Disney Files Construction Permit for Buzz Lightyear Ride Upgrades at Magic Kingdom

Walt Disney World has filed a new construction permit for a location corresponding with Buzz Lightyear’s Space Ranger Spin in Tomorrowland at Magic Kingdom. This post covers details of the project and likely ride refurbishment, along with our wish list for improvements to the outdated blaster attraction.

Let’s start with words of warning, of sorts. In Great Moves Made by Walt Disney World, we documented the top 10 decisions this year, one of which was “Resuming Routine Refurbishments.” As noted in that entry, there was a lot of deferred maintenance and proportionately fewer closures in the last few years due to pent-up demand and budget cuts. Walt Disney World also lost a lot of seasoned maintenance Cast Members during the closure, many of whom took early retirement or simply didn’t return.

That is precisely why “Maintenance & Unexpected Downtime” made our previous list of Top 10 Guest Complaints About Walt Disney World! Ride breakdowns remain an issue and, in our view, these unexpected closures are worse than routine refurbishments because you can’t plan around them. However, we expect this to get better throughout 2025 and 2026, largely because (and here’s where the ‘warning’ comes into play) Walt Disney World is going to be scheduling a lot more ride refurbishments over the next couple years.

Several attractions are overdue for refurbishments and will probably get them in 2025 or 2026–the tricky thing will be timing to avoid having too many “big” rides down in each park. It’ll help that pent-up demand is exhausted, staffing has improved, and the money spigot in Burbank has been turned on for Parks & Resorts, allowing for more projects of this nature to (finally!) happen.

Conversely, many of you may lament more rides being closed during your vacation, which probably is going to be the case in the next couple years. However, refurbishments are very much a necessity for maintaining appropriate attraction standards and ensuring that breakdowns don’t continue to happen at a more frequent rate.

No one is “excited” for Big Thunder Mountain Railroad to be closed for over a year, and miss that on their next trip or two, but it’s an unequivocal positive in the long-term. It’s also inevitable that BTMRR won’t be the only marquee Magic Kingdom attraction that closes for maintenance during that timeframe. We’re expecting several other smaller-scale projects, most likely timed to the lead-up to Epic Universe and Disney Starlight Night Parade or done during the off-season, added to the 2025 Walt Disney World Refurbishment Calendar.

Although not yet official, it’s likely that Buzz Lightyear’s Space Ranger Spin will be one of those closures…

Walt Disney Imagineering has filed a new Notice of Commencement construction permit for 1305 Monorail Way, which is the address that corresponds with the location of Buzz Lightyear’s Space Ranger Spin in Tomorrowland. The new permit lists Maddox Electric Company, Inc. as the contractor and describes the scope of work as simply “install projectors.”

Maddox Electric is a frequent contractor at Walt Disney World, working on a range of projects in the parks and at the resorts. Most of their work has routine refurbishments, with recent projects including Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster, Splash Mountain/Tiana’s Bayou Adventure, Spaceship Earth, and countless locations that needed random electrical work.

This permit for Buzz Lightyear’s Space Ranger Spin doesn’t offer any clues as to what else this project could entail or when it could occur. There is not a timeline specified; the expiration is simply the default 1-year window. (It’s notable when the expiration is extended or shortened, but meaningless when it’s the default.) However, Walt Disney World typically doesn’t file permits like this until work is imminent–usually slated to start in 1-2 months.

As such, everything that follows is our best guesses about the Buzz Lightyear’s Space Ranger Spin project.

The first is that the most obvious candidate for new projectors are in the Zurg wind tunnel before the climactic battle sequence in the grand finale. The current projectors in this area are about the quality of a webcam running on AOL dial-up internet back in 1998. It’s like they’re both misaligned and the lowest resolution possible. Not 4K, more like 4 pixels.

That’s simply speculation, though. Nothing would surprise me with this attraction. Perhaps Imagineering is going to completely overlook the dozen-plus problem points with Buzz Lightyear’s Space Ranger Spin, and install some fancy new effect in the queue or a scene that doesn’t need it. I doubt it, though. That Zurg tunnel is just downright embarrassing, and has been for a while. It’s not up to Walt Disney World show standards.

Honestly, the whole ride could use help. When refreshing our list of Top 10 Underrated Rides to NOT Skip at Walt Disney World this week, I removed Buzz Lightyear’s Space Ranger Spin.

It pained me to do, but the fact is that the last half-dozen times I’ve ridden it, I’ve had a non-working blaster twice, and on every single other occasions, there were multiple targets that were broken or my blaster had intermittent issues. (No, it’s not a ‘skill issue’ or me blaming poor performance on the ride. It’s in sorry shape!)

Beyond that, the whole attraction could use a power wash and fresh coat of paint. There is a thick layer of dirt and grime on everything, and it’s been that way for a while. Every time I ride at the end of the night (when the queue is looking rougher than normal), I spot about a dozen Four Keys violations on Buzz Lightyear’s Space Ranger Spin.

The biggest question with the Buzz Lightyear’s Space Ranger Spin projector permit is whether it’ll necessitate a ride closure or will be able to be accomplished during the overnight hours so the attraction can remain operational. The latter will be Disney’s strong preference if at all possible with Big Thunder already down. It really depends on whether it’s possible–how long will these upgrades take to accomplish?

It also depends on whether this is the first of several permits as part of a bigger-picture ride refurbishment of Buzz Lightyear’s Space Ranger Spin. If it’s only new projectors (at least for now), then it’s highly likely Imagineering will be able to make the changes without triggering a ride refurbishment.

It might take multiple overnight sessions and the Zurg tunnel (or whatever else) might not be working for a couple days (not that it is now), but it shouldn’t require daytime downtime. Until we see other permits, it’s safe to assume this is probably the case.

This is going to be an unpopular opinion among Walt Disney World vacation planners who want as many rides up as possible during upcoming trips, but I hope this is not the plan. I’d love to see Space Ranger Spin go down for ~6 months to fix what’s broken and give it a proper update and reimagining.

Fixing the Zurg tunnel is a good first step, but it’s only a first step. There are easily a dozen other improvements that could be made. Buzz Lightyear’s Space Ranger Spin is the oldest of Disney’s blaster rides anywhere in the world, and is a retrofit of a retrofit. There are multiple other Buzz blaster rides that opened after Magic Kingdom’s version and have already been replaced!

Suffice to say, there’s a reason why Buzz Lightyear’s Space Ranger Spin made our Ride Reimagining Wish List for Walt Disney World. I love the idea of the gamified attraction–even more so than Toy Story Mania–but the execution is so bad now that it’s almost unplayable.

Speaking of ride reimaginings, there are plausible options here. The attraction could become something different entirely, a la Ant-Man and the Wasp: Nano Battle at Hong Kong Disneyland. Walt Disney World already has another Toy Story interactive game ride–and heck, an entire land. Make this Stitch’s Slimers (or Plasma Blasters) or retheme it to some obscure Marvel character to whom Universal doesn’t have the rights in Florida.

Another option is waiting to see how the Wreck-It-Ralph shooter that’s replacing Buzz Lightyear’s Astro Blasters at Tokyo Disneyland turns out. Cloning that could make sense! In fact, there was a credible rumor ~5 years ago that a Wreck-It Ralph Sugar Rush attraction would be coming to Stitch’s Great Escape. Obviously, that did not happen and the venue sits dormant, save for backstage storage space. Tokyo is obviously getting a different ride reimagining, and it’s possible that’s how the concept evolved. And maybe the plan is for that ride to be replicated elsewhere.

Equally as plausible, if not more so, is that Walt Disney World will inherit OLC’s hand me downs. Buzz Lightyear’s Astro Blasters at Tokyo Disneyland was modern and in really great shape when it closed. Far better than any other version of that attraction, save for Shanghai. This might seem far-fetched, but it’s actually common for the domestic parks to receive assets from Tokyo Disneyland. This also recently happened with the vehicles at Tomorrowland Speedway. Heck, they could put the stuff from Astro Blasters on the same ship as parade floats for Disney Starlight Dream the Night Away Parade!

Ultimately, it’s nice that Imagineering is going to give Buzz Lightyear’s Space Ranger Spin some TLC. Replacing the projectors in the Zurg room makes sense, as that scene’s visuals are an eyesore. Quite literally–it makes you feel like you need your eyesight checked! But it’s far from the only obvious issue with this blaster ride, which needs more than just “some TLC.”

Buzz Lightyear’s Space Ranger Spin is about a decade past its prime and already overdue for replacement. That strikes me as unlikely until Walt Disney World is ready to overhaul Tomorrowland in its totality, which probably puts the project in the early 2030s. Frankly, that’s way too long to wait–Buzz Lightyear’s Space Ranger Spin needs a refresh now if it’s going to be around for another 5+ years, and inheriting assets from Tokyo Disneyland as a short term band-aid is the best case scenario.

Of course, that’s a big jump based on the filing of a single permit for installing projectors–so all of this should be treated as purely speculative and not even rumor, let alone official news. But I really hope it happens. I’d rather have Buzz Lightyear’s Space Ranger Spin down for ~6 months this year than avoid it for the next 5 or however long until it’s replaced because the blasters and targets are too hit or miss, rendering the ride unrideable.

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Your Thoughts

What do you think about Buzz Lightyear’s Space Ranger Spin in Tomorrowland at Magic Kingdom? Would you “sacrifice” riding this on your next Walt Disney World vacation if it meant a ride reimagining that modernized the attraction and made the blasters actually work (etc.), or are you fine with the ride, as-is? Would you like to see this replaced by a Stitch or Wreck-It Ralph blaster ride? Do you agree or disagree with my assessment? Any questions we can help you answer? Hearing your feedback–even when you disagree with us–is both interesting to us and helpful to other readers, so please share your thoughts below in the comments!