News Tron coaster coming to the Magic Kingdom

[JMcMahonEsq]

Tron should have been open or, at the least, almost open before the pandemic began. The fact that WDW delayed construction so long that it ran into a global crisis is a weak excuse.

Tron is not simply - or even primarily - meant to provide a pop in attendance. It’s a desperate bid to add capacity that is woefully needed right away.

If you need a pop in attendance you build and open a new ride. You don’t drag construction of a carbon-copy of a short screen-based indoor coaster into its fifth year.

Other than your posterior where do you get the idea that the ride should have been don prior to pandemic?

None of the CPM’s even the initial base lines had substantial or final completion even close to Q1 2020

The idea that Tron is a capacity fix as opposed to a major marketing/attendance driver is equally laughable. Tron as designed and implemented will have some of the most strict height restrictions at the park. It will also be restrictive as far as older people and riders who are not coaster fans. That is not a recipe for people eater type ride. Tron has been hyped as a major new attraction, a thrill type ride try to secure more thrill seeking crows. As such you absolutely want to control when the ride opens.

It is foolish to not think Disney would want to plan when the ride opens, to fit into an overall marketing strategy. And If it is not beneficial to open the ride now, or during Covid, there was no reason to schedule construction to get it open this fast.

 

[Casper Gutman]

Other than your posterior where do you get the idea that the ride should have been don prior to pandemic?

None of the CPM’s even the initial base lines had substantial or final completion even close to Q1 2020

The idea that Tron is a capacity fix as opposed to a major marketing/attendance driver is equally laughable. Tron as designed and implemented will have some of the most strict height restrictions at the park. It will also be restrictive as far as older people and riders who are not coaster fans. That is not a recipe for people eater type ride. Tron has been hyped as a major new attraction, a thrill type ride try to secure more thrill seeking crows. As such you absolutely want to control when the ride opens.

It is foolish to not think Disney would want to plan when the ride opens, to fit into an overall marketing strategy. And If it is not beneficial to open the ride now, or during Covid, there was no reason to schedule construction to get it open this fast.

Tron was announced in July 2017 - two and a half years before the pandemic. It was intended to open before the 50th.

Tron is a stupid response to capacity issues but it is one, nevertheless. Despite all the drawbacks you listed, it had one big advantage - it was already designed. The fact that it is hailed as a major addition means nothing regarding the motives behind its installation - of course any addition will be hyped.

Ride additions should not be so rare that they are delayed two or three years to await the perfect moment to open - there should be a steady stream to leverage in PR. Tron was supposed to be in the wave of attractions that opened BEFORE the attractions that were intended for the 50th. The need to hold off opening to maximize PR benefit is the product of WDWs absurd refusal to build at anything like an adequate pace.

 

[No Name]

It’s 2022 and still not done, so much for the clones are easy to build narrative, just cheap to design apparently

It’s not like they’re moving at full speed trying to get this open as soon as possible. They could’ve had it done much sooner but they’re choosing to stretch it out. Also I’m not sure that was ever the narrative.

 

[No Name]

Tron is not simply - or even primarily - meant to provide a pop in attendance. It’s a desperate bid to add capacity that is woefully needed right away.

Wow that’s absolutely not true, they absolutely want this to bring in more people.

 

[Casper Gutman]

Wow that’s absolutely not true, they absolutely want this to bring in more people.

Reread what I said - attracting crowds isn’t it’s only or even it’s main motive. That acknowledges it is always a motive.

 

[yensidtlaw1969]

At some point they’re going to close Splash Mountain for reworking into Frog Mountain and that’ll likely impact the Walt Disney World Railroad.

On one hand, I wouldn't be surprised if they did their best to work around the railroad, cutting anything from the redesign that would require downtime for the Train and maybe repaint the area around it on the third shift.

On another hand, also I wouldn't be surprised if they saw it as another opportunity to close the Railroad again for a bit and save a dollar from it.

 

[celluloid]

On one hand, I wouldn't be surprised if they did their best to work around the railroad, cutting anything from the redesign that would require downtime for the Train and maybe repaint the area around it on the third shift.

On another hand, also I wouldn't be surprised if they saw it as another opportunity to close the Railroad again for a bit and save a dollar from it.

Ring-a-ding. Like the parking Trams being one for so long. Staffing and operating dollars.

 

[celluloid]

None of the CPM’s even the initial base lines had substantial or final completion even close to Q1 2020

The idea that Tron is a capacity fix as opposed to a major marketing/attendance driver is equally laughable. Tron as designed and implemented will have some of the most strict height restrictions at the park. It will also be restrictive as far as older people and riders who are not coaster fans. That is not a recipe for people eater type ride. Tron has been hyped as a major new attraction, a thrill type ride try to secure more thrill seeking crows. As such you absolutely want to control when the ride opens.

It is foolish to not think Disney would want to plan when the ride opens, to fit into an overall marketing strategy. And If it is not beneficial to open the ride now, or during Covid, there was no reason to schedule construction to get it open this fast.

I agree with your points, but I just want to make it clear that the part bold proves that the pandemic is not the excuse for the years longer project than it should have been through supply or safety delays, but by pure business choice that had this thing extended for control in the first place.

This confirms that Disney just takes a really long time to complete things that should not take that long to complete, by pure business choice. Their long time plan to open when they wanted to, just extended further.

 

[Fido Chuckwagon]

I think it's more likely that Six flaggs will buy the US Disney theme parks.

Might be an improvement at this point. At least Six Flags is an “industry leader” in line skip systems. Disney is just following the “Industry Standard” set by Six Flags when they instituted one.

 

[J4546]

lol im still very excited for the tron coaster, cant wait to ride it. Ive been wanting to since I saw it being built in Shanghai and I think it will be a very awesome looking and welcome addition to an area of the park that had nothing before. I get it is taking forever to build, but Im still optimistic about the thing

 

[ToTBellHop]

lol im still very excited for the tron coaster, cant wait to ride it. Ive been wanting to since I saw it being built in Shanghai and I think it will be a very awesome looking and welcome addition to an area of the park that had nothing before. I get it is taking forever to build, but Im still optimistic about the thing

Only 8 years left!

 

[matt9112]

And unfortunately, after this summer, TRON will be the only new ride coming to any WDW park in the near future.

Wow....2017 to 2023 is your idea of right away? 6 years is desperately needed capacity?

 

[matt9112]

Other than your posterior where do you get the idea that the ride should have been don prior to pandemic?

None of the CPM’s even the initial base lines had substantial or final completion even close to Q1 2020

The idea that Tron is a capacity fix as opposed to a major marketing/attendance driver is equally laughable. Tron as designed and implemented will have some of the most strict height restrictions at the park. It will also be restrictive as far as older people and riders who are not coaster fans. That is not a recipe for people eater type ride. Tron has been hyped as a major new attraction, a thrill type ride try to secure more thrill seeking crows. As such you absolutely want to control when the ride opens.

It is foolish to not think Disney would want to plan when the ride opens, to fit into an overall marketing strategy. And If it is not beneficial to open the ride now, or during Covid, there was no reason to schedule construction to get it open this fast.

This...it's to cram as many bodies into the MK as possible....they have no actual desire to reduce attendance. Or as it seems alleviate crowds. Even if we hypothetically argued this ride would be open in 12 months of groundbreaking or something else rediculous the raw capacity of the ride is laughable.

Sidebar i firmly believe disney has no business building rides that are the same capacity as things six flags is building...there rides should eat people at 3 or 4 times that rate. Yeah its expensive...being the best is expensive. Less fancy que more fancy capacity.

 

[G00fyDad]

I just hope that Tron doesn't open up until after our trip in October. I don't really have any desire to ride this attraction but I know that if they open it up just before our trip that it will cause the crowds to increase even more. The only time I've ever experienced that has been when TSMM opened up. It opened and we went later that same year. It was bananas busy in the parks. Especially DHS. I hope they don't open it up until December this year or January next year.

Of course if I base my calculations on their rate of progress at this point my grandchildren might not even be able to ride it.

 

[TikibirdLand]

lol im still very excited for the tron coaster, cant wait to ride it. Ive been wanting to since I saw it being built in Shanghai and I think it will be a very awesome looking and welcome addition to an area of the park that had nothing before. I get it is taking forever to build, but Im still optimistic about the thing

? don't we have Space Mountain? It is by far a higher capacity coaster than TRON. I do like how TRON will provide kinetic energy to the park. But, it's been at the expense the WDWRR being down for three years now. The parks need capacity. TRON can't fill that need.

 

[ToTBellHop]

? don't we have Space Mountain? It is by far a higher capacity coaster than TRON. I do like how TRON will provide kinetic energy to the park. But, it's been at the expense the WDWRR being down for three years now. The parks need capacity. TRON can't fill that need.

Tron’s capacity will be a serious problem.

 

[HauntedPirate]

? don't we have Space Mountain? It is by far a higher capacity coaster than TRON. I do like how TRON will provide kinetic energy to the park. But, it's been at the expense the WDWRR being down for three years now. The parks need capacity. TRON can't fill that need.

The parks need non-headliner capacity. Important distinction.

 

[JD80]

Tron’s capacity will be a serious problem.

That's what a $$LL+ will be for.

 

[ToTBellHop]

That's what a $$LL+ will be for.

Even those will be hard to secure.

 

[JMcMahonEsq]

I agree with your points, but I just want to make it clear that the part bold proves that the pandemic is not the excuse for the years longer project than it should have been through supply or safety delays, but by pure business choice that had this thing extended for control in the first place.

This confirms that Disney just takes a really long time to complete things that should not take that long to complete, by pure business choice. Their long time plan to open when they wanted to, just extended further.

I slightly disagree. The bold goes to point to the idea that the actual completion of the ride was delayed by Covid/supply chain impacts/pacing slowdowns. Now if you think that Disney in general should build things faster, and that it should have scheduled construction to be completed prior to that point, then sure I agree Covid doesn’t play a factor in that.

One item that should be noted about Disney construction contracts is the amazing amount of control/oversight that Disney has as an Owner on both the design and construction process. Some of that is just bargaining power, but some of it is also Disney has always wanted to micromanage and control all aspects of construction. They can direct contractors to change methodology or rip up and replace completed work at their whim, even if it was built per spec. That kind of control comes at a cost, which is generally both actual increases costs in price, and time. Disney contracts and projects contain many more interim milestones and stop points where contractors wait for approval before proceeding to the next phase of operations. It’s what in the past has allowed Disney to build uniform parks melding pre-existing elements to new construction relatively seamlessly, but it’s not ideal for getting construction done quickly or cheaply.