Latest Star Wars Hotel Construction Updates – February 2020

This is the latest Star Wars Hotel construction update for February 2020, the new fully immersive resort hotel Disney is building just outside Galaxy’s Edge in Disney’s Hollywood Studios. We’re going to share with you updates about the construction for the Star Wars Hotel (Star Wars: Galactic Starcruiser) and everything new being built on the site.

Construction is full steam ahead right now and in our latest update, we’re going to show you the building, which has reached the top level, with a roof installed, plus the construction of the entrance and how the seamless transport to Galaxy’s Edge will work.

If you aren’t familiar with the Star Wars Hotel, it’s essentially the most interactive hotel ever built and is going to drop guests right on a spaceship in the Star Wars universe and will be full of role-playing and interactive experiences to explore. It’s going to be located right across the street from Star Wars Galaxy’s Edge in Hollywood Studios and the stories from both places will be connected

For more information about the Star Wars Hotel, you can see our post explaining everything you need to know about the Star Wars Hotel including the official name: “Star Wars: Galactic Starcruiser,” what the building will be like and the arrival process for guests staying there, cost and more.

The construction on the project has been going extremely fast, and in our previous Star Wars Hotel update, we saw the entrance and guests drop off point being worked on. At this point, most of the building is closed off and extensive work is going on inside. Right now we may be just about one year away from opening which is crazy to think about!

Before we show you all the Star Wars Hotel updates for February, a big shoutout as always to @bioreconstruct over on Twitter for the great job he does taking the best construction photos around property. The aerials photos are the best and let you see Disney World from a unique perspective!

I’m constantly updating this post so you can scroll down for the latest Star Wars Hotel Construction pictures:

(NEW PHOTOS: 2/10/20)

Almost 2 months have gone by since we last updated this post, so it was high time we did so. Noticeable progress is being made to the entrance area, so we’ll take a look at that and more.

Here is a recent aerial photo over the hotel property:

The driveway coming in from over the bridge will lead guests to the front entrance where they will leave their car before departing on their journey.

Many people have been wondering why they would spend so much money just to stay in what is essentially a big concrete box. What you have to remember is that Disney is not putting money into the outside of the building because it will have 0 impact on the guests’ stay there since they will never see the outside of the building.

Instead, it’s all about the interior and the immersive experience they will find there.

This area will be heavily forested and will not seem like what we clearly can see from the air. Here is what the entrance will look like when guests pull up to drop off their cars:

Those big cement walls and trees will block off any view guests would otherwise have, and they will be none-the-wiser about what the actual building looks like from here.

You can see how close in proximity it is to Galaxy’s Edge which is located on the upper right side of the image. It will only be a short transport ride away from the hotel and perfect for excursions.

Looking to the side of the building we can see just where those guests are going to be picked up and dropped off at. Focus in on the small purple box in the middle of this side of the building:

That will be covered and guests will seamlessly transition from the galactic starcruiser into their transport shuttles, and over to Batuu.

If you want to see updates for more of the new projects currently being built, check out our Walt Disney World Construction Updates post for more progress on all those.

Keep scrolling for more construction progress on the Star Wars Hotel, and stay tuned to Ziggy Knows Disney for more updates soon!

(NEW PHOTOS: 12/16/19)

It’s been some time since we’ve looked at the Galactic Starcruiser Hotel, so it might be a good idea see what updates have been made in the last few weeks. Let’s go….

Here you can see an aerial shot of the Star Wars Hotel and where it’s located:

The back of Galaxy’s Edge is located on the bottom left of the image, which you can see is pretty close.

You can also see all the work being done to the highway overpass right near the hotel. This new overpass will be used to cross the main parking entrance of Hollywood Studios.

As we get in closer, we can see the side of the building:

Right now everything is visible, however, when you arrive at the Star Wars Hotel the building will be totally hidden by a forest. Guests will park in the parking lot in the foreground, and will then most likely be taken by shuttle to the front entrance of the spaceport.

This is what that front entrance currently looks like. Notice the big wall near the guest drop-off. This should hide the guests’ view of the actual hotel building behind it:

In the next image, we get a nice shot of the roof of the hotel which you can now see is complete. You can even see the ventilation systems installed there:

We also can see how the transportation system to Galaxy’s Edge will work. While guests arriving at the hotel will use the road on the right, transportation coming from Galaxy’s Edge will loop around the backside on the left.

Those shuttles will then load/unload at the middle yellow arrow in a seamless transition, not once giving away to the guest they have left the themed-environment.

(NEW PHOTOS: 11/25/19)

Last time we checked in we saw big progress on the entrance to the Star Wars Hotel. Today we are going to look at the outside of the building and the progress that’s been made there.

Here is the side of the building with the guest rooms:

These walls aren’t going to stay purple, but they will most likely be painted a neutral color like a typical Disney attraction show building.

Next we look over at where the main part of the hotel will be:

If you look to the left side of the building you’ll see what looks like a metal canopy being built. That is likely to be the entrance and exit point for the shuttle which will bring guests to and from Galaxy’s Edge next door.

The space transports (buses) will pull up here to let guests on and off. Of course this part won’t be visible to guests and they will only see the interior, which will be decorated in typical Star Wars fashion.

(NEW PHOTOS: 10/27/19)

Even though it’s only been a few days since our last update, we felt these next pictures deserved a look as the front of the entrance structure is in place at the Star Wars Hotel:

To the right we can see the access road to the Star Wars Hotel construction site:

The road comes from the Hollywood Studios parking lot, then after crossing the bridge it goes off to the maintenance building in one direction and to the hotel’s front entrance the other. As you can see the road loops into the entrance one way and out the other.

As we look closer, we can see the actual wall is up and the car port roof too where guests will pull in to check in:

I’m not yet sure what exactly is going behind the wall. Obviously guests will have to pull in under the roof in front of the big wall that’s up, but it doesn’t look like they will enter the main structure of the building until going through the section on the left in-between the wall and building:

Will that be a waiting area maybe as guests are going through the check-in process?

It’s being built to represent a space port, so guests will drive up like they are going to the airport, leave the car, grab their bags and head to their space shuttle.

If we look around the other side of the building, again we can see the entrance car port all the way to the right, the main hotel area (dining, entertainment, etc) in the middle, and the guest cabins to the left:

There are going to just over 100 rooms in the Star Wars Hotel with those guest rooms being spread out over 3 floors.

The smaller white building to the left of the hotel is the maintenance and support building:

Lastly, we get another look at the distance between the Star Wars Hotel and Galaxy’s Edge in Hollywood Studios. The distance isn’t very far at all and it will be interesting to see how the transportation shapes up between the two locations.

For more info on that keep scrolling down to our last construction update.

Keep checking back as we’ll have some new photos and breakdown soon!

(NEW PHOTOS: 10/21/19)

It’s been a while since we’ve looked at the Star Wars Hotel construction, so long in fact that we now know it’s name “Star Wars: Galactic Starcruiser.” It was revealed to us at the D23 Expo and we were super excited to learn all the cool details about it there.

Now let’s take a look at what the actual building currently looks like. Here we have an aerial shot high above the Star Wars Hotel and its property:

The big building in the front is the main guest area of the hotel where activities, dining and entertainment will take place. The long skinny part in the back is where the guest cabins will be. The smaller white building to the right is where the service and maintenance building will be.

As you can see work is being done soon the access road leading to the Star Wars Hotel. The road wraps around and stops in the font of the building where the main entrance will be:

Concrete forms are being built in the front of the entrance, and when this area is done it will be a spaceport where you and your family will take off from and start your outer space adventure!

You can see the concept art for what it will look like in the most recent updates from earlier on the page.

Now we go around the backside of the building where we can get a better look at the Guest cabins. Remember at the Star Wars: Galactic Starcruiser hotel, you are onboard a star ship, and therefore the layout of the building will be very similar to one. Guest quarters on one side fo the ship and the main center in another:

This shot gives us a good view of the maintenance and service building built on property:

Also if you look closely at the side of the building where the guest rooms are, you can see the outline of “windows” which might possibly double as emergency exits. Remember, guests will not be able to see out the window like in regular hotels, but there will be electronic panels simulating space travel.

Ok, looking back at the access road leads us to wonder how guests will get that seamless transportation between the Star Wars Hotel and the neighboring Galaxy’s Edge we’ve heard about.

It’s possible the route will look similar to this picture below with the transport taking guests through the Hollywood Studios parking lot and over to Galaxy’s Edge through the opening between Millennium Falcon Smugglers Run and Star Wars Rise of the Resistance:

If you follow that opening it brings you to this backstage area within Galaxy’s Edge where there is a big door that’s currently closed:

They could build some kind of landing area back there for the shuttle transport and then let guests in through these doors here:

It’s fun to speculate, but we’ll have to wait and see what details are announced.

Keep scrolling down to see past Star Wars Hotel construction updates to look at the prior construction progress.

July 2019

Ok, let’s see the latest construction updates:

In the first shot we can see the entirety of the Star Wars Hotel construction site with the actual building the predominant feature right now. In fact there isn’t much of anything else being yet, though some smaller support buildings are starting to pop up I the background. Until we see some concept art or building plans it’s hard to tell what else is going to be built surrounding the hotel structure.

In this aerial shot of the construction we can see the Star Wars Hotel is divided into two distinct areas: the bedrooms and the main guest area:

The bedrooms are going to be located in the longer, thin part of the structure. Expect around 100 bedrooms spread across what looks like 3-4 levels.

The bigger, more square part of the structure is where the main guest area of the Star Wars Hotel will be and will include the lobby and extensive “arrival ceremony,” a restaurant, as well as other environments which will serve towards the entertainment and overall story of the hotel:

A closer look at the top of the hotel over where the bedrooms are going reveals the exposed conduit and electrical work being installed on what seems to be the top floor of the hotel:

We should see a concrete floor poured over that soon, which will cover everything.

Now we have a new angle of the Star Wars Hotel construction and we get a better view of the main guest area and what looks to the the guest arrival as well:

Again this is where guests will spend most of their time when they aren’t sleeping in their rooms. At the top of the structure you can see the beams which will support the ceiling of the building. Where the arrow is looks like access leading to the top floor of the bedroom wing.

What’s also interesting is the front and sides of the main building. One of these two points is likely to be the guest arrival where you will bring your car to drop off your luggage and enter the Star Wars Hotel. Won’t you see the hotel when pulling up? Most likely not..

If you look at this concept art for the hotel, this is the drop-off point which is themed to a spaceport. The trees behind are most likely blocking view of the hotel. That way it’s a realistic simulation of flying up to the hotel, which is located in space after all:

We can also see a berm starting to be formed on the edge of the Star Wars Hotel construction site which will block the hotel from view of guests in the Hollywood Studios parking lot, and block the view of Hollywood Studios from guest onsite at the hotel:

You can see the close proximity of Galaxy’s Edge and the Star Wars Hotel, and lots of questions are being asked about the special transportation of guests from one to the other and how that will work.

Unfortunately, there will not be any monorail or any other high-tech transportation, but it will be a bus transportation system, masked as a space shuttle. The concept art from Disney shows this a bit more:

Disney has shown how they are going to use a bus to make this a realistic simulation and it’s the only part that I’m a bit skeptical of. I’m curious to see if Disney will, in fact, be able to pull it off, but we’ll have to wait and see.

That’s it so far for our Star Wars Hotel construction update, but keep checking back as we’ll be posting more photos soon…

Still no date for the opening, but the construction is moving at a rapid pace and it should be ready for the 50th anniversary of Walt Disney World. Disney has announced we are getting a 2021 opening, but no word if that will be in the Spring, Summer or when. Things are still so far away that anything can happen at this point. We’ll keep you updated as soon as we have more info…

For all the details, make sure to read our Guide to the Star Wars: Galactic Starcruiser Hotel.

Also make sure to check out our Walt Disney World Construction Updates post for more progress on all the projects going on around Disney World as we continue to bring you the latest!

Your Thoughts:

I want to know what you think about the latest Star Wars Hotel construction updates…

• Are you looking forward to this new hotel?
• What features should be included?

Let us know in the comments section below!

If you enjoyed this article, as always I appreciate it if you’d share it with others via social media.  I work hard at making this website into a useful resource for you and your family to plan your visit to the Disney Parks and I hope it can help you! Thanks 🙂