Magic Kingdom 3/8/2023, Tron Lightcycle / Run Preview

[Yoshi]

4 years ago when I was in Florida on vacation, I saw Tron construction from the People Mover. I never thought it wouldn't be open until 2023 but after the long wait it was finally time to try the coaster.

 

Unlike Six Flags or SEAS parks where you just show up for a preview and can ride as much as you want (I went to 6 or 7 days of Iron Gwazi previews), Disney previews take some more effort. I clicked the link to join the line 5 minutes before the e-mails were sent out and it was still a 90 minute wait to select a time. You then had an hour window to go to the ride and only 1 ride was allowed.

 

The dome structure with the outside part of the ride looks great and it will be good to have another ride than can run in the rain.

 

If you don't want any spoilers of the ride and queue, I suggest not reading the rest of the report or the pictures posted.

 

The queue is not that big with a path from the entrance and a few switchbacks. After you get into the building there is a hallway with blue glowing lines on it. The pre-show is very short. You are in a room and there is an interesting effect (I won't say what it is). You then go to the locker area. Unlike any ride at Disney World, you can not take anything on the ride except your phone which has to be stored in a pouch on the ride. There were I think 7 sections of lockers with lots of cast members to help. You use your MagicBand or a card to open the lockers.

 

The station looks cool with all the blue lights and the cycles moving into the loading area.

 

The front row line has a slightly longer queue in the station so hopefully front row requests will be honored once the ride opens to the public. I asked for the front row and did get it.

 

I had never ridden any motor bike type coaster before. The only park I have been to with a similar ride is Knott's and Pony Express was closed the entire day when I visited. It reminds me a little of a flying coaster but more comfortable. There are 2 sets of handle bars that you pull towards you to close the restraint. The handlebars are kind of uncomfortable to hold with no padding and metal with indentations in it.

 

The launch was more powerful than I was expecting. It's not like Storm Runner or Kingda Ka but more forceful than Cheetah Hunt and Rock N Roller Coaster. After the outside portion with some turns, you go into the show building. There are a lot of brake sections and screens as well as blue lights all over. I have never seen either Tron film but it looked like you were competing against the other team, I think Team Orange inside the Grid. It's mostly small drops and some turns.

 

The ride is around a minute long from the launch to the final brakes. I know some people are complaining about the ride being short but it's about the same as Rock N Rollercoaster and a longer ride time than other launched coasters.

 

Overall I thought the ride was a lot of fun and a good addition to the Magic Kingdom but Space Mountain is still my favorite ride in the park.

 

The exit path takes you out to Storybook Circus near Barnstormer but I'm guessing that might just be for previews.

 

The park wasn't too crowded for Disney standards but the better rides still had longer waits so we did the attractions without much of a wait or no wait like Carousel of Progress, Philhar Magic, People Mover etc. until people started waiting for the fireworks. That is the best time to go to the rides other than rope drop and right at closing. 2nd tier rides like Buzz Lightyear's Space Ranger Spin are usually walk ons and the most popular rides are usually 10 - 15 minutes at the most except 7 Dwarfs Mine Train. Combined with a short wait and the single rider line at the end, it took less than 10 minutes to wait for Space Mountain during the fireworks.

 

I'm looking forward to trying the coaster again once it opens to the public if it isn't impossible to get a boarding time.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The characters in Carousel of Progress got new outfits for the final scene. I like the apron with the nod to Food Rocks.

 

[GAcoaster]

It's a much needed addition to Magic Kingdom, but would have been a better fit in Epcot (and Guardians would have been better in MK or DHS). 

 

I just feel like it was a missed opportunity to not have two dueling/racing tracks with different color lightcycles instead of what they have. It would have doubled capacity and made the ride better too.  

[29yrswithaGApass]

Knowing Disney it would probably have also doubled the construction time needed.  

[The Master]

On 3/12/2023 at 4:48 AM, GAcoaster said:

It's a much needed addition to Magic Kingdom, but would have been a better fit in Epcot (and Guardians would have been better in MK or DHS). 

 

I just feel like it was a missed opportunity to not have two dueling/racing tracks with different color lightcycles instead of what they have. It would have doubled capacity and made the ride better too.  

 

Especially that in the film the lightcycles were gladiator vehicles that emitted light trail walls behind them to trap and kill the other racers. They could have painted the track to look like light trails trying to cut each other off.

 

[Yoshi]

Dueling tracks would have been great. With double the capacity maybe they could have used a traditional queue instead of the virtual queue.

[Daved Thomson]

Curious question which is probably better asked in a Disney Parks forum.  Does anyone have any idea why this attraction was developed in the first place?  I know it first appeared in one of the Asian Disney Parks (I'm thinking China).  Beyond that, and knowing that as a movie Tron wasn't exactly a financial success for WDP, I'm sort of baffled as to why they would have pursed a ride themed to Tron for any of their parks.  I've never seen the movie and I was a junior in high school when it was released in 1982.  I understand it was enormously successful in the park in which it was first introduced, but beyond that, I just don't understand the assumption that it should be a big success in the U.S. because of the film property upon which it is based.  I have two friends who are huge WDW fans and have a timeshare with them, but even they claim they would not have waited in a traditional cue to ride Tron.  They did ride it during the preview, and each said they liked riding on the cycles, but they both found the ride to be very short for a Disney attraction and neither of them have seen the movie.  Would love to hear some other thoughts on the attraction and what others may know about it ever coming to be.

[29yrswithaGApass]

How popular was Song of the South when it first was planned in 1986 or Swiss Family Robinson today?  If I had to guess they just picked an IP that fit the newly available hardware.   

[The Master]

Disney made a sequel to Tron back in 2009 which is when the first coaster was built. The coaster is themed to the second movie. They had a 3rd film planned but abandoned it in favor of new Star Wars films after purchasing  Lucasfilm. But then Disney ran the Star Wars brand into the ground though mismanagement. So now after over a decade Disney is planning on making a 3rd Tron film. 

 

Moreover, to make the Tron ride fit in Tomorrowland, they have reverted it away from the cool 50's retro style back to its original boring plain white 70's style. But its done halfassed so the land is in a bizarre limbo between 50's and 70's now. Disney is simply a mess. 

Edited March 17, 2023 by The Master

[Daved Thomson]

2 hours ago, 29yrswithaGApass said:

How popular was Song of the South when it first was planned in 1986 or Swiss Family Robinson today?  If I had to guess they just picked an IP that fit the newly available hardware.   

The 1946 original release of Song of the South was a box office success and the film and music received accolades as well as won an Academy Award for Best Original Song.  The black actor (Baskett) received an honorary Academy Award for his performance as Uncle Remus.  I've never heard of Splash Mountain lacking attendance at any of the parks.  The Swiss Family Robinson (assuming you're referencing the Tree House) I don't think was ever enormously popular.  But my point is that creativity with new attractions really seems to be on the decline at Disney and, like you, to me it does sound like they just picked an IP that fit the available hardware.

[29yrswithaGApass]

I wasn’t saying Song of the South didn’t deserve praise.  I really liked the movie when I saw it as a kid and years later when I bought the laser disk when I was in Japan.  I’m just saying there is probably a large group of people when the ride opened in the late 80s and early 90s in Disneyland and Disney World that said “what movie is this based on?” only because by then, it was removed from theaters and home video sales, so they had no way to view it.   
 

Disneyland plans on re-opening the treehouse with a Swiss Family theme once again this summer and I’m sure some guests don’t have a clue what movie that is based on or have ever seen that movie. 
 

I agree Disney has not been too creative lately and for someone big on nostalgia, it is upsetting to see everything being swapped over to all the latest animation features and programs.  Enough Encanto and Moana!  

[ericthewanderer]

My 2 cents is that Disney is simply trying to make more money off an existing movie(s);I mean-when WB bought SF, weren't they going to rename Freefall as "Sharkey's Machine"?

By the way-I wish that arcades would bring back the Discs Of Tron game(especially the stand-inside/ enviromental style ones).

[The Master]

On 3/15/2023 at 4:00 PM, 29yrswithaGApass said:

I wasn’t saying Song of the South didn’t deserve praise.  I really liked the movie when I saw it as a kid and years later when I bought the laser disk when I was in Japan.  I’m just saying there is probably a large group of people when the ride opened in the late 80s and early 90s in Disneyland and Disney World that said “what movie is this based on?” only because by then, it was removed from theaters and home video sales, so they had no way to view it.   
 

Disneyland plans on re-opening the treehouse with a Swiss Family theme once again this summer and I’m sure some guests don’t have a clue what movie that is based on or have ever seen that movie. 
 

I agree Disney has not been too creative lately and for someone big on nostalgia, it is upsetting to see everything being swapped over to all the latest animation features and programs.  Enough Encanto and Moana!  

 

One theory I heard is that Disney used Splash Mt to salvage and rehab an otherwise unusable IP. The attraction was a way to repackage and save the Song of the South IP without the core film which become unreleasable due to politics and widespread misconceptions about the film. 

[Daved Thomson]

9 hours ago, The Master said:

 

One theory I heard is that Disney used Splash Mt to salvage and rehab an otherwise unusable IP. The attraction was a way to repackage and save the Song of the South IP without the core film which become unreleasable due to politics and widespread misconceptions about the film. 

Going back to Tron and how it ended up as an attraction in any of the Disney parks, which is what I first asked, in the end, I think it turned out to be the easiest IP of Disney's to turn into an attraction given the mechanics of the ride and its ride vehicles.  Clearly Space Mountain isn't really connected to an IP, nor was Pirates of the Caribbean or many other attractions specifically tied to movies.  In fact, in the case of Pirates, it was the first time a park attraction resulted in the creation of a movie, nearly 50 years after the attraction opened.  I'm just not sure why they felt the need to tie the attraction to an IP and then to get the attraction sponsored by a Rental Car Company.

[29yrswithaGApass]

Actually, Tower of Terror and Country Bear movies preceded the Pirate films but everyone wants to forget them!

 

 

[Daved Thomson]

Forget them?  I never even heard of them.

[MarioSonic94]

^^Funny enough, I recently rewatched The Country Bears.

 

It's not a great movie by any means, but it has a sort of "so bad it's good" kind of charm to it.

 

Not sure if Disney's clamoring to put the Tower of Terror movie on Disney+ though.

Edited March 23, 2023 by MarioSonic94

[The Master]

Towerof Terror was a TV movie on Disney channel so it has some excuse. Country Bears was actually released in theaters. 

[The Master]

On 3/18/2023 at 8:03 AM, Daved Thomson said:

Going back to Tron and how it ended up as an attraction in any of the Disney parks, which is what I first asked, in the end, I think it turned out to be the easiest IP of Disney's to turn into an attraction given the mechanics of the ride and its ride vehicles.  Clearly Space Mountain isn't really connected to an IP, nor was Pirates of the Caribbean or many other attractions specifically tied to movies.  In fact, in the case of Pirates, it was the first time a park attraction resulted in the creation of a movie, nearly 50 years after the attraction opened.  I'm just not sure why they felt the need to tie the attraction to an IP and then to get the attraction sponsored by a Rental Car Company.

 

Again, 2009's Tron Legacy was a recent film at the time and Disney likely wanted to capitalize on cross promotion between the new film and new attraction. Disney wanted to revitalize Tron at the time to be an major IP aimed at boys. Disney Cali Adventure also had a Tron rave party for several months to cross promote the 2009 sequel including showing a preview clips in their Muppetvision theater. Back in the 80's the Disneyland Peoplemover used to have a original 1982 Tron themed speed tunnel that lasted into the 90's.

 

However, once Iger tricked Lucas to selling his company to Disney and got Star Wars to be their new male focused IP, Tron got kicked to the curb again and the 3rd film was cancelled. Yes, Iger is quite proud and openly boasted about duping Lucas. Of course Iger and co mismanaged Star Wars down the toilet and pissed fans away so they are dragging Tron back out for a way too late 3rd film. There were rumors that Disney was going to build a Star Wars, Speederbike version of the Tron coaster several years ago for their US parks. In fact Disney rethemed Test Track to its current VR theme to test out effects for the original Tron coaster. 

Edited March 24, 2023 by The Master

[GAcoaster]

I really think Tron was a concept that just translated well to a roller coaster. They don't particularly care that it's not a current film (even the sequel is 14 years old), it's visually cool. Anyone who saw the original film came away impressed by the visuals of "the grid". 

[The Master]

Tron is a good theme for an attraction, but not such a good fit for a retro art deco themed Tomorrowland. The sleek Apple look of the coaster doesn't match the original 70's style of Tomorrowland either. Hence the complete clusterscrew Disney has recently done to WDW's Tomorrowland theming trying to get late 2000's styling of the coaster to fit in with 70's and barely covered up 50's styling. The ride would have been a better fit for Studios or Epcot. 

Edited March 30, 2023 by The Master