How to fly the Millennium Falcon aboard the new Smugglers Run ride at Disneyland’s Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge

“Star Wars” fans who have been dreaming of flying the Millennium Falcon for four decades will get the chance to climb into the cockpit and pilot the famed starship on the new Smugglers Run attraction coming to the Galaxy’s Edge themed land at Disneyland.

But how do you actually fly the Falcon after you’ve taken your seat in one of the pilot, gunner or flight engineer positions? Which one of the 200 fully functional buttons, knobs and switches in the cockpit do you need to activate to properly operate the greatest hunk of junk in the galaxy?

We asked a couple of Walt Disney Imagineering creative team members who worked on the highly anticipated E-ticket attraction to offer some tips on how to complete your mission successfully and bring the Falcon back home safely.

Your success or failure on your mission aboard the Falcon is important because your reputation as a smuggler will follow you around Black Spire Outpost on the Star Wars planet of Batuu, the setting for the new Galaxy’s Edge themed land. Step into Oga’s Cantina after crashing the Falcon and a bounty hunter might tap you on the shoulder looking for a space pirate’s lost loot.

Riders will enter the Smugglers Run ride queue through Ohnaka Transport Solutions, a shady shipping operation run by Hondo Ohnaka, a dreadlocked space pirate with six tusk-like chin protrusions. Riders will receive their smuggling mission from an audio-animatronic Hondo before moving into the hold of the Millennium Falcon and eventually the cockpit of Han Solo’s famed YT-1300 light freighter.

The Smugglers Run ride experience begins and ends in Black Spire Outpost, with the the hangar bay of Ohnaka Transport Solutions projected on a domed screen outside the cockpit windows of the flight simulator.

Six riders will take their seats with the pilots up front, gunners in the middle and flight engineers in the rear. All of the buttons, switches and knobs in the cockpit make clicking, chirping and beeping sounds when activated and their implementation directly impacts each mission.

“This is an experience that’s all about touching buttons, playing with buttons. It is highly, highly encouraged,” said Walt Disney Imagineering executive creative director Asa Kalama. “Now, you need to be careful because the buttons already duct into the very systems of the Millennium Falcon. Depending on what you push it might have the desired effect or an unintended consequence.”

So which of the 200 buttons, knobs and switches should you be pushing, turning and toggling?

“The one that’s flashing,” said Walt Disney Imagineering producer Jacqueline King.

Each button will light up to indicate when to push it. The pilot yokes will have lights indicating which direction to fly: Up, down, left or right.

Steering the ship left and right is the responsibility of the pilot sitting in the front left seat. The pilot in the front right seat will guide the ship up and down and pull back the throttle lever to make the jump to hyperspace.

“We have our pilots up front,” Kalama said. “It is truly up to them to pilot the ship. Depending on how they do, that will determine the overall physical health of the ship.”

The gunners in the middle seats are responsible for pushing an array of buttons that fire the Millennium Falcon’s weapons systems.

“Because we are a smuggling operation, chances are we may come up against folks who are not too happy about what we are up to,” Kalama said. “It will be up to the gunners in the middle to provide defense for the Millennium Falcon. If they don’t line up the TIE fighters fast enough, the hull is going to get riddled and the ship is going to shake violently.”

The gunners have a simple yet essential job: Keep firing the blasters.

“You’re going to keep firing them and take out anything that you meet along the way,” King said.

The flight engineers in the rear seats are responsible for getting the Falcon back into working condition after an accident or attack.

“There are a lot of spires in Black Spire Outpost,” Kalama said. “If you run into one and the pilots don’t steer out of the way, the ship’s going to crash into them. Warning alarms are going to go off and it’ll be up to the flight engineers in the back to make sure that they keep the ship in working order.”

The flight engineers play a vital role: Keep the fastest hunk of junk in the galaxy flying.

“The pilots are bumping into things,” King said. “The ship is coming apart because she’s always coming apart to some degree. Your job is really to help keep her running. You’ve got to keep all the systems going so that you can make it to the end.”

Smugglers Run is set up to encourage each flight crew to work together as a team throughout the mission.

“Everybody gets their own role,” King said. “You can play your own game even though you’re part of a larger team. We hope for a lot of collaboration between everybody, because that will overall make everybody more successful.”

But the video game-like attraction also keeps track of each rider’s success and failure during the mission.

“You get to compete against yourself, especially if you play multiple times,” King said. “You’ll know how well you did last time. This time if you took out more TIEs, you did better.”

Your reputation as a pilot, gunner or flight engineer will stick with you during subsequent visits to Galaxy’s Edge.

“We do want it to feel like a consequential act,” Kalama said. “Flying the ship cleanly and beautifully or smashing it to the point where it’s on fire is something that people would know about and talk about it.”

Millennium Falcon: Smugglers Run debuts at Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge on May 31 at Disneyland and Aug. 29 at Disney’s Hollywood Studios in Florida.

Step inside Oga’s Cantina, Disneyland’s wretched hive of scum and villainy at Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge

The bar will be a place where willing visitors can have 'persistent interactions' with Star Wars characters.

When you step inside Oga’s Cantina in Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge at Disneyland you’re likely to find a bartender mixing interstellar cocktails, a droid DJ spinning otherworldly tunes and a bounty hunter who wants to talk to you about the galactic credits you owe a space pirate.

“Every self-respecting spaceport has a cantina,” said Walt Disney Imagineering portfolio creative executive Scott Trowbridge. “This is the best place on the outpost to catch up on the gossip, to meet some interesting characters, maybe make a new friend, maybe make a new enemy.”

There will be no better place to find a wretched hive of scum and villainy than Oga’s Cantina at the center of Black Spire Outpost on the “Star Wars” planet of Batuu, the setting for the new 14-acre themed land coming to Disneyland.

Work crews were busy installing an animatronic droid DJ during a recent construction tour of Oga’s Cantina led by Walt Disney Imagineering.

When work is done, visitors will find a cozy cocktail lounge with massive glass canisters above the bar filled with alien creatures marinating in intergalactic potations. The alcoholic drink menu will include a Jedi Mind Trick cocktail, Bad Motivator IPA beer and Imperial Red wine. There’s even a non-alcoholic Blue Milk on the menu that’s served with a Bantha cookie chaser.

Oga’s was designed to be reminiscent of the cantina in the original 1977 “Star Wars” movie while still retaining its own unique character, said Imagineering executive creative director Chris Beatty.

“If you think about ‘Star Wars’ films, they almost always have a great cantina as part of their experience,” Beatty said. “So we’ve seen the one on Mos Eisley, which had the Modal Nodes playing over in the corner. We’ve seen the one at Maz’s Castle. We got to see one in ‘Solo’ where Han and Chewie first met Lando Calrissian. So, of course, our planet has to have a local watering hole.”

Visitors who opt in can have “persistent interaction” with characters throughout the Star Wars themed land. Your reputation as a Resistance pilot, First Order loyalist or heroic scoundrel will follow you around Black Spire Outpost and stick with you during subsequent visits to Galaxy’s Edge. A bounty hunter working for space pirate Hondo Ohnaka might be waiting for you in a shadowy corner of Oga’s when you walk in.

“You go in the cantina and you order a drink and you know what, that bartender’s going to be like, “Ooh, you might owe some credits to Hondo at this point.’” said Imagineering executive creative director Wendy Anderson.

Imagineering and Lucasfilm have been seeding Star Wars movies, novels and comic books with references to Batuu, Black Spire Outpost and Oga’s Cantina.

“We want to give the impression that this planet has always been around,” said Imagineering managing story editor Margaret Kerrison. “We’re coming into it as travelers for the first time onto Batuu. There are layers and layers of history and all these familiar and new characters who have come and gone to this planet.”

In “Thrawn: Alliances,” a new Star Wars book by Timothy Zahn, Padme Amidala walks into a Black Spire cantina and orders a drink.

“We know what Padme ordered at the cantina,” Kerrison said. “And guess what, that Andoan white wine is also served in our cantina.”

The cantina’s proprietor is Oga Garra, a local crime boss who controls the underworld in Black Spire Outpost, according to the backstory created for the cocktail bar.

“You may never see her because she likes to lurk in the shadows, but she has her hand in every single business,” said Imagineering creative producer Brian Loo. “The locals all know her. They all fear her. They have legends all about her. Some have seen her, some haven’t. But everyone knows that you don’t cross her, otherwise you may never be seen again.”

Inside the intimate cantina, a curved bar stands at the center of a domed space with alcoves around the edges. Patrons will stand up at the bar which will have no seats.

“What you’re seeing here around the outside are all these little nooks and crannies where you will be able to sit on a little bench seat,” Beatty said during a tour. “The table in front of you is up-lit to make it kind of mysterious.”

The high-energy cantina bar will be a show piece unto itself. Bartenders will make cocktails that appear to be pumped from tanks suspended above the bar that are seemingly filled with alien creatures.

“The bar, when it’s done, is filled with all kinds of containers and different apparatus that have creatures in them that have come to life that are being used as garnishes for drinks,” Beatty said during the tour. “They’ll have amazing taps and different things that will bring the bar to life for our bartenders to activate this space.”

DJ R-3X, or Rex as he is known, will man a disc jockey console in one of the cantina’s alcoves. The former droid pilot from the Star Tours attraction will spin an alien soundtrack that Beatty described as Jawa meets new age meets 1980s pop.

“The music is fantastic,” Beatty said. “It’s a weird sound, but it’s going to be so much fun.”

The Imagineering music team worked with musicians and composers from around the world to come up with an otherworldly cantina soundtrack.

“The stranger the better,” Kerrison said. “Whatever instruments that you can come up with. Any household items or whatever that can have this very eclectic type of music. We want to hear that. And of course we have to have vocals that have alien lyrics.”

The certain-to-be-popular cantina won’t take reservations, so expect a line for Oga’s bar that may only be surpassed by the queues for the E-Ticket attractions in the land.

Oga’s Cantina opens May 31 in Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge at Disneyland. A nearly-identical themed land will open Aug. 29 at Disney’s Hollywood Studios in Florida with its own Oga’s Cantina.

Dok-Ondar’s Den of Antiquities: Step inside a black market emporium at Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge in Disneyland

The shop run by a hammerheaded alien will carry lightsabers and various Jedi Sith artifacts.

Step inside Dok-Ondar’s Den of Antiquities at Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge in Disneyland and you’ll find legacy lightsabers inside glass cases, a wooly Wampa lurking in the rafters and a hammerhead alien shopkeeper counting his galactic credits from his lofty perch.

But watch your step. You don’t want to mess with Dok. Or get on his bad side. Assuming he has a good side.

“Dok-Ondar is a force to be reckoned with,” said Walt Disney Imagineering managing story editor Margaret Kerrison. “He may be 245 years old, but he’s not feeble. He’s been around and he’s very well connected. He’s a very dangerous guy.”

Dok’s Den will be the best place to find intergalactic black market goods in the Black Spire Outpost village on the “Star Wars” planet of Batuu, the setting for the new 14-acre themed land coming to Disneyland.

The antiquities shop will sell Jedi and Sith artifacts along with one-of-a-kind treasures from different eras of the Star Wars galaxy. The shop will carry pre-built legacy lightsabers associated with “Star Wars” characters such as Shaak Ti and Ahsoka Tano.

Concept art of the Den of Antiquities shows a shadowy shop filled with taxidermied extraterrestrials, skeletal remains of winged space creatures hanging from the domed ceiling and tentacled sea aliens floating in glowing glass cylinders. An upper balcony will be stuffed with souvenir spoils collected from throughout the Star Wars galaxy.

“He has such a large collection that everyone actually knows him,” said Imagineering creative producer Brian Loo. “He no longer has to travel because all his clients come to him instead.”

The play on words between “den of antiquities” and “den of iniquities” is no casual oversight. The mysterious Ithorian collector and trader with eyes bulging from the side of his hammerhead and two mouths in his curved neck traffics in illegal interstellar goods.

“We knew that we wanted to meet an Ithorian in our land,” Kerrison said. “We just fell in love with him from the beginning because his story is that he is the gatekeeper of the black market.”

During a recent construction tour, plastic sheeting covered props arrayed on the upper level of Dok’s shop.

“When this is done, it just gets completely filled out on the upper level,” said Imagineering executive creative director Chris Beatty. “This is all props on the upper level. You can’t even shop the upper level. There’s even a 12-foot taxidermied Wampa that’s in here.”

Shoppers will be able to peruse merchandise on the lower level under the watchful eye of Dok. Every item in the shop has a story, with some stories more dangerous than others, according to StarWars.com.

An audio-animatronic Dok will tend to his financial ledgers, answer calls and survey his inventory while sitting at an elevated perch in his shop. Throughout the workday, Dok may grow angry when he gets a call from somebody trying to rip him off. Counting his galactic credits or looking over a bookkeeping ledger could brighten his mood.

Customers can barter with Dok over the price of merchandise with the help of a Disney employee.

“He’s always diligent as to what’s going on within the shop, counting his money, making sure that nothing has been taken or missing in his collection,” Beatty says. “When you go to buy something, you can interact with him from time to time.”

But don’t expect a discount from Dok. You may end up walking away paying more rather than less after haggling with the tough businessman.

“I’ve never known him to give a deal,” Beatty said.

But if the price is right, Dok will be willing to trade anything from his collection, according to Imagineers.

A recent tour of the Walt Disney Imagineering animation building in Glendale showed off a Dok-Ondar animatronic figure in action.

Imagineering show programmer Amy Goodwin peppered Dok with questions.

“Hey Dok, he thinks you’re overcharging,” Goodwin told the animatronic shopkeeper. “Can you give him a discount?”

The surly creature responded in an alien tongue, the lips along his two mouths moving as he spoke.

“OK, I’ll tell him to go away,” Goodwin said.

While most visitors won’t understand what Dok is saying, they will be able to discern two distinct moods: happy or frustrated.

“Storywise he always has a reason to switch between them,” Goodwin said. “He never randomly goes from happy to frustrated. There’s always a reason for it.”

Dok’s seemingly-randomized responses are built out of blocks of animation clips that combine into a playlist of short scenes.

“It’s not pulling at random, but it still gives that feeling of randomness,” Goodwin said. “If you sit there and watch, there’s never going to be an hour that’s exactly the same as any other hour that he runs because of how he transfers between these little scenes that he has.”

Dok-Ondar’s Den of Antiquities opens in Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge on May 31 at Disneyland and Aug. 29 at Disney’s Hollywood Studios in Florida.

Creature Stall: Step inside an alien pet store at Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge in Disneyland

The shop will offer both cuddly and creepy interactive beasts from around the galaxy.

Step inside the cozy Creature Stall at Disneyland’s new Galaxy’s Edge and you’ll find an alien pet store stuffed with oinking Puffer Pigs, tongue-flicking Worrts and vibrating Rathtars collected from across the Star Wars galaxy.

The Creature Stall will be the place to find cuddly and creepy interactive intergalactic beasts in the Black Spire Outpost village on the Star Wars planet of Batuu, the setting for the new 14-acre themed land coming to Disneyland.

Each of the shops in Galaxy’s Edge will have an extensive backstory created by Walt Disney Imagineering and a proprietor from the Star Wars galaxy. The Black Spire architecture will be inspired by the bustling marketplaces of Istanbul, Turkey and Marrakesh, Morocco.

In the Creature Stall, customers won’t just be buying a wailing Wampa or squawking Tauntaun toy but rather an alien pet that will become part of their family, according to the shop’s backstory.

The cramped marketplace stall will be run by an Amani proprietor named Bina who finds and gathers space critters from across the Star Wars universe. The tall, thin and slimy Amani aliens have short legs and gangly arms.

“Bina loves to travel around the galaxy and collect different creatures that she brings back here to Batuu,” said Imagineering creative producer Brian Loo.

Concept art of the Creature Stall shows a tattered red awning with holes and tears over the entry, Porgs atop stacked cages outside the shop and hanging lamps with geometrically-shaped shades lighting the interior.

Inside the shop, a spider-like Krykna creature with six spindly legs, a beaked mouth and fangs sits inside a glass case. In front of the shop, a smiling girl carries a bulbous-nosed Puffer Pig with pointy horns and a razorback spine in her arms.

During a recent tour of Galaxy’s Edge, work crews were busy hanging cages and installing props in the Creature Stall, which will be barely large enough for a dozen customers to fit inside.

“When we’re done, just like those stalls that you see in Istanbul and Morocco, you won’t be able to see the ceiling in this space,” said Imagineering executive creative director Chris Beatty.

The shelves, nooks and cages in the Creature Stall will be filled to the rafters with animatronic aliens and animated scenes.

“Some of them have little special effects that have leaves that move and eyes that look down upon you,” Beatty said. “If you look up, you see creatures in the cages.”

A Loth Cat from the Disney animated series “Star Wars Rebels” will be napping on a little bed in the shop, his breathing body suggesting that the animatronic creature is alive.

“They’re super, super cute,” Beatty said.

During the tour, Beatty lifted a protective plastic sheet to reveal a bulbous-eyed Worrt with green eyes, a spiny back and flicking tongue in a glass case.

“He sits in here and he’s eating fireflies that are flying around his cage,” Beatty said. “His stomach is breathing, so he’s alive.”

The Creature Stall’s lineup of interactive toys will move and make noise when you pet or play with them.

The softball-sized Rathtar with octopus-like tentacles and razor teeth shudders when you press one of his golden warts.

A Kowakian monkey-lizard, the rambunctious court jester pet of Jabba the Hutt, cackles when you hold him.

The frowning, doe-eyed Porg puppet coos when you flap its furry brown wings. Concept art shows a customer carrying a Porg home in a hand-held cage.