MK New Buzz Lightyear’s Space Ranger Spin Updates Coming to Walt Disney World

[Lord Fozzinator]

I feel like we are now getting a bunch of the plussing that was planned for the 50th before COVID and Chapek borked that whole budget... Josh at least seems to be righting the ship when it comes to maintenance and plussing attractions. It's a huge ship to right, so it's going to take time.

Now, if we get an announcement that Everest is going down to fix the Yeti......

If they fix the Yeti, all is forgiven

 

[Joel]

Y'all wanna make sure a child will always wind up in the lowest tier?

That would be ideal, yes.

Back in my day, junior space rangers weren't all patted on the head and told they were galactic heroes just for trying. If you can't cut it on the cold, merciless battlefield that is Sector 9, then you deserve to feel the way we all will when Zurg's robotic army succeeds in stealing the crystallic fusion power cells -- powerless.

 

[Lord Fozzinator]

If I were to estimate a time period, I think 3-4 months. My reasoning for this is that it seems that they have already starting changing the targets to the interactive elements, some of the vehicles have already gotten their redesign, and the new blasters have also started to get installed. They would probably want to open it up in time for the Christmas crowds so the park can be at peak capacity.

 

[wdwmagic]

Walt Disney Imagineering Files Construction Permit for Buzz Lightyear Ride Update​

Walt Disney Imagineering Files Construction Permit for Major Buzz Lightyear Ride Update

Walt Disney Imagineering Files Construction Permit for Major Buzz Lightyear Ride Update

www.wdwmagic.com

 

[Chet Dakota]

If I were to estimate a time period, I think 3-4 months. My reasoning for this is that it seems that they have already starting changing the targets to the interactive elements, some of the vehicles have already gotten their redesign, and the new blasters have also started to get installed. They would probably want to open it up in time for the Christmas crowds so the park can be at peak capacity.

Hoping this will be the case. We will be there in mid-January 2026 for Mecum and the 24Hr at Daytona.

 

[Brer Oswald]

It doesn't need to be refurbished; it needs to be replaced with something halfway decent.

I personally dislike this announcement because if they're going to spend this kind of money on the attraction then it's going to stay in Tomorrowland for a long time.

That said, if they are (unfortunately) going to keep it, it is good that they're spending money to update it.

Their priorities are entirely in the wrong place. What’s worse is that people are glazing it as an all time “great decision”. If Buzz is such a popular ride, why is it the easiest Lightning lane to secure at 8pm?

 

[Lord Fozzinator]

Their priorities are entirely in the wrong place. What’s worse is that people are glazing it as an all time “great decision”. If Buzz is such a popular ride, why is it the easiest Lightning lane to secure at 8pm?

I think a ride that most of the time has a 40-50 minute wait is a pretty popular ride

 

[Brer Oswald]

I think a ride that most of the time has a 40-50 minute wait is a pretty popular ride

Typically averages at about 20-30. Posted wait time is inflated.

 

[Purduevian]

Their priorities are entirely in the wrong place. What’s worse is that people are glazing it as an all time “great decision”. If Buzz is such a popular ride, why is it the easiest Lightning lane to secure at 8pm?

Based on sell out times in the past month... its basically right in the middle of availability.
Sells out faster : Tiana, 7D, Tron, Pan, JC, Pooh, SM, HM, Barnstormer, Speedway

Sells out slower: Aladdin, Mermaid, Philharmagic, Pirates, Monsters, Dumbo, Tea, small world.

I don't think LL availability is a great indicator considering pirates sells out slower than mermaid on average.

 

[Moth]

Their priorities are entirely in the wrong place. What’s worse is that people are glazing it as an all time “great decision”. If Buzz is such a popular ride, why is it the easiest Lightning lane to secure at 8pm?

To be fair, Buzz is an omnimover (the greatest ride system ever made), so I don't see why it'd have a giant wait in general.

 

[WDWFREAK53]

Yeah, I’ve never liked the idea of Wreck-It-Ralph in Tomorrowland. It doesn’t fit in the land. Thank god that they didn’t do that as the replacement for stitch.

When they announced Tron, I thought they should've used the arcade to be a dual entrance. 1 side is the queue for Tron which would suck you into the Grid, and the other side had you board a small peoplemover style attraction that allows you to travel through the game portal into Sugar Rush where you board your Sugar Rush Racers which is currently the Indy Speedway.

 

[Charlie The Chatbox Ghost]

Here's hoping that Test Track is at least reopened before this goes down... otherwise we're in a situation where Test Track, Buzz, Tree of Life/Zootopia, BTMRR, and possibly TSI are all closed at the same time which is not ideal... (assuming RNRC and Dinosaurs [shouldn't be, this is not until 2026] are not also down).

I assume TSI will stay open, as at this point they know fans will want to be able to say goodbye. If they pull a GMR then people will be mad.

That said even if it stays open, as much as I love it, I doubt it’s doing much to help with capacity. Maybe the riverboat helps, but the island itself is a drop in the bucket.

 

[EagleScout610]

Walt Disney Imagineering Files Construction Permit for Buzz Lightyear Ride Update​

Walt Disney Imagineering Files Construction Permit for Major Buzz Lightyear Ride Update

Walt Disney Imagineering Files Construction Permit for Major Buzz Lightyear Ride Update

www.wdwmagic.com

Buzz Lightyear’s Space Ranger Spin is scheduled to close temporarily in August 2025 to allow for this work, with the updated ride expected to reopen in 2016.

Just a heads up on a typo

 

[tanc]

This is great, the ride was in terrible shape so this is a much needed uplift.

 

[Brer Oswald]

To be fair, Buzz is an omnimover (the greatest ride system ever made), so I don't see why it'd have a giant wait in general.

I get that. But I’ve also noticed a DRASTIC decrease in its popularity over the last decade. Like almost nothing like I’ve seen with any other ride. I remember when it used to be the longest wait in the park. Now it’s typically around the same average wait as the Peoplemover.

 

[Coaster Lover]

The competitive player in me is disappointed that they’re giving people an always-on laser, feels like that’ll help everyone bump their score… but otherwise excited how it’ll turn out

Alicia Stella posted a video this morning of her play testing the new blasters. Just for clarification, assuming the blasters will be the same as shown in the play test, while the laser light is always on, you still need to pull the trigger to "shoot" the target (more or less the same concept as a laser guided pistol). I guess the alternative was only having the light come on while you pull the trigger, but with so many ride vehicles in a scene at the same time, I could see where it would be very difficult to determine which "light" was yours (and to track where you are aiming). I think this is the best option (especially for smaller kids). My hope is that they are implementing several multi layer targets for the BIG score targets (like where you have to hit multiple targets to reveal a high-level target) to still make it more of a challenge to get the highest possible scores.

 

[Agent H]

So is the new scene replacing the weird one at the beginning? (Never understood what that was supposed to be. In any case super happy this is happening. This ride has been falling apart for a long time and the the previous target system was super confusing.

 

[Purduevian]

I get that. But I’ve also noticed a DRASTIC decrease in its popularity over the last decade. Like almost nothing like I’ve seen with any other ride. I remember when it used to be the longest wait in the park. Now it’s typically around the same average wait as the Peoplemover.

Not sure where you are getting that idea.. using past decade here is the graph of the average wait times by year for buzz.

As a comparison here is the people mover:

Even in 2020 (the highest for people mover and tied for lowest for buzz) Buzz averaged a 10 min longer queue...

 

[Prince-1]

Their priorities are entirely in the wrong place. What’s worse is that people are glazing it as an all time “great decision”. If Buzz is such a popular ride, why is it the easiest Lightning lane to secure at 8pm?

Ahh, the old, "you are wrong unless you agree with me", argument. Gotta love it!!

 

[tissandtully]

I get that. But I’ve also noticed a DRASTIC decrease in its popularity over the last decade. Like almost nothing like I’ve seen with any other ride. I remember when it used to be the longest wait in the park. Now it’s typically around the same average wait as the Peoplemover.

That's not that true at all.