The following contains SPOILERS for story events onboard Star Wars: Galactic Starcruiser at Walt Disney World
When Walt Disney World opened Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge, it promised a new land that would make guests feel like they were inside their own Star Wars adventure. Now, with the opening of Star Wars: Galactic Starcruiser, that adventure is taken to an even more immersive level. This includes creating a deeper story for the events of one of the attractions at Galaxy’s Edge, Millennium Falcon: Smuggler’s Run.
The first Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge attraction to open gives Star Wars fans the chance to live a dream by piloting the Millennium Falcon. Honestly the story created to justify that experience could have been anything and fans would probably be ok with it. However, it turns out the story of the ride actually has a larger purpose for those people enjoying a please cruise on the Halcyon.
What Happens in Millennium Falcon Smuggler’s Run
As you enter the main pre-show room for Millennium Falcon: Smuggler’s Run, you’re introduced to a guy who fans of Star Wars: The Clone Wars will know well: a smuggler named Hondo Ohnaka. Hondo has worked out a deal with Chewbacca to “borrow” the Millennium Falcon, but he needs people to pilot the ship, which is where the guests come in. They’re essentially being hired by Hondo as freelance pilots. Do this little job and Hondo will pay you a bit of money.
The job is as simple as it is illegal. Take the Millennium Falcon off Batuu and fly to Corellia. Once there, steal some coaxium from the First Order by hijacking a train. Then take the stolen fuel back to Batuu. Depending on how much coaxium you get, Hondo will give you some credits, after he deducts some for any damage to the Falcon, of course.
While there is some variability to the way the events of the attraction can play out, you will almost certainly make it back with some coaxium. For most people, the ride ends here, but not if you're returning to the Halcyon following your excursion.
What Can Happen On Board The Star Wars: Galactic Starcruiser
There’s a lot that can happen on board Star Wars: Galactic Starcruiser. As part of your experience, you can do a variety of different things that can impact the path you take through the story. But one of those paths is directly connected to the coaxium you helped Hondo steal.
The events onboard the Halcyon put guests in the middle of a small scale battle between the First Order and the Resistance. Early in the voyage, the First Order boards the luxury cruise ship, believing that some on board may have Resistance sympathies. Stormtroopers and First Order officers decide to say on board, just to make sure there isn’t anything going on that should not be.
As it turns out, the First Order is not wrong, several of the crew of the Halcyon are working with the Resistance against the First Order. And if you make the right choices, you may get called to the ship's engine room by the cruise director, Lenka Mok.
Here, Lenka reveals to guests that she’s been using the Halcyon to run a supply chain (read: smuggling operation) for the Resistance. With the First Order on board the ship, it’s almost a foregone conclusion that they will figure out what’s going on. When they do, the first thing the First Order will do to takeover the ship is cut the engines. That’s why guests are gathered in the engine room.
Using special data tapes, guests fan out to various parts of the engine room and, via a variety of different puzzle solving mechanics, proceed to override the Halcyon’s engines. This means that when the First Order tries to shut everything down, it won’t work. But the override won’t have access to the ship’s existing fuel supply. There’s some good news there though, as Lenka has already made arrangements to procure some coaxium from the planet below.
So this would appear to be the coaxium that you obtained, or will be obtaining, when you visit Batuu as part of your Galactic Starcruiser experience. While I didn’t get the full Galactic Starcruiser experience on Batuu when I visited recently, it was also explained that guests of the Halcyon, via special MagicBands that they will wear, will get unique experiences at Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge as well, so it’s possible that guests doing the Millennium Falcon: Smuggler’s Run attraction will know as they experience the ride that the coaxium they are stealing is planned to be used to help them.
You’ll then see the fruits of your labor come together during the Galactic Starcruiser's big finale. The First Order and the Resistance do clash, and as expected, the First Order attempts to take over the ship. Luckily, because of the work done in the engine room, it doesn’t work quite as they expected.
More Connections Between Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge And Galactic Starcruiser
This is almost certainly just one way of several that the events of Galactic Starcruiser and Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge will connect. There are multiple different paths that guests can take as part of the story of this new themed experience, but you’ll have to choose which path you want; you won’t be able to do it all. Other guests might never enter the engine room. The space is actually locked behind a door that can only be opened by MagicBands that have been given access.
I myself was only shown this one particular path, and there were certainly other things that could have happened. There were other elements of the show’s big finale that made no sense to me because I hadn’t been privy to them, but clearly made more sense to others.
Star Wars: Galactic Starcruiser is, without question, a new level of themed entertainment that takes things beyond what we think of as a theme park experience. It truly makes you feel like you’re inside a Star Wars adventure, and that extends to a theme park land that you may have already experienced before, but that takes on entirely new dimensions when you view it through the lens of the Galactic Starcruiser.
