A 13-minute bonus feature in the Target-exclusive Solo: A Star Wars Story Blu-ray has given us more details on the upcoming Millennium Falcon attraction.
According to the video, the ride will be able to accomidate 42 guests at a time in seven pods that seat six each. As we’ve long speculated, riders will be able to interact with the environment and the pods will be able to rotate 360 degrees.
Here’s what Asa Kalama, Executive Creative Director of the attraction had to say:
“You’re truly in control of the fastest and most iconic ship in the entire galaxy. And Hondo, he’s gone ahead and added a couple extra seats so he can get as many of those flight crews through as possible. There are 200 some odd buttons, knobs and switches on the inside of the cockpit and they all do stuff. If you’re the gunners in the center there and you don’t fire back on those TIE Fighters fast enough they’re going to riddle the hull with laser bolts, the engineers in back, it’s really up to them to keep the whole Falcon in working order so they’re back there furiously working away at their various systems.”
As for the story of the ride, you are sent on a mission by Hondo Ohnaka, a pirate from Clone Wars and Star Wars Rebels, to “bring back all of the loot”.
Imagineering executive Scott Trowbridge had this to say about the story:
“If you bring back all the loot and there’s not a scratch on the ship and Hondo is really happy when you bring it back, you might find yourself with some extra Galactic Credits in your account, but do a poor job, you lose the cargo, you smash up the ship, you might come back owing more money than you started with, the bossman might not be too happy and when you roll across to the local cantina the bartender might lean over and say ‘hey, word on the street is your name’s been put on the list of a local bounty hunter, I’d watch out if I were you’ so how well you do on this mission really does have an impact on your overall, land-wide story.”
Riders will also be able to explore the main room aboard the Millennium Falcon. Here, riders will be fully immersed in the space thanks to interactive tangible objects.
Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge opens in 2019 at both Disneyland Park and Disney’s Hollywood Studios.
Another simulator ?? Ugh.. how disappointing
Sounds like it will be the type of ride that I was hoping Mission Space was going to be when it was announced. It sounds like the pods move in all directions and riders are looking at a projection projected on a screen in front of the pod (the screen moves in concert with the pod). This would be similar to the Harry Potter ride in Islands of Adventure. I bet that there is even a centrifuge to provide G forces for when they jump into hyper-space.
This improves on Mission Space because Mission Space just has you looking at a small display inside the vehicle six inches from your face. It was not believable or immersive. Also, the Mission Space story (for some inexplicable reason) is that it is a pretend/training session. This ride sounds like the story is that you are really on the Millennium Falcon and actually doing something real.
A couple thoughts here. There is no way an E ticket attraction costing tens of millions of dollars gets green lighted with such a minuscule capacity. Just from an observational point of view having watched construction closely, there are 4 centrifuges within the attraction. I’d imagine two different intensity experiences being offered. I can see each centrifuge containing 7 pods (ie Mission Space), but not 7 pods across all 4 centrifuges (7 does not go into 4 very well from an arithmetic point of view). I speculate that the 42 guest capacity is per centrifuge. The actual attraction capacity is somewhere in the neighborhood of 168.
That sounds a lot more correct. I mean, the ride is probably five minutes long at least. If the capacity really is 42, that’s a couple hundred riders per hour. You very literally could not get everybody in the park who wants to ride that ride on the attraction in one day. Not even a fraction of that number.
I honestly don’t care one iota about this ride. Who cares about fake space credits? This sounds like something for little kids who like to just press buttons.
The “First Order” ride is the one I want to hear about.
Just so you are aware this is inaccurate. The pods can’t turn 360 degrees. If they turned all the way around you’d no longer be facing the screen and would be looking at backstage areas.
It’a a quote from a Disney person, so we have to take it as fact for now.
If Harrison Ford isn’t voicing Han Solo in the ride then I’m out
Not going to work. 42 people per ride will have lines all the way to I-4 freeway. If you recall the old 20,000 leagues under the sea ride at Magic Kingdom could hold 40 people per submarine. Disney canceled and removed that ride because of the slow turnover and long lines. Falcone ride will see it’s dome if Disney can’t improve on this. One would think Disney would have learned it’s lesson. Disney has been removing all rides in the last 15 years that cannot handle mega numbers of park guests. The writing is on the wall for this one.
Was really hoping for a higher capacity than FoP