To Infinity and Beyond: Exploring the Latest Buzz Lightyear Experience! [Ep. 897]

Please stand clear of the doors.

Por favor.

Man.

Tengan se allijado de las cuertas to our new passengers.

Aloha and welcome aboard.

Hey, everybody, thanks for joining us.

I'm Tim Scott.

This is resortloop.com, the gateway to the magic.

Thank you for joining us once again.

Very exciting, exciting show.

I think we're going to do a little bit of a history deep dive and a little bit of a current.

What's going on with this attraction that we're going to talk about?

The attraction we're going to talk about is Buzz Lightyear Space Ranger spin.

I'm sure we all know it just came out of a recent refurb, a massive refurb.

I like, I like what they're doing here.

Before we get into what's brand new with this attraction, it looks really exciting.

It's getting.

I think it's getting really great reviews.

I thought we should go back a little bit in time.

I thought, well, let's go back to a little bit of the history of this attraction.

A lot of, you know, this was a.

It wasn't an opening attraction at magic kingdom in 1971, but in 1972, it opened as if you had wings.

The ride was initially sponsored by Eastern Airlines, one of the big airlines in the country.

It was designed by Claude Coates and it used the infamous Omnimover system.

And you've seen the Omnivore system before.

You know it from a lot of attractions.

The big one is the Magic Kingdom, and I believe the cars are even very similar is the Haunted Mansion.

Now, the ride, when it first opened up, looked like you were getting ready to go on a flight, a journey with Eastern Airlines.

You, you walked into the attraction, kind of look like you were in kind of like an airport queue.

You would get on the Omnimover and it would take you into the attraction.

You go through a big globe, letting you know you're starting your journey around the world with Eastern Airlines at your doorstep.

Designed by Claude Coates, by the way.

So one of the original imagineers, and what a lot of people might.

May not know is that if you had wings, well, when Walt Disney World open, it didn't have like the pass where you could go on.

You know, once you were admitted to the park, you go on anything, you had to have your ticket book a three tickets.

And what a lot of people don't remember or don't know is that if you had wings didn't even require a ticket.

It was actually totally free.

I think it's one of the reasons, one, it was a well done ride, but it's also one of the reasons it was very popular.

You know, still Florida sun, it was still hot.

So anytime you get out of the sun for free, get a little bit of air conditioning.

Enjoy the storytelling of if you had wings.

Let's do a little sidetrack here.

Some of the other attractions that were free at Walt Disney World when it first opened was the Walt Disney Story on Main street circle vision360, which is where the Muppets Inc.

Laugh floor is now.

And the infamous still with us today and getting a little bit of a Walt Disney update to that one soon is a carica sale progress.

So a lot of exciting things going on here, but yet, if you had wings, totally free, you're probably asking yourselves, Tim, let me know here.

What were the some of the original A tickets?

The omnibus on Main street usa, the horse cars up and down Main street, usa, the Main street vehicles like the fire truck and the Main Street Cinema.

And in Fantasyland, Cinderella's golden carousel.

Those are the A tickets.

So just put it in perspective.

And I always thought that if you had Wings was a much better ride, but they wanted everybody to see it.

And they did have the corporate sponsor of Eastern Airlines at the time, so I'm sure that helped.

And Eastern Airlines wanted to promote travel with, surprisingly enough, Eastern Airlines.

So besides being free, one of the best things going for the attraction was the line for it was always relatively short, constantly kept moving because it was the omnimover system.

And you get to travel through scenes from Mexico, the Caribbean on the ride.

Guest would get to travel through Mexico, the Caribbean, New Orleans, all to the catchy theme song, if you had Wings, which you can still actually hear in the Tomorrowland background loop.

If you're ever walking through there and you hear the little haunting if you had wings in the background, maybe I'll try to sneak some of it in here.

If you had wings, you could do many things.

You could widen your world if you had wings.

And a lot of people called this an optimistic celebration of travel.

Obviously, Eastern Airlines, like we said, wanted to get you to travel.

Eventually the ride is kind of there long enough that it not only celebrated the travel, but it also became slightly outdated with some of the tourist destinations.

So it became kind of more nostalgia.

So the original if youf head Wings opened June 5, 1972, and it closed in 1987 when Eastern Airlines sponsorship went away of it.

I think Eastern was having some trouble then.

They were having some Financial problems, deciding sponsoring a attraction.

Walt Disney World wasn't in the budget anymore.

I don't think long after that, Eastern Airlines wasn't, you know, long for this world anyway.

But then in June of 1987, so they did a quick thing.

Five days later, it opened up as if you could fly.

All the scenes kind of remain the same, but all the Eastern branding and unfortunately, the song if you had wings, which was one of the best parts about the attraction, was removed.

And without the music, the identity and the ride just felt different.

It didn't have the same vibe, as the kids would say, but it was a temporary solution because I think they had just had literally days to figure out what they were going to do because they had to get the sponsorship name off there.

And as you know, some would say keep moving forward.

So in 1989, a little airline you might have heard of called Delta began to sponsor.

They called the new attraction Delta Dream Flight.

Now, instead of focusing on getting you to travel by destinations, this new Delta Dream fight wanted to focus on the history of aviation.

So the storytelling changed from going somewhere to where has aviation kind of come from?

This attraction gave me kind of a World of Motion vibes.

I don't know if you ever remember World of Motion.

A lot of.

What do you call it, 2D props that were moving.

Not so much audio animatronics, although there were some in there.

I'm just going by my memory on this one.

Didn't have the great theme song, but it was Delta dream flight from 1989 to 1996.

So they had a decent run with that one.

And then 1989, Delta ended its sponsorship.

So it was Delta dream flight from 1989 to 1996.

In 1996, then Delta decided it did not want to sponsor an attraction, so they remote moved all the Delta branding.

It became Take Flight was the name of the attractions.

I think they're just kind of using it kind of like a placeholder to have something there because they knew that they were going to be redoing a Tomorrowland with a site refurb and Update later in 1999.

I can't believe it was 1999.

This is when Buzz Lightyear Space Ranger spin opened, where you can now use laser blasters to hit targets, score points with the spinning vehicle.

Up until that time.

And I think even still today, you're still traveling through the original if you had wings, structure, track rooms, everything.

Now, one thing I loved about if you had wings was the projection technology for back in the day where you Would ride past projections where it looked like people were trying to sell you things in shops along the streets of.

I'm assuming it could have been Mexico somewhere in South America.

If not wasn't Mexico.

They would kind of keep pace with your vehicle.

Or you look down and there would be projections about a lake or people swimming down below.

And you can still see this same technology, although not filmed like it wasn't if you had wings.

But I'm, you know, better projection digital technology in the Mexico pavilion at Epcot, which was first El Rio de Tiempo, which I still say was one of the best Mexican music scores that was in attraction and then also in Grand Fiesta Tour with the three Caballeros.

So if Disney does something that works well, they'll put in other attractions.

And every time I ride the Grand Fiesta Tour, I feel like I'm riding a little bit of a few headwings.

So for over 50 years, this little tiny space in Tomorrowland evolved from a travel experience to sell people on traveling.

The world is now going through the second iteration of being a ride through game.

So that brings us to the current day.

So just recently Buzz Lightyear Space Ranger Spin has reopened.

Let's go over what's new, what's changed, what we can look forward to because this ride is getting some really good reviews.

The ride now starts off with a brand new scene.

They say.

Guests are greeted by an all new character.

It's a friendly robot named Buddy.

Not Buddy the Elf, but Buddy the robot.

He joins the Star Command team.

He's a support bot.

Buddy helps you to prepare, they say as a support bot.

Buddy helps prepare the departing space rangers.

And this is a great warm up opportunity for you to practice your aim before the true test begins.

So it's a little warm up area, kind of like a little mini shooting gallery, I think where you get in there, you get your weapon, you can kind of see, get the feel before they start keeping to start keeping score.

I think it was kind of in that blank area when you kind of first run in.

There wasn't really a what going there.

So I think they've updated that.

That's fantastic.

They say.

Brand new ride vehicles.

Star Cruisers received a fresh new look inspired by the colors of Buzz Lightyear and Star Command along onboard video monitors that will deliver real real time scoring updates and other exciting features.

And each vehicle is also equipped with new handheld blasters designed for better aim, making it easier for guests of all ages to jump into the action.

With always on lasers, two distinct blaster colors per Star Cruiser and new lighting, sound and vibration effects.

Players can clearly see where they're aiming, if their aim is correct, and when they hit the target.

So this sounds much better.

That was always one of the kind of the biggest problem with this attraction.

While it was a lot of fun one, you had to kind of swivel it on the ride vehicle there.

You couldn't pick it up and aim it where you exactly wanted to.

This is fantastic.

And it's apparently has an always on laser target where you just have to pull the trigger.

Everybody has a different light so you can kind of see which who's shooting what.

I can't wait to go on this ride.

The targets have been upgraded with new technology to let guests know when you've hit them.

The guests will also find new targets.

Will randomly have a white or multicolor ring around them.

That's an important thing to look out because I think those are worth more points.

So the targets themselves are not just Z's or little dots in the middle.

They're interactive.

And here they do say watch out for the blaster color.

You'll either see red or green.

The color will also appear on the targets whenever it gets hit the center so they know if they were successful.

So make sure you know if you're red or green and see what happens after you hit these targets and the pictures.

I always love the Buzz Lightyear ride because just colors are so vibrant.

It's like you're inside a Buzz Lightyear cartoon.

And then they point out something.

I think we all kind of knew the.

The farther targets are worth more points or I always assumed it was.

If you remember that one, it was always over the volcano.

That was always one I always tried to go for.

They say the greater the distance, the more challenging to hit, the more points the targets are worth.

These new details, they say, offer a fun and competitive edge.

I'm sure somebody has already put out some hacks there.

Everybody remembers the back of the hand.

That was always a big one.

Is that still there?

We'll find out.

As guests travel throughout the attraction, keep an eye out.

They may spot a few targets that randomly illuminate with a white outer ring.

Those targets are worth double their normal value when that happens.

And it stays that way until they're hit.

Ooh.

So keep an eye out for those.

This boost is helpful on the mission and even bigger when the ring color is multicolor instead of white.

The multicolor ring targets is the most rare and valuable target in the game.

It appears at random in only one location.

At a time, and if it isn't hit within a few seconds, it vanishes and reappears somewhere else.

This sounds like a lot of fun.

Guests are the hero of the game at this point because all the targets in the scene are worth significantly more points for a brief period.

The phase doesn't last long, so stay focused and adapt on the fly.

Guests will notice this bonus period is starting to end when the outer ring begins to count down by extinguishing counterclockwise.

So sky, look.

Calm down climber.

There's what they're trying to tell us.

Then they say why every target counts at the end of the mission.

The excitement doesn't stop when the final shot is fired.

As the mission comes to a close, every distinct target guests have hit is tallied and contributes to a bonus added just before their final rank is revealed.

That means consistency really pays off.

Hitting more unique targets throughout the attraction can deliver a satisfying score bump right at the end, rewarding Space Rangers who stay engaged from start to finish.

I'm guessing they're saying don't get on your phone in the middle of the ride.

You want to keep firing and keep hitting targets.

They say.

With the refreshed gameplay and multiple paths to success, Buzz Lightyear Space Ranger Spin gives a rider more ways than ever to level up.

Every mission is a new chance for Space Rangers to prove they've got what it takes for those chasing the personal best or setting their sights on Galactic Hero.

Of course, they ended with, as we all know, to infinity and beyond.

So everybody, I hope you enjoyed this show.

I did a little bit of a little bit of a history going back to if you had wings, a little bit of what just happened with the new Buzz Lightyear Space Ranger Spin.

If anybody out there has already been on the new Buzz Lightyear Space Ranger Spin, please leave a comment.

I love to hear if you enjoyed it.

If you'd recommend doing it.

Have you found any hacks already for it?

I'll be putting some pictures up in the show notes there on resort loop.com if you've not had a chance to check out the new resort loop.com I'm going to do a real brief show about that coming up.

Just what we can do over there@resortloop.com because I'm getting pretty excited about that.

It's after listening to the show, you're really excited.

You're like, tim, I need to get down there.

I need to play Buzz Lightyear Space Ranger Spin.

I want to be in the same rooms as if you had wings.

I want to shoot some aliens.

We're going to take care of that for you.

Please look us up over@resortlooptravel.com.

We'd be happy to set you up with a quick trip.

We'll do a trip report when you get back.

I'd love to do that.

Anyway, I think those blasters mean I probably need to wrap things up here pretty soon.

Everybody, you can find us at resortloop.com, you can find us@resortlooptravel.com if you'd like to book a trip.

Everybody, you've been listening to the Gateway to the Magic.

We'll see everybody.