TRON Lightcycle Run
| TRON Lightcycle Run | |
|---|---|
| Park | Magic Kingdom |
| Land / area | Tomorrowland |
| Type | Launched steel motorbike roller coaster |
| Opened | April 4, 2023 |
| Designer | Walt Disney Imagineering |
| Height req. | 48 in (122 cm) |
| Status | Operating |
TRON Lightcycle Run (styled TRON Lightcycle / Run) is a launched steel roller coaster in Tomorrowland at Magic Kingdom in Walt Disney World, Florida. Based on the Tron film series, it seats riders astride individual light cycle vehicles and launches them into a race through the Grid, the computer world of the films. At about 59 mph (95 km/h) it is the fastest roller coaster at Walt Disney World alongside Guardians of the Galaxy: Cosmic Rewind at EPCOT, and it opened on April 4, 2023, as the first major attraction added to Magic Kingdom for its second half-century.
History
The ride is adapted from TRON Lightcycle Power Run, which opened with Shanghai Disneyland on June 16, 2016, and quickly became one of that park's signature attractions. Disney announced a Florida version at the D23 Expo in July 2017, to be built on a plot beside Space Mountain in Tomorrowland. Construction began in 2018; the Walt Disney World Railroad closed that December to allow work where the coaster's track crossed the railway line, and the Tomorrowland Speedway was temporarily shortened and re-routed.
Work proceeded slowly, slowed further by the park closures of 2020, and the opening — originally expected around the resort's 50th anniversary in 2021 — slipped by roughly two years. The railroad reopened in December 2022, passing through a new tunnel beneath the coaster. After previews for employees, annual passholders and Disney Vacation Club members, TRON Lightcycle Run opened to the public on April 4, 2023. It initially boarded only through a virtual queue and paid individual Lightning Lane access; a conventional standby line was added in September 2024.
Experience
The attraction is set after the events of Tron: Legacy (2010): riders join Team Blue for a light cycle race against the orange-clad programs of Team Orange, passing through eight Energy Gates, with the first team to capture them declared the winner. The queue winds through a digitization sequence that includes a reveal of the ride vehicles launching below, and ends at a locker area where riders store loose items in free double-sided lockers before boarding. A modified transfer vehicle with a conventional bench seat and lap bar is available at the back of some trains for guests unable to use the motorbike riding position.
Trains of seven light cycles, seating fourteen riders, launch from the station at up to about 59 mph (95 km/h) and climb out of the show building to race beneath a sweeping illuminated canopy — the Upload Conduit — that covers the outdoor portion of the track and has become a Tomorrowland landmark, glowing blue at night. The course, about 3,169 feet (966 m) of track built by Vekoma, re-enters the building for a darkened indoor section of banked turns past light cycle imagery and the Energy Gates before the train brakes to a stop after roughly one minute of ride time. There are no inversions and no large drops; the sensation comes from the launch, the speed and the riding posture.