $4k-a-night Star Wars hotel

Disney has launched one of its most ambitious products for diehard Star Wars fans - but the cost of the fancy experience is being slammed online.

Disney’s new Star Wars: Galactic Starcruiser hotel, which lately has been blasted for being overpriced, is reportedly offering luxury suites that will cost as much as $A27,000 for a two-night stay.

To stay at the immersive Orlando, Florida-based Star Wars hotel, a family of four will pay about $US6000 for two nights ($A8200, or $A4100 per night), with lodging, meals and entertainment included, the New York Post reported.

But those looking for a more spacious, “tricked-out suite” can expect to shell out an eye-popping $US20,000 ($A27,000), according to a report.

In recent months, there has been fierce backlash by Disney World fans over the sky-high prices leading up to the hotel’s March 1 opening.

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A windowless cabin inside the Star Wars: Galactic Starcruiser includes a video screen showing images of stars, planets and asteroid showers. Picture: Disney

Star Wars droids wander the hotel. Picture: Disney

Last December, Disney scrubbed the promotional video from Twitter and YouTube, after fans slammed the lodging as subpar and too expensive.

“The ‘lightsaber training’ looks about as exciting as a roadside sobriety test,” one Disney watcher commented on YouTube.

“It’s way too expensive,” another said.

The New York Times, which recently got a preview of the hotel, laid out some of the egregious additional costs guests can expect to pay outside of the basic experience fee.

A stay at the hotel does not include alcohol, which runs around $US13 ($A18) for beer, $US11 ($A15) and up for wine and $US23 ($A32) for specialty drinks, or any fun Star Wars themed-extras, the report said.

For instance, it costs $US99 ($A139) minimum to hire a photographer for a portrait or if you want to sit at the head of the captain’s table in the Starcruiser’s Crown of Corellia dining room, you’ll need to cough up an extra 30 bucks.

A look inside the new Starcruiser hotel. Picture: Disney

The hotel is billed as an immersive experience. Picture: Disney

For guests who want to really get into character, there’s an on-site hair and make up team on call, as well as a gift shop teeming with costumes.

The Times said that while hair and makeup prices are still being worked out, Togruta head tails — the appendages on heads of the species featured in the franchise’s latest iteration The Mandalorian — will set you back $US100 ($A138) at the gift shop.

The hotel is being billed as an immersive experience by Disney, hence the high prices.

You do not simply book a room for the night, but you “board” the 275-year-old space liner dubbed the “Halcyon” and travel to “Star Wars” planet and back.

All “journeys” are two nights, and guests stay in one of 100 cabins.

While the astronomically high-priced cabins do not have any windows, guests will instead get a view of screens playing videos of stars, planets and asteroid showers.

Similar to an immersive theatre experience like the popular New York production Sleep No More, characters interact with guests during their “voyage”.

A family arriving at the hotel. Picture: Disney

According to The Times, a guest might be asked to deliver a secret message or be dispatched to the engine room to help repair a fuel valve.

In groups, guests are invited to participate in lightsaber training or thwart an Imperial attack by taking control of the bridge.

The two-night stay also includes a visit to Galaxy’s Edge, the Star Wars theme park and a supper club performance with cameos from popular characters like Yoda.

Despite gripes over the price of the hotel, so far March, April and most of June are sold out.

But, it remains to be seen if the expansive project will be a success or a flop.

“People should hold us to the highest possible standard,” Josh D’Amaro, the chairman of Disney Parks, Experiences and Products told The Times. 

“I also knew what was waiting inside, that our imagineers had created a whole other level of surprise and delight.”

This article originally appeared on the New York Post and has been republished here with permission.