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The Monsters, Inc. Coaster's Two Vertical Lift Towers Are Standing, and Dozens of Track Pieces Are Staged Along the Skyliner Route
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The Monsters, Inc. Coaster's Two Vertical Lift Towers Are Standing, and Dozens of Track Pieces Are Staged Along the Skyliner Route

Michael Travels
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The two steel towers that will lift riders toward the launch on the Monsters, Inc. door coaster are standing, and new aerials show them clearly.

Aerial photographer bioreconstruct posted a fresh set of overhead photos of the show building rising behind Monstropolis, and WDW News Today published them on Saturday. The clearest views are of the space that will become the loading area, and of the lift system that will carry trains out of it.

Aerial view of the Monsters, Inc. door coaster show building under construction, showing rust colored structural steel, two gray lattice towers, a partially roofed section and multiple cranes.

The show building under construction behind Monstropolis, with the two gray lift structures rising out of the rust colored steel. Photo by bioreconstruct via WDW News Today

Two towers, one very unusual lift

Toward the middle of the building, two tall gray steel structures now stand on either side of the central bay. Those are the vertical lift systems, and they are why Disney has described this as the first vertical lift coaster developed for one of its parks.

Riders step into suspended vehicles down at floor level inside the Monsters, Inc. factory, and the train then stays level as it rises more than 40 feet in roughly four seconds toward the curved ceiling over the loading area. The individual seats rotate from their sideways boarding position to face forward on the way up.

Close aerial of two gray steel lattice towers standing on either side of rust colored structural steel bays, with a red crane working overhead.

The two gray lift structures, seen up close on opposite sides of the loading area. Photo by bioreconstruct via WDW News Today

Between those towers, the rounded "M" shaped station supports have multiplied. The first one appeared in August, and WDW News Today says more of them have gone in across the loading area since. Disney's rendered preview shows the station styled after the factory's scare floor, with two loading zones tucked under that overhead framework.

Once a train reaches the top, it is launched forward into the door vault. The elevated bay just to the right of the loading area is now largely roofed over, and that is where the trains will pass into the attraction's enclosed upper floor.

The staging yard, stocked and sorted

The staging yard is not new. WDW News Today reported in August that track had already been moved from a more distant staging area into the active construction footprint, and that installation began earlier in the summer. What the latest aerials show is how much is still queued up. Dozens of gray track sections line the perimeter of the yard, sitting among stacked structural steel, support components and construction equipment. Some of the pieces bend gently, some curve hard and some run long and straight, and many are propped on temporary cradles while they wait to be trucked over to the construction site. More steel is lined up in rows across the middle and the far side of the yard.

Rows of curved gray coaster track sections resting on cradles in a dirt lot, with a white trailer marked Adena Corporation parked beside them and a flatbed trailer to the right.

Curved track sections on temporary cradles, with the Adena Corporation trailer parked alongside. Photo by bioreconstruct via WDW News Today

A flatbed trailer sits beside a cluster of the bigger curved pieces, and an Adena Corporation trailer is parked beside the coaster track pieces. Adena Corporation is a Mansfield, Ohio commercial contractor that lists roller coaster erection among its most technical work, and its trailer had already turned up in August aerials of the show building site.

Aerial of a cleared staging yard ringed by trees, holding rows of gray track pieces and steel, with Disney Skyliner gondolas passing on cables at lower right.

The staging yard along the Disney Skyliner route, with gondolas passing at lower right. Photo by bioreconstruct via WDW News Today

What this is all for

The attraction is going up in what used to be a backstage Cast Member parking lot next to the former Muppets Courtyard. Monstropolis will be the first Monsters, Inc. land at Disney's Hollywood Studios. Disney has said the story is built around H.U.M.A.N. Day, an acronym for "Humans Understand Monsters Are Nice," which the land treats as a welcome party for human visitors set after the events of the first film.

The project covers the door coaster, Harryhausen's and The Glob theater. Here is the catch. WDW News Today reported in August that every part of Monstropolis other than the coaster is due in 2027, and that no opening timeframe for the coaster itself was announced. In Saturday's update the outlet put it more broadly, saying only that Disney still has not announced an opening date for the land. Steel standing and track on the ground is real progress, but it is not a date.

Sources

Image credits: All aerial photos by bioreconstruct via WDW News Today.

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