Some two weeks after it debuted, the “Double Rider” option at Millennium Falcon: Smugglers Run is no longer offered. In speaking with Cast Members this morning, they said that the “Double Rider” offering was no longer available, but did not give a reason why. Walt Disney World has not returned a request for comment about the offering. Single Rider is still available and open.
“Double Rider” No Longer Offered at Smugglers Run
The “Double Rider” option was a first for a Walt Disney World theme park and something that seemed uniquely suited for the Smugglers Run attraction. As you may know, Smugglers Run puts guests into the cockpit of the iconic Millennium Falcon ship from Star Wars as they go on a mission to collect valuable Coaxium (a fuel source) for space pirate Hondo Ohnaka.
The cockpit holds up to 6 guests, and there are three “positions” within the cockpit that allow guests to participate in the experience. The front two seats are the pilots. They can literally steer the ship as you fly through galactic scenes. It’s not an open-roaming thing, think of it as a predefined path with some impressive leniency for steering off course. Basically like bumper bowling the Millennium Falcon.
The two seats behind the pilots (one on each side of the cockpit) are the gunners. Gunners are responsible for fending off adversaries such as First Order TIE Fighters. There are other roles that the gunners can perform, but the primary role is to keep the path clear for the pilots.
The final two seats are at the back of the cockpit for the Engineers. If the pilots do a bad job of steering and end up hitting something, the Falcon sustains damage. If the gunners do a bad job and sustain blaster fire, the ship gets damaged. It’s the job of the Engineers to patch up the ship by pressing buttons that light up on a console next to their seats.
Because the Engineer is a defensive, less interactive position, it is desired less than the other seats. That means that guests from the regular queue might try to avoid those positions if possible. That’s where the concept of Single Rider can boost the hourly guest throughput on the attraction. By using a Single Rider to fill an empty seat, more guests can experience the attraction. The Single Rider may not get to choose where they sit, but the trade-off is usually met with a much lower wait time than the regular standby queue. But what about the second Engineer seat? Enter: Double Rider.
The concept of Double Rider was to make the Single Rider queue more attractive to parties of two. Instead of being split up like a normal Single Rider line, parties of two could declare themselves “Double Riders” and be guaranteed to be paired together – usually to fill the two Engineer seats at the back of the ship.
It was a good idea in concept, but what about execution? I often visit the theme parks by myself, so I can’t speak to the effectiveness of the Double Rider queue, but the fact that it’s no longer offered must mean that either Disney was running a limited-time test with a pre-determined end date to gather data on the feasibility of a Double Rider queue, or the Double Rider concept failed.
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