millennium falcon on the Dream & other kid club questions

[Lisa F]

This is the ONE thing my 9 year old son wants to do the most.

Do the kids just get to play on it when they are at the club or is it only open during "star wars" activities? he is a huge star wars fan but unfortunately if the navigator is the same when we cruise as the latest he will miss the jedi experience thing because we have a nassau snorkel excursion.

How do I make sure my little guy gets to do the one thing he wants to do?

Also are the only activities at the kids clubs what are listed on the navigator? or is that just something that is "available" and they can do other stuff if they are not interested in that? Just trying to get a feel for how this whole thing works... I am castaway club gold but haven't cruised since 2005, which was before both the Dream class AND the necessity for me paying attention at all to anything remotely related to the kid clubs. Should I only bring him during activities he is interested in?

Thanks for any help.

 

[WishUponAStarryNight]

The Millennium Falcon looks much cooler in ads than it is in person. He might enjoy it for a couple minutes, but he can't actually control anything. The video runs in a loop. We were disappointed to learn that when we got on board, so you may want to adjust expectations. He can sit at it whenever it's free. It's available in the club whenever the club is open. If he enjoys the clubs, he may want to stay beyond the scheduled activities. There are lots of other things to do and no one is required to do the scheduled activity if they are doing other things in the club. DS isn't a huge fan, so he'll go for activities he really wants to do and may stay a little longer, but he's not one of the kids who has to get dragged out at the end of the night. An hour or so at a time is enough for him.

 

[Lisa F]

The Millennium Falcon looks much cooler in ads than it is in person. He might enjoy it for a couple minutes, but he can't actually control anything. The video runs in a loop. We were disappointed to learn that when we got on board, so you may want to adjust expectations. He can sit at it whenever it's free. It's available in the club whenever the club is open. If he enjoys the clubs, he may want to stay beyond the scheduled activities. There are lots of other things to do and no one is required to do the scheduled activity if they are doing other things in the club. DS isn't a huge fan, so he'll go for activities he really wants to do and may stay a little longer, but he's not one of the kids who has to get dragged out at the end of the night. An hour or so at a time is enough for him.

that is really good to know, I'm glad I asked!

Good thing he is really into using his imagination for things, but I will properly manage the expectations!

 

[TrishaK]

While there are scheduled activities in both the Club and Lab, there's also plenty of opportunities for free play throughout both areas. The kids are free to participate in whatever they'd like. And as mentioned above, the Millennium Falcon is always just there and anybody can play on it. And the controls don't really DO anything.

 

[Anchors Away 2016]

And the controls don't really DO anything.

That never stopped Harrison Ford. LOL. If you look closely at the movies, he seems to be moving those controls almost at random. But it can still be a lot of fun!

(I'm not contradicting you, just adding on.)

 

[Lisa F]

While there are scheduled activities in both the Club and Lab, there's also plenty of opportunities for free play throughout both areas. The kids are free to participate in whatever they'd like. And as mentioned above, the Millennium Falcon is always just there and anybody can play on it. And the controls don't really DO anything.

I had to drag my child off the shuttle model at kennedy space center to give other people a chance so I'm not sure he'd care. I'm not even sure the controls moved. just looked at my pictures, they do. But I had to drag him bodily off that thing twice 4 years ago (he wasn't done with his mission yet, lol) and his imagination is still pretty wild. As long as he knows what the deal is I'm sure he'll enjoy it. But I am very glad to be able to manage expectations!

That never stopped Harrison Ford. LOL. If you look closely at the movies, he seems to be moving those controls almost at random. But it can still be a lot of fun!

(I'm not contradicting you, just adding on.)

I admit I was never paying that much attention to what he did in the movies. Too focused on other things

 

[swooshbear]

I got a chance to peek in during the Open Hours a few weeks ago. The Millennium Falcom is just two seats with a bunch of lights and switches (they have the same setup at Shanghai Disneyland).

The video is literally two scenes from Star Tours (Pod Racing and Kashyyyk) that seem to either run on a loop or I think pulling on one of the levers activates the video if it's sitting idle too long.

 

[yayornay]

I wish I'd thought to ask this same question prior to our last cruise. My boys (ages 7 and 9) were super excited about the Millennium Falcon, but after the initial excitement, they realized they weren't controlling anything and were very disappointed.

Also, just my observation, but when it was open house it was super chaotic and kids kept getting in line in front of my kids and staying on it forever. I was a little apprehensive about that, but when I picked them up one night, there was a cast member there monitoring it and had a very orderly system going.

 

[Catvondita]

My husband and I went to one of the open houses because we were really excited about the MF experience (don't judge us lol) but it was super disappointing. You don't control anything. I think we were under the impression it was more like a game or simulator.

 

[cheapster316]

We did a 4 day on the Dream last January and Jedi training was on a sea day, Thursday at maybe 11 am.
They were able to play on the mf in kids club and they had several Star Wars activities including a cute play type activity where they got to be a character. I’m not sure if you can find my Trip review but I wrote a lot about Jeff training and Star Wars activities as my kids were very interested and I could not find a lot of info prior to boarding.

 

[RebelHawk]

I loved that we could stop in on the first day of our cruise to check out the Star Wars stuff. As a kid I think I would be over the moon just to sit in that cockpit and play.

 

[Lisa F]

I loved that we could stop in on the first day of our cruise to check out the Star Wars stuff. As a kid I think I would be over the moon just to sit in that cockpit and play.



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Awesome photos, thanks! I will show him later!

I let him know that the controls are just there for your imagination, they have a video but the controls don't interact with the video. He said that is fine, he has great adventures in his head. It's all in how you present it, lol.

Here he is 4 years ago at KSC, I had to drag him off to give other kids a turn (he is not usually like that and is good at taking turns!) and we waited our turn 3 times because he had a bunch of "missions" in his head he wanted to run. So I think he'll be happy just to sit and play for a while... even better if it's at an open house time and he can bark orders at me, lol. he likes having me as copilot In some ways it is almost better that it's not something that he will have to fight to get onto.

 

[DisneyPups]

oh my, he is so adorable. If you go in pretending it's cool, he'll be on board. But he won't need hours to play. My DD and I went in during an open house and made a bunch of sounds and flipped the controls back and forth. It's fun to be silly on it. He'll probably enjoy it, but it's good you asked so he isn't going in expecting a simulator!