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    Millennium Falcon: Smugglers Run

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Description And Comments

Smugglers Run lets guests fly Han Solo’s Millennium Falcon, the “fastest hunk of junk in the galaxy.” Guests approaching the attraction will see a life-size Millennium Falcon parked outside the spaceport, periodically venting gas as technicians tinker with the temperamental craft. (You can look at the replica, but you can’t walk under or touch it.)

To board, you’re recruited by Hondo Ohnaka, an animatronic pirate who has cut a deal with Chewbacca to use the Falcon for some sketchy transportation business. After ascending to a second-story catwalk with wraparound views of the ship, visitors enter Ohnaka’s command center, where Hondo explains the mission, while the Falcon can be seen on a video screen preparing for launch. Ohnaka is one of Disney’s most advanced animatronics, with electric motors capable of 50 functions, and his movements are eerily fluid.

At this point, you enter the Falcon through an umbilical bridge and are assigned to a flight crew of up to six people. While awaiting your turn, you can relax in the ship’s instantly recognizable main hold, complete with a holographic chess board from the movies.

When the time arrives, your flight crew walks down the ship’s curving corridors and appears to enter the Falcon’s one and only cockpit, thanks to a patented carousel system that keeps the small simulator cabins hidden from each other. Your mission has you stealing supplies from the First Order to sell on the black market. Each rider is assigned his or her own station: a pilot and copilot up front to steer around obstacles and activate the hyperdrive, two gunners in the middle to shoot down enemy fighters, and a pair of engineers in the rear to repair the ship when the pilots and gunners mess up. Computer-generated scenery is projected on an ultra- HD dome outside the windshield. By far, the best role is that of pilot.

What separates this ride from other simulators (such as Star Tours) are 200 buttons, switches, and levers in the cockpit, each of which does something when activated: Watch for indicator rings to illuminate around certain controls, clueing you in to the correct moment to punch them.

Another difference between Smugglers Run and other simulators is that the video screens displaying the action aren’t attached to the ride vehicle. This not only allows for a more realistic display of the action but also reduces the potential for motion sickness.

At the end of the day, however, in spite of the amount of money, time, and technology that Disney has invested in this attraction, the Smugglers Run ride experience is a disappointment. Seats for the gunners and engineers are situated far enough back from the video screens that it’s like watching a drive-in movie through a tunnel. Worse, the controls for those four seats are mounted at a 90° angle from the action on-screen: If you’re in one of these seats, you can either look at the screen or the controls you’re supposed to be working—but not both. It’s so hard to work the controls, in fact, that we gave up halfway through our rides.

The experience for the pilots is no better—one pilot controls left and right movements while the other, inexplicably, controls up and down. The real Millennium Falcon doesn’t work this way, and nobody with any sense would design actual controls like this.

Terrible ergonomics are only part of the problem, though. Star Wars fans have known since 1977 exactly how the Falcon’s guns and gunners are supposed to look and work. What Disney has built here captures none of that—the thrill of combat has been reduced to push-button data entry. It’s an inexcusable design compromise, one that undercuts the entire land’s claim at realism.

Finally, the script that our rides followed was so comically predictable that it actively distracted from the experience. If you’ve ever been on any other Disney simulator, say, Star Tours or Mission: Space, you’ll recognize the exact same plot points, at the exact same pace.

The Millennium Falcon enjoys a beloved, unique place in American cinema. We think it deserved better. That said, opinions among the Unofficial team aren’t uniform: Seth Kubersky, author of The Unofficial Guide to Disneyland, describes it as “a four-star ride in a five-star wrapper.”

Touring Tips

Disney’s posted wait time for this ride might be the most accurate estimate of how long you’ll actually wait than any other major ride in Walt Disney World. Smugglers Run wait times drop off after 6 p.m. Ride early in the morning, immediately after Slinky Dog Dash.

Millennium Falcon: Smugglers Run Wait Times

This chart shows you roughly how long you'll wait for Millennium Falcon: Smugglers Run when you visit on a day with a given Disney's Hollywood Studios Crowd Level. The blue bars represent the average "peak" wait time (that is, how long the line will be at its busiest). The bottom and top black lines represent the range of peak wait times to expect (for you fellow nerds out there: it's the 5th percentile and 95th percentile of peak wait times). Please note that these are estimates, and for a better forecast for your travel dates, see Millennium Falcon: Smugglers Run Wait Times.

Attraction Photos

Special Comments

"Chewbacca Mode"

Disney released an in-game modification to Smuggler's Run in February 2020. It requires some button-pushing prior to choosing manual or automatic flight mode, and before the Cast Member finishes their seatbelt checks. Here are the steps, courtesy of the FreshBaked! YouTube channel:

  • Again, do not choose manual or automatic flight mode yet.
  • Have the left and right pilots push their controls to the extreme left, right, up, or down.
  • With the controls pushed, the pilots can press the flight mode activation button.
  • Engineers and gunners should press any one of the white buttons at their stations prior to pressing the orange flight mode button.

Other Attractions in Star Wars: Galaxy's Edge

Touring Plans with Millennium Falcon: Smugglers Run

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