Theme Park Scope

If you’ve been waiting for a sign that the Monsters, Inc. coaster is actually becoming real, this is it.

The latest aerial photos from Bioreconstruct show track and support columns now visibly installed inside the show building for the Monsters, Inc. Flying Door coaster at Disney’s Hollywood Studios, and walls are going up to enclose the structure. That’s a significant step, and I have been looking at these photos for longer than I’d like to admit.

The photos show track and support columns installed in the larger section of the building’s footprint. Walls are being added around the outside, and some of the exterior now has blue cladding panels being installed with the help of a boom lift and scaffolding. Roof sections are partially complete, with steel roof framing and metal decking covering some portions, while framing and support columns continue to rise in the sections that haven’t been closed in yet.

Inside, you can see gray and black track curving through the interior, black support columns with branching bases, and steel arch support structures in the loading area. There are workers on scissor lifts and boom lifts, forklifts on the floor, and a pair of cranes, including a tower crane and a large crawler crane along the building’s south edge. It’s a busy site, and the photos give a real sense of the scale.

Here’s the timeline of how we got here. Construction has moved at a steady pace in recent months, going from early foundation work to the arrival of support columns, then track delivery, and now active installation. If you’ve been following along, you might remember the track support columns showing up earlier this year and the first track sections arriving in the summer. Seeing it all inside a building that’s starting to look like a building is a nice payoff.

Now let’s talk about the ride itself, because it’s a big one. The Flying Door coaster is a Vekoma suspended coaster, and it’s described as Disney’s first of its kind. That means ride vehicles hang beneath the track instead of sitting on top of it. The experience will see guests aboard enchanted doors as they’re swept through the world of Monsters, Inc. Vekoma is a longtime Disney ride manufacturer, so it’s a familiar name behind the coaster system.

And that “doors” idea is the part I love. If you remember the movie, the doors are the heart of the whole story, so building a coaster around them feels exactly right. (If you read my post about the Monsters, Inc. big face totes, you know I’m easy to win over when it comes to Mike and Sulley, so please take my excitement with a grain of salt.)

As for the land, Monstropolis is set to open at Disney’s Hollywood Studios in 2027. Reports say the Flying Door coaster is expected to open in 2028, so it sounds like the land may open in phases. Disney hasn’t given an exact date for either, so I’d treat those years as targets, not promises. The land will also include a new Glob Theater show replacing MuppetVision 3D, two themed dining locations, Harryhausen’s table service restaurant and Archie’s quick service, and retail at the Scareporium.

I want to point out one thing about the enclosure. When a coaster building gets walls, a lot of the fun stuff, like the track layout, goes out of sight. That’s normal, and it’s also a reminder that this is likely the last time we’ll get such a clear look at the coaster track for a while. So if you’re a construction-photo fan like me, enjoy it.

I’m genuinely excited. Seeing the track and columns in the building tells me the project is past the “is this going to happen?” stage and into the “okay, this is happening” stage. A suspended coaster with enchanted doors, a land full of Monstropolis theming, and a whole building surrounding it all? That sounds like something that could be a standout at Hollywood Studios.

My only wish is that the wait goes by quickly. A 2028 target for the coaster is a long way off, and I know I’ll be refreshing the aerial photos every few weeks until then. But if the finished ride lives up to the progress, I think it’ll be worth it.

So tell me, are you Team Mike or Team Sulley? And which part of this land are you most excited to see? Let me know, and keep checking back with Theme Park Scope, because I’ll keep sharing every construction update as it comes.