{"id":188424,"date":"2026-02-22T05:44:19","date_gmt":"2026-02-22T05:44:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/188424\/"},"modified":"2026-02-22T05:44:19","modified_gmt":"2026-02-22T05:44:19","slug":"disneyland-fans-dont-love-millennium-falcon-ride-new-disney-ceo-plans-to-change-that-daily-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/188424\/","title":{"rendered":"Disneyland fans \u2018don\u2019t love\u2019 Millennium Falcon ride \u2014 new Disney CEO plans to change that \u2013 Daily News"},"content":{"rendered":"

Newly named Disney CEO Josh D\u2019Amaro wants Disneyland visitors to fall in love with Millennium Falcon: Smugglers Run after the installation of a Mandalorian and Grogu overlay that promises to give every rider the chance to participate in the story of the revamped flight simulator ride.<\/p>\n

\u201cGuests like it, but they don\u2019t love it,\u201d D\u2019Amaro told the Harvard Business Review<\/a> during a Smugglers Run design session at Walt Disney Imagineering.<\/p>\n

ALSO SEE: Disneyland dropped plans for 5 missions aboard Millennium Falcon ride, report says<\/a><\/p>\n

D\u2019Amaro will succeed Disney CEO Bob Iger on March 18 during the company\u2019s annual meeting.<\/p>\n

D\u2019Amaro invited the Harvard Business Review to sit in on a design session with 30 Imagineers where plans were discussed for the new adventure starring the Mandalorian and Grogu<\/a> aboard Smugglers Run coming to Disneyland and Disney\u2019s Hollywood Studios on May 22.<\/p>\n

\"MillenniumMillennium Falcon: Smugglers Run at Star Wars: Galaxy\u2019s Edge inside Disneyland at the Disneyland Resort in Anaheim, CA, in 2024. (Photo by Jeff Gritchen, Orange County Register\/SCNG)<\/p>\n

D\u2019Amaro\u2019s diagnosis of the key problem with Smugglers Run: The pilots control the adventure while the gunners and engineers have much less to do.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe redesign they planned in that room meant no one on the ride would merely be a passenger,\u201d according to the Harvard Business Review. \u201cIt would give each person agency \u2014 the chance to influence the outcome, demonstrate skill and feel part of the story. Instead of leaving saying, \u2018I liked it,\u2019 riders could leave saying, \u2018I loved it.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

\"ChewbaccaChewbacca greets visitors in front of Millennium Falcon: Smugglers Run in Star Wars: Galaxy\u2019s Edge inside Disneyland in Anaheim, CA, on Tuesday, March 1, 2022. (Photo by Jeff Gritchen, Orange County Register\/SCNG)<\/p>\n

D\u2019Amaro has spent hours with Imagineering analyzing how to make each ride on Millennium Falcon: Smugglers Run \u201cnot just fun, but beloved,\u201d according to the Harvard Business Review.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnything I can do to help more guests say they love Disney is a valuable use of my time,\u201d D\u2019Amaro told the Harvard Business Review.<\/p>\n

\"InsideInside the Millennium Falcon: Smugglers Run at Star Wars: Galaxy\u2019s Edge at Disneyland in Anaheim, CA, on Wednesday, May 29, 2019. (Photo by Jeff Gritchen, Orange County Register\/SCNG)<\/p>\n

The new Millennium Falcon: Smugglers Run mission will be tied to the release of the \u201cThe Mandalorian and Grogu\u201d film coming out on Memorial Day Weekend.<\/p>\n

Imagineering and Lucasfilm have been working together to come up with the new mission for Smugglers Run that ties into the new film\u2019s narrative.<\/p>\n

\"TheThe cockpit of Millennium Falcon: Smugglers Run at Star Wars: Galaxy\u2019s Edge inside Disneyland in Anaheim, CA, on Monday, June 3, 2019. (Photo by Jeff Gritchen, Orange County Register\/SCNG)<\/p>\n

Imagineers captured scenes on the movie set of \u201cThe Mandalorian and Grogu\u201d that will be used in the updated Smugglers Run attractions.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Newly named Disney CEO Josh D\u2019Amaro wants Disneyland visitors to fall in love with Millennium Falcon: Smugglers Run…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":181805,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[2223,163,165,164,7,2222,1341,611,420],"class_list":{"0":"post-188424","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-anaheim","8":"tag-amusement-parks","9":"tag-anaheim","10":"tag-anaheim-headlines","11":"tag-anaheim-news","12":"tag-california","13":"tag-disney-california-adventure","14":"tag-disneyland","15":"tag-orange-county","16":"tag-things-to-do"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/188424","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=188424"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/188424\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/181805"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=188424"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=188424"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=188424"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}