Walt Disney World is closing out its 50th Anniversary with a fast bang. Disney has launched a new high-thrill rollercoaster in Magic Kingdom’s Tomorrowland. With a speed of nearly 60 mph, TRON Lightcycle Run is one of Disney’s fastest rollercoasters, tied with its twin coaster at Shanghai Disney Resort.
It’s not just the speed that makes this thrill attraction different than what parkgoers have seen. The attraction also incorporates indoor and outdoor elements.
Walt Disney Imagineers say these elements make riders feel a sense of being launched from their reality into the digital world, just like the films.
TRON Lightcycle Run Soars From The Start
Based on the 1982 film TRON and the sequel Tron: Legacy in 2010, the attraction is where you leave the real world behind for a quest across “The Grid.”
TRON fans know the 1982 film’s main character, Kevin Flynn, created The Grid and was later visited by his son, Sam Flynn, in the second movie. Initially designed for games, The Grid became a “digital utopia filled with infinite possibilities.”
Disney didn’t leave any of these details out of the attraction. When you first get on the ride, you kneel and lean forward on a Tron Motorcycle known as a light cycle.
The light cycles are one of the most critical aspects of the Tron attraction as it kicks off the adrenaline.
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“For me, paying attention to the details in the movie as it relates to the outside of the attraction was important,” Rachel Lamvdin, Landscape Architect For Walt Disney Imagineering, tells Travel Noire. “We wanted to make sure that as people approach the attraction, they get excited and pumped up to get on this ride.”
Lamvdin adds, “In the back of my mind, I am always thinking about making sure that everything looks like it’s where it would have been exactly how Sam Flynn would have designed it.”
A New Kinetic Energy To Magic Kingdom
As you finally enter the Grid, you barely have time to think as the ride soars intensely. From there, you see incredible images of what Walt Disney Imagineers call the “Upload Conduit” of the ride. This beautiful design brings the indoor and outdoor elements of the attraction together.
“It’s not very often that you see an outdoor and indoor landscape come together like this,” says Lamvdin. “In this design, the landscape, hardscape, combined with the views from the Upload Conduit are unique.”
Magic Kingdom is often considered the place for first-time Walt Disney World goers to see Cinderella’s iconic castle. It’s also revered as a theme park for children.
However, adding TRON Lightcycle Run changes that narrative. You walk up, hearing instantaneous feedback as people scream on the ride as you get in the queue.
“TRON is a spectacular addition we’re bringing to Walt Disney World. It is unlike anything else here in the Florida parks,” says Julia Soderstjerna, Associate Show Mechanic Engineer for Walt Disney Imagineering. “Guests will be able to experience an attraction with a unique ride vehicle, which makes you feel like you’re on that light cycle racing through The Grid.”
According to Wealth of Geeks, the fastest rides at Walt Disney are the following:
- Test Track (65 mph)
- Guardians of the Galaxy: Cosmic Rewind (60 mph)
- TRON Lightcycle/Run (60 mph)
- Rock’ N’ Rollercoaster Starring Aerosmith (57 mph)
- Expedition Everest (50 mph)
- Slinky Dog Dash (40 mph)
- The Twilight Zone Tower of Terror (39 mph)
- Big Thunder Mountain Railroad (36 mph)
- Seven Dwarfs Mine Train (34 mph)
- Space Mountain (27 mph)
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