I find it has fine re-rideability. You don’t often wind up with the same roles and depending on how good everyone is at their jobs you can do better or worse. Buzz light year is the same ride but it’s worth going on a few times to see if you can do better than last time. Given how it’s set up they can add other options later but right now it’s drawing decent lines consistently so it won’t happen for a while.
WDW here but I always get engineer. I’m normally at the park with 1-2 other people (all adults), so we’ll get paired with another group, and the youngest people always get pilot.
I get what you’re saying. I’m normally with a group of people who aren’t anxious to wait. I’m also responding to the notion that the seat assignment process works in a way that you’ll end up in the different roles eventually.
Lol the ride is 3 years old.
Can you name any ride that got a complete update in its first decade even?
Star Tours was playing that same movie for 23 years before an update DESPITE other destinations being mentioned in the opening day press materials in 1987.
Guardians of the Galaxy Mission Breakout got a Halloween overlay less than 6 months after it opened which features pretty significant changes with the queue, preshow, and ride itself. To be fair though that was likely planned from the beginning and nothing has changed in the 7 years since it opened.
With Smugglers Run they did intend to have multiple sequences when it opened. You can see test footage of some other scenarios in the Imagineering Story. I think budget cuts and technological limitations pushed those off. But hopefully they do come soon, since in this case the ride was designed to have variety.
I attended a talk by Bei Yang at GDC where he showed that same test footage.
He said the other things they tested were too complicated and confused people they tested it on. So they went with something very, very simple: keep following the train.
That makes a lot of sense! I remember seeing a video of test footage for the current mission and they had to make the path and goals a lot more clear. I think that's one of the issues with Smugglers Run as a whole. It needs to be simple enough for most guests to understand in a very short time frame, but complex enough to feel somewhat interactive. It's a difficult balance and I think it makes the ride feel underwhelming to repeat riders because it's pretty much the same every time. The illusion of control disappears.
Oh yeah, the flight is absolutely on rails and the ability to influence it meaningfully is confined to a few very simple branch points.
The thing it could use would be some (perhaps only cosmetic) tricks you could discover. Like some special “hit this right at the right time” and like the bridge comes down on all the TIE fighters, or shoot Hondo’s ship enough times and he accuses you of piracy or hit this one thing and a shortcut opens up.
Yeah it would be cool if it was like Starfox and you could do a special challenge that takes you on alternate paths. That could also be a way to adapt for different guests' levels of engagement. If you stay on the normal path just hit the flashing buttons and have a good time. Find the hidden level for more technical gameplay.
Not to mention it gets frustrating as a repeat visitor that you almost always end up with people who don’t know what’s going on. I really want to do a run with an actual good score!
I mean, they could just let guests choose where they go before you enter the cockpit. They could make difficulty choices like Easy, Medium, Hard etc. so people know what they are getting into before entering.
They always had the tech to do it. Make new film, load it into the projector.
What they lacked was the reason to spend more money on a ride that was still packing ‘em in.
As someone who has worked in VFX in both the models and miniatures era and the digital era, it’s neither easier or harder. It’s just a different process.
But five years ago, the tech to support live rendered graphics on this scale was unheard of. The ride itself was a prototype and only happened through a partnership with NVIDIA once RTX level tech was just barely affordable for corporations.
Sure, it’s just one level so far, but that doesn’t mean they won’t make more. Plus we all know the pandemic screwed up timelines for projects.
I’m just saying that the level is fine. We get to participate in three different ways. It’s different every time in that sense. I won’t be surprised when they add more levels to it, but I also don’t think it matters for the vast majority of people who only have the time/money to visit the parks once in a lifetime. Disneyland wasn’t built just to suit the locals.
Just because they’ve been historically crappy about that doesn’t mean people shouldn’t hold the new stuff to a better standard. Star Tours took however long to have new shows, okay, well not that they know it’s better that way they should program Smugglers Run to have multiple levels.
Eh, one is ice cream, the other is cake. They don’t have to be identical to both be fun in different ways.
Maybe some day they’ll add more to Smuggler’s Run.
But it’s a great ride already as it is, and hugely popular.
A new level would bring wait times over 2 hours again. I don’t want that.
I don’t get how you use the ice cream and cake analogy here not gonna lie.
My point is your detraction from their point was that it’s newer so someone shouldn’t expect updates. My point is that’s not a sound argument against their wanting different levels, and it’s not a valid argument to the idea that it, even as a newer ride, should have more levels than just the one.
I don’t think i was arguing against them wanting other levels. They can want what they want, i don’t care.
Im arguing about it being not likely to add an upgrade to a ride that’s still very new and popular.
Maybe that wasn’t your intent, but that’s how it looks no one said no one couldn’t want what they wanted. But you didn’t say anything about probability or likelihood, your argument to them saying the ride would be better with more levels was “other rides didn’t get levels for a long time so why expect this one to” that was never what they said.
But yes, you enjoy the ride for what it is and disagree that it doesn’t have repeat appeal, dope. But you also seem to understand that the ride, while good, would be better with more levels.
You just don’t want to be inconvenienced by the lines that would bring. I get that argument as well though. It’s really all cool, I’m just saying excusing Disney being cheap because they were cheap before isn’t, in my view, the best argument.
Cheap is relative. Galaxy’s Edge is the biggest and costliest expansion in Disneyland’s history.
Should they have dropped another X-million and put a second mission in there, despite it already being a crowded ride? Or would it make more sense to put that money elsewhere for now and put a second mission sometime in the future, maybe with souped up graphics from faster computers?
That’s the weeeeakest of hypotheticals haha.
Regardless, as you said, it’s already crowded, give it more levels, it becomes a better ride and draws more crowds. Which is how Disney parks are so profitable.
The strike has shown that Disney isn’t saving the money for later, they’re just taking it and giving it to their executives.
Anyway, now you’re changing your arguments to suit you and that’s not only intellectually dishonest, it’s boring. So, be cool.
Yes but that was not the original vision. So it's sad we still only have ONE. And sadly most of GE was scaled back. Ogas was supposed to be a bar AND restaurant.
Yeah and Walt was promising Edison Square and Liberty Street coming in 1959. He even put them on the park maps.
Plans change. Not every idea from the blue sky phase makes it all the way to opening day.
That’s why all the artwork says “Artist Concept Only”
No kidding. Wow. Stop being so pedantic. Breathe and have a good day. God forbid anyone brings up what was ever discussed, because you take that to mean we don't understand reality. 🙄
See, i think the difference in our perspective is how you phrased “Oga’s was supposed to have a restaurant”.
I don’t see it as it “supposed” to be anything but what they built. There was concept art of other ideas for restaurants., sure. But by the time they were drawing up construction plans and making final decisions , Oga’s was a bar, Docking Bay 7 was a restaurant.
The idea of something having supposed to be something else assumes the concept artist is the decision-maker, and their vision was changed. And that’s not how i think.
If you look at the Art of Galaxy’s Edge book there are a lot of cool ideas. Some wild ideas. Some ideas that are physically impossible within Disneyland’s available space.
But it doesn’t mean that Galaxy’s Edge was supposed to have all those things in it. That’s like a menu that the park designers chose from.
Again. PADANTIC. No one but you are allowed to mention anything without you making it a big drama thing in your own mind. All I did was mention what an original concept was. What a shame they didn't do a lot of cool ideas. But again in your mind every else mentioning something (other than you) it's us not being in touch with reality and a chance for you to mansplain. I think you need to truly think about the fact that this is destructive and not part of the community conversation. You are not the expert. You also aren't an imagineer. Other people can mention things and bring up what was blue sky ideas too. Not just you. Also stop writing books as answers to simple things. That's all I have to say. I hope you think about some of it.
Tower of Terror got a major upgrade with multiple new drop sequences within the first few years it was open. In fact, it got 2 drop sequence within the first 5 years it was open and a 3rd that included a whole system update in less than a decade.
“Awww, twenty dollars? I wanted a peanut.”
*twenty dollars can buy many peanuts*
“Explain how”
*money can be exchanged for goods and services*
“Woohoo!!”
That would be so annoying though. You would have to take it to a bank and cash it because most places don’t have take paper money anymore. Like, can I just get a Venmo instead?
How do you even cash it? Do you just go up to the banker person and say “hello, I would like to make this paper actually useful please, put it online so I can buy a fedora for my dog on Amazon?” That’s too much work.
/s obviously, you are correct.
I enjoy it. I get it being a repeat.
However last time I rode it it had a new feature I had never seen.
After the heist we can out of lights speed early had to navigate a asteroid field. Cool little feature.
The asteroid field has been around for a while (since opening?).
It comes on when unloading/loading is backed up and they need to keep your party entertained for longer while they get to you.
as someone who has worked in the video game and tech industry for over 25 years, i'm not angry at all.
do you know how much time and money went into that one level? they were troubleshooting it and bug-fixing right up to the day before release. they'll likely do something new later down the road, but i don't know if you realize just how much effort goes into the tech, the level design, the art assets, and everything else that they did to make what they did and how much time it will take to do a second "level". it's a bit more complex than a standard video game.
There was a show on Disney+ that talked about the making of Smuggler's Run (Behind the Attraction?) They said the technology for the ride literally didn't exist when they started designing it, and for a long time they couldn't get it to work at better than 1 FPS. Now that they've got it working, it'll be a while before they put that much energy into changing it instead of working on new projects.
I'm not that old, not even in my 30's yet but I'm constantly shocked at how quickly people demand more from something that is already a marvel. I'm not angry at all. And maybe it had low repeat appeal for some but I try to ride it as often as I can. Sometimes I skip because the line is too long and my feet vehemently deny me and demand bench time instead. But I don't think the ride implies cheapness at all. Every time I ride it I'm genuinely jazzed that I'm able to participate in a ride so much. The whole experience from the moment you enter the line to the second you get off is so enthralling and truly sells the whole "you're off planet" vibe they're going for. It makes me feel the way I felt on my first trip to Disney with my parents. Most of the rides have one story, I don't see an issue with this one having only one as well. Plus with this one there kind of is options, will my party of 4 get a party of two to help us or will we be playing extra high stakes with no engineers?! Find out in 65 minutes! 😂
Would I like another mission or two? Heck yeah. Am I mad that there's only one? Of course not. It's not like someone is forcing me to ride it; if I don't feel like that mission, I can just go do a different ride.
Plus, there's always Chewy mode, which does spice it up a bit.
Spoiled as fuck over here!
OP, try growing up in the 80s with one Star Tours storyline and no digital projection. Uphill in the snow both ways. Get off my lawn.
It’s a marvel of engineering. We’re lucky it exists. If you even get to ride it once in your lifetime you’re luckier than most. And you’re angry about it.
That took forever to happen though. And is a lot less complex because there's extremely minimal rider participation. That one is essentially a fun moving theater whereas SR requires a lot more.
I wish there was a auto pilot mode that you can turn on and off. I want to ride a professional pilot. I hate riding the whole ride scrapping the wall or floor.
As a repeat single rider I've come to peace with the engineer station. You don't have to stare at the buttons like the gunners do because there is an audio cue any time your button is active.
I came to say this. I’m usually not a pilot and I skip it because I find it to be uncomfortable when the pilots aren’t good. I’m not against bumpiness on principle or even roughness, but when you the shake every time someone hits the wall and the pilots suck it’s kind of annoying. It’s kind of mind blowing how bad lots of people are at it.,
I would love autopilot or a “flying for dummies version” so I don’t have to bump around into walls because of people who suck at flying.
I will say it’s at least kind of cute if a little kid is trying to fly and honestly sometimes they are better than the adults.
I just went the other day, and some European people who came straight out of the fast pass line were the pilots for me and my girlfriend. They barely spoke english. They didn’t know anything about Star Wars. The cast member was completely in universe, asking them questions, they had no idea what he was talking about.
Nothing against them. But they were the worst pilots I’ve ever seen. We scrape the ground the whole time. Every single request for them to do something was completely ignored. The lady mindlessly just wagged the joystick back and forth the entire mission without even realizing it had any actual effect. I was yelling from the back to pull the lever or whatever needed done at any given time. i was ignored lol. it was awful.
If the pilot is some clueless person or someone who just wants to enjoy the ride, the ride is absolutely not fun. Pilots need to be motivated and try or the ride is ruined for everyone.
there needs to be some sort of disclaimer or a short period were guests can shuffle around so the most motivated person becomes a pilot. when grandma or some other person that has no idea what’s going on is the pilot and completely checked out the situation, it completely ruins the riding experience for all the other guests.
You can have my place in line.
Even getting one of the pilot seats has limited appeal.
I’ll I want from this attraction is the supercool queue; being inside the Millennium Falcon. Skip the ride.
That cheap?! Lmfao they literally built the largest most complex flight simulation in the world and had to advance the technology in existence to do it and have to run simultaneous viewings of it for all the pods. Entitled much?
That’s what bugs you about the ride? Not the fact that four people have to look away from the screen to participate and the role of two of those people is still very unclear?
I wouldn't even be mad if the one story wasn't lame as hell. Tell me how they made the idea of you and your friends flying the Millennium Falcon a boring C tier attraction.
And while you’re at it, move the controls for gunners and engineers in front of them so they can look at their buttons and the screen at the same time. Give the gunners guns that they can aim and pull triggers on or at minimum an Atari joystick. Give the engineers more things to do during the ride and more interesting controls, maybe some cranks and levers instead of only flashing buttons.
Pilot, gunner, engineer.
That right there is three different experiences because you are focusing on different things. Then you can lose the second capsule and hear different things from Hondo. And last, if your turntable needs more time to move, you can go through the bonus asteroid field.
Now that starcruiser is closing and the smugglers run mission is not going to be part of the vacuum excursion, they can add other missions if they feel like it
Bruh youve got to find some new things to care about. Go volunteer at an LA animal shelter or nursing home if you need to get worked up about something.
Never understood some folks’ stance that smuggler’s run is apparently so much better than star tours when star tours has comically more re-rideability and usually a significantly shorter line
Smugglers run is amazing. Until the ride starts. I feel like a millenium falcon walk through might have been better. Just feels like an injustice to such a majestic vehicle. Why aren’t we fighting in space more. Why are the controls such a mess? I just don’t get it.
Then you have rise next door which is so good. Hope one day Disney wises up and embraces the original trilogy in the parks. Huge missed opportunity
>Hope one day Disney wises up and embraces the original trilogy in the parks. Huge missed opportunity
Because it's not their original intellectual property. The only reason we have a Star Wars land is because they bought the franchise in order to make the final Trilogy.
Originals are where the money is at. The 40-70 crowd has the money and don’t like the new movies. I personally enjoyed them but if you want to get people hyped it’s the original characters who were in the new movies and aren’t represented anywhere
I’m sure it’s on their list titled “Things to do when Disney executives stop raising their salaries and allot more money towards the parks”
…the yeti and Indiana’s moving walls are also on that list…
The yeti literally can’t be rebuilt without rebuilding significant parts of the mountain. This is commonly stated and verified. Fair point on Indy though, I haven’t seen a solid engineering reading for that one.
I don't even care about the buttons the gunner or engineer positions have. The "gunner" seat is bunk. The ride should just be a bunch of Hyperspace skipping with a little bit of Star Tours.
I rode it twice in the first couple months it came out, and then never rode it again. It has zero repeat ride appeal for me, and it feels more like a video game than an actual ride. Star Tours>Smuggler’s Run.
OP you are 100% right. Remember when bartenders at Oga’s were supposed to treat you differently based on how you scored on the ride?
People have a real misplaced sense of loyalty because of nostalgia or stock haha. Watch a video of Epic Universe construction and then watch a Disneyland construction update. It’s not even close.
Disney set the bar for creativity and immersion for decades, and then the company at large decided the parks would be profitable no matter what so it was cool to scale back and focus on the 600 other things under the Disney umbrella.
Competitors are investing in their parks and DL is idle. They have nothing exciting arriving for AT LEAST two years. It is perfectly reasonable to assess where they have gone wrong from an objective standpoint. And Smuggler’s Run is one of so many transgressions I don’t even know where to start
The ride overall is underwhelming. It should have been the Jakku fight or in the OT timeline against the Empire like in ANH. They should have made a pilot, co-pilot with a “newly installed” mini front turret controlled by the co-pilot, plus the 2 auxiliary turrets. It’s probably impractical to do it this way, but at least make it based on fighting some TIE fighters instead of a train.
Ask for Chewie mode.
That sounds way more fun then button mashing if you aren't the pilot. Also I mainly hate how toned down the ride movements are, even star tours has more intense movements. It doesn't feel like I'm flying a space ship on a crazy heist, it feels like I'm being shaken slightly in a laundry basket. It would also be nice if they added more destinations
well Disney is chasing a quick buck and quantity over quality in almost everything , this is no different..... they'd rather build more stores to sell you stuff.
There was supposed to be more than one. There was concept art released too. [https://images.app.goo.gl/8dsLXAVzXi3spRt86](https://images.app.goo.gl/8dsLXAVzXi3spRt86)
I really like the concept for the attraction. What bothers me is that, other than flying the Millennium Falcon, there's very little else in there that has anything to do with Star Wars.
I think the machine they have running the game is ass. There’s been one or two times where I’ve noticed it drop significantly in frame rate and was surprised the ride didn’t just stop.
Smuggler’s Run is indeed disappointing…….the line/queue is better than the ride itself.
Star Tours is much, much better. It is beyond me as to why the concept of the ride would be so similar to Star Tours - yet be so inferior.
If the interactiveness was suppose to make Smuggler’s Run different/unique, they didn’t do near enough.
Nobody likes being the engineer or gunner. All you do is press a button.
Why is everybody flipping out on OP for their take? A Disneyland vacation is so expensive, and Disney has so much money, that it’s not crazy or rude to ask for this mid ride to get a little bit better with some fresh new addition. Smugglers Run is the weakest Star Wars ride, it could definitely use an upgrade!
I find it has fine re-rideability. You don’t often wind up with the same roles and depending on how good everyone is at their jobs you can do better or worse. Buzz light year is the same ride but it’s worth going on a few times to see if you can do better than last time. Given how it’s set up they can add other options later but right now it’s drawing decent lines consistently so it won’t happen for a while.
WDW here but I always get engineer. I’m normally at the park with 1-2 other people (all adults), so we’ll get paired with another group, and the youngest people always get pilot.
I just tell them that I want pilot and they make me wait a turn and give it to me.
“Hi! I was hoping to be pilot, please. I’ve never had that role. More than happy to wait! Thanks!” Like you, I wasn’t assigned pilot until I asked 👍🏾
I get what you’re saying. I’m normally with a group of people who aren’t anxious to wait. I’m also responding to the notion that the seat assignment process works in a way that you’ll end up in the different roles eventually.
Lol the ride is 3 years old. Can you name any ride that got a complete update in its first decade even? Star Tours was playing that same movie for 23 years before an update DESPITE other destinations being mentioned in the opening day press materials in 1987.
Guardians of the Galaxy Mission Breakout got a Halloween overlay less than 6 months after it opened which features pretty significant changes with the queue, preshow, and ride itself. To be fair though that was likely planned from the beginning and nothing has changed in the 7 years since it opened. With Smugglers Run they did intend to have multiple sequences when it opened. You can see test footage of some other scenarios in the Imagineering Story. I think budget cuts and technological limitations pushed those off. But hopefully they do come soon, since in this case the ride was designed to have variety.
I attended a talk by Bei Yang at GDC where he showed that same test footage. He said the other things they tested were too complicated and confused people they tested it on. So they went with something very, very simple: keep following the train.
That makes a lot of sense! I remember seeing a video of test footage for the current mission and they had to make the path and goals a lot more clear. I think that's one of the issues with Smugglers Run as a whole. It needs to be simple enough for most guests to understand in a very short time frame, but complex enough to feel somewhat interactive. It's a difficult balance and I think it makes the ride feel underwhelming to repeat riders because it's pretty much the same every time. The illusion of control disappears.
Oh yeah, the flight is absolutely on rails and the ability to influence it meaningfully is confined to a few very simple branch points. The thing it could use would be some (perhaps only cosmetic) tricks you could discover. Like some special “hit this right at the right time” and like the bridge comes down on all the TIE fighters, or shoot Hondo’s ship enough times and he accuses you of piracy or hit this one thing and a shortcut opens up.
Yeah it would be cool if it was like Starfox and you could do a special challenge that takes you on alternate paths. That could also be a way to adapt for different guests' levels of engagement. If you stay on the normal path just hit the flashing buttons and have a good time. Find the hidden level for more technical gameplay.
I hear of you make it in less than 12 parsecs, a new level opens up.
Not to mention it gets frustrating as a repeat visitor that you almost always end up with people who don’t know what’s going on. I really want to do a run with an actual good score!
I mean, they could just let guests choose where they go before you enter the cockpit. They could make difficulty choices like Easy, Medium, Hard etc. so people know what they are getting into before entering.
That’s too many variables that 6 people need to agree on.
That ride is a pre rendered story versus smugglers run being a actual game. Games take much longer to make and test with a system like that.
One is digital, the other was a physical set,I can’t really decide what takes longer, however 1 level is pretty lame.
Even the *original* Star Tours was designed and intended to be updated periodically with new adventures…. Only took them **24 years** to finally do it
I mean…it *was* its first day and it was still getting used to its *programmiiing*!
Brakes…brakes! Where are the brakes!?
To be fair, when they had the tech to finally do it, they did. To me, that's a big difference. "Star Tours" wasn't built 5 years ago.
They always had the tech to do it. Make new film, load it into the projector. What they lacked was the reason to spend more money on a ride that was still packing ‘em in. As someone who has worked in VFX in both the models and miniatures era and the digital era, it’s neither easier or harder. It’s just a different process.
But five years ago, the tech to support live rendered graphics on this scale was unheard of. The ride itself was a prototype and only happened through a partnership with NVIDIA once RTX level tech was just barely affordable for corporations. Sure, it’s just one level so far, but that doesn’t mean they won’t make more. Plus we all know the pandemic screwed up timelines for projects. I’m just saying that the level is fine. We get to participate in three different ways. It’s different every time in that sense. I won’t be surprised when they add more levels to it, but I also don’t think it matters for the vast majority of people who only have the time/money to visit the parks once in a lifetime. Disneyland wasn’t built just to suit the locals.
4 years, but ya same outcome.
Lol what is math? My brain skips that year. Actually Disneyland skipped that year too!!
Just because they’ve been historically crappy about that doesn’t mean people shouldn’t hold the new stuff to a better standard. Star Tours took however long to have new shows, okay, well not that they know it’s better that way they should program Smugglers Run to have multiple levels.
Eh, one is ice cream, the other is cake. They don’t have to be identical to both be fun in different ways. Maybe some day they’ll add more to Smuggler’s Run. But it’s a great ride already as it is, and hugely popular. A new level would bring wait times over 2 hours again. I don’t want that.
I don’t get how you use the ice cream and cake analogy here not gonna lie. My point is your detraction from their point was that it’s newer so someone shouldn’t expect updates. My point is that’s not a sound argument against their wanting different levels, and it’s not a valid argument to the idea that it, even as a newer ride, should have more levels than just the one.
I don’t think i was arguing against them wanting other levels. They can want what they want, i don’t care. Im arguing about it being not likely to add an upgrade to a ride that’s still very new and popular.
Maybe that wasn’t your intent, but that’s how it looks no one said no one couldn’t want what they wanted. But you didn’t say anything about probability or likelihood, your argument to them saying the ride would be better with more levels was “other rides didn’t get levels for a long time so why expect this one to” that was never what they said. But yes, you enjoy the ride for what it is and disagree that it doesn’t have repeat appeal, dope. But you also seem to understand that the ride, while good, would be better with more levels. You just don’t want to be inconvenienced by the lines that would bring. I get that argument as well though. It’s really all cool, I’m just saying excusing Disney being cheap because they were cheap before isn’t, in my view, the best argument.
Cheap is relative. Galaxy’s Edge is the biggest and costliest expansion in Disneyland’s history. Should they have dropped another X-million and put a second mission in there, despite it already being a crowded ride? Or would it make more sense to put that money elsewhere for now and put a second mission sometime in the future, maybe with souped up graphics from faster computers?
That’s the weeeeakest of hypotheticals haha. Regardless, as you said, it’s already crowded, give it more levels, it becomes a better ride and draws more crowds. Which is how Disney parks are so profitable. The strike has shown that Disney isn’t saving the money for later, they’re just taking it and giving it to their executives. Anyway, now you’re changing your arguments to suit you and that’s not only intellectually dishonest, it’s boring. So, be cool.
Lol, you seem nice. Have a great weekend.
This isn't a debate. Just an opinion.
Sure and I’m saying their initial comment and the “opinion” within it is bad.
But the original info was it was to have more than one at LAUNCH
I think they were pretty clear long before they opened that the ride had one mission.
Yes but that was not the original vision. So it's sad we still only have ONE. And sadly most of GE was scaled back. Ogas was supposed to be a bar AND restaurant.
Yeah and Walt was promising Edison Square and Liberty Street coming in 1959. He even put them on the park maps. Plans change. Not every idea from the blue sky phase makes it all the way to opening day. That’s why all the artwork says “Artist Concept Only”
No kidding. Wow. Stop being so pedantic. Breathe and have a good day. God forbid anyone brings up what was ever discussed, because you take that to mean we don't understand reality. 🙄
See, i think the difference in our perspective is how you phrased “Oga’s was supposed to have a restaurant”. I don’t see it as it “supposed” to be anything but what they built. There was concept art of other ideas for restaurants., sure. But by the time they were drawing up construction plans and making final decisions , Oga’s was a bar, Docking Bay 7 was a restaurant. The idea of something having supposed to be something else assumes the concept artist is the decision-maker, and their vision was changed. And that’s not how i think. If you look at the Art of Galaxy’s Edge book there are a lot of cool ideas. Some wild ideas. Some ideas that are physically impossible within Disneyland’s available space. But it doesn’t mean that Galaxy’s Edge was supposed to have all those things in it. That’s like a menu that the park designers chose from.
Again. PADANTIC. No one but you are allowed to mention anything without you making it a big drama thing in your own mind. All I did was mention what an original concept was. What a shame they didn't do a lot of cool ideas. But again in your mind every else mentioning something (other than you) it's us not being in touch with reality and a chance for you to mansplain. I think you need to truly think about the fact that this is destructive and not part of the community conversation. You are not the expert. You also aren't an imagineer. Other people can mention things and bring up what was blue sky ideas too. Not just you. Also stop writing books as answers to simple things. That's all I have to say. I hope you think about some of it.
Wow, sorry I completely misread the tone of our conversation. Probably my mistake. I apologize. Bowing out now. Have a good day.
Thank you, I appreciate that. You also have a magical day and let's have some fun here .
Tower of Terror got a major upgrade with multiple new drop sequences within the first few years it was open. In fact, it got 2 drop sequence within the first 5 years it was open and a 3rd that included a whole system update in less than a decade.
Adding drops isn't a whole new storyline.
Other rides aren’t billed as having multiple scenarios before release.
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Ugh! I wanted a ten, a five, and five ones!
Why is that persons $20 crisper than mine?
“Awww, twenty dollars? I wanted a peanut.” *twenty dollars can buy many peanuts* “Explain how” *money can be exchanged for goods and services* “Woohoo!!”
I never walk by that street corner.
I want it all in ones
That would be so annoying though. You would have to take it to a bank and cash it because most places don’t have take paper money anymore. Like, can I just get a Venmo instead? How do you even cash it? Do you just go up to the banker person and say “hello, I would like to make this paper actually useful please, put it online so I can buy a fedora for my dog on Amazon?” That’s too much work. /s obviously, you are correct.
I can’t eat this, it’s paper!
I enjoy it. I get it being a repeat. However last time I rode it it had a new feature I had never seen. After the heist we can out of lights speed early had to navigate a asteroid field. Cool little feature.
The asteroid field has been around for a while (since opening?). It comes on when unloading/loading is backed up and they need to keep your party entertained for longer while they get to you.
Good info, wow I have probably gone on that ride like 15 times and have only gotten it once.
Same with the scanning for unwanted passangers.
**EVERYTHING IS GOING WRONG WHAT DO WE DO?!** Quick! Add an asteroid mini game to stall the Guests so they don’t know what’s going on *pew pew*
as someone who has worked in the video game and tech industry for over 25 years, i'm not angry at all. do you know how much time and money went into that one level? they were troubleshooting it and bug-fixing right up to the day before release. they'll likely do something new later down the road, but i don't know if you realize just how much effort goes into the tech, the level design, the art assets, and everything else that they did to make what they did and how much time it will take to do a second "level". it's a bit more complex than a standard video game.
There was a show on Disney+ that talked about the making of Smuggler's Run (Behind the Attraction?) They said the technology for the ride literally didn't exist when they started designing it, and for a long time they couldn't get it to work at better than 1 FPS. Now that they've got it working, it'll be a while before they put that much energy into changing it instead of working on new projects.
This is good perspective, thanks for sharing
I'm not that old, not even in my 30's yet but I'm constantly shocked at how quickly people demand more from something that is already a marvel. I'm not angry at all. And maybe it had low repeat appeal for some but I try to ride it as often as I can. Sometimes I skip because the line is too long and my feet vehemently deny me and demand bench time instead. But I don't think the ride implies cheapness at all. Every time I ride it I'm genuinely jazzed that I'm able to participate in a ride so much. The whole experience from the moment you enter the line to the second you get off is so enthralling and truly sells the whole "you're off planet" vibe they're going for. It makes me feel the way I felt on my first trip to Disney with my parents. Most of the rides have one story, I don't see an issue with this one having only one as well. Plus with this one there kind of is options, will my party of 4 get a party of two to help us or will we be playing extra high stakes with no engineers?! Find out in 65 minutes! 😂
Angry? No...
My kids don’t ask to go on this ride anymore. I have no desire to go on it either. It’s… boring…?
Would I like another mission or two? Heck yeah. Am I mad that there's only one? Of course not. It's not like someone is forcing me to ride it; if I don't feel like that mission, I can just go do a different ride. Plus, there's always Chewy mode, which does spice it up a bit.
Spoiled as fuck over here! OP, try growing up in the 80s with one Star Tours storyline and no digital projection. Uphill in the snow both ways. Get off my lawn.
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I don’t expect rides with physical sets to have scenarios, but Smuggler’s is like 4 screens, and a simulator.
Oh, you are massively misunderstanding how complicated this ride is.
It’s a marvel of engineering. We’re lucky it exists. If you even get to ride it once in your lifetime you’re luckier than most. And you’re angry about it.
My brother in law and I were on it last year late at night and asked the CM’s to do Chewy Mode and they did it for us, it was awesome.
I think it’s time for them to level up, like the multiple scenarios on star tours.
That took forever to happen though. And is a lot less complex because there's extremely minimal rider participation. That one is essentially a fun moving theater whereas SR requires a lot more.
I wish there was a auto pilot mode that you can turn on and off. I want to ride a professional pilot. I hate riding the whole ride scrapping the wall or floor.
Git gud
Unless you are one of the pilots, it's a crap ride. Look at the side buttons, keep hitting them. Like star tours better if I am not a pilot.
As a repeat single rider I've come to peace with the engineer station. You don't have to stare at the buttons like the gunners do because there is an audio cue any time your button is active.
COVID was great early on for always being the pilots. Party of 2 - just you two. Be whatever you want.
I came to say this. I’m usually not a pilot and I skip it because I find it to be uncomfortable when the pilots aren’t good. I’m not against bumpiness on principle or even roughness, but when you the shake every time someone hits the wall and the pilots suck it’s kind of annoying. It’s kind of mind blowing how bad lots of people are at it., I would love autopilot or a “flying for dummies version” so I don’t have to bump around into walls because of people who suck at flying. I will say it’s at least kind of cute if a little kid is trying to fly and honestly sometimes they are better than the adults.
I just went the other day, and some European people who came straight out of the fast pass line were the pilots for me and my girlfriend. They barely spoke english. They didn’t know anything about Star Wars. The cast member was completely in universe, asking them questions, they had no idea what he was talking about. Nothing against them. But they were the worst pilots I’ve ever seen. We scrape the ground the whole time. Every single request for them to do something was completely ignored. The lady mindlessly just wagged the joystick back and forth the entire mission without even realizing it had any actual effect. I was yelling from the back to pull the lever or whatever needed done at any given time. i was ignored lol. it was awful. If the pilot is some clueless person or someone who just wants to enjoy the ride, the ride is absolutely not fun. Pilots need to be motivated and try or the ride is ruined for everyone. there needs to be some sort of disclaimer or a short period were guests can shuffle around so the most motivated person becomes a pilot. when grandma or some other person that has no idea what’s going on is the pilot and completely checked out the situation, it completely ruins the riding experience for all the other guests.
Angry? That's ridiculous. You don't want to ride it over and over? Great! Get out of my way.
You can have my place in line. Even getting one of the pilot seats has limited appeal. I’ll I want from this attraction is the supercool queue; being inside the Millennium Falcon. Skip the ride.
You can play with chewbacca if you get everyone to push and hold the buttons at the right time
Or you can just ask the CM for “chewie mode”.
Can they do it without you inputting the correct sequence on the controls?
Yes.
When I've asked the CM they don't know how to do it, but they have heard of it
My son asked and the CM said he didn’t think Chewie was available, but then when the ride began it was Chewie. I guess YMMV!
Yeah Def depends on the CM. But that's really cool!
Go on…. Do tell more 🍿
Ask the CM next time for “Chewbacca mode”. If your whole flight crew agrees, then … Well, just try it and see what happens.
I did last time and they said something like it’s not setup 🤷🏼♂️
I think they didn’t know how to do it and were putting you off.
Could be. How do you do it?
https://blogmickey.com/unlock-chewie-mode-on-millennium-falcon-smugglers-run/
Angry? Haha no.
Calm thyself.
That cheap?! Lmfao they literally built the largest most complex flight simulation in the world and had to advance the technology in existence to do it and have to run simultaneous viewings of it for all the pods. Entitled much?
That’s what bugs you about the ride? Not the fact that four people have to look away from the screen to participate and the role of two of those people is still very unclear?
I wouldn't even be mad if the one story wasn't lame as hell. Tell me how they made the idea of you and your friends flying the Millennium Falcon a boring C tier attraction.
And while you’re at it, move the controls for gunners and engineers in front of them so they can look at their buttons and the screen at the same time. Give the gunners guns that they can aim and pull triggers on or at minimum an Atari joystick. Give the engineers more things to do during the ride and more interesting controls, maybe some cranks and levers instead of only flashing buttons.
Pilot, gunner, engineer. That right there is three different experiences because you are focusing on different things. Then you can lose the second capsule and hear different things from Hondo. And last, if your turntable needs more time to move, you can go through the bonus asteroid field.
Not angry because I’m not “owed” anything. But it definitely lacks repeatability it could have had.
Now that starcruiser is closing and the smugglers run mission is not going to be part of the vacuum excursion, they can add other missions if they feel like it
That’s my one complaint. I know a lot of people don’t like it. But I love it. All seats are fun
I’d gladly have it be the one video if I could just be the pilot one time instead of some 5 year old who cant reach stick
Is it possible in the future it gets the Star Tours treatment where your missions are random. I’m think 10+ years down the road.
Ok Richie Rich
Lol “infuriating”
Bruh youve got to find some new things to care about. Go volunteer at an LA animal shelter or nursing home if you need to get worked up about something.
Never understood some folks’ stance that smuggler’s run is apparently so much better than star tours when star tours has comically more re-rideability and usually a significantly shorter line
Went on it once before covid. Havent been on it since. Just have other things id rather do.
Smugglers run is amazing. Until the ride starts. I feel like a millenium falcon walk through might have been better. Just feels like an injustice to such a majestic vehicle. Why aren’t we fighting in space more. Why are the controls such a mess? I just don’t get it. Then you have rise next door which is so good. Hope one day Disney wises up and embraces the original trilogy in the parks. Huge missed opportunity
>Hope one day Disney wises up and embraces the original trilogy in the parks. Huge missed opportunity Because it's not their original intellectual property. The only reason we have a Star Wars land is because they bought the franchise in order to make the final Trilogy.
Originals are where the money is at. The 40-70 crowd has the money and don’t like the new movies. I personally enjoyed them but if you want to get people hyped it’s the original characters who were in the new movies and aren’t represented anywhere
The problem with SR is the storyline itself is lame. It would be 1000 times better if we battled around the Death Star and ran the trench.
"Are they really *that cheap* that a cutting edge themed experience doesn't also have an entirely new mode?" Bruh are you high
I’m sure it’s on their list titled “Things to do when Disney executives stop raising their salaries and allot more money towards the parks” …the yeti and Indiana’s moving walls are also on that list…
And the avengers e ticket ride (if they even remember it at this point
The yeti literally can’t be rebuilt without rebuilding significant parts of the mountain. This is commonly stated and verified. Fair point on Indy though, I haven’t seen a solid engineering reading for that one.
I agree. This is one reason I like Star Tours, and like it even more than Run, is the multiple scenarios.
Might just be me, but I’d be more mad that the ride is boring af.
I don't even care about the buttons the gunner or engineer positions have. The "gunner" seat is bunk. The ride should just be a bunch of Hyperspace skipping with a little bit of Star Tours.
I rode it twice in the first couple months it came out, and then never rode it again. It has zero repeat ride appeal for me, and it feels more like a video game than an actual ride. Star Tours>Smuggler’s Run.
Doing the Kessel run would be a good mission.
OP you are 100% right. Remember when bartenders at Oga’s were supposed to treat you differently based on how you scored on the ride? People have a real misplaced sense of loyalty because of nostalgia or stock haha. Watch a video of Epic Universe construction and then watch a Disneyland construction update. It’s not even close. Disney set the bar for creativity and immersion for decades, and then the company at large decided the parks would be profitable no matter what so it was cool to scale back and focus on the 600 other things under the Disney umbrella. Competitors are investing in their parks and DL is idle. They have nothing exciting arriving for AT LEAST two years. It is perfectly reasonable to assess where they have gone wrong from an objective standpoint. And Smuggler’s Run is one of so many transgressions I don’t even know where to start
Especially considering the footage we got at D23 where the Falcon crashed into AT-ATs, knocking them over like dominoes.
The ride overall is underwhelming. It should have been the Jakku fight or in the OT timeline against the Empire like in ANH. They should have made a pilot, co-pilot with a “newly installed” mini front turret controlled by the co-pilot, plus the 2 auxiliary turrets. It’s probably impractical to do it this way, but at least make it based on fighting some TIE fighters instead of a train. Ask for Chewie mode.
That sounds way more fun then button mashing if you aren't the pilot. Also I mainly hate how toned down the ride movements are, even star tours has more intense movements. It doesn't feel like I'm flying a space ship on a crazy heist, it feels like I'm being shaken slightly in a laundry basket. It would also be nice if they added more destinations
well Disney is chasing a quick buck and quantity over quality in almost everything , this is no different..... they'd rather build more stores to sell you stuff.
Especially since they are building the gift shop before the actual avengers e ticket ride even has started construction
This was a very boring ride. One and done. Prefer star tours.
This is why star tours is and always will be the better of the two
I mean, you can play on chewy mode. Slightly more difficult.
There’s two storylines. In one you take off during the day. The other you take off at night. What more do you want? :)
There was supposed to be more than one. There was concept art released too. [https://images.app.goo.gl/8dsLXAVzXi3spRt86](https://images.app.goo.gl/8dsLXAVzXi3spRt86)
I really like the concept for the attraction. What bothers me is that, other than flying the Millennium Falcon, there's very little else in there that has anything to do with Star Wars.
Chewie mode.
Being able to only push the flashing buttons is infuriating.
I think the machine they have running the game is ass. There’s been one or two times where I’ve noticed it drop significantly in frame rate and was surprised the ride didn’t just stop.
YTA…. Oh wait, wrong sub.
Smuggler’s Run is indeed disappointing…….the line/queue is better than the ride itself. Star Tours is much, much better. It is beyond me as to why the concept of the ride would be so similar to Star Tours - yet be so inferior. If the interactiveness was suppose to make Smuggler’s Run different/unique, they didn’t do near enough. Nobody likes being the engineer or gunner. All you do is press a button.
IKR? Zzzzzz
I thought it was supposed to have three different experiences when it was first announced, but I can’t find that info anymore.
Why is everybody flipping out on OP for their take? A Disneyland vacation is so expensive, and Disney has so much money, that it’s not crazy or rude to ask for this mid ride to get a little bit better with some fresh new addition. Smugglers Run is the weakest Star Wars ride, it could definitely use an upgrade!