Walt Disney World has revealed the opening season in 2026 for the reimagined Buzz Lightyear’s Space Ranger Spin in Tomorrowland at Magic Kingdom. This post covers details of the upgrades, timeline for the ride’s reopening, commentary about why we expect this to become the best blaster ride, and more.

Buzz Lightyear’s Space Ranger Spin closed for refurbishment back on August 4th. The closure occurred after summer vacations started winding down and schools went back into session. Still, it represented another major loss to Magic Kingdom capacity, closing for a lengthy closure at the same time as Big Thunder Mountain Railroad and the Rivers of America.

Prior to the closure, Imagineering had started filing construction permits for the ride reimagining, eager to get started on work to have Buzz Lightyear’s Space Ranger Spin reopen as soon as possible in 2026. They even did some work after-hours on the attraction while it was still operational earlier in the year, suggesting the turnaround time would be tight on the project and they wanted to accomplish as much as possible to modernize the dated Buzz blaster ride.

The latest development is that, as part of Walt Disney World’s Full Calendar of Dates & Details for Reimagined Rides, Areas & Attractions Coming in 2026, the company revealed that Buzz Lightyear’s Space Ranger Spin in Magic Kingdom will resume operations in Spring 2026.

Still no specific reopening date or even month, but this is noteworthy because it’s the first time Walt Disney World has so much as shared an opening season for Buzz Lightyear’s Space Ranger Spin. This one was less of a known-quantity than Big Thunder Mountain Railroad before, as there were previously no hints whatsoever as to when it’d reopen.

We aren’t surprised by the Spring 2026 timeline, as having as much as possible debut for Spring Break makes sense. Previously, we called it a “fool’s errand” to even guess as to when Buzz Lightyear’s Space Ranger Spin will reopen in 2026.

There’s a lot of work to be done to the ride system, show scenes, queue, facade, and hopefully more. At that point, we predicted that the reimagined ride would not return before Spring Break 2026–and said that even ahead of Easter 2026 was a “long shot.”

Our expectation was the start of Summer 2026 as the “realistic best-case scenario,” and we felt that a Fall 2026 return, potentially around October 1, 2026 for Magic Kingdom’s 55th Anniversary, was a possibility on the long end. As it turns out, all of that is wrong. Like we said before, it was a fool’s errand to even attempt to guess a reopening timeframe!

Given our track record with previous reopening predictions for Buzz Lightyear’s Space Ranger Spin, we aren’t going to offer any further attempts here. We will say that with Spring 2026 being the reopening season, Spring Break will be the obvious target. That starts in mid-March 2026 with Central Florida and some out of state districts, and peaks in the week leading up to Easter (April 5, 2026).

Normally, the very obvious target date with a Spring 2026 opening timeline would be about one week before Easter. That would put the likely return date in mid-to-late March 2026. However, we’re hesitant to predict that here. For one thing, there’s our aforementioned track record.

For another thing, Big Thunder Mountain Railroad is also coming back online in Spring 2026. Walt Disney World might view that as enough “restored capacity” to coast through Spring Break. We hope Tiana’s Bayou Adventure closes for TLC immediately after BTMRR reopens, but that may not happen. In which case, Walt Disney World gets a boost even without Buzz.

Finally, there’s the question of whether the Buzz Lightyear’s Space Ranger Spin refurbishment will be a race against the clock to finish or if there’s ample time in the schedule.

We don’t know exactly what’s being fixed and what’s being ignored during this project, but there’s easily a year’s worth of updates and improvements that could be made in the aging attraction. The extent to which those are addressed (or not) and whether Walt Disney World has invested a lot of resources (and labor) into this refurbishment dictates when the ride will reopen more than anything else. And we don’t know any of that.

In case you missed the previous announcement, here are the full original details of the reimagining announcement via Walt Disney World, followed by our commentary…

Brand New Scene

As their adventure on Buzz Lightyear’s Space Ranger Spin begins, guests will now be greeted by an all-new character. This friendly robot — aptly named “Buddy” — was created by Walt Disney Imagineering and Pixar Animation Studios to play a key role on the Star Command team.

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. This will be a great time for guests to check out some of the new, interactive target features before blasting off to defeat the Evil Emperor Zurg and save the galaxy.

New Ride Vehicles

Buzz Lightyear’s Space Ranger Spin will also receive a face lift to its Star Cruiser ride vehicles with a new design inspired by the colors of Buzz Lightyear and Star Command.

Each enhanced ride vehicle will also now come equipped with video monitors that provide real-time scoring updates and other exciting features.

Handheld Blasters

Each ride vehicle will now include handheld blasters for better aim, helping guests to score even more points. These new blasters will be perfect for our younger riders, allowing them to participate more in the experience.

If you’ve ever wondered where you’re aiming (don’t worry, you’re not alone), these enhanced blasters will 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.

Interactive Targets

The static Z targets found in the attraction today will be upgraded with new technology that will allow them to react and light up when hit. It also opens the door for a few other ideas Imagineers have in mind.

Work on these updates recently passed an important milestone, as other Imagineers were invited to participate in a playtest of the new targets, blasters and gameplay ideas. Playtests are a critical part of the design process, where the project team is able to try out variations of a concept in a real-world setting, gaining critical insights into which ideas work best and how the experience can be improved. It’s all part of delivering an out-of-this-world experience for our guests.

“Everyone had a great time, and our team learned a lot,” project creative director Justin DeTolla said. “We’ve been working on this project for quite some time now, so it was exciting to see it all come to life for the first time in the field.”

Our Commentary

I had the chance to participate in a test of the new handheld blasters and interactive targets, and talk briefly with Imagineers working on the Buzz Lightyear’s Space Ranger Spin reimagining project. As you can see from the photo above, there will be red and green blasters with matching aiming and the targets will light up red or green when hit.

It was nice to have the blaster in hand, see the new laser aiming and targeting system, and feel the feedback. It’s pretty much exactly what you’d expect, which is a modernized version of Buzz Lightyear’s Space Ranger Spin that greatly improves the gameplay component of the attraction. Shooting is more satisfying, and less of a guessing game.

More recently, we had a chance to see the new Star Cruiser ride vehicles. These are likewise badly overdue, as the previous ride vehicles were originals, dating back decades and to multiple previous iterations of the flight attraction. Also of note is that these ride vehicles have real-time video displays for scoring, and they do not max out at 999,999.

This modernization to Buzz Lightyear’s Space Ranger Spin should be a win for guests of all ages and skill levels. It will make gameplay more intuitive and user friendly, which is great for less tech-savvy guests or non-gamers. It should also scale better, as the gamers in the group are able to attain higher scores and experience a more challenging and competitive attraction than its predecessor, which was way too easy to max out at 999,999 points.

If you’ve ridden any of the subsequent iterations of this attraction, you know what’s possible and how much Magic Kingdom’s Buzz Lightyear’s Space Ranger Spin has lagged behind its successors. We’ve said for a while that Buzz Lightyear’s Space Ranger Spin in Magic Kingdom doesn’t hold a candle to its counterpart at Disneyland.

In fact, it made our original list of the Top 10 Rides That Are Better at Disneyland Than Walt Disney World. Disneyland’s shooting is smoother, gameplay is more responsive and engaging, and the guns are handheld offering greater range of movement.

While updating that list of rides that are better at Disneyland, we recently removed the Buzz Lightyear blaster attraction. This is because we view it as an inevitability that Buzz Lightyear’s Space Ranger Spin is about to have gameplay on par with the newer blaster attractions while also having better show scenes than the newer generations that lean too heavily on screens and flat environments. That should make it the best of the bunch.

That’s really the bottom line here. That this is a rare win for the ‘be fair to Florida’ crowd, as the Magic Kingdom version of this blaster ride leapfrogs Disneyland in terms of gameplay by a generation and probably surpasses it in terms of the show scenes, too.

In so doing, Walt Disney World should have the best version of this attraction, at least from my perspective as someone who values the standalone dark ride portion of the attraction. Of course, the jury is still out until the ride actually reopens. I remember thinking that surely Tiana’s Bayou Adventure would be better at Walt Disney World, and we now know how that turned out!

The existing show scenes could stand to be spruced up, with new props added and others swapped out.

When previously discussing a potential reimagining to this attraction, we pointed out that Tokyo Disneyland just closed its newer, better, and meticulously-maintained version of Astro Blasters. Ship some of that stuff to Orlando–there’s gotta be a treasure trove of props and figures that could enhance the Magic Kingdom version.

The indoor queue could also use a refresh, making the space less drab and unpleasant–perhaps with better show lighting (lasers!) and more durable materials so it can stand up to the abuse kids throw at it. 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.

It would also be nice to see the attraction get a new facade and marquee–the existing one looks like it was thrown up as part of an overnight overlay, Spirit Halloween style.

I really hope this is part of the plan, but am concerned it’s not–there are currently no construction walls around the exterior of the attraction. The doors are simply closed. It would be a major missed opportunity to not give this a new mid-century facade.

Even the new AstroFizz kiosk looks shockingly good–and it’s just a snack stand!

Speaking of needing a refurbishment and TLC, the same could be said of Tomorrowland. The land itself is desperately overdue by a wholesale reimagining, and one seemed to be starting in 2019 as part of the lead-up to TRON Lightcycle Run, but then…you know what happened in Spring 2020.

As discussed in The Future of Tomorrowland at Magic Kingdom, we still expect a reimagining of Tomorrowland. My suspicion is that Imagineering has lined up the current projects purposefully, teeing up a reimagining of Tomorrowland as part of the 10-year plan in the early 2030s once the current 5-year plan is finished (especially Cars Land).

Now that Stitch is once again the star of a blockbuster box office film, it makes sense for Imagineering to fast-track a bunch of quick fix upgrades to Tomorrowland. Stitch’s Great Escape 2.0 and updates to the speedway would be other excellent enhancements that could be marketable alongside the new-look Buzz Lightyear’s Space Ranger Spin in 2026.

Ultimately, it’s fantastic that Imagineering is giving Buzz Lightyear’s Space Ranger Spin the love it deserves. I view this as a low-risk/high-reward project that could make this the best or second-best Buzz blaster ride in the entire world. At minimum, it should become the best in the US.

Honestly, my only disappointment here is that Walt Disney World is reopening the ride in Spring 2026 as opposed to taking more time on the refurbishment. I know that’s bound to be an unpopular opinion among WDW planners who are visiting in April or May 2026, but I’d prefer Imagineering have as much time as possible to fix or update everything that needs it.

The bones of this ride are good, it’s just that the gameplay is antiquated and maintenance has been subpar. We already know what a better and more modern version of this ride looks like, because Disney has done like a half-dozen of them. With enhanced gameplay and show scene improvements, the end result will almost certainly be an improvement.

This could be a major upgrade that breathes new life into the reimagined ride and turns it into one of the more popular attractions in Magic Kingdom–a top 5 wait time and tier two Lightning Lane pick. It’s really hard to imagine this being a downgrade–it’s really more a question of just how much of an upgrade it’ll be.

Imagineering has a lot of ‘singles and doubles’ style projects on its plate right now that are similar to this, and I’ll be very curious to see how they deliver. After scattershot results in other projects that have been initiated during the post-reopening era, this gives creatives a chance to “prove themselves” to fans. It’d be nice to restore some lost goodwill and confidence in Imagineering before they get to the big new additions that are part of Walt Disney World’s 5-Year Plan.

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Your Thoughts

Thoughts on the reimagined Buzz Lightyear’s Space Ranger Spin reopening in Spring 2026? Hoping for a modernized attraction with better gameplay, a new show scene, and more? Do you agree or disagree with my assessment that a longer closure would be better? 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!