After being closed for nearly 8 months, Buzz Lightyear’s Space Ranger Spin is now open for soft openings. The soft openings are open to all Magic Kingdom guests, but are subject to end at any time. Buzz Lightyear’s Space Ranger Spin officially reopens on April 8th. We were able to attend an early playtest of the refreshed attraction, and wanted to share some photos, video, and initial thoughts about the changes. Here’s our full review of the refreshed Buzz Lightyear’s Space Ranger Spin!
Sleek Entrance
Tomorrowland has been going through a multi-year visual update, and the sleek entrance of Buzz Lightyear’s Space Ranger Spin continues that work. Between a new marquee and a less cluttered entrance portal, the updates to the entrance are wonderful and pitch-perfect for where Tomorrowland has been going for years now.
Updated, but Familiar Queue
While there were no substantial changes to the exterior portion of the queue, there were some changes made to the interior queue. Most notably, there is now a low wall that separates the Lightning Lane queue and the regular standby queue.
The Buzz Lightyear Audio-Animatronic remains, and he was clearly refreshed versus his pre-refurbishment state. That said, the projected face remains. With recent changes to the Frozen Ever After attraction to remove projected faces, we were wondering if a similar change would be found at Buzz Lightyear’s Space Ranger Spin. That wasn’t the case. There were also some updates made to the View Master to include updates seen on the ride.
Full Ride POV
Finally, here’s a look at our ride this morning. The attraction is still in a soft opening phase, which means that Imagineers and operations are still making adjustments to the ride. To that end, we did have some elements that didn’t work for us. We’re hopeful that adjustments can be made before the April 8th grand opening.
Introducing Buddy! Brand New Scene
After boarding, guests are immediately introduced to a new scene featuring an all-new character named Buddy. Compared to the previous version of this room, the new scene with Buddy is great. As a support-bot, Buddy makes sure departing Space Rangers are fully prepared for their mission, enthusiastically providing encouragement, final system checks on their Star Cruisers, and a chance to hone their blaster aim.
Brand New Ride Vehicles, Handheld Blasters
Star cruisers have received a facelift, featuring a new design inspired by the colors of Buzz Lightyear and Star Command. Each enhanced vehicle has new video monitors that provide real-time scoring updates. In addition to the new scoring screens, each ride vehicle now includes handheld blasters. These handheld blasters allow for better aim, helping guests to score even more points.
And, if you’ve ever wondered where you’re aiming (don’t worry, you’re not alone), these enhanced blasters now include an always-on laser and come in two different colors per star cruiser, in addition to new lighting, sound, and vibration effects, so players know where they’re aiming throughout the mission.
Refreshed and Enhanced Scenes
Buzz Lightyear’s Space Ranger Spin remains as vibrant as ever. Actually, the ride is more vibrant thanks to some enhanced scenes. These scenes, like the Escape Hatch scene, have been enhanced to introduce new set pieces. A previously black tunnel has been enhanced with new set design – a thoughtful update.
New animation and new targets in the space battle tunnel allow for scoring some last-minute points in your battle against Zurg.
The new displays are great, showing your rank in real time as you score points throughout the ride. We were more focused on shooting photos than shooting targets, but the new point totals can surpass the 999,999 ceiling of the former version of the ride.
Refreshed Buzz Lightyear’s Space Ranger Spin First Impressions
Overall, this is a great quality-of-life update for an attraction that is more than 25 years old. The handheld blasters are a great update, as are the interactive targets. Perhaps the biggest update is the always-on laser; it really, really helps with scoring. I think it will be particularly welcome for younger guests.
There have been a number of attraction updates in recent years. Some, like the Country Bear Musical Jamboree, have been substantial enough to earn a new attraction name. The Buzz Lightyear’s Space Ranger Spin changes are more of an incremental change than a “new name” upgrade.
I’m actually a fan of this approach. As rides continue to age at Walt Disney World, and Magic Kingdom, specifically, I’d like to see Disney continue to take advantage of extended refurbishments to provide quality-of-life updates, along with new ride elements.
Looking forward, that’s what we’d expect for Big Thunder Mountain Railroad and the upcoming Carousel of Progress updates, as well.
Buzz Lightyear’s Space Ranger Spin officially reopens to all guests on April 8th.
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