Millennium Falcon: Smugglers Run – What Should I Be Afraid Of?

This is why we at MickeyVisit put together this comprehensive ride review of Millennium Falcon: Smugglers Run so you have a clear idea of what to expect when riding it.

Smugglers Run Ride Review

In an effort to clearly define just how scary a ride is, we developed an ultra-scientific backed-by-research rating system. We call it the Mickey Visit Ride Rating System – MVRRS for short (pretty clever, huh?) The MVRRS goes as follows:

• Wimp Proof: Not scary at all
• Wimp Proof-ish: Seems scary at first, but after, you feel it's nothing to worry about
• Scary but Survivable: Moderately scary
• Scary: Definitely scary, but you'll be able to sleep at night
• Bravest Riders Only: The scariest ride you'll find in a theme park

Smugglers Run Ride Overview

There are 2 versions of Smugglers Run: 1 in Disney's Hollywood Studios and 1 in Disneyland Park.

So the story goes, Hondo Ohnaka (from the animated Star Wars: Clone Wars series) made a deal with Chewbacca. The result: Hondo can use the Millennium Falcon for his business as long as the Resistance gets a piece of whatever you smuggle. This is where you come in.

Your mission: follow a train to steal come coaxium, which is worth a lot of credits.

You and your boarding party will control the ship, make repairs to any damages, fight off the enemy, and – of course – stea the coaxium. Much like a video game, each member in your boarding party has access to certain controls to complete their job.

And don't worry. Even if members of your party do poorly or don't do anything at all, the system will override the controls so you still get a full ride experience.

Here’s some important information to review before riding Star Tours:

• Access: Lightning Lane Multi Pass, Single Rider, Rider Switch
• Height Requirements: Guests must be at least 38″ (97cm)
• Highest Speed: Not Applicable (movement is felt through the 3D screen and flight simulator)
• Length: 4.5 minutes
• Other Features: 3D Screen

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Smugglers Run Ride Queue: What You Need to Know

At both Disney parks, the ride queues for Smugglers Run are identical.

The standby, Single Rider, and Lightning Lane queues for Smugglers Run start right at the ride’s signage. The merge point for all queues happens just before the pre-boarding area.

The standby queue is quite long, but fairly well lit. Along the way, you'll pass by the backside of the Millennium Falcon and walk through a spaceship maintenance bay before making your way to the pre-show room. The entire queue is chalk-full of Easter Eggs and incredible details, making it worth waiting in.

After a few more loops in the queue, you enter the pre-show room, where you meet a life-sized animatronic of Hondo Ohnaka.

As the owner of Ohnaka Transport Solutions, Hondo offers you the opportunity of a lifetime – to transport valuable merchandise across the galaxy. He's looking for 2 pilots, 2 engineers, and 2 gunners to run his ship – that's where your party comes in.

You'll then reach the pre-boarding area: an incredible recreation of the common room that's featured in the Star Wars movies. When your party is called in the pre-boarding area, a Cast Member will explain each of your roles. This makes it easier to understand how the ride works.

Lastly, it's important to note that there are 2 chicken exits available should you choose to skip the ride. The first is at the pre-boarding area, where you can ask a Cast Member to walk straight to the exit. The second isn't the most convenient: if you decide to sit this ride out while in the queue, you can simply turn around and walk back out the way you entered.

Smugglers Run Ride Vehicle Information

While Smugglers Run is a  flight simulator attraction, the ride vehicle is very different from that of a flight simulator ride like Star Tours – let’s review why.

When your party is called, you'll walk down the iconic ramp of the Millennium Falcon and into its cockpit. The cockpit is made for 6 guests: 2 pilots up front, 2 gunners in the middle, and 2 engineers in the back. Each seat has seatbelt restraints and grab bars built into the rear of each seat.

The left pilot controls left and right movements while the pilot controls up and down movements. The gunners and engineers do the same job regardless of the side you sit on.

Combining high-definition video, a 3-D high definition screen, an advanced motion simulator, and video game technology, Smugglers Run is as close as you get to truly flying the Millennium Falcon. Much like Star Tours, Smugglers Run is able to tilt considerably within 3 different planes – with you at the helm.

Smugglers Run: Ride Experience

Once you buckle up, it's time to depart for your mission: to steal coaxium.

Your ride starts by leaving Black Spire Outpost and quickly making the jump to lightspeed. Even though your mission is simple, things don't quite go as planned. You'll have to take evasive action, defending yourselves from the ships protecting the train. Much like the ride experience for Star Tours, you'll truly feel like you're riding Han Solo's prized ship, flying, diving, and evading enemies – and asteroids!

Of course, how well you do is dependent on how well your team works together.

Regardless of how bad your team does, you'll manage to steal some coaxium – the more you steal, the better you do. Once you're in possession of the coaxium, you jump back to lightspeed and make your way back to Batuu to find out how well you did.

Because this ride is a 3-D flight simulator, it does a fantastic job making you feel like you're on a high-speed flight through space, navigating planets and dodging enemies. Let's review the aspects of the ride that that make Smugglers Run thrilling and add to its MVRRS rating:

• Flight Simulator: The ride experience is highly dependent upon who your pilots are. However, this 3-D flight simulator ride vehicle tends to be highly turbulent and includes sharp turns and sudden bumps. If you're sensitive to motion sickness, you may want to skip this ride
• Video Technology: While the ride doesn't have you use 3-D glasses, the screen depicting your flight through space very much feels real. Again, if you're sensitive to motion sickness, the video technology may be another reason to skip this ride
• Heights: Because you're in a flight simulator, you'll feel like you're flying – over a planet, through space, or high above the ground. If you find it difficult to look out the window of an airplane, you may have difficulty riding Smugglers Run
• Speed: Again, because of the flight simulator, parts of your flight will feel fast
• Drops: While your ride tends to be highly turbulent, you never fall far enough in one go to be called a drop
• Darkness: On your ride, you'll race down tunnels of varying brightness and fly through the darkness of space several times. However, the cockpit you're sitting in will remain fairly well lit
• Lighting Sequences: At several points during your flight, you'll see the white lights that signal your “jump to hyperspace.” However, there are no sequences of regular, repeated flashing that create a strobe effect
• Action Story Elements: Your ride is bound to include action scenes, including dodging asteroids or ships, jumping to hyperspace, and fighting off enemy ships. If you or your kiddos do not like startling scenes or action scenes, you may want to skip this ride
• Length: At about 4.5 minutes, Smugglers Run is a little shorter than Star Tours, slightly longer than Buzz Lightyear's Space Ranger Spin, and more than double the length of Snow White's Scary Adventures

Every single effect adds up to a very fun ride.

Favorite Moment of Smugglers Run

Let's review why you need to ride Smugglers Run.

When it first opened, Smugglers Run raised the bar for interactive rides at any theme park. With 6 guests having to work together to complete 1 mission, you're in for a treat. Up to this day, there is no other theme park attraction that comes close to the type of interactivity offered on Smugglers Run.

However, the ride's interactivity isn't my favorite part of this attraction – far from it, actually. I must admit, if I'm not the pilot when riding, I won't feel like I'll have the most interactive experience. But I will still very much enjoy the ride.

My favorite moment of Smugglers Run is everything else leading up to the start of the ride experience. From walking through the queue behind the life-sized Millennium Falcon and seeing Hondo Ohnaka “in the flesh” to hanging out in the common room complete with a Dejarik board, you're transported into the world of Star Wars long before your ride even starts.

Whether or not you're a big Star Wars fan, you'll surely find yourself transported out of this universe and into “a galaxy far, far away” on Smugglers Run.

Smugglers Run: Scary Verdict

So, how does our ride review of Smugglers Run stack up against our MVRRS?

MVRRS VERDICT: Wimp Proof: Not scary at all

Smugglers Run is very much a video game version of Star Tours. It's also arguably an updated version of Mission: SPACE – but without the extremely high possibility of motion sickness. With that said, while there are several action sequences during the ride, the overall experience ranks low on our MVRRS rating.

This may come as a shock seeing as we rated Star Tours – The Adventures Continue as wimp proof-ish.

The thing is, while the flight simulator ride vehicle for Star Tours gives you a close-to-reality flight experience, your flight is completely out of your control; you're literally at the mercy of C-3PO and R2-D2.

However, on Smugglers Run, your party is in control of your ride experience. And even if you don't get the role of the pilot, knowing that someone in your party is in control of your ride vehicle helps give you a sense of control over your experience.

And unlike rides like Soarin' Around the World, TRON Lightcycle / Run, or Avatar Flight of Passage, your ride vehicle has you sitting in a ship's cockpit. This means you're wearing a traditional seatbelt restraint with your feet touching the ground, literally keeping you feeling grounded as you fly across the galaxy.

In the end, I very much recommend riding Smugglers Run, especially for guests visiting Disneyland Park or Disney's Hollywood Studios for their first time.

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