Tron Lightcycle Run began its construction back in 2018 and while the E-ticket ride was massive, we expected things to move along as quickly as possible. However, then a little pandemic happened and that changed a lot. Construction was delayed and even after the parks reopened things were going quite slowly, but more recently things have picked up, and now we know when the ride will finally be open.
At the D23 Expo today Disney Parks Chairman Josh D'Amaro announced a Spring 2023 opening date for Tron Lightcycle Run. That still leaves a few questions regarding exactly when the ride will open, but it gives us more confirmation than we had before.
Technically, spring runs from March through late June, so that would be our window of when the attraction may open. However, last year Disney World told us that Guardians of the Galaxy: Cosmic Rewind would open in the summer of 2022, and it ended up opening on Memorial Day Weekend, which is actually spring, so it's possible that we could see the ride open before March since the seasons are a bit fluid, especially in Florida.
Lightcycle Run has been under going testing with live riders of late, a video was shown during the presentation of Josh D'Amaro himself doing a run, which gives the impression the Tron ride is closer to opening. Some even wondered if the ride might open before the end of the year. That may not be the case but it does seem likely that we're looking at the ride opening in six months, or perhaps even less.
The fact that Tron: Lightcycle Run is just a second version of an attraction that already exists at Shanghai Disneyland, made everybody assume that this new ride would be done rather quickly, it had all been done before, after all. The global pandemic certainly was the primary reason that construction slowed, but even after things started moving again, resources were seemingly given to Guardians of the Galaxy: Cosmic Rewind, which was further along, but that ended up slowing Tron down even more.
It would be one thing if we were just waiting for a ride to open, but the sheer size of Lightcycle Run has meant that it's construction has shut down other things. The Walt Disney World Railroad hasn't run since 2018, as the roller coaster building runs directly over the track of the train. A lot of people would just like to be able to ride around the park on the train again. That may happen before the coaster is finished, but we don't have a date on that yet either.
For those of us that have been waiting, the wait is finally almost over. An actual opening date will likely come after the first of the year when the park's holiday insanity is over. Unless, of course, the ride is opening so soon in 2023 that waiting that long won't work. We will see.
