10 Things You Must Know BEFORE Riding Buzz Lightyear's Space Ranger Spin in Magic Kingdom

We’re getting closer and closer to the reopening date of Buzz Lightyear’s Space Ranger Spin in Magic Kingdom, happening on April 8th, and we couldn’t be more excited!

We got a chance to ride the attraction a few times during Cast Member previews, and we learned a lot about how this new version of the ride operates. There are lots of upgrades to know about, because they’ll change the way you play the game, but don’t worry — we’re here to bring you all the tips and tricks before you ride for the first time!

The Blasters Are Easy To Use, But Not To Put Back

We’ve learned that while we love the new blasters, especially now that they’re handheld without any cord limiting their movement, there’s one thing we’ve noticed that is tricky with them — putting them back.

We could personally see this being an issue as people get off the ride, as we thought we had ours back properly, but when the lap bar was in the up position, it was tucked into the bar itself. We’ve got a feeling it’ll start being just left around inside the vehicle, potentially making it more difficult for the next group to find them or get them back into the right spot.

Don’t Forget The Joystick!

The joystick itself is still inside the new ride vehicles, which means that, while now you can turn your own body multiple directions with the handheld blaster, you can still use the joystick to turn the car too, and now, it’s smoother than ever!

Moving the ride vehicle with the joystick is a great way to ensure you can still hit those higher point targets at the best angle, but now, you won’t feel like you’re being jerked around anymore. It’s a big upgrade!

Hitting Targets is WAY Easier

Not only does the removable joystick make it much easier to hit targets, but now, each target you hit has a reaction to the blaster’s laser hitting it, which makes it much easier to track with your own eyes.

We found our aim was way better, because since each target makes a big show of being hit, and your laser is clearly able to be seen, we knew where our aim was at all times. We didn’t think it would help AS much as it did, but we were pleasantly surprised!

Everything is Brighter — Including You!

It seems like the entire ride has gotten a paint refresh, which means everything inside the ride is WAY brighter. That means the targets, the characters, the screens, the ride vehicles themselves — everything!

The UV light is also stronger, and that means that, if you’re wearing colors that react with UV light, now you’ll glow brighter than ever before. While this won’t affect your ride, per se, it’s totally possible it’ll distract you a bit, and you may find that you miss some targets since you’re paying attention to your clothes’ glow.

Hit Those High Point Targets

When it comes to getting the most amount of points in the game, you’ll want to grab your blaster and hit any targets that are flashing and/or illuminated with white.

if you see flashing targets or targets illuminated in white, HIT THEM for more points

These are random throughout the ride, but they’ll be the ones that get you the most points. Yes, hitting other targets is also great, but if you want those extra high point values, this is the way to go.

Hold Your Blaster A VERY Specific Way

Speaking of getting more points, we asked Cast Members what the best way was to hold these new blasters to get the most points. Their response? To use one hand to continuously hold down the trigger and steady the blaster with your other hand to increase accuracy.

We’ve tried this ourselves on our rides so far, and it seems to really work well! By holding down the trigger constantly, you’re constantly able to hit more points, even if you’re in the middle of aiming at a new target, and happen to hit another along the way — happy accidents!

No Maximum Score

Unlike before, where you could get a Galactic Hero sticker if you achieved 999,999 points (the highest you could get in the game), now it’s unclear if any guest who does hit Galactic Hero status will be given anything special, as there’s no way to “max out” anymore.

Now, you’ll need to hit at least 1,000,000 points to be a Galactic Hero, but there’s no maximum score you can get anymore, so you can reach far above that, too! We’ll be bummed if there are no more stickers, but we’ll have to wait and see.

Check The Bottom of Your Screen For Your Level

Curious how you’re doing? Now, you can look at the bottom of the new digital screen on each car to see what level of hero you’re at!

It’ll move across automatically as you continue to gain points, so you can check at any time to see how you’re doing. And yes, there’s one for each person in the car, so there’s no need to share or be confused as to who’s on what level.

Check Out The New (?) Buzz Animatronic!

When we went to previews on two different days, the Buzz animatronic in the queue was covered up one day, but available the next. From what we could see, it looks like the animatronic may have gotten a major upgrade!

He seemed to be moving super smoothly and didn’t appear to have any glitches or unnatural stops in his movements, which we were excited to see. Again, he doesn’t affect the ride directly, but we get excited about new and updated animatronics nearly every time we see them!

Targets Are Still A Work in Progress

Finally, we did notice that some targets appear to still be a work in progress, so if you ride close to the ride’s reopening, you may want to be prepared for things not to go perfectly.

There’s a rumor that if you keep shooting the same target, it will change colors and you’ll get more points, but we’ve yet to be able to confirm that for ourselves. During our rides, we did notice that some targets lit up red and some green, and there didn’t seem to be a rhyme or reason as to why.

We can’t wait for everyone to be able to ride this attraction again when it reopens on April 8th, and we’ll continue to keep you updated with all the latest news we hear and things we experience around Disney World, so stay tuned to AllEars!