When the topic of Star Wars is broached, it suddenly becomes about Jedi Knights, the midichlorian-imbued justice officers of the galaxy.
But Star Wars is filled with everyday heroes. Rebels fighting for freedom, the oppressed throwing off their oppressors, and the suave smugglers just trying to make a living and get good across the galaxy to their patrons.
Hondo Ohnaka is in Batuu, recruiting new crew members to the smugglers’ guild, and you’ll get to board the famous fastest hunk of junk in the galaxy — Han Solo’s Millennium Falcon!
If you’ve been dreaming of piloting this iconic starship, or even if you’re an ol’ pro returning to Batuu, there’s nothing that quite takes the place of stepping into the immersive galaxy of Star Wars canon and fulfilling lifelong dreams of sitting at the helm of this gem of the rebel fleet.
Here are some specs to familiarize yourself with what you’ll experience on this attraction:
- Ride Type: Simulator
- Thrill Level: Medium
- Genie+: Yes
- Ride Length: 4 Minutes 30 Seconds
- Height Requirement: 38 inches
- Capacity: 1,500 – 1,800 per hour
So, if you have difficulty with simulator attractions or moderately enclosed spaces, this one might not be for you. The cockpit holds up to six individuals, so it isn’t as intimate as Mission: Space, but it is cozier than Star Tours.
You can also expect to wait a bit for this ride. Even on slow days, because the capacity is so limited, it takes time for guests to experience the attraction, and to rotate through for guests debarking the attraction and the new crew boarding.
HOW IT WORKS – "Smugglers Run" – Here's a zoom in of the drawing we saw earlier and how the queue and exit works. Feel free to comment and ask questions. #SWGalaxysEdge #GalaxysEdge #StarWarsCelebration pic.twitter.com/TvXboTcYl1
— SWGalaxysEdge (@sw_edge) April 18, 2019
From the image above, we can see that there are two “Millennium Falcon” shaped ships, each with seven cockpits that hold up to six individuals. So that means, at any one time, 84 people can be experiencing this ride at a time. And there’s also the ride time. The attraction has a four-and-a-half minute ride time.
So, that’s why you’ll experience a wait for this attraction, even when it’s not so busy in the parks.
Even if you’ve been on Smuggler’s Run hundreds of times, there is a secret mode that you might not have ever unlocked that will completely change the ride experience for you called “Chewie Mode.” This secret hack for the Millennium Falcon: Smugglers Run ride allows you to listen to Chewbacca the whole time during your flight instead of Hondo. The one catch is that Chewie is yelling at you in Shyriiwook, so even if he’s being super helpful, if you don’t speak Shyriiwook, you’re outta luck!
How do you unlock “Chewie Mode?”
Basically, how it works is during the initial flight pre-check on Smugglers Run, each rider is asked to fulfill a list of pre-flight checks on their control panel in front or to the side of them. Usually, guests are obedient and follow Hondo’s orders, pushing the correct buttons he tells you to before take-off.
However, it’s what happens when you don’t listen to him that makes this one of the coolest ride hacks in all Disney World. Here are step-by-step instructions to make Smugglers Run enter Chewie Mode.
- Ride Smugglers Run with a full cabin of 6 guests. It won’t work with less.
Before the ride starts, do NOT activate your position right away. - First, the left and right pilots need to push their control sticks to the far left or right and far up and down.
- Once the pilots do this, they need to push their activation button.
- Engineers and Gunners also ignore the pre-flight instructions and hold down one of the white buttons on their control panel, and then hit the activation button.
Make sure all the guests on the ride with you follow these instructions, or it won’t work. Once this happens and if you follow everything in order, you will enter into “Chewie Mode” and you will then hear Chewbacca’s voice for the whole attraction instead of Hondo.
It’s quite thrilling to see done, and it makes the whole experience feel much more like actually being in the Falcon. Keep following AllEars for more Disney World hidden details like this!
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Is Millennium Falcon: Smugglers Run your favorite ride? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below!
On the last episode of The Imagineering Story” there is an expanded part that shows how the ride works and how they had to start working on the ride before the computer technology to run the ride had even existed yet!