Buzz Lightyear's Space Ranger Spin
Description
Buzz Lightyear's Space Ranger Spin is a ride for children in which you pilot a spaceship through a number of different areas attempting to shoot batteries with targets on them in order to scavenge power for Buzz.
This ride was inspired by the movie Toy Story 2.
The ride opened November 3rd, 1998. It replaced a series of rides that had to do with flight, which in order were:
- If You Had Wings - June 5th, 1972 - June 1st, 1987
- If You Could Fly - June 6th, 1987 - January 4th, 1989
- Delta Dreamflight - June 23rd, 1989 - January 1st, 1996
- Dreamflight - January 1st, 1996 - June 1996
- Take Flight - June, 1996 - January 5th, 1998
Entrance
The entrance to Buzz Lightyear's Space Ranger Spin is located in Tomorrowland, across from Stitch's Great Escape. There are two lines, one for normal riders and the other for FastPass ticket holders.
Line
We have the standard line, but once inside you get to see different images of Buzz Lightyear as he works on recruiting you to fight for him. At the far end of the room, just before you enter the loading area for the ride, there is a large mechanical version of Buzz Lightyear with a projected face telling everyone what is going on. The only other place in the park that you will see this kind of projected face is in the Haunted Mansion.
Riding the Ride
To get onto the ride, you step onto a moving walkway next to the ride and climb into a spaceship car. Each car seats two people, though a third child could probably fit. Once seated, at the end of the moving walkway the front of the ship will close, keeping you safe from falling out. On the front within arms reach is a laser pistol for each person to use, and a two-way joystick in the center that is used to rotate the ship a full 360 degrees. It is then the job of those inside to shoot at targets scattered throughout the rest of the ride in order to score as high a score as they can. The score is also displayed on the front panel of the ship.
Exiting the Ride
Once the ride is over, you again pull up next to a moving walkway where you get out of the ship and exit through a short line to the outside.
Opinion
This is a cute ride, and just about anyone can ride it except for very small children that might get scared by some of the images or the roughness of the spinning capability of the ships. I imagine that it would be possible to get some amount of motion sickness from the spinning combined with the normal movement of the car, but since you are in control of the spinning this should not present too much of a problem. Because you are assigned the job of shooting objects in order to get a higher score, you miss out on the story of the ride and what is going on. As such, I recommend going on this ride at least once to simply sit back and enjoy the sights instead of trying to shoot as many targets as possible.
As a bonus hint, it appears that targets that are further away tend to have a higher score value, so targeting things further away will be more worthwhile.
