Walt Disney World has entered the Grid. Tron Lightcycle / Run roller coaster officially opened Tuesday morning at Magic Kingdom.
Unlike the debuts of many eagerly awaited Disney attractions of the past, there was no mile-long line heading into the queue to mark the opening. For the first time, Disney World’s virtual queue system was used at Magic Kingdom. Potential riders have two windows — at 7 a.m. and 1 p.m. — to be assigned loading groups and approximate ride times. There is no standby line option.
The virtual queue system has been implemented for attractions at Epcot and Disney’s Hollywood Studios.
“This is part of that investment in technology that we’ve made as a company, but thankfully Rise of the Resistance [at Hollywood Studios] and Guardians of the Galaxy [at Epcot] that have come before us have really perfected that system,” Melissa Valiquette, vice president for Magic Kingdom, said after a ribbon-cutting ceremony with Disney cast members Monday.
“Our guests rave about it because there’s no more waiting in a three- or four-hour queue on opening day to ride the attraction,” she said.
Slots for opening-day rides were gone in mere seconds at 7 a.m. Tuesday. A workaround is the Lightning Lane, a pay-for-quicker-access option, but that availability sold out quickly too.
So instead of winding, single-file lines into the Tron ride queue, future riders milled about the Tomorrowland plaza, shopped for merchandise, posed for photos with the Tron sign, bought food from the new Energy Bytes kiosk and experienced the rest of the theme park. The standby line for neighboring Space Mountain was posted as a 90-minute wait by midmorning.
Alexander Sterling and his husband, Trew Sterling, annual passholders from Miami, secured loading positions and anticipated their first Tron rides.
“We could have done the previews, but we said, no, we want to do it on opening day,” Alexander Sterling said. They have made a habit of attending opening days at Disney World, including for Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge at Hollywood Studios, Pandora: The World of Avatar at Disney’s Animal Kingdom and Guardians of the Galaxy: Cosmic Rewind at Epcot last year.
They avoided internet spoilers about the ride for years, they said.
On Tuesday, they purchased Tron pins and the opening-day T-shirt designed for passholders, said Trew Sterling, an avid pin collector. Disney has opened a secondary Tron-based shop in the space that used to house the Stitch’s Great Escape ride on the other side of Tomorrowland.
“I saw one gentleman; he had at least five, six bags at self-checkout,” said Patricia Carlson, who watched the Tron ride vehicles speed by from the plaza level with daughter Theresa Carlson. The Carlsons live in Lake Mary.
Theresa Carlson rode Tron Lightcycle / Run during passholder previews.
“I’m not a roller coaster person, and I absolutely loved it,” she said. “It was so smooth.”
She didn’t try to get into the virtual queue on opening day.
“I kind of figured, let people who’ve been here who haven’t got it, get a chance to do it,” Theresa Carlson said.
“We’ve been watching it get built, so we wanted to come be here for the opening finally,” she said.
Alexander Sterling agreed.
“We’ve been looking forward to it since, what, ’17?” he said.
A Tron ride opened with Shanghai Disneyland in 2016. The next year, the Magic Kingdom edition was announced as part of a slew of WDW additions, including Star Wars: Galactic Starcruiser, Mickey & Minnie’s Runaway Railway, Guardians of the Galaxy, Remy’s Ratatouille Adventure and more.
“Tron is such a natural fit in Tomorrowland,” said Valiquette, the park VP. “Magic Kingdom is the most-visited theme park in the world. So we need to make sure that we continue to invest in and evolve the offerings here. And E-ticket attractions are a big way to do that.”
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