Rise or Smugglers Run First? Here's the Real Call

Published August 20, 2026 · Updated September 30, 2026

If you only get one clean shot at Batuu, spend it on Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance. Rope drop it, ride it, and let Millennium Falcon: Smugglers Run wait until the afternoon or the last hour of the night. That order isn’t about which ride is better — it’s about which one punishes you for showing up late. Rise does. Smugglers Run mostly doesn’t.

Here’s the reasoning, plus the stuff a casual planner walks past.

Rise of the Resistance goes first because it has the least forgiving day

Three things stack against Rise if you wander over at 11 a.m.

First, it’s a Lightning Lane Single Pass attraction at Hollywood Studios — it is not included in Lightning Lane Multi Pass. So skipping the line means paying à la carte on top of whatever you already spent. Single Pass inventory for the headliners tends to thin out as the day goes on, and prices vary by date, so you’re gambling on both availability and cost.

Second, it’s a long, multi-stage attraction with a lot of moving parts, and rides like that go down more often than a simple dark ride does. When Rise pauses, the standby line doesn’t shrink — it swells, because everyone who was walking over is now standing around waiting for it to come back.

Third, the posted wait for Rise tends to be genuinely high for most of the operating day and rarely craters the way lower-tier rides do. The cheap window is early. That’s it.

The move: be scanned in and walking toward Batuu the moment you can. If you’re staying on-site, Early Theme Park Entry is the whole ballgame here — that half hour before regular opening is when Rise’s standby line is at its shortest and most honest. Off-site guests can still win this if they’re through the tapstiles before official park open, but you’re racing a head start you don’t have.

Smugglers Run is the flexible one — use that

Smugglers Run loads a lot of people. It’s a simulator with many cockpits cycling continuously, which means the line looks brutal and moves faster than it looks. It’s also on Lightning Lane Multi Pass, so you have a cheap lever to pull if you want one.

More importantly, its wait usually softens in the back half of the day and in the last hour before park close. That’s the classic veteran play at Hollywood Studios: let everyone else burn their morning on the Falcon while you bank the harder ride, then circle back when the posted time has dropped.

If your feet give out before then, Smugglers Run is a fine thing to skip. Rise is not.

The role trick almost nobody asks about

Smugglers Run assigns each group of six a job: two pilots, two gunners, two engineers. Pilots actually fly the ship and get the most to do; gunners shoot; engineers push buttons when prompted and mostly enjoy the ride.

A few things worth knowing before you’re standing at the assignment point:

Ask. A cast member is handing out cards at the merge — politely asking whether your kid can pilot often works when the group composition allows it. You will never get it if you don’t ask.
Pilot is the best seat and the worst seat. Best if you want the experience. Worst if anyone in your party gets motion sick, because the pilots sit closest to the screen with the most visual movement.
Engineer is the sickness-safe seat. You’re in the back, you have the least to do, and you can look away from the screen without ruining anyone’s flight.
Riding twice is legitimately a different ride. If you loved it as an engineer, a second lap as a pilot is a genuinely new experience — which is another argument for saving it for a low-wait window.

What to actually do when Rise goes down

This is where most people blow their day. The instinct is to give up and walk to the other side of the park. The better instinct: attractions that go down usually come back, and the moment they do is often the best wait of the day, because half the crowd already scattered.

So if Rise craters mid-morning, stay useful and stay close. Do Smugglers Run. Grab a drink. Poke around the shops in Black Spire Outpost. Keep the ride status in front of you rather than checking your phone every four minutes and hoping. This is exactly the case supapark.com is built for — it watches ride status live and pings you the second a ride comes back up or drops to a walk-on, so you’re not the person who left five minutes before it reopened.

How to spend your Lightning Lane money at Hollywood Studios

Hollywood Studios is the park where Lightning Lane strategy separates the planners from the wanderers. A clean framework:

Multi Pass is bought per day, and you pick your selections in advance — 7 days out for Disney resort guests, 3 days out for off-site, with the window opening at 7:00 a.m. Eastern in My Disney Experience. You book an initial set, then add one at a time as you redeem them. There is no day-of scramble to survive.
Point Multi Pass at the rides where waits actually hurt in the middle of the day — Slinky Dog Dash and Tower of Terror are the usual money — and let Smugglers Run be the ride you fill in late or grab on a refill.
Single Pass for Rise is a separate purchase. It’s most defensible when you’re arriving late, you have one park day, or you’ve got a party that physically can’t rope drop. If you can rope drop it, you probably don’t need it.

SupaPark’s forecaster shows when each ride tends to be shortest, and the paid tiers watch Multi Pass availability so you get alerted when a sold-out selection refills — you still tap the actual booking in My Disney Experience, but you find out first.

The heat factor nobody plans for

Batuu is not a shady land. Between the Falcon queue and the walk over from the front of the park, you can burn through your morning energy before noon, and Orlando heat makes people sluggish and short-tempered in ways they blame on the crowds. Build the air-conditioning breaks into the plan on purpose — Rise’s queue is largely indoors, which is another quiet argument for doing it early rather than standing outside for it at 2 p.m.

Family notes

Rise of the Resistance requires guests to be at least 40 inches tall; Smugglers Run requires 38 inches. Rider Switch is available at both, so one adult can wait with a non-rider and swap without re-queuing. If you’ve got a kid right at the 38-inch line, Smugglers Run is often their first “big” Star Wars ride — and letting them pilot is the memory, not the wait.

The takeaway

Ride Rise of the Resistance first because it’s the one that gets more expensive, more crowded, and more fragile as the day goes on. Save Millennium Falcon: Smugglers Run for the afternoon or the last hour, ask for the pilot seat, and treat any Rise downtime as a delay rather than a cancellation. Order of operations is the whole game at Hollywood Studios.

Frequently Asked Questions

Should I ride Rise of the Resistance or Millennium Falcon: Smugglers Run first?

Ride Rise of the Resistance first, ideally at rope drop or during Early Theme Park Entry, because its wait stays high all day and skipping the line requires a separate Lightning Lane Single Pass purchase. Smugglers Run has much higher capacity and its wait usually softens in the afternoon and the final hour.

Is Rise of the Resistance on Lightning Lane Multi Pass?

No — Rise of the Resistance is a Lightning Lane Single Pass attraction, bought à la carte for that specific ride. Millennium Falcon: Smugglers Run is included with Lightning Lane Multi Pass.

What should I do if Rise of the Resistance goes down while I’m in the park?

Stay nearby and fill the gap with Smugglers Run, shopping, or a food break rather than leaving the area, since the reopening window often has one of the shortest waits of the day. SupaPark watches ride status live and alerts you the moment it comes back up.

Can I request the pilot role on Millennium Falcon: Smugglers Run?

You can politely ask the cast member assigning roles at the merge point, and it often works depending on your group’s makeup. Pilots get the most to do but sit closest to the screen, so anyone prone to motion sickness is better off as an engineer in the back.

How tall do kids need to be for the Star Wars rides at Hollywood Studios?

Rise of the Resistance requires a minimum height of 40 inches and Millennium Falcon: Smugglers Run requires 38 inches. Rider Switch is offered at both, so one adult can stay with a non-riding child and ride afterward without waiting in line again.

Go deeper — the full guides: Best Times to Ride Seven Dwarfs Mine Train at Magic Kingdom · Avatar Flight of Passage Height Requirement & Ride Tips · Will Your Kid Hate Soarin’? How to Decide (And Where to Sit)

SupaPark tracks live wait times and crowd forecasts, and pings you the second a hard-to-get reservation opens or a ride goes walk-on — free to start at supapark.com.

Keep planning: Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance · live wait times · is Lightning Lane worth it