Star Wars Hotel Preview 2
Again we're not moving in order, but this felt like a good standalone chunk for another preview!
Comments (76)
Feels so dashcon ballpit-y. big promises, questionable delivery of that experience.
In an economy based increasingly around overhyped garbage, getting honest consumer reviews is such an important public service (and doing them well is an art). Thank you! I’ll continue my monthly subscription forever as long as Jenny continues this type of work. Not to hammer home the point, but I saw yet another article in the New Yorker recently about the so-called death of journalism, and it made me so mad! I pay for Jenny’s stuff because she knows what she’s talking about and has the video evidence and editorial voice to show it. I don’t like paying for mainstream news because half the time when they cover a niche topic or community I’m part of, they get the basics egregiously wrong, so how can I trust them with the big important stuff? Jenny’s out here making better documentaries than Netflix, why aren’t all those people like Consumer Reports and major news outlets paying people like her, who know their industry really well?
Bro I always forget you hang with Steve Zaragoza lol
You'd think the First Order actor would've roleplayed with you more seeing how much you tried to interact in character. I hope you go more in depth in the full video on what the First Order storyline was supposed to look like if everything in the app goes according to plan because he was giving you nothing in these clips so far.
Evermore died so Star Wars Hotel could die in an equally well-documented manner
This is going to be the year of Jenny I think. So far your February and March rambles were two of my favorites ever, and the Star Wars Hotel video is looking amazing. Can’t wait to see all you have in store for us!
new jenny nemesis dropped: Slanted space pole
Slanted space pole vs. Randy Moore. What happens when an unmovable object meets a space pole?
Hey Jenny! I’m new here. I just found your YouTube a couple weeks ago… proceeded to binge all your videos. When I realized you weren’t really posting on YT very often anymore I wondered about your Patreon, so I came over here and signed up immediately when I saw all the videos here! You are the first Patreon I have ever subscribed to!! Just wondering: do you still actively plan to post on the main YouTube channel? When did you decide to take things mostly patreon and why? Would love to hear you discuss these topics. Thanks!
The Starcruiser video will be on her main channel when it is finished
If Jenny were standing before the Jedi Council, they'd all close their eyes, feel her anger, her hate, her pain, her sorrow, and see only one image when looking into her mind: a slanted metal pillar.
I can't believe someone at Disney said to themselves, "You know what people really like to do? SCAN CRATES!"
Honestly I think you’re being too generous with the lack of touch screens— if Safeway can have 15 functioning touch screens running 24/7 why can’t this high end hotel? You don’t even see non touch screen ATMs that often anymore.
The First Order character you kept interacting with was basically giving you a more elegant "I don't rightly know" like that lady in the Evermore crypts
Loved it, can't wait for the full video. I am also very glad that I never went to the Star Wars hotel myself. What an expensive disappointment!
Shades of Evermore here. Honestly they would have been better off if they released a series of Star Wars themed escape rooms.
I'm so glad Jenny can read Aurebesh as someone who... can also read Aurebesh lol. That plaque she was trying to read said "During the ship's dedication this bottle of Chandrilan wine did not shatter against the hull, becoming a symbol of good fortune known as the Halcyon Fluke." What I find really funny about this is that during real life dedications where a bottle is thrown at the hull of a ship, it's extremely bad luck if the bottle doesn't break. Really suits the actual fate of the ship/hotel
did anyone else notice all the highlighted #hosted tags.... because I did. Jenny, that cuts so deep into how shamelessly advertised/paid for it all was. I loved it. #HOSTED
'Wishing we were only 10% of the way, but keep'r moving!
It really sounds like the hotel could have used a like a "story concierge" who you could go to for hints/manually moving you along the story.
Lol, should have finished watching the video first
Everwars or Starmore?! Money being thrown a genre pastiche…these are a few of my favorite things.
(Name: Jenny. Trust Level 85%) Ah, Jenny. You've been very helpful to me by spying on Evermore, Evan Hanson and VPD.
I noticed Sage from ALLEARS as a cast member in this video, I believe you called him Sammy. I didn't know he was part of this now extinct experience.
I don’t even really like Star Wars but I love your SW content. However, this makes me SO MAD for you like I feel bad about the content being entertaining cause you got ripped off.
this is gonna be such a treat when I finish work, thank you! Said it before and I'll say it again - if Disney made a Star Wars themed luxury resort, at luxury resort prices, with the usual luxury resort amenities (themed restaurants and bars, themed pool and spa, outdoor spaces, exclusive merch, food and meet-and-greets) then business would probably be booming, despite the difficulties in the market ATM.
Fascinating preview and such a shame you had such a terrible time! I agree the most likely scenario is a technical glitch, which is absolutely unacceptable given the cost. I keep comparing your tale of woe with my own experience, which wasn't perfect but definitely a lot more fun. I visited the Starcruiser in July 2023 shortly before it closed. I paid my own way – I'm not an influencer, not a big Star Wars or Disney fan, but I'm an ARG and video game designer (I made Zombies, Run!) and am adjacent to the immersive theatre/experiential world – so this was a combo research trip and extravagance. All of that is to say, I don't *think* I'm a simp and my living doesn't depend on saying nice things about Disney! It is pretty obvious that the original sin here is that the app didn't register your initial preference to join the First Order. For me, this happened right after I arrived – I buttonholed Lt. Croy and basically demanded he enrol me, whereupon he took me and some other guests to a terminal and tapped our RFID bands to it, which manually joined us up. This is more of an optional story accelerant, since if you don't do this, all the characters are meant to text you and ask you to join their side, and if you say yes (like you did), it unlocks all kinds of mini quests. Shortly after meeting Croy, I was dispatched to sabotage the engineering bay, track down schematics, hack the terminals, etc. It was fun and felt very responsive! TBH there was so much stuff he asked me to do I kind of felt tired after it all. I did encounter the issues where he was texting me at the same time as his actor was talking in a big set piece, which was frankly very rude. While I thought, like you did, that the actors' earpieces was feeding them information about guests, I have been informed by people who know the designers that this is definitely not the case. The earpieces are more for timekeeping so the actors know when they're meant to move on; instead, the actors are trained to be very good at memorising guest names, which was deeply unnerving since Croy kept calling me out as a fine First Order helper whenever I was in the atrium. Anyway, that's long enough! If you're curious, I wrote a 12,000 word piece about the experience which annoyed Starcruiser fans and Disney designers in equal measure, so hopefully I was doing something right there: https://adrianhon.substack.com/p/star-wars-galactic-starcruiser
Omg I absolutely adore Zombies Run! It helped me get into running regularly and consistently as someone who did not enjoy running at all, thank you so much!
i very recently finally was able to join your patreon and ohmygod it's been so worth it 😭 i absolutely adore everything you've done for this video so far and it's a gift to be able to see your work this way!! i can already tell this one is going to be a favorite of mine; thank you so much Jenny ♥️
Oh man, I hope there's more of your Yoda impression!
These previews are already making it a fascinating companion piece to the Evermore Park video, sometimes it's the same problems and other times it's new problems created by this wildly different scale of budget.
Yeah I had the same strong Evermore vibes. The 'blue sky' stage that neither company ever moved beyond and just kinda half-assed their way through while gouging their most loyal customers for everything they got. I guess big budget or little budget, companies gotta capitalism.
Literal Ba'ar would be a pretty good Star Wars name
this is so freaking cool and the editing is so good, i'm so glad you put the time and work in to censor the kids faces, it makes me so much more comfortable watching the footage and it's just such a solid move. but also seeing people go "SO MANY CRATES TO SCAN!!!" was so funny i had to pause it to laugh
Shocking really, I feel like one of the only companies on earth who could have delivered on such an experience IS DISNEY and they didn’t, they barely tried. Also happy to see The Tim Tracker channel they have always been one of the best Disney bloggers because of how transparent they are.
"2 dollars per person per minute" is such a good way to sum up the cost of it all and how an issue that stops hinders playing the game costs you money very quickly.
I went on an entire trip to Las Vegas during which I incidentally went to OmegaMart, and I think I had more fun in the 4 hours I spent at OmegaMart than this, AND the entire trip to Vegas cost less. D: That is SO MUCH MONEY for Star Wars-themed Worse MeowWolf.
I love seeing the bits foreshadowing the eventual cargo hold payoff
Had to leave in every mention I came across lol
I am continuously impressed by how cool the other passengers seem in your vlogs and preview videos. All these strangers, including you, just joking, helping, trying to have a good time and help others have a good time. It makes it even more disappointing that Disney seemingly didn't anticipate people wanting to work together or at least didn't prioritize making that functional in game play. It would have been such a boon in general and specifically for people who might be more hesitant or less knowledgeable but would still get to shine a bit by contributing to larger group goals (similar to escape rooms in my experience).
Yeah it's more fun to collaborate! Lots of guests tried to let us in on what they were doing and the game just wasn't designed for them to be able to. We tried to help too when we ran into a few people with app issues, but no luck. Although when we got those torn notes at dinner, the back of the note was a filler in-universe letter about luggage pickup or something, but written in aurebesh. One of the kids at the other table was stuck on wanting to know what it said (he was worried it was more to the secret message) but the in-app translator didn't work on it so I got to translate it for him with my very slow reading skills 💪
Hard to picture a better ending point than "I'm just going to get angrier, and we're only halfway." I'm invested now.
Can’t believe you got ghosted by the captain. I sent him some pics of my dark side and he told me to meet him in the cargo hold 😝
I feel like the biggest difference between something like this and Meow Wolf is that those exhibits are fun and interesting regardless of how many puzzles you solve. I also feel like the biggest takeaway from this and Evermore is that individualized storytelling does not scale well and it's obviously not fun to be locked out of content
Ken is gonna be so relieved that you cast your withering gaze elsewhere.
I can't believe that was the extent of the experience given how expensive it was.
There's a little more to it; I have the minigames (lightsaber training, bridge training) in their own chapter and another chapter for the theme park excursion. But that was also not very good lol
I was slightly concerned before watching these previews because I have 0 practical star wars knowledge but it turns out that doesn’t matter at all! Such a testament to how severely the experience failed you that there wasn’t immersion or story chunks to even relay to others 🥴
This is honestly a little heartbreaking, what a disappointing experience!
I'm sure someone has made the Meow Wolf comparison but like...seems like similar tech but not as successful. I wonder if it's the integration of the actors or the increased time in experience that makes it more difficult to manage? I mean Meow Wolf has however many groups of people all running the same story all at once and it manages to work out well - there was thing that kept happening in the Omegaverse that our group thought was just a weird environment thing until we got to a specific point in the story and realized "oh, no it's just people triggering this bc of where they are in the plot".
just realized i wrote omegaverse not omegamart omg
Cutting from your baffled reactions to the crate scanner game directly to the over-excited marketing version is such a funny bit, I love it.
i wonder if the same chewie scene was supposed to be enacted multiple times for multiple groups and they were late getting back down to the brig for your time slot?
They're very particular about the timeline and brag about how everything on the ship has an interconnected schedule. The brig is attached to a public hallway so the likelihood of people seeing it repeat would be too high. Afaik the only scene they literally replay is a holocron scene which they run at least 3 times, but that one happens behind closed doors and you have to be scheduled for it and scan your band to get in. They don't even repeat story beats in the bridge training because there's a window looking in from the atrium (they do run everyone through the same sequence of tasks but think of new reasons for you to be doing them each time by having different characters video call in) I do think they ran story moments like the chewbacca one several times back to back for the media day! But I don't have solid proof
Okay, you’re just going to get angrier… and anger leads to fear… and fear leads to the Dark Side of the Force. So, they were secretly providing you with accurate First Order gameplay the whole time!
Watching others take on activities and say how easy it was, then trying to do the same thing with no success would make me feel so discouraged and stupid. Like why would I go to a help desk when others figured it out so easy? What am I doing wrong? Surly they programmed it fairly.
Knowing your full name is Jennifer feels like forbidden knowledge
I'm so excited I can't even live
just watched as i cooked californian vietnamese garlic noodles and honestly the entire time you mention random story moments being texted to some and not others i was thinking "oh, so there's some stupid algorithm going on in the background trying to corral a certain number of players in one direction, a certain number in the second direction, and keep numbers stable for each outcome." so, probably option 2 or 3 you proposed sounds most likely. i also suspect the way they're tracking the familiarity is something to do with location tracking, maybe it's about the length of time you maintain proximity to a certain character? so someone you never interacted with may have just been down the hall with other hotel guests and you were turned in the opposite direction/separated by a wall and not aware? it would be admittedly a really stupid way to track familiarity, because imagine how long some people would be just waiting in proximity to the most popular characters. anyway. love this soooooo excited for the video <3
This tech is so sophistimicated lol. I hope some company somewhere is able to make it work, it sounds really useful in theory. But it's not there yet. Kind of makes me think that the hotel should have dropped the cyo adventure aspect. I have vaguely been involved in the interactive rp field before and the reality is that creating customized experiences is insanely expensive even without fine dining and incredible hotel experiences. Even with volunteer workers the ratio really needs to be 1 performer for 5-10 people, which is hard to make happen. Otherwise you get the 'actors constantly surrounded by a crowd' thing that jenny experienced. The way their RFID and scheduling worked seems like a viable (and incredible) solution, but if it's not functional then the company needs to pivot. If they dropped the price point by half, and had just been a sweet hotel that had dinner theater and wandering character actors, that would probably have been more fun. Those parts seem solid. The footage of the acting from the vlog, even with the pole, was super cool. The climax was incredible, was super impressed with the lightsaber fight and melodrama. They could still do lightsaber lessons and the spaceship mini game as optionals, maybe for an upcharge. And they could have scanning games for kids that dispensed plushies or pins or something, chuck e cheese style. If they included park admission I think people would have responded to that very well. Also I'm glad I rejoined this patreon, I was gone for a month and then caved.
I think it's inevitable in a commercial experience like this that each guest's day will be 90% downtime where they can't talk to the actors (unless they're rude and monopolize a performer). And that's workable! But Starcruiser tried to fill this downtime with staring at a phone app clicking boring dialogue trees, which imo is really boring and not worth the money. And Evermore didn't try to fill this downtime with anything at all lol imo the downtime should be filled by having a cool detailed environment to explore, and ideally special effects to trigger. Compare to magiquest where 100% of the gameplay is basically scavenger hunting through the physical environment. I'd love a middle ground of basically magiquest with more expensive sets and some actor NPCs
lol wow, a great level of spiciness there at the end.
Lmao “grandma who sleeps in bed all day mode” took me out 😂
My guess is angry programmer placed hidden bugs because Disney ripped them off.
Now I choose to believe that the hotel failed because it got Dennis Nedryed
I am so so here for Jenny’s righteous fury
The joy when I saw Sage as Sammy. I hate that you didnt get to really play because you are SO game for all the tomfoolery and I would have loved to see it.
At some point I probably would've just broke character and said to the Croy actor "listen, we ARE trying to do the First Order story, but I guess we got railroaded into the Resistance one, so just work with me here..."
i wonder how much control the actors themselves have over guests' placement in the storylines? like if they could go backstage and communicate to whoever does the story scene assignments "hey, there's this guest who's trying to do this storyline"
We eat tonight!!! 🎉🎉🎉
so cool I just joined the other day and now I get to watch this!!
🎉🎉🎉
What an unexpected treat :D
I'm excited that you've made so much progress on this! Definitely one of my most anticipated videos.
I have a new release date goal for myself but I don't want to say it this time in case I fail and disappoint people lol
Hooray!