How to Ride the New Mandalorian and Grogu Ride at Disneyland (2026)

Last Updated on May 13, 2026

Millennium Falcon: Smugglers Run at Disneyland will get a complete overhaul on May 22, 2026. New story, new planets, new crew mechanics, and the Mandalorian and Grogu running the whole mission. It is the same ride vehicle in the same building, but the experience on screen is entirely different from the version that opened in 2019.

If you are heading to Disneyland and want to ride the new Mandalorian and Grogu mission on Smugglers Run, here is exactly how to do it, when to go, which seat to pick, and what most people get wrong.

Where to Find the Ride

Smugglers Run is inside Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge at Disneyland Park. Not Disney California Adventure. The full-size Millennium Falcon sits in a courtyard near the center of Black Spire Outpost and the ride entrance is right next to it. If you are walking into Galaxy’s Edge from Critter Country, head through the tunnel and follow the path toward Docking Bay 7 Food and Cargo. You will see the Falcon before you see anything else. It is 110 feet long and impossible to miss.

Four Ways to Get On

There is no virtual queue for Smugglers Run. You can ride it any time the park is open using one of four lines.

Standby Line

The regular queue. Wait times typically range from 30 to 60 minutes on a normal day, but expect significantly longer waits now that the Mandalorian update is fresh. The standby line is worth doing at least once because the queue itself is one of the best at Disneyland. You walk through Hondo Ohnaka’s smuggling operation, see the Falcon through the windows above you, watch the updated Hondo Audio-Animatronics preshow, and then step aboard the ship through the holochess room. The preshow has new dialogue that removes all references to the First Order and the Resistance and sets up the Mandalorian storyline instead.

Lightning Lane Multi Pass

Smugglers Run is part of Disneyland’s Lightning Lane Multi Pass system. Multi Pass starts at $32 per person per day and goes up based on crowd levels. You book return times through the Disneyland app. Availability for Smugglers Run will be tight during the launch window, so grab it early in the day if it is a priority. The Enchanted Insider Lightning Lane guide breaks down the full booking strategy.

Single Rider Line

This has always been one of the best shortcuts at Disneyland. The single rider line at Smugglers Run regularly drops your wait to under 15 minutes, even when standby is posting 45 or more. The catch is that you skip the entire preshow and queue, and you will almost certainly be assigned the engineer seat.

That used to be a downside. It is not anymore. More on that below.

Double Rider Line

Added in early 2026, the double rider line works just like single rider but for pairs. You and one other person stay together, but you will still skip the preshow and almost always end up as engineers. Groups larger than two can use it, but you will be split into pairs. No reservation needed. No extra cost.

When to Ride for the Shortest Wait

The Mandalorian and Grogu update will draw heavy crowds through at least early July 2026. Here is how to time it.

First thing in the morning is your best window. If you are staying at the Disneyland Hotel, Grand Californian, or Pixar Place Hotel, you get Early Entry, which puts you in the park 30 minutes before everyone else. Head straight to Galaxy’s Edge and you can walk onto Smugglers Run with minimal wait.

If you do not have Early Entry, arrive at the park entrance at least 30 minutes before posted opening time and go directly to Galaxy’s Edge at rope drop. The ride has strong hourly capacity thanks to four rotating carousels with multiple cockpits each, so the line moves steadily even when it looks long.

The last hour or two before park close is your other short-wait window. A lot of guests leave after fireworks, and Galaxy’s Edge thins out noticeably. Bonus: the land looks incredible at night.

Avoid mid-afternoon if you can. Roughly 1:00 PM to 4:00 PM is when Smugglers Run wait times peak on most days.

Which Seat Should You Pick

Each cockpit holds six people, two per role. Your role completely changes how you experience the ride, and the Mandalorian update made this matter more than ever.

Pilots sit up front. The left pilot steers left and right. The right pilot controls up and down and hits the hyperdrive. This is the classic Millennium Falcon fantasy. You are actually flying the ship, and your skill (or lack of it) directly affects how bumpy the ride is for everyone in the cockpit. If you want the “I flew the Falcon” moment, request pilot.

Gunners sit in the middle row. You fire the Falcon’s weapons at targets during the mission. There is an automatic targeting mode if you want it easier, which is nice for younger kids. Gunners face forward with a clear view of the screen, so you stay connected to the action throughout the whole flight.

Engineers sit in the back row, and this is where the Mandalorian update changed everything. Engineers now pick where the Falcon flies next. You are choosing the destination for the entire crew. On top of that, you interact with and take care of Grogu during the mission. Disney called it “the most important job in the galaxy,” and they are not wrong. The old engineer role was just mashing repair buttons. The new engineer role is choosing planets and babysitting Grogu. Completely different experience.

The controls for engineers are still mounted to the side rather than facing forward, which used to make it feel disconnected. But now that you are focused on Grogu interactions as much as the main screen, the side orientation works better than it did before.

If you are in the standby line, you can ask the cast member who groups riders to assign your party specific roles. They will try to accommodate you, but it is not guaranteed. If you use single rider or double rider, plan on getting engineer. That is actually a win now.

What the New Mission Is About

The original Smugglers Run sent your crew to Corellia to steal coaxium fuel during the sequel trilogy era. The new story takes place in a different part of the Star Wars timeline.

Hondo Ohnaka has learned about a deal going down on Tatooine between ex-Imperial officers and a band of pirates. There is a bounty on their heads, so your crew borrows the Millennium Falcon and teams up with the Mandalorian and Grogu to hunt them down across the galaxy.

Din Djarin delivers the mission briefing himself. He contacts your crew from the Razor Crest cockpit on a screen right before you board. Grogu pops up at the end of the transmission to wave at you, which is exactly as charming as it sounds.

The ride’s story is not a retelling of the Mandalorian and Grogu film that released the same day. Jon Favreau described it as “participating in something that’s happening just off-camera from what you see in the film.” Same characters, separate adventure.

Choose Your Destination

This is the single biggest change to how Smugglers Run plays. The old ride followed one fixed route every time. Now the crew picks from multiple Star Wars destinations after the initial departure from Batuu to Tatooine.

The confirmed planets are Bespin (flying through the clouds around Cloud City), the wreckage of the second Death Star orbiting Endor, and the city-planet Coruscant (weaving through dense skyscrapers of the galactic capital). Each destination has its own environment, obstacles, and scenarios. This means you can ride Smugglers Run three times and have three meaningfully different experiences. It is the same replayability concept that has kept Star Tours feeling fresh across dozens of story combinations.

The destination is chosen by the engineers during the ride. So if you care about where the Falcon goes, you want the engineer seat.

The Technology Behind the Upgrade

Disney partnered with Epic Games and Industrial Light and Magic to power the new mission with Unreal Engine 5. This is the same rendering technology Lucasfilm uses to create the virtual environments on the set of The Mandalorian series, the “Volume” system that changed how film and TV production works.

The original Smugglers Run already ran on real-time Nvidia rendering, which made it more responsive than older pre-rendered simulators like Star Tours. Unreal Engine 5 is a generational jump on top of that. The new destinations should look sharper, more detailed, and more cinematic than anything the ride has shown before.

Tips to Get the Most Out of It

Download the Play Disney Parks app before your visit. It connects with experiences throughout Galaxy’s Edge and adds interactive layers to the land. Free to use.

Ride it twice if your schedule allows. Go through standby once to see the full updated queue and preshow with the new Hondo dialogue and the Mando mission briefing. Then hit the single rider line later for a quick second ride where you get the engineer seat with Grogu. Two rides, two different experiences, and possibly two different planets.

If you are prone to motion sickness, the front row (pilot seats) is the smoothest spot. The back row (engineers) gets the most movement because it is farthest from the center of rotation. How bumpy the ride gets also depends on your pilots. Smooth flying means a smooth ride. Reckless flying means everyone gets tossed around.

The height requirement is 38 inches (97 cm). Disney also advises against riding if you are pregnant or have heart, back, or neck conditions. It is a motion simulator, and the intensity level varies based on how your crew flies.

What Else Is New in Galaxy’s Edge

The Smugglers Run update is part of a much bigger shift in Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge at Disneyland. The land’s timeline expanded to the original trilogy era on April 29, 2026, and the difference is noticeable.

You can now run into Darth Vader, Imperial Stormtroopers, Luke Skywalker, Leia Organa, and Han Solo walking through Batuu alongside the Mandalorian, Grogu, Chewbacca, Rey, and other characters. John Williams’s Star Wars score now plays as background music throughout the land. It feels like a different place than the version of Galaxy’s Edge that opened in 2019, in the best possible way.

Is It Worth the Wait

The original Smugglers Run had an incredible queue and an experience that got repetitive fast. One mission, one route, and an engineer seat that felt pointless. The Mandalorian and Grogu update fixes all of it.

Multiple destinations give you a real reason to ride again. The engineer role went from the worst seat to possibly the best. Grogu is on board. And Unreal Engine 5 makes everything look noticeably better than the original version.

If you have kids who love Grogu, this could be the highlight of your entire Disneyland trip. If you are a returning visitor who gave up on Smugglers Run because you had done it enough times, this is a genuine reset. And if you have never ridden it at all, you are getting the ride at its peak.

Plan Your Disneyland Visit

For the full Galaxy’s Edge strategy including which rides to prioritize, when to eat, and how to build your day around both parks, the Enchanted Insider Disneyland Itinerary Guide covers everything. For the best rates on hotel and ticket packages near the resort, Get Away Today is the travel partner we use and recommend for Disneyland Resort vacations.

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