10 places for Star Wars fans to go after Disney's Galactic Starcruiser hotel closes

Bad news to anyone who just felt a great disturbance in the Force: Walt Disney World's Star Wars: Galactic Starcruiser got shot down.

Fourteen months after the ambitious project was launched, Disney announced the pricey, immersive hotel adventure that allowed fans to role-play in the Star Wars universe in an ever-changing interactive story will be coming into dock Sept. 28-30 this year.

“Star Wars: Galactic Starcruiser is one of our most creative projects ever and has been praised by our guests and recognized for setting a new bar for innovation and immersive entertainment. This premium, boutique experience gave us the opportunity to try new things on a smaller scale of 100 rooms, and as we prepare for its final voyage, we will take what we’ve learned to create future experiences that can reach more of our guests and fans," a Walt Disney World spokesperson said in a statement Thursday, the same day Disney announced it would not be moving forward with its planned Lake Nona campus in Florida.

Shutting down: Disney World's Star Wars: Galactic Starcruiser will make its final voyage this fall

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And thus ends a fantastic destination for Star Wars who want an unforgettable experience.

But fear not. There is... another.

Quite a few, actually. Let the Force guide you to one of these other exciting Star-Wars-themed destination holidays.

Disney's Star Wars: Galaxy's Edge is still going strong

Just because their Starcruiser hotel is drydocking doesn't mean Disney can't offer you a world of Star Wars goodness. Since 2019, the rides at Star Wars: Galaxy's Edge at Walt Disney World’s Hollywood Studios in Orlando and Disneyland in Anaheim, California have let you fly the Millennium Falcon in an exciting smuggling run or join the Resistance in an epic battle against Kylo Ren and the First Order.

Everything was designed to the smallest detail from original sources. You can build your own custom lightsaber at Savi's Workshop (with 120,000 possible combinations) or design and activate your own droid at the Droid Depot. Dok-Ondar's Den of Antiquities offers "rare and unique" finds, including a replica of Princess Leia's necklace at the end of "A New Hope," cast from the original mold. Mingle with smugglers, bounty hunters and weary travelers at Og's Cantina in the Black Spire Outpost and dine on Smoked Kaadu Ribs and Roasted Endorian Tip-yip Salad or just pick up some rations and blue milk from a vendor.

Or you can just wander around, walk through the life-size Millenium Falcon, use a vibrating wristband to track down bounties, interact with the many costumed performers, and just lose yourself in the Star Wars universe. The 14-acre Galaxy's Edge is the largest single-themed land ever created in a Disney park.

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Go to Tunisia, I mean, Tatooine

When George Lucas was looking for a terrestial place to stash Luke Skywalker he went to the arid desert landscapes of the small North African country of Tunisia, and so can you.

La Grande Dune is where C-3PO and R2-D2's ship crashed. The interiors of Uncle Ben and Aunt Beru's house were shot in the Hotel Sidi Driss, a largely underground structure in Matmata where parts of Luke's childhood home have been recreated, and some of the exteriors were shot in Chott el Djerid. Head to Djerba Island to see Obi-Wan Kenobi's place (actually an old mosque) or visit the city of Ajim to see where the Mos Eisley Spaceport once stood. If you've ever wanted to swing by Mos Espa, head to the desert near Tozeur where the sets still stand.

For the rest of your Tatooine sightseeing trip you have to go to Death Valley, USA. Follow C-3PO's footsteps (and R2-D2's treads) along Desolation Canyon, and Twenty-Mule Team Canyon, see where the Jawas zapped R2 in Golden Canyon and sold him off their sandcrawler in the Artist's Palette, or look out over the vista from the Mesquite Flat Sand Dunes or Dante's View. The park has a list of the filming locations and offers a guided driving audio tour on the free NPS app.

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Disney's Star Tours put you in the movies

Climb aboard a star cruiser and help C-3PO and R2-D2 get a spy back to the Rebel Alliance in Disney's long-running Star Tours - The Adventure Continues interactive adventure, also at both Florida and California parks as well as Tokyo Disneyland and Disneyland Paris. You'll visit major settings from the movies and encounter lots of familiar faces in this flight simulator ride with digital 3D video at Disney's Hollywood Studios park.

Even if you've been before, each ride is new. The sequence of events is randomized, so you'll get four out of 21 different segments during the adventure every time, keeping it surprising. The ride also is periodically updated to include new settings and characters from new Star Wars properties,

From 2011: George Lucas re-opens "Star Wars" Star Tours ride at Disney

Go find Luke at Skellig Michael, Ireland

When Rey finally tracked down the missing Luke Skywalker at the end of "The Force Awakens," she found him (spoilers) on the planet Ahch-To.

In our world, that's Skellig Michael or Great Skellig off the coast of Ireland. It's not an easy visit. Getting to this UNESCO World Heritage site is tricky due to the rainy climate, the trek to the monastery is 600 steep stone steps with no guard rails, you can only go between May and September, and the protected site only permits 180 visitors per day. But the rugged beauty of it is undeniable.

Star Wars Celebration is a fan's paradise

If you want to truly celebrate the Star Wars franchise with a few hundred thousand other superfans — and celebrity guests, creators, and maybe George Lucas — you want to go to Star Wars Celebration.

The massive moving convention is LucasFilm's official fan event and they go all out every year. There are often big announcements about upcoming Star Wars movies, TV shows and other exciting new offerings, immersive exhibits, artwork, screenings, panels, and autograph opportunities. Every Celebration has exclusive merchandise and you'll never see as many amazing Star Wars cosplay in one place anywhere else.

In 2017 Star Wars Celebration was in Orlando for the 40th anniversary of the original film, with appearances by nearly every big name from the franchise such as George Lucas, Mark Hamill, Harrison Ford, Hayden Christensen and Billy Dee Williams. It was also the first Celebration after the death of Princess/General Leia herself, Carrie Fisher, and her daughter Billie Lourd and her Star Wars family spoke movingly about her before a tribute video was displayed and composer John Williams performed "Leia's Theme" with the Orlando Philharmonic Orchestra and left the packed room in happy tears.

This year's London event was in April, but the 2024 Star Wars Celebration will be in Makuhari, Japan.

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Rancho Obi-Wan has more Star Wars toys than you do

Want to get another glimpse at all the great Star Wars toys your mom threw away? Head to Petaluma, California and visit Rancho Obi-Wan, a publicly-supported, nonprofit museum to see the world's largest collection of Star Wars memorabilia. (Guinness World Records said so.)

Founder Steve Sansweet owns roughly 500,000 pieces of Star Wars memorabilia that are on display for you to see, including everything from the original banner Lucasfilm used to promote Star Wars at fan conventions in 1976, to a Darth Vader costume and all of the more than 2,500 small action figures issued over the past 45 years.

Guided tours are available and they can take awhile. "There are hundreds, maybe thousands of great stories attached to items at Rancho Obi-Wan," Sansweet told a fan. You will need a membership to buy tour tickets.

Rancho Obi-Wan: 'Star Wars' stuff is out of this world

Head to Hoth (Finse, Norway)

You can't visit the fictional world of Hoth where Imperial AT-AT walkers assaulted the secret Rebel Alliance's Echo Base. And you wouldn't want to, there isn't enough life on that ice cube to fill a space cruiser, I understand.

But you can visit where it was shot in Finse, Norway, a small village between Bergen and Oslo. The village is only accessible by railroad in the winter when temperatures hang between 8 and 18 degrees Fahrenheit. There's not a lot to do there once you take your pictures of the snow, the other snow, and the different snow over there.

Unless, of course, you time your stay to hit one of the annual Visit Hoth events where fans gather at the Finse 1222 hotel (where the production crew of "The Empire Strikes Back" stayed) to party, dog sled to film locations, listen to guest speakers and parade around in full costume.

In perfect hibernation: Star Wars Experience at Madame Tussauds

The wax recreations of iconic Star Wars characters at Madame Tussauds in London are not just lifelike, they're in action. The museum collaborated with Lucasfilm to create stunning, immersive dioramas of the swamps of Gagobah, the Mos Eisley Cantina, the halls of the Death Star, Jabba's throne room, the desert worlds of Tatooine and Jakku, and the flight deck of the Millenium Falcon.

Fight off the First Order at Uyuni Salt Flats in Bolivia

Star Wars fans may come to see where the final battle took place on the planet Crait in "The Last Jedi," but the Uyuni Salt Flats in Bolivia is a hugely popular tourist attraction for anyone.

Half of every year, all you can see for miles is crusted salt in a vast, wide, otherworldly tundra that the Millenium Falcon dodged and twisted over with fighters in hot pursuit.

But the other half of the year, during the wet season, water covers the ground and becomes the world's largest mirror.

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Yub nub! Celebrate (without Ewoks) in Grizzly Creek Redwoods State Park

In "Return of the Jedi," for once our heroes got to go somewhere nice. Violent, covered in stormtroopers and little furry warriors, but nice.

Massive redwoods, thousands of years old, reach to the sky in this small but stunning state park. Less than a square mile across, Grizzly Creek Redwoods State Park, fifteen miles east of Highway 101 near Eureka in northern California, is lush, green and gorgeous. Don't expect soft living, it's rustic. But it's where Star Wars travel every year to see where the filmed the scooter chase scene and try to find impact marks on the trunks.

This is only the beginning. There are dozens of filming locations around the world for the dedicated Star Wars traveler. Go, or go not. There is no try.

C. A. Bridges is a Digital Producer for the USA TODAY Network, working with multiple newsrooms across Florida. Local journalists work hard to keep you informed about the things you care about, and you can support them by subscribing to your local news organization. Read more articles by Chris here and follow him on Twitter at @cabridges

This article originally appeared on The Daytona Beach News-Journal: Disney's Star Wars: Galactic Starcruiser closing: 10 more fan destinations