WDW Ride Reviews, Part One - Space Ranger Spin

Ok, so as most of you know, Kenzie and I spent the last week in Walt Disney World. Unfortunately, our digital camera is kind of lame, so we were unable to take a lot of cool pictures for you all to see. Kenzie will post the pictures we did get at a later time. While at Disney World, we visited all four parks; Magic Kingdom, Animal Kingdom, EPCOT, and Hollywood Studios. And while many of the rides at these parks can be found at Disneyland or California Adventure, there are some attractions unique to Walt Disney World. I took the opportunity to ride - and subsequently rate and review - the rides you wont find in Anaheim. Each day I will post a new review spotlighting one of the rides. First up: Buzz Lightyear's Space Ranger Spin!

Ride: Buzz Lightyears's Space Ranger Spin
Location: Magic Kingdom, Tomorrowland
Tyler's Rating: 3.5 out of 10 stars

Review: Yes, I know we're all familiar with this ride. And yes, I know we all love this ride. So you're probably wondering why I only gave it 3.5 out of 10 stars? There are several reasons. Let's start from the beginning: The queue (or line):

Without a fastpass, you will spend anywhere from 20 to 35 minutes in line for this attraction. The queue portion of this ride is nearly identical to the queue for Buzz Lightyear's Astro Blaster's in Anaheim. Generally there is a short wait outside, followed by a longer wait inside the building portion of the ride. The decorations on the walls are the exact decorations found in Disneyland, including the hidden Mickey head which Clayton discovered in January. And just like in Disneyland, Buzz Lightyear (holographic head and all) is waiting for you near the end of the queue. The ride continually boards passengers just as we are all accustomed to.

When I first boarded the ride, Kenzie and I were extremely excited to flex our Buzz Lightyear muscles and blow her family away with our scores. We did not reveal any secrets or tips to her family prior to boarding the ride... we wanted to absolutely destroy all of our competition. I jumped into the "spaceship" and reached for my gun. I pulled up on the gun, but found, in horror, that the gun was welded into place! It was attached to the ride just like the guns on Toy Story Mania! I couldn't even swivel the gun left or right! "Oh well," I thought to myself, "Just focus on hitting the triangles and everything will be fine." I was dead wrong.

As we made our way into the first room, I searched frantically for a triangle, diamond, or even a square target. NOTHING. I was instantly sick to my stomach as I realized the room was filled with... gasp... only circle targets! In this version of the ride, the trigger is found on the back of the gun and is activated by depressing a large green button with your thumb. I started shooting as fast as I could, only to find out you can only shoot once every couple of seconds. I watched as my score climbed to 400 points as we exited the first room.

Utter disappointment swept over me like a 40-foot ocean wave as the second room slowly crept into view... still only circle targets. The interior of the ride was far inferior to that of Disneyland's version. Very little animatronics, and very few interactive targets. The targets don't light up either. What you see is what you get... an endless sea of meaningless, valueless, circle targets. Good luck hitting those circle targets with an immobile gun! Needless to say, my score was no where near the hundreds of thousands of points I'm used to. I exited the ride, my head hanging in shame.

As I made my way out of the building, I searched for the computer monitors so I could compare my score to others around me. Once again I was let down. No pictures are taken, and you cannot review your score at the end of the ride. What a bummer. I did not get back in line for Buzz Lightyear's Space Ranger Spin, and I did not obtain a fastpass for later in the day. I walked away from the ride lost, confused and depressed. I can't wait to visit Disneyland once again, so my faith in Buzz Lightyear can be restored.