PHOTOS - Latest look at TRON Lightcycle Run coaster construction at Magic Kingdom

Nov 03, 2020 in "Tron Lightcycle Run rollercoaster"

TRON Lightcycle Run construction - November 2 2020
Posted: Tuesday November 3, 2020 8:48am ET by WDWMAGIC Staff

Here is a latest look at TRON Lightcyle Run, currently under construction at the Magic Kingdom.

As previously reported, the current plan is to complete the exterior canopy before beginning a pause in the project, which will see the coaster moving from a 2021 to 2022 opening.

Parts to complete the canopy are being stored in a facility near to Disney's Animal Kingdom.

According to a post on the WDWMAGIC Forums from a reliable poster who is involved in the supply chain for the construction of the coaster, construction will come to a halt at the end of the year, and will not resume until October 2021.

The plan is to complete the exterior canopies prior to the halt in construction, which will at least provide a visually clean sightline at the back of Tomorrowland.

Numerous factors have contributed to the likely delay in opening. Construction came to a complete halt during the initial COVID-19 outbreak, and although it has resumed, COVID-19 physical spacing for workers has greatly reduced the numbers of people on site. Disney is also seeking to minimize expenditure during this time, and would like to see a return to a more stable financial picture.

TRON was originally to be the centerpiece of the Magic Kingdom's 50th anniversary celebrations.

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lnigo Montoya11 days ago

If this was a DAS-related need, fine. But as a DAS user, I feel accommodated enough that using this trick simply because someone wants to ride Tron at night, which is what many wish they could do as well, doesn't feel right. Just my opinion...

Andrew2511 days ago

If the parks actually provided decently covered waiting areas away from the sun, they couldn't care. Flight of Passage is mostly indoors and people don't mind waiting in that queue, but Tron/GOTG extended queues rely on small umbrellas and maybe 2 fans in total? The parks definitely need to do better in this regard. The wait from the planetarium entrance to first preshow typically takes ~40 minutes or so if the ride is running normal.

bmr159111 days ago

Agreed. It’s past time.

DisneyDodo11 days ago

The GotG queue feels like it goes on forever (which makes sense considering that it consumes basically an entire building that used to house a 45-min attraction). I have to imagine it could accommodate most of the demand.

Jrb197911 days ago

I hate these arguments in regards to waits and standing in the sun. I know it gets hot in Florida but it gets hot in other parts of the country in the summer too. Somehow the parks in those parts manage with guests standing in the sun. They put canopies over the queue and have fans that spray most to deal with it.

UNCgolf11 days ago

I doubt TRON will draw huge crowds; I'd expect a standby wait there to be much shorter than a standby wait for GOTG (or for Tiana, for that matter). Maybe not when the VQ first ends, but I'd expect it to settle in around an hour or even less standby except for the really busy days. Partially because it's just not very good, and partially because the MK has so much other capacity. It would get longer waits at DHS simply because there's less to do.

EricsBiscuit11 days ago

They can throttle the demand with the wait time to keep it from getting out of hand.

Andrew2511 days ago

Both Tron & GOTG have an issue if you remove VQ... they don't have enough physical queue space. Tron and GOTG both have extended queues out in the sun... can't imagine people will be happy with that. I'd imagine Tiana will get VQ, and then drop after a while, but Tron might keep it due to low capacity. GOTG probably would be fine if they had built a properly shaded extended queue.

DisneyDodo11 days ago

The capacity is the same whether they use VQ or not. It’s just a question of where people wait: either in the queue for that ride or in the queues for other rides. As long as guests can fit in the footprint of the former (which I would expect to be the case at this point), that appears to be the more logical choice.

SamusAranX11 days ago

Have a feeling they will put TBA on VQ and remove Tron

DisneyFanatic1212 days ago

VQ has a lot of positives and negatives, and it really depends on the person whether or not the positives outweigh the negatives. To me, the positives outweigh the negatives, and while I certainly see how some people prefer the lack of a virtual queue, there are just so many benefits to it that I greatly enjoy it. Overall, I’m pretty much neutral, but would likely almost never ride Guardians of the Galaxy if it weren’t for the virtual queue.

sWANNISAX12 days ago

🙄I'm sure someone could figure it out. Easier to just run them like any other ride.

networkpro12 days ago

Operations and staffing doesnt work that way.

sWANNISAX12 days ago

Let people choose if they want to wait or buy an ILL or do a hybrid. VQ until 1 and then standby