Smugglers Run With Kids: Which Job to Give Them

Published August 19, 2026 · Updated September 30, 2026

Here’s the move nobody tells you: if you’re riding Millennium Falcon: Smugglers Run with a kid, do not angle for pilot. Pilot is the seat every adult wants and the seat that makes the most kids melt down. The job that actually works for a first-timer is engineer — back row, buttons light up, you press them, the ride keeps going. No steering, no pressure, no ruined-the-mission guilt.

Smugglers Run assigns you one of six jobs in the cockpit: two pilots up front, two gunners in the middle, two engineers in the back. Your card gets handed to you as you approach the boarding area, and the assignment is essentially the whole experience — same ride, wildly different job satisfaction. Getting the right kid in the right chair is the difference between “can we go again” and “I don’t want to do that one anymore.”

Engineer is the kid-proof seat

Back row, engineer, is the lowest-stakes job on the Falcon. Panels light up, your kid taps them, the ship gets repaired. There is no coordination required with the person next to them, no aiming, no fine motor timing. A four- or five-year-old who can press a glowing button is fully qualified.

It also has a hidden advantage: engineers sit farthest back, which means the biggest view of the whole cockpit and the least sense of being personally responsible for the windshield full of chaos. Nervous kids do better when the screen isn’t right in their face.

The smart move: if you’ve got one anxious kid and one thrill-seeker, aim the anxious one at engineer and let the confident one take gunner.

Gunner is the sweet spot for most kids 6 and up

Gunner is the middle seat and honestly the best all-around kid job. The instruction is one sentence: keep tapping the trigger. That’s it. There’s no wrong way to do it, they’ll hit something eventually, and the feedback is instant and loud in the best way. Kids who like video games take to it immediately; kids who don’t still get the satisfaction of “I shot at stuff.”

Compare that to pilot, where the ride visibly reacts to your input and a kid who overcorrects watches the Falcon scrape a wall. Some kids find that hilarious. Plenty find it mortifying. Gunner has zero downside.

Why pilot backfires — and how to defuse it

Left pilot steers side to side, right pilot steers up and down. The two have to cooperate, which is a lot to ask of an excited seven-year-old sitting next to a stranger. And because the cockpit windows show exactly what your steering does, a kid in the pilot chair gets immediate, unambiguous evidence of every mistake.

If your kid does get pilot and wants it, take the pressure off before you board with one line: everybody crashes the Falcon. Say it casually. Make it a running joke. The goal is for a rough flight to be the funny part of the story instead of the thing they’re quiet about for the next hour.

Actually, that’s the broader parent rule here. Prep them, but keep the prep short and low-drama: it’s a pretend spaceship, it shakes, it gets loud, you’ll have a job, and you cannot mess it up. Do not oversell the cockpit as a huge responsibility — that’s how you manufacture stage fright in a kid who would’ve been fine.

You can influence your assignment (a little)

Jobs are assigned by the cast member handing out crew cards, and they’re balancing a full flight crew of six every time — so you’re not going to reliably order off a menu. But two things genuinely help.

First, ask politely and specifically at the card handoff, not at the cockpit door. “Any chance the kids can be engineers?” lands much better than a request made when the flight crew is already loading and every card is spoken for.

Second, ride with a group of six if you can. A party that fills the whole cockpit gives the cast member the flexibility to hand out cards however you want, because nobody else is getting seated with you. A family of six riding together has far more control over jobs than two adults and one kid slotted into strangers’ seats.

Worst case, you get the job you didn’t want. Ride it again later — the assignment rerolls every time, and a second ride with a different job is genuinely a different experience.

The queue is half the ride — don’t speed through it

Smugglers Run’s queue walks you past the actual Millennium Falcon and through Ohnaka Transport Solutions, and for a Star Wars kid it’s a real part of the payoff. If you’re using a Lightning Lane you’ll skip a chunk of it, which is a trade worth knowing about: faster ride, less atmosphere. For a first ride with a Star Wars–obsessed kid, standby (when the wait is reasonable) is arguably the better experience.

Also worth knowing: the cockpit is a small, enclosed, motion-simulator space with plenty of shaking and noise. Kids who don’t love enclosed spaces or loud effects should hear about that before they’re strapped in, not after.

When to actually ride it

Here’s where most families lose time. Smugglers Run is a Multi Pass attraction at Hollywood Studios — the Single Pass headliner in Galaxy’s Edge is Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance, not the Falcon. That matters for strategy: you can fold Smugglers Run into your Lightning Lane Multi Pass selections rather than paying à la carte for it.

And on the standby side, don’t treat the posted wait as fixed. Galaxy’s Edge crowds move in waves — around meal times, around show schedules, and heavily around Rise of the Resistance demand. Smugglers Run has a high hourly capacity, so a scary-looking posted wait can soften faster than you’d expect. Posted waits in the 60–65 minute range at Hollywood Studios are common in the middle of the day and often overstate the real wait once the surge passes.

The non-obvious call: going first thing isn’t always right. Sometimes the better play is to let the land absorb the morning rush, hit something else, and come back when the wait dips. That’s exactly the kind of timing SupaPark’s best-time forecaster and live wait alerts handle for you — you get pinged when Smugglers Run craters, instead of standing in Galaxy’s Edge refreshing your phone. If you want it locked in ahead of time instead, remember Lightning Lane Multi Pass selections open 7 days before arrival for Disney resort guests and 3 days out for off-site guests, at 7:00 AM Eastern in My Disney Experience.

The takeaway

Engineer for the little ones, gunner for most kids six and up, pilot only for a kid who genuinely wants the controls — and even then, tell them everybody crashes it. Then stop fighting the posted wait and let the crowd wave pass before you ride. Free live wait times and the best-time forecaster are on supapark.com, so you can spend your Galaxy’s Edge time on the ride instead of the line.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the best Smugglers Run job for a young child?

Engineer is the easiest and least stressful job — kids sit in the back row and simply press panels that light up, with no steering or aiming required. Gunner is the better pick for most kids around six and up, since the only instruction is to keep tapping.

Can you choose your job on Millennium Falcon: Smugglers Run?

Not officially — a cast member assigns crew cards while balancing a six-person flight crew. Asking politely at the card handoff helps, and riding as a full party of six gives you the most control since nobody else is being seated in your cockpit.

Is Smugglers Run a Lightning Lane Single Pass ride?

No. Smugglers Run is a Lightning Lane Multi Pass attraction; the Single Pass ride in Disney’s Hollywood Studios is Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance.

Should we ride Smugglers Run first thing in the morning?

Not necessarily. Galaxy’s Edge crowds move in waves around meals, shows, and Rise of the Resistance demand, and Smugglers Run’s high capacity means posted waits often soften later — watching the wait pattern usually beats rope-dropping it.

Is the Smugglers Run queue worth doing in standby?

For a Star Wars fan, often yes — the standby queue walks past the full-size Millennium Falcon and through Ohnaka Transport Solutions, and a Lightning Lane skips part of that atmosphere.

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: Millennium Falcon: Smugglers Run · live wait times · is Lightning Lane worth it