The Millennium Falcon is located towards the end of Galaxy’s End park expansion. It is past the First Order base and at the end of the Market. The Falcon is of course a centerpiece to the park, there are several cast members to control guests taking pics and also moving them to the PhotoPass photographer queue. This is for the most part full-sized, the cockpit seems to fit only Chewbacca, from the dedication ceremony. I think it was said that this is will be the version of the Millennium Falcon for here on out. To the left of the Falcon is the start of the attraction queue. There is single rider lines and the stand-by queue which wraps around the Millennium Falcon. The cast members have blue vests as part of the hangar crew. Since the Millennium Falcon: Smuggler's Run is the only attraction, there is heavy traffic for it, Galaxy’s Edge has one group finishing and then another group enters. So the beginning and end of your time will be a 45 minute wait. If you go in the middle of your time, it is about 20 minutes. I went on twice and the last one was past my reservation time by about 20 minutes.
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| Millennium Falcon at Galaxy's Edge!, photo by the author. |
The Falcon seems to be the only ship in the docking bay, it would be interesting to see other ships taking off on a screen, or landing profiles on a flight controller data pad similiar to Star Tours. The queue area features some great details; flight crew lockers and droids that are being worked on. A very excellent queue, but it is not interactive like the queue in the Indiana Jones Adventure. This leads up ramps to the next level which winds around an engine that reminds me of the Space Mountain queue. It looks like a podracer engine and the engine is tested every now and then. This offers a view of the Millennium Falcon outside of windows that give you great overviews of the Falcon with Black Spire Outpost backgrounds. This leads to the area where you assigned your flight positions; Pilot, Gunner, and Engineer. These are cards that has your group color. You are then led into the crew quarters with the dejarik table. This is at the far end and you can take pics there, but you have make your way there and be patient.
An alarm goes off and you have to hit a red button so there is some interactivity. You see a tool set and just wonder at all of the detail like the training remote, which I didn’t notice at the time. Once your group is called, cast members collect your cards, remember you can trade cards in your group if you want a certain position. Then, your group enters a hangar bay, on another level is Hondo Ohnaka. He first appeared in the Clone Wars episode, “Dooku Captured” (2009) and then showed up in Star Wars: Rebels with The “Wynkaththu Job” (2016). Ohnaka is a Weequay smuggler and con artist who had his own smuggling group in the Clone Wars, the Ohnaka Gang. He worked with Anakin Skywalker and other Jedi. He lost his group and was running cons in the Galactic Civil War taking a liking to Ezra Bridger and his fellow Rebels. So this is the first time we have seen him in a live aciton form. He is a full motion audio-animatronic, gesturing, and moving on his gantry simliar to the dynamic Na’vi Shaman of Songs in the Na’vi River Journey attraction.
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| Hondo Ohnaka in the Millennium Falcon: Smuggler's Run queue, photo by the author. |
The original voice artist, Jim Cummings, returns to voice Hondo Ohnaka. He also voices Winnie the Pooh in The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh attraction at the Disney parks. Ohnaka has assembled your crew to fly the Millennium Falcon and he is interrupted by Chewbacca who has agreed to this arrangement in exchange for parts. Next, your group is taken to another room where on a screen Hondo Ohnaka explains the mission. You have to fly to Corellia and retrieve some important cargo. He informs you that certain buttons will flash when they need to be pushed. This is similar to the Mission: Space attraction at EPCOT. Then, you get to the cockpit of the Millennium Falcon. This is an experience, but you have to buckle in and check your controls very quickly. I was left hand pilot, the controls are a handle that you turn side to side, the left-right orientation of the ship. The co-pilot on the right, has the up and down control, plus can hit the lever to jump the Falcon to hyperspace!
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| View of the Falcon's cockpit during the ride, photo by the author. |
The gunners have controls that fire the overhead cannons. The engineers press buttons, they have control of the harpoons which brings in the cargo. One of the concerns I had is the ride motion. Health-wise I can’t ride attractions with drops or sudden motion. I watched many ride videos to see what was going on. The movement would be equivalent to a very bumpy car ride so I was fine. You are guided on what to do by Hondo Ohnaka. Similar to Mission: Space, if you are missing a position, don’t worry, the action happens anyway. First flight, my group had pilots and gunners, but no engineers. You score points, but it was sort of meaningless because there is no total points to compare scores. There is not too much time after the scores are on screen, you unbuckle, and cast members escort you out. There is a corridor that leads to the outside right by the steps to the Market. I would like some Falcon merch, like a “I Flew the Millennium Falcon” t-shirt which can be explained is produced by Hondo. I wonder if your Smuggler’s Run score will have any impact with smugglers who don’t have a presence at Black Spire Outpost yet. It really is a must-ride.
#GalaxysEdge, #MillenniumFalconSmuggersRun, #HondoOhnaka, #Chewbacca
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