It’s one of the most beautiful pieces of iconography at night that we’ve ever seen in Disney World. There’s just one problem. It’s also integral to the experience of riding the attraction.
When you’re designing an E-Ticket attraction, one of the things you need to consider is how the ride will be impacted by different times of day. For interior-only rides, that’s not such a big deal. But when it comes to outdoor coasters, the difference in the ambiance for, let’s say, Big Thunder Mountain Railroad is stark. During the day, it feels very western, very Arizona. But in the evenings, Big Thunder takes on a dreamlike feeling. And there are entire articles out there about how and when to go about trying to ride the wildest ride in the wilderness during fireworks.
The issue of riding an outdoor attraction during the day versus the night has become an even bigger deal now that so much is wrapped up in making reservations and acquiring line skips via the Genie+ App. Guests now spend inordinate amounts of time on their little screens at Disney Parks, working to get an attraction reservation for just the right time of day… or night.
So with the opening of Tron, a coaster designed for Shanghai Disney that came about before all this reservation madness was put into place, we’re actually going to see a potential issue that could give Disney World management some heartburn.
Disney has shared a new video of TRON Lightcycle / Run and Walt Disney Imagineering programming over 1,200 light fixtures to the music, sound effects, and Lightcycles for the attraction!#WaltDisneyWorld #MagicKingdom pic.twitter.com/bNbL3nCwKv
— Drew (@DrewDisneyDude) January 30, 2023
The idea is simple. Riding Tron at night is literally the only way to ride this thing. If you get on Tron during the day, it’s not just that the ambiance is different (like I discussed with Big Thunder Mountain), it’s that the entire light display will be almost entirely diminished. It’s a very big deal. So if you are serious about experiencing Tron in the right way, you’re only going to do it once the sun goes down.
There are several points where frustrations could happen with guests. First, there are the casual guests who become annoyed when they realize paying nearly a hundred dollars for their family to ride in the morning was a bad idea. They might notice that when they see how it looks at night. Second, there’s the issue of guests-in-the-know all trying to get reservations for the evenings… a time that is normally far shorter in duration than the daytime. Not only do dark-thirty hours at Disney have less time to ride, but it’s also the time when there are fireworks, potentially nighttime parades, and dinner reservations. That limits times when families can get those reservations even more.
For me, I know I’ll be riding at night or not riding at all. Without the nighttime experience of the canopy lights, it’s just not the same ride. And that could be how many feel going into this experience.
For all the latest news that should be fun, keep reading That Park Place. As always, drop a comment down below and let me know your thoughts!
> Guests now spend inordinate amounts of time on their little screens at Disney Parks, working to get an attraction reservation for just the right time of day… or night.
Not the point of your article, but I need to comment on this. I hated how much time I had to spend in my phone on my last Disneyland trip. I don’t go on vacation to be in my phone, I go on vacation to be out of my phone and with my family. I’d prefer to just leave our phones in the hotel like we used to.
There’s got to be a better way for Disney to manage this. Free us from our phones!
I seen videos of the ride during the day and I just don’t see the lighting as the problem. The real problem is it’s a very short ride in the interior. You go 3 circles inside and it’s over. It’s half the length of Hagrid’s roller coaster. About a 90 second ride.
The brevity of the ride has been an issue ever since it was built in Shanghai. Disney had the land and the ability to add to it with Disney World, but that cost $$$.