RUMOR: TRON Lightcycle Run Project in Turmoil, Attraction Likely Won’t Open at Magic Kingdom By Walt Disney World’s 50th Anniversary in October 2021

Jessica Figueroa

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RUMOR: TRON Lightcycle Run Project in Turmoil, Attraction Likely Won’t Open at Magic Kingdom By Walt Disney World’s 50th Anniversary in October 2021

Walt Disney World’s 50th anniversary is fast approaching, but you would never think it considering the mass layoffs and project delays taking place throughout the parks and resorts. While we’ve been following construction on TRON Lightcycle / Run at the Magic Kingdom—now making progress on its massive illuminated canopy—sources indicate that most, if not all, of the field team working on the attraction has been laid off.

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As we’ve seen over the past few weeks, work on the canopy and sealing the “Grid” show building continues—however that’s the extent of work that is to be done for now. Trade workers are still on site to finish the show building enclosure (a must given Florida weather) and erect the canopy, however the canopy’s lights and cover are reportedly on hold at this moment. This all also means that work on the attraction’s interior is at a standstill as well.

Reportedly, Disney is waiting until December for additional cash flow and revenue to come in, funding the completion of the project. With this added stalling, on top of rumors that the attraction was slightly behind schedule even before March, it seems highly unlikely that we’ll be hopping on a Lightcycle at the Magic Kingdom by October 1st, 2021. The only hope would be a change in Disney’s course of action, with the company hopefully deciding the project is vital to the 50th anniversary festivities and allowing round-the-clock construction to take place once the funds they are awaiting actually arrive. Based on how the last several major Disney Parks construction projects have gone, we remain doubtful.

You may remember that TRON was notably excluded from the recent list of “priority” projects across Disney Parks. The list, however, did include Star Wars: Galactic Starcruiser at Walt Disney World, a project that could bring in up to $7,200 per cabin, based on expected pricing for an immersive 2-night/3-day stay for five guests.

Other items on the priority list include Avengers Campus and Mickey & Minnie’s Runaway Railway at the still-shuttered Disney California Adventure and Disneyland theme parks. Between delays, layoffs, and a shift in priorities, you could say the project has been temporarily “derezzed”, unlikely to make the race for the deadline. A similar fate has fallen Remy’s Ratatouille Adventure, but with that attraction originally set for Summer 2020, it seems likely it will at least be ready for Fall 2021.

14 thoughts on “RUMOR: TRON Lightcycle Run Project in Turmoil, Attraction Likely Won’t Open at Magic Kingdom By Walt Disney World’s 50th Anniversary in October 2021”

  1. Unless Disney, or more so “The Bobs” dont change there point of view on things, they may be more worried about a hostile takeover. Week after week Universal fills the park to there set capacity, they fill all seats in the ride, you can just walk into a store and they take care of the AP’s, Disney is staying at 25% and will remain that way till the CDC changes its guidance, will its mostlikley not going to change, on top of that they are not filling the rides only other seat, in some cases like test track, space mountain ext,you get a whole care to yourself. you have to wait in line while they count people going in to the shops and stores, the treat AP’s and DVC like crap, they do seem to treat AP’s more like crap then DVC in some cases, and expect you to pay full price for 25% of the experience. as peoples AP’s expire a lot of people are not renewing them, it’s time for Disney to realize that Florida is not California, as DLHK,Shanghai disney, Tokyo Disney and Disney sea are open and ramping up, they continue to cry about DL not being open and how California won’t let them open, i don’t see universeal having the same issue, and if they are, im not see any news on it. Bob Iger and Bob Chapek have caused this, Disney is in a Dark time, this is brought on by poor leadership, and flawed thinking. Unfortunately the one that run Disney aren’t true fans of disney. they don’t have the love of disney and until some one like that is back in charge that remembers Walt’s Vision we may be seeing the dream faid, as all of us know, a lot of the magic has already left the parks

    • I completely agree with you about the poor leadership. Disney has used their Disney World parks as a cash cow for decades to fund their business prospects elsewhere without putting away a rainy-day fund for when said cow was sick. The theme park business had a tremendous drop in attendance after 9/11 which led to attendance drops at the parks and The shuttering of big portions of their resort operations for years. Pop Century sat only partially finished. When Mission Space took off, it failed to ever really meet expectations. They’ve raised ticket prices by more than double what they were 20 years ago, a tremendously high inflation rate. They’ve had time and the chance to plan for, at the very least, a post-9/11 drop in attendance scenario, or worse since they have more at stake now. They simply didn’t plan well. This has happened before and they stepped into it with more debt than they knew what to do with. They bought a lot of really cool stuff, though. I’ll give them that. The problem is that when rich men buy a lot of really cool stuff, they end up ruining all that stuff for everyone. From and organizational and planning perspective, I’m fascinated to see how they try to pull themselves up from this. I fear the worst may still be ahead. As for Universal, although they have Comcast as a financier, their leadership is not a whole lore better. I believe they will make
      It through, but their theme park executive leadership isn’t as good as they think they are. I’m interested to see their progress as well.

  2. Honestly, this is a bit worrying, as this also means that the Walt Disney World Railroad may remain closed for even longer. As a railroad buff, I’ve been hoping for the railroad’s return to service ever since it closed down, and I’m hoping that a resumption of service isn’t too far off into the future.

  3. They should deprioritize all California activities, seeing as there is no reopen in sight for them and it’s become an ugly political scar on the company. Divert all resources to the parks that the governments aren’t holding as hostages.

  4. I’m not sure why, but I really do think it will be ready in time for the anniversary. The railroad running again hinges on that too probably, and that is an absolute MUST for the anniversary

  5. I know covid is part of the delay, but WD takes forever at these rides. Universal pops them up in a year. TRON has already been over a year. Rat should have been open before the pandemic. They take too long opening rides which turns people off when the lines/fast pass takes so long. I was able to do everything in both universal parks summer of 2019 bc they were organized and had more rides because they keep opening new ones in a timely manner to keep up with demand

  6. Of course the starcruiser will come first, can’t leave $7,200 per stay on the table. Screw the guests we’re happy to take your money to stay but enjoy the new rides we fell short of completing,well sorry you missed it this time but come on back when we’ve increased the cabin rates. Oh don’t forget to buy the Tron merch before you leave we’ll gladly sell you that to wet your appetite for the return ripoff oops we mean visit. Have a magical day

  7. I’m not sure I agree with Disney’s “priorities”. Of course, everyone has their own opinions, but from my family’s, we will never even consider staying at the Star Wars hotel. We enjoy Star Wars, but certainly not enough for that. The upcoming rides, however, were definitely a draw for us. It’s what we crave from Disney Parks – brand new attractions! It’s disappointing to see them continually slashing fresh experiences for the masses.

  8. Disney is deluded into thinking that guests would rather enjoy Galactic Starcruiser instead of Tron. Especially with social distancing still in place, there’s no way to enjoy the thematic elements of the hotel. And at that price point…

    • They see the hotel as a source of income, that is what drives them to finish it. They are being shortsighted. Tron will be a source of increased visitors to the park therefore a source of income. With more and more doctors around the world starting to agree that shutdowns are not the panacea we hoped for to control the pandemic, perhaps we can move on, wear a mask, social distance but keep things open.

  9. I don’t care about Tron Light cycle not being ready in time for Disney world’s 50th anniversary, but I’m hoping that Disneyland will be opened up again in time for Disney California Adventure’s 20th anniversary, because I know someone who has two daughters and they look like they would make excellent Bibbidi Bobbidi Boutique customers and the kind of girls who would like to get a hug from Ariel, Snow White and Cinderella 😻💕💘💗💟❤️💙💜💝 in the Royal Hall 😊😁😀☺️🤠😸🙂😃🙂❤️💙💜💝.

  10. Open..the..parks..up. The revenue problem solely lies at the feat of Disney at this point. Florida has no restrictions. Disney is running low on funding and people are losing their jobs.

  11. seems like a move to do the Splash Mountain redo. pointless anyway since based Tokyo said no to redoing it and won’t pander to people.

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