Guests Spot Major Update to Magic Kingdom’s New TRON Ride

Taking longer to build than the entire Magic Kingdom itself, the newest Disney Park attraction has certainly become one of the biggest talking points of the Walt Disney World Resort.

With construction on the new theme park ride starting four years ago, Disney’s new TRON Lightcycle Run has left Disney World Guests in high anticipation for its debut.

And now, we finally have an exciting, tangible update to the new Magic Kingdom Park coaster!

TRON originally launched at Shanghai Disneyland back in June 2016, when its innovative engineering and ride experience were met with positive reviews. The steel motorbike coaster is inspired by the TRON movie franchise and features a semi-enclosed track where Guests ride through ‘the Grid” on a light cycle.

Back in March, it was revealed that the Walt Disney Imagineering team would be entering a significant milestone in the construction of the TRON Lightcycle attraction. Imagineers have now seemingly celebrated the start of this ride testing, in a process known as “push/pull,” with a new video showing the seven-vehicle train moving through the ride track!

Twitter user @Attractions shared an exciting video from DisQuick Sounds on April 16 of one of TRON Lightcycle’s trains speeding through the Tomorrowland construction site:

Tron is doing test runs at Magic Kingdom today. Video by Andrew from DisQuick Sounds.

Tron is doing test runs at Magic Kingdom today. Video by Andrew from DisQuick Sounds. pic.twitter.com/TmBAFituwb

— Attractions Magazine (@Attractions) April 16, 2022

The video shows TRON’s trains moving through the enclosed roller coaster building, and is the first time Guests have got a glimpse of the new attraction in action. Due to the new Tomorrowland ride being outdoors, we’re getting a unique look at the “push-pull testing” of the ride construction process.

The testing phase begins with trains moving at incremental speeds under the iconic ride canopy, with the Magic Kingdom engineering team eventually working their way up to full-speed launches.

After a few months, Imagineers will start putting project Cast Members on board, which is something we’d all love to be a part of!

Disney first revealed that TRON Lightcycle Run would be opening in time for Walt Disney World’s 50th Anniversary in 2021, joining new experiences like Remy’s Ratatouille Adventure at EPCOT, Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance at Disney’s Hollywood Studios, and Disney’s KiteTails at Disney’s Animal Kingdom.

With testing only beginning now – in Spring 2022 – it’s looking like 2023 is a better estimate for the grand opening of the rollercoaster, which will be 6 whole years since the project was announced! The ride’s debut will see the eagerly-anticipated return of the Walt Disney World Railroad, which has been closed to cater for the new TRON ride at the Tomorrowland station.

We’ll keep you updated with any further announcements regarding the new coaster, but in the meantime, we can all look forward to the launch of Guardians of the Galaxy: Cosmic Rewind over in Walt Disney World’s EPCOT theme park.