PHOTOS: Guardians of the Galaxy Coaster Building Closed in and Second Staging Area – Construction Update January 2019

(UPDATED 1/28/19): This is a Guardians of the Galaxy Roller Coaster in Epcot Construction Update for January 2019.   Epcot’s first roller coaster is under construction and numerous changes have taken place recently.  

We’re going to look at the building which is now completely closed in, the launch tunnel connecting to the attraction and a new staging area where all the track pieces are laid out and waiting to be installed!

In our last update last month we saw tons of new things come to the attraction.  This is where we first saw the tunnel connect the queue and pre-show building to the actual attraction show building.  We also saw how the track itself will launch people at an upwards angle into the show building, which will make for a thrilling descent for sure!

People have been worried about the aesthetics, and we saw the gigantic show building start to blend more into the horizon with sky and tree colored paint.  I’m not sure how well this will work but It’s at least going to be better than just one solid color which contrasts the sky.

I’m going to skip over the basics about the Guardians of the Galaxy Roller Coaster.  Click here if you want to know more about the ride details, including that it will be one of the longest indoor roller coasters in the world when completed.

Special thanks to @Bioreconstruct who always takes amazing aerial photos of the various construction projects happening around Walt Disney World.  Thank you for those of us who are too afraid to get into a helicopter!  Make sure to check him on Twitter!

(ORIGINAL POST 1/14/19): Ok, let’s see what’s been going on at the Guardians of the Galaxy roller coaster progress in January…

Here we have a nice aerial shot of the Guardians coaster show building which you can see is just about completely covered on the exterior:

In the distance on the right you can see the Disney World Marathon retreat with the racers gathered there.  The center arrow shows the roof starting to be added to the launch tunnel.  We showed you more photos last month but this tunnel is where guests will make their ascent into the Guardians of the Galaxy coaster show building:

Here’s a shot from down on the street and you can see the roof being added to the tunnel:

Now this next one is different and you can see from one day to the next how things change on construction projects.  Scrims have been put onto the side of the launch tunnel and might make it a bit more difficult for us to see what’s going on in there soon:

You can see how impressive the structure is from the ground level.  Most likely since the majority of the Guardians building has been buttoned up form the outside, under the launch tunnel is where materials, including the track pieces will continue coming in:

They can also come in through this giant hole in the side of the building!

Now we showed you back last month where the track pieces are being stored and if we take a look over outside the Animal Kingdom we can see they are still there:

Disney has setup this staging area where the Guardians of the Galaxy roller coaster track is being kept and laid out.  Apparently some Imagineers wanted to have fun with us as it looks like the pieces are forming an “Avengers A.”  Or was it Thanos behind this???

A closeup of the track shows both the actual track itself and the supports which will hold the track inside.  I’m not sure how it’s organized but they don’t seem to be necessarily in any special order like by piece type, but more mixed.

I’m also not sure that this is all of them because right now there isn’t that much track here, especially for one of the world’s longest indoor coasters.  The longest coaster in the world is roughly 4,100 ft of track, so I’d imagine this to be a minimum of 4,000.  To put that into perspective Space Mountain is 3,100 ft, so quite a bit longer than that.

From the photos here it looks like it’s more poles than track too.  However, I would imagine that some of the track has already been moved inside, we obviously can’t see in there.

(NEW PHOTOS 1/28/19):

It’s been a couple weeks since we’ve looked at the Guardians of the Galaxy coaster in Epcot so let’s see what other new developments have come.  From this angle you can see the side of the building where the launch tunnel attaches to it.  The roof looks almost fully in place from here:

In fact looking around the entirety of the gravity building, it looks like the whole thing has basically been closed in with only a few doors open to bring construction materials and the track pieces in and out:

Over the last few months we’ve marveled at the sheer size of the Guardians of the Galaxy coaster building, and this aerial shot showing its size compared to Spaceship Earth is quite startling:

Spaceship Earth is slightly taller, but total size the Guardians coaster looks like it dwarfs it!

Earlier this month we looked at the staging area for the coaster track pieces near Disney’s Animal Kingdom which was south of the park.  Now we’ve discovered a second staging area just north of the Animal Kingdom Lodge:

I was saying how the pieces at the other staging area weren’t enough to complete the whole coaster, and now we know why that was correct:

The other staging area looked like it was only the support columns and track pieces, whereas at this area there also seems to be many more pieces used in the construction and support of those pieces:

This is like a Kinex set on steroids and a 10-year old Ziggy’s dream come true: ?

Stay tuned for more to my Guardians of the Galaxy Epcot Roller Coaster Update for January 2019.  I’m going to continue updating it throughout the month…

The Guardians of the Galaxy Roller Coaster is just one addition coming to Epcot and it’s going to be an exciting couple years for sure with projects like the Ratatouille attraction coming in Spring 2020, the New IllumiNations Fireworks Show Replacement,  a New Signature Dining Steak Restaurant coming to the Japan Pavilion and a Space-themed restaurant going in the Mission: SPACE pavilion.  There’s even talk about a Spaceship Earth renovation most likely in the works.

You can read more about all these projects in our post explaining all the latest construction news in Walt Disney World.

The Guardians of the Galaxy Roller Coaster is expected to open in early 2021.

Other Disney World Construction Updates:

• Star Wars Galaxy’s Edge Update (January 2019) – Millennium Falcon Details Added, New Building Near Entrance
• Disney Skyliner Update (January 2019) – Gondola Cable Cars Being Tested in Disney World
• Epcot Forever Fireworks Show Update (January 2019) – New Work on World Showcase Lagoon for Illuminations Replacement Show
• TRON Roller Coaster Update (December 2018) – Disney World Railroad Tracks Torn Up for Construction
• Space Restaurant Epcot Update (December 2018) – Foundation Installed for Sphere Dining Room
• Remy’s Ratatouille Adventure Construction Update (December 2018) – Canal Area in France Pavilion Closed for Construction
• Disney Skyliner Construction Update (December 2018)- Cables being Run on Support Towers

Your Thoughts:

I want to know what you think about the Guardians of the Galaxy Roller Coaster Construction Update for January 2019…

• How excited are you for the GotG coaster coming to Epcot?
• How long do you think the coaster is actually going to be?

Let us know in the comments section below!

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Photo Credit: @Bioreconstruct