What We Know About Tron Lightcycle Power Run
The long-anticipated opening of the new Tron coaster in the Magic Kingdom is coming soon! Disney ha announced an official opening date of April 4th. While we wait, let's talk about what we already know about this coming attraction, including ways to ride, the new locker system, what the ride is like, and ride vehicle and accessibility information.
Virtual Queue
When Tron Lightcycyle Power Run opens, it will use the virtual queue system that has become familiar to many Disney-goers. This may make it the only other ride (aside from Guardians of the Galaxy: Cosmic Rewind) to use the virtual queue. It could also mean that a decision may be coming to move Guardians to a regular Individual Lightning Lane system, capacity permitting. When we visited in November of last year, capacity certainly was not available to move all riding on Guardians to Individual Lightning Lane, but the latest and greatest ride tends to always draw some crowds away, so we will see.
Details on how to join the virtual queue will be available in the MyDisneyExperience app by opening day.
Standard Tron Lightcycle ride vehicle and riding position - Photo credit: Disneyparksblog.com
Possibility of Individual Lightning Lane
The ride MAY also open with the possibility to purchase Individual Lightning Lanes, much like how Guardians of the Galaxy currently works. To examine a ride currently using a mixed virtual queue/ ILL process, we need look no further than Guardians. Guests have the open to try their luck at 7 AM and 1 PM to get a virtual queue boarding group for Guardians at no extra charge. However, you get the boarding group you get, and the return time assigned is just an estimate that will depend on how the ride operates that day. You can also only get one virtual queue entry to a ride per day. Guests can also currently opt to purchase Individual Lightning Lane times for Guardians. In this case, you choose your return time, but the times do sell out quickly. You will then report to the ride at that time. Guests can also only use one Individual Lightning Lane per day, and the Individual Lightning Lane costs money (the exact amount of which varies depending on the crowd level that day and time of day).
IF Tron opens with both options, or implements both options shortly after opening, here are a few good things to know:
If you don't want to spend extra money to ride, the virtual queue is your option.
If you need to ride at a specific time or during a specific timeframe, you may want to spring for Individual Lightning Lane.
The ONLY way to ride twice in a day is to get both a virtual queue and an Individual Lightning Lane.
The possibility (and likelihood, eventually) of Tron using the Individual Lightning Lane system is that this could impact how guests ride Seven Dwarves Mine Train currently. Each park currently has only one Individual Lightning Lane ride. At the Magic Kingdom, this ha been Seven Dwarves Mine Train, which consistently pulls large crowds and high standby wait times of 70 minutes or more. The question is, will Disney keep that quota of one Individual Lightning Lane ride per park, and demote Seven Dwarves Mine Train to a regular Lightning Lane ride? Or will they have however many Individual Lightning Lane rides they think they need per park and keep Seven Dwarves an Individual Lightning Lane ride? This is important because if a ride is an Individual Lightning Lane ride, it cannot also be a regular Lightning Lane ride, and vice versa.
As a reminder, Individual Lightning Lanes are available to all guests but are situations where you pay for a return time for ONE ride. Lightning Lanes are included with the purchase of Genie+, but are free beyond that initial Genie+ purchase price.
Tron canopy during light testing at the Magic Kingdom - Photo credit: Disneyparksblog.com
Locker System
While the above two pieces are probably what most people want to know about, we think the biggest change to how guests are used to riding at Walt Disney World is the locker system. Lockers for attractions are commonplace at Universal Orlando, but Walt Disney World has never required use of lockers to ride an attraction before. EVER. Not even for coasters that go upside down like Rock N Rollercoaster or the Incredicoaster in California.
Yes, Disney has had free lockers available for riders of Kali River Rapids, but has never required use of them. They've always been more a convenience so you can't sue Disney if your phone or camera gets soaked. (For the record, we've never had anything destroyed on Kali when properly secured in the center console of the raft, but we HAVE had things destroyed on Splash Mountain at Disneyland where no free lockers are available. But I digress.)
Back to Tron, all loose items must be placed in a locker before riding. The only storage available on the ride itself is a very small compartment where you could fit a phone, glasses, or a wallet (probably not all three). The Tron lockers will pair with your magicband or other ticket media. If you don't have a physical ticket, or magicband, you will be issued a card that will open your locker.
We do not yet have details on the exact timings of the locker, but we assume Disney will adopt a system similar to Universal's. In this system, from the moment you open your free locker, you are allowed a certain amount of time based on the wait time and ride length to store your items free. If you go beyond that amount of time, Universal will start charging you, in order to avoid abuse of the free locker system. We assume Disney can manage these timings pretty well, so our advice is to show up not much before your return time, and collect your items immediately after riding. Prices, if Disney assesses fees for locker time "abuse" will likely be far beyond the prices you would pay for a locker at the park entrance that can be rented.
Our experience with the Universal free locker system that is required for many attractions is that it was very convenient. The only thing I felt I lost was the ability to take pictures in the queue because I had locked my phone up.
Tron lockers - photo credit: Disneyparksblog.com
Does a Locker System Mean the Ride is Unusually Intense?
One misconception I had when going to Universal was that if the park required loose items to be put in a locker, then the ride itself must be so intense that those loose items would go flying, even if properly stowed. This turned out to be an incorrect assumption. The two rides at Universal where I was required to stow items (there are more, but these are the ones I rode) were the Jurassic Park River Adventure and Men In Black. Neither ride was intense. Jurassic Park has the potential to get a person soaked, so I can see why locker use there is wise, but I did not get soaked. I got 4 drops of water on my arm. Men In Black is very spinny, but nothing that would shake an item loose. What we noticed, though, was that by requiring guests to stow bags, the ride vehicles didn't have to include space for bags. More people could ride with less space between, or the vehicle could be more innovative in its shape (the Men In Black vehicles, for example, are very innovative, like tall chairs, stadium style, so that everyone has a clean view from which to use their laser gun).
We think that the lockers are not required because of Tron's intensity (I don't think it would beat the Incredicoaster or Rock N Rollercoaster for intensity), but because of the vehicle. Much like Flight of Passage where you straddle a banshee, in Tron Lightcycle, you straddle a... well... a lightcyle. I know you saw that coming. To do that and make that realistic, your bag has to go somewhere. In Flight of Passage, it goes against the wall directly behind you. In Lightcyle, because your vehicle will actually leave its departure point, it has to go in a locker.
This is Not the First Tron Lightcyle/Run
If you want to know what this ride is like, you can find out right now. That's because the ride has already existed at Shanghai Disneyland since 2016.
Here is a video from that version of the ride:
As you can see, the coaster is a semi-enclosed coaster under a lit canopy. Lights will dance along this canopy as you ride, enhancing the experience. We imagine this would be fun any time of day, but we especially imagine night would be fantastic, and potentially more intense as you would lose some visibility of the track in front of you.
Seats and Boarding Procedures
The other intense-making factor is the way you ride. While on Flight of Passage (the other ride at Walt Disney World with a similar restraint system) guests straddle the ride vehicle and pitch forward about 10 degrees, guests on Tron Lightcycle Run will be pitched 30-35 degrees forward, with legs bent even further, depending on what their bodies allow. So, yes, this ride could be hard on your knees. But have no fear because guests of size as well as guests who have accessibility needs do have special vehicles they can ride attached to some of the trains. These vehicles put you in a much more standard seated position, like a chair. However, not every train will have accessible seats attached.
Image of a Tron train with accessible seats at the back - photo credit: Reddit
There will be test seats outside of the ride entrance for guests to try and determine their needs.
One last thing about seating and boarding: Because of the vehicle's unique design, although seats are 2 across, your riding partner will need to split from you shortly before boarding. This is because one of you will need to cross the track to board. Each person boards from the side their bike is on. There is no scooting across one seat to the other on this ride. Be mindful of signs as you approach the boarding area so that you assure you ride side by side if you want to, and be mindful of exit procedures as well since we assume they are similar with each person exiting on the side their bike was on.
Are you excited to ride Tron Lightcycle Power Run? Have you ridden the one in Shanghai? Tell us about it over on our Facebook community, where you can follow our page to see when new articles are posted each week. Until next time...
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