Disneyland is changing the Millennium Falcon Smugglers Run ride, here’s why:
Disney CEO Josh D’Amaro thinks that “Guests like [Smugglers Run], but they don’t love it.” and is trying to fix that with the latest changes. Big fans of the Mandalorian show will no doubt also be excited about the changes coming to the Smugglers Run Ride this year, as the popular series is being brought into the ride’s story. During Disney’s D23 Expo in 2024, Disney announced several changes to its Star Wars-themed section of the park, “Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge,” including alterations to one of its main attractions, the “Millennium Falcon: Smugglers Run.” This included incorporating elements from the upcoming Mandalorian movie and new improvements to previously lacking features. Disney, seemingly wanting to capitalize on the success of the Mandalorian show and the excitement for the upcoming Mandalorian movie “The Mandalorian and Grogu”, is including this new ride experience based on it. The hope with these changes is that the ride will better appeal to more Disneyland guests and leave them with a more positive impression of the experience.
(Concept Art by Disney & Lucasfilm)
The Initial Reception:
The ride, Smugglers Run, has riders enter inside the iconic cockpit of the Millennium Falcon, piloting the ship through a mission to steal cargo with Chewbacca’s guidance. While the ride initially was praised by fans of the series, such as Jessica Figueroa, “Smugglers Run fulfills a lifelong dream for many to pilot the Millennium Falcon, and the level of detail is above all that has preceded it.” Other parkgoers like Dave Shute found that the ride solely appeals to fans of Star Wars, and that for average parkgoers: “those indifferent to space flight or the Falcon itself, it is just another ride.” causing a mixed reception and a dwindling number of guests over time, “However, enthusiasm for the attraction quickly waned due to its repetitive storyline and the divisive role assignment system, which disappointed many guests who didn’t get to play pilot.” Arguably, another factor that contributed to its lack of appeal was its being overshadowed by the other experience, “Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance,” when it opened in the same land. Rise of the Resistance was massively popular among fans and average parkriders, causing the Falcon to fall behind in attracting guests to the experience.
The Ride’s Main Flaws:
The Millennium Falcon Smugglers Run was criticized upon release for several reasons, including that its premise was too niche and not widely appealing. For many adults, the ride’s interactive features that mimicked game mechanics didn’t appeal. While the ride offers the option for “auto-pilot” and doesn’t require guests to interact, it then becomes similar to another ride in the park, “Star Tours” which leaves the ride feeling a bit lacking when it only has one story to experience, leaving it feeling limited compared to Star Tours where at least there are several potential storylines and planets to visit and see.
Additionally, for those who do enjoy the ride experience of interacting with the Falcon, it still feels lacking. The majority of the ride hinges on the Falcon’s pilots, who dictate, impact, and interact with the ride far more than the other roles do. Pilots get to steer the ship, and the ride responds with its visuals and movement, allowing them to interact with the experience throughout the ride. However, the gunners are relegated to engaging enemy tie fighters only occasionally and briefly, leaving them with nothing to interact with outside these brief combat sections. This is worst for engineers, as for most of the ride, they are left repairing the ship, thereby unable to do anything that directly affects the ride’s visual or movement feedback. The engineers get one moment in the ride where they directly impact the story or experience by having to latch onto the cargo they are attempting to steal, but otherwise are never given anything to do after that. All of this leads to a problem: two riders end up having most of the fun, while the other four riders feel like they are watching an experience meant to be most fun through interaction.
Furthermore, a minor detail that also lessened the appeal for some fans is the ride’s setting, which takes place during the “Sequels Era” film trilogy, which isn’t as popular as the original three films. Additionally, the locations chosen to travel to aren’t any of the iconic locations we are familiar with but rather less well-known planets, the first one being the planet of Batuu where you started at inside the land, and the other one being Corellia which while it appeared in the Star Wars film, “Solo”, the planet was only featured briefly and the film wasn’t the most popular either. So unlike Star Tours, you don’t get to visit any of the more iconic planets and locations featured in the main films of Star Wars, nor storylines from the more popular Original Trilogy.
Another smaller problem with the ride is that it requires multiple people; if your group doesn’t have enough people, you’ll be stuck with other random people in this confined space, working with them. While the ride doesn’t require much team coordination, it can be awkward for some to ride with strangers on this ride in particular. However, this does have the benefit of the “Single Rider” ride line, which allows individuals riding alone to cut the line to help fill groups and get on the ride faster.
The Proposed Improvements:
With all these flaws in the ride’s system, it became apparent that Disneyland needed to revitalize the system to address them. Imagineers, Disney’s engineering team, said the update will incorporate elements from the new Mandalorian movie, pulling the same assets from Lucasfilm’s (the film studio for Star Wars) CGI asset library into the ride. “..this approach guarantees 100% authenticity – every model guests see in the cockpit is the same asset used on set.” With iconic sites appearing in concept art, such as Coruscant, Bespin, Tatooine, and the remains of the second Death Star, all locations featured in some of the franchise’s most popular films. Along with that, a new storyline involving the Mandalorian and Grogu, better visuals with the upgraded fidelity systems, and improvements to the fundamental systems of interactability for the riders of Smugglers Run. One potential feature is the freedom to choose which planets you’ll visit, allowing for much more variability between rides and giving riders the ability to impact the ride and its story far more. There has also been claims that the other roles such as the engineer will be improved beyond “passively pressing a few buttons” as, “a spectator” according to D’Amaro, and that the one of the main intentions of the update is to “give every rider more influence over the experience, so each role inside the cockpit plays a more meaningful part in how the story unfolds.”, with the engineers possibly be able to “communicate with Grogu during the mission”. While it’s unclear what a baby incapable of coherent speech might have to say, the update to the ride seems promising.
It addresses several fundamental problems with the original design, namely rider engagement and interactability. Not to mention offering more variability and a push towards more popular parts of the Star Wars brand, it seems Disney is taking fan feedback seriously. Hopefully, it can boost ride attendance and, more importantly, maintain it in the long term. If more people come away as fans of the ride, they will likely want to ride it again the next time they visit, increasing its popularity. This benefits visitors because if Disneyland has more popular rides that people want to ride, this helps spread out line waits, creating a better guest experience for parkgoers.
