As far back as I can remember, I’ve always wanted to fly the Millennium Falcon. Han, Luke and Leia were my childhood heroes. To see the Millennium Falcon up close would have been enough . . . but to actually walk on board and sit in the cockpit was just . . . well . . . an emotional experience for me. Yes folks, I’m not ashamed to admit that I cried. . . a lot.

You’ll find the Falcon parked in front of Ohnaka Transport Solutions, where maintenance is being performed on a giant animated spaceship engine. We’ve been recruited to help smuggle goods for Hondo Ohnaka. If we do well, we’ll earn credits. But we’ll be charged for any damages we incur.

The queue winds through Hondo’s shop and eventually to a preshow room where the animatronic version of the infamous Weequay pirate and his trusty droid R5-P8 give us our instructions. This scene is absolutely incredible. Hondo was brilliantly converted from his original animated Star Wars: The Clone Wars and Rebels version into an older, lifelike figure. His droid has a humorous look that I found charming. The screen behind Hondo has a 3D feel to it and even Chewie makes an appearance. What’s not to love?!

From there, guests are grouped into six-person crews and are given colored boarding cards. The reason for this is so you can wander about the crew area of the Falcon, where the famous chess set is located, while you wait for your boarding color to be called. Unfortunately, it can be very hard to hear the cast member call your color. There is no overhead announcement, no change in the color of the lights in the chamber, just a cast member on the far side the room letting you know it’s your chance to ride. Of the five times I rode, there were issues three times. But this is fixable by adding announcements and perhaps a visual cue of some sort. I appreciate the ability to just roam around this room without a formal queue. Potential brilliance if they can get the kinks worked out.

Following the Cast Member, you’ll head down a hallway and onto the cockpit of the Millennium Falcon herself. Two pilots sit in the front. The co-pilot on the right controls vertical motion and the Hyperspace lever. The Pilot on the left controls horizontal motion. The Gunners sit just behind the pilots. Their job is to push buttons when they light up to shoot at incoming ships. Finally, the back row are Engineers, also button pushers.

Words just can’t explain that first moment when you sit in the cockpit of one of the most famous spaceships of all time. I was emotional, on a high. Loving Disney in every way.

Here’s where things sort of went off the rails for me. I’m not a fan of rides where I have to do all the work to be entertained. I don’t enjoy Buzz Lightyear or Midway Mania for this very reason. But at least they are entertaining visually, they don’t require me to do much, and I’ll ride them if asked to do so.

On my first ride on the Falcon, I was the Pilot, the one on the left that controls horizontal motion. It was my job to avoid things in our way. Unfortunately, the controls are very sensitive and I was overcorrecting. This caused the other people in the cabin (only one of whom I knew) to yell at me “You’re hitting things,” “Don’t go so far left,” etc. That stressed me out. What made it worse was Hondo berating the team over the comm. Because I was the Pilot that kept hitting things, I bared most of the blame, which isn’t necessarily a fun experience.

The final insult came as we exited the cabin and the Cast Member said: “Left pilot, you’re going to owe us money after flying like that.” My first reaction was “Seriously?” I’ve never flown the Millennium Falcon before, much less a starship, am I really expected to be an ace pilot? The whole ride hinges on the Pilots. Ace pilots will likely be fewer and further between and crews who don’t do well are not going to have a great guest experience.

I had gone from pure dream of being on the Millenium Falcon that I had fantasized about for so long to being demoralized and wishing they had built something else entirely. I recall telling my friend that I didn’t care if I rode ever again.

But ride again we did. When we exited, the line was only 15 minutes. It had been 45 minutes when we entered the queue, and it had been an hour and a half not long before that. (Pro-tip – wait until later in your reservation to ride). Because the line was so short, I was talked into reentering the queue. This time I noticed that although the area is very well themed, something felt off about it. Throughout the entire length of the very long queue, there’s almost no music, just a single mechanic’s radio belting out otherworldly tunes. You hear the sounds of workers talking and an engine firing up . . . but no entertaining music. It makes the queue sort of a beautiful bore.

Watch this video that Disney themselves released. First, look how beautiful it is. Then, notice the lack of music:

We finally got to the sorting stage and I asked to be given any role other than Pilot, which I didn’t enjoy. I was selected as the left Gunner where I was seated behind my friend in the Pilot seat. I figured this might be an easier position and therefore a better experience.

Unfortunately, there’s some trouble with this position as well. First, you are seated in the middle of the cabin, which blocks some of your view. Thankfully, much of the video action is actually above you. There are times Hondo asks you to do things that you can’t really see, though. But here’s the problem with being gunner . . . all the buttons are on the wall to your side. So, to push them, you have to twist your body to reach the buttons and face the wall. That puts you in an awkward position which can be physically painful when the ship hits an asteroid or makes a sudden move. I left with sore back muscles, it was a very uncomfortable position to be in, but I felt compelled to complete my task and not disappoint my crewmates.

But it was fun to blow stuff up, right?! Not exactly. You don’t actually target and shoot anything like in the films. A button lights up on the wall and you just press it each time. It’s just like Mission: Space at Epcot if you were given more than one button and you had to hit them repeatedly (but at least on Mission Space, the buttons are in front of you!). You don’t have a joystick to target an enemy ship and blow it up. Hondo might say “Gunners, press the yellow button to launch the torpedos,” and you press the yellow button. While you need skill to be a pilot, none of the other positions seem to require any skills beyond the ability to stare at lighted panels. The viewport is where I want to look, but the panel is where performance is measured.

Which brings me to my final point, this is a game and not a ride. I’ve played video games on my phone and Xbox which were more intuitive. The unique thing is being on the Millennium Falcon . . . SUPER COOL . . . the unfortunate thing is that this isn’t necessarily fun for everyone (though I know that a good chunk of you are just going to LOVE this ride). But for me the ride felt like dodge left, go down, press the yellow button, blow up that thing and “Oh look, you captured some crystals which will make Hondo rich.” It almost feels tedious in that way. AND, it hurt to ride and participate.

I really hope they’ll experiment with this attraction. Perhaps there need to be different choices of missions. One could be more involved as it is now and another could be more story driven for those who want a less intense or stressful experience (not unlike the green or orange cabins on Mission Space).

I’m disappointed that I didn’t have a better experience on the Millennium Falcon because I really wanted to. This attraction has so much potential that I hope is addressed in future revisions.

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