News Tron coaster coming to the Magic Kingdom

[DavidDL]

I don't think the problem is that there are a few coasters next to each other, but unlike Disneyland the park isn't balanced so makes it feel off to stack all your thrill rides in one corner. The other side of the park could use a new thrill ride and family dark ride. But I'm sure that side of the park will be their next focus.

In fairness, Big Thunder and Tiana's Bayou Adventure (coming soon) exist on the opposite side of the park. Seven Dwarfs Mine Train is definitely one I forgot about which is closer to the other three, to your point.

That said, "thrill" can be subjective. As a child, I was way more terrified of the drops in the dark on Pirates of the Caribbean than I was of Gadget's Go Coaster (substituting for Barnstormer in this instance). So for some Guests, that's another thrill on the west side of the park and another subtracted from the east.

It will be interesting to see what they come with beyond Big Thunder. Maybe that long defunct Bald/Villians Mountain thrill ride?

 

[brb1006]

 

[dovetail65]

Would you contest that Disneyland's Fantasyland is poor theme park design? Because it has four to five dark rides with similar ride systems and similar tones/aesthetics pretty much all right next to each other. It's fine if you do, I'm just genuinely curious.

I don't personally have an issue with these three coasters being next to each other because 1) if you were to walk them backwards of the order you originally listed, you have three different levels of coaster thrill for younger Guests to "grow into". -and 2) while I'm certainly much too old or tall to be riding Barnstormer and haven't been on Tron yet (will be there this May), I can't imagine my love for Space Mountain will falter much because the experience and tone it provides is so much different than TRON.

That experience being a sort of "frozen in time"1960/70's space port that never fails to get a laugh out of me as my family and friends scream bloody murder while their backs are being broken. Sort of like if the Carousel of Progress took on coaster form and decided it was time to rearrange your spinal column!

I agree with your thoughts.

Space Mountain and TRON are 100% different so you won't have any feelings of not doing both rides and I am sure you will keep your love of Space Mountain. The only thing the two rides share is that futuristic retro feel, other than that Tron is NOT an updated version of Space Mountain in any respect other than it's a newer type roller coaster. Cosmic Rewind is closer to an updated version to Space Mountain than TRON is.

Space mountain is way too intense and hurts my body, Tron is smooth as butter, even more smooth in my opinion than Cosmic Rewind and I have ridden them the same day. I will probably skip Space Mountain now, I am too old to be knocked around like that. Tron is the Perfect fit for MK and from my perspective is in good spot(though I hate where they funnel us off) .

Jungle Cruise, Splash and Pirates are so different I don't understand a previous comment about how possibly another other park wouldn't put them together, it makes little sense to me. They fit together just fine. Actually, I love hitting them right in a row too.

 

[ChrisFL]

People on twitter constantly use the TRON hashtag when discsussing the coaster with no idea it's been hijacked by a cryptocurrency...on the other hand it just goes to show how "popular" that cryptocurrency is that a lot of people have no idea about it, it's only one of thousands of cryptocurrencies out there

 

[IveBeenJack]

People on twitter constantly use the TRON hashtag when discsussing the coaster with no idea it's been hijacked by a cryptocurrency...on the other hand it just goes to show how "popular" that cryptocurrency is that a lot of people have no idea about it, it's only one of thousands of cryptocurrencies out there

It's one thing for Disney not to care about people using the hashtag when the attraction was still under construction. But with opening day drawing nearer, they need to get this stuff sorted. Looks unprofessional. They also have a TRON 3 in the works, and you know people are going to use #TRON for that as well.

 

[MisterPenguin]

 

[SilentWindODoom]

Jungle Cruise, Splash and Pirates are so different I don't understand a previous comment about how possibly another other park wouldn't put them together, it make little sense to me. They fit together just fine. Actually, I love hitting them right in a row too.

The point was that despite similar ride conveyance, they're so different that being in a row is analogous. The fact that you find it silly illustrates the point that suddenly complaining about the coasters in a row is just making up things to deride.

As for earlier mentions as this making the part uneven, I've felt my entire life that the park is uneven in the opposite direction. Space. That's it. Space. Meanwhile, Splash and Thunder were on the other side with the Mansion, Pirates, and Jungle Cruise filling it out. The race always seemed to be for that back corner across the bridge from Fronteirland in the morning.

 

[lazyboy97o]

The point was that despite similar ride conveyance, they're so different that being in a row is analogous. The fact that you find it silly illustrates the point that suddenly complaining about the coasters in a row is just making up things to deride.

The difference is that one ride was designed to be the analogue of another. TRON was designed to be Shanghai’s Space Mountain.

 

[Touchdown]

The difference is that one ride was designed to be the analogue of another. TRON was designed to be Shanghai’s Space Mountain.

So you’re not in favor of Mystic Manor coming here since it’s analog is HM?

 

[doctornick]

So you’re not in favor of Mystic Manor coming here since it’s analog is HM?

IMHO, much like Tron and Space Mtn are completely different - and perfectly fine to be located next to each other - Mystic Manor is not really all that similar to Haunted Mansion and would be fine to be built at WDW. That said, if I were building at WDW, I'd put it in DAK which could use that type of ride.

 

[DavidDL]

Mystic Manor would feel right at home if they could find some way to work it into Adventureland or someplace similar (Asia in Animal Kingdom? The ride does have an animal star). It wouldn't feel right next to Haunted Mansion anyways since that's in Liberty Square.

Conversely, TRON and Space Mountain look gorgeous next to each other.

(Edit: crediting the photographer, @somewareatdiz over on Twitter for this one)

To @lazyboy97o's point; TRON was absolutely designed to be a different park's "Space Mountain". I believe the Imagineers/Disney have said so explicitly so to say anything otherwise would be silly. Still, the experiences are different enough and they look so good together (imho) that I really don't see an issue with it.

Being a big white structure in Tomorrowland that houses a roller coaster of some kind is where comparisons end for me. -and in this instance again, they look so nice next to each other that I could probably stand there all night taking in the sights I've been seeing online.

 

[No Name]

Mystic Manor would feel right at home if they could find some way to work it into Adventureland or someplace similar (Asia in Animal Kingdom? The ride does have an animal star). It wouldn't feel right next to Haunted Mansion anyways since that's in Liberty Square.

Conversely, TRON and Space Mountain look gorgeous next to each other.

View attachment 704221
(Edit: crediting the photographer, @somewareatdiz over on Twitter for this one)

To @lazyboy97o's point; TRON was absolutely designed to be a different park's "Space Mountain". I believe the Imagineers/Disney have said so explicitly so to say anything otherwise would be silly. Still, the experiences are different enough and they look so good together (imho) that I really don't see an issue with it.

Being a big white structure in Tomorrowland that houses a roller coaster of some kind is where comparisons end for me. -and in this instance again, they look so nice next to each other that I could probably stand there all night taking in the sights I've been seeing online.

Pictures like this are truly wonderful, but they have to be so carefully picked out. Most people aren’t looking in that direction and seeing that, instead they’re seeing the building, as they walk up to the ride. I’d guess that more often, in person, people are seeing stuff like this:

 

[ChrisFL]

It's one thing for Disney not to care about people using the hashtag when the attraction was still under construction. But with opening day drawing nearer, they need to get this stuff sorted. Looks unprofessional. They also have a TRON 3 in the works, and you know people are going to use #TRON for that as well.

I'm guessing it's a sponsorship deal, wonder if there's an expiration date or what happens if the crypto goes belly up (not like that ever happens these days)

 

[dovetail65]

I beliee Disney meant that statement in the the way Tron could be a landmark Iconic Symbol Coaster for a Park just as as Space Mountain has been for Magic Kingdom from the beginning. They didn't mean it in a way that Tron was to mimic, copy or be an upgrade of Space mountain.

No matter what their initial intentions were it is clear Cosmic Rewind is the attraction that "might" be said to be an updated Space Mountain. I believe that if they had the tech back then Space Mountain could of been very close to what Cosmic is. From my viewpoint Tron was designed from the start for the less adventurous guest, not the Space Mountain/Cosmic Rewind guest.

I for one wont even go on Space Mountain anymore as now I have something cool, but not as aggressive Space Mountain or Cosmic rewind. I can ride Tron as as I age. Space Mountain I am already at the point I do not want to ride and very close to I can't ride if I wanted to. Cosmic because it is smooth I may get a few more years to ride, but it does take a bit out of my body and head already.

 

[No Name]

I'm guessing it's a sponsorship deal, wonder if there's an expiration date or what happens if the crypto goes belly up (not like that ever happens these days)

I imagine the company that recently misspelled “site,” “permission,” and “Bedford” in one sign might just be capable of a mistake.

 

[UNCgolf]

I imagine the company that recently misspelled “site,” “permission,” and “Bedford” in one sign might just be capable of a mistake.

View attachment 704284

Archaeology is essentially misspelled too (archeology does occasionally get used but I've never seen any edited, professional writing spell it that way).

Where is that from?

 

[lazyboy97o]

I beliee Disney meant that statement in the the way Tron could be a landmark Iconic Symbol Coaster for a Park just as as Space Mountain has been for Magic Kingdom from the beginning. They didn't mean it in a way that Tron was to mimic, copy or be an upgrade of Space mountain.

It wasn’t just an after-the-fact description. It was the starting point.

 

[Casper Gutman]

We’re at that phase of a new ride opening where criticisms that have long been accepted as obvious even by defenders (who choose wisely to fight on other, more defensible hills) must be attacked. Tron is horrendously placed and far too similar to Space. It may arguably be fun, exciting, aesthetically enchanting, a worthy addition to the Magic Kingdom - but it is still horrendously placed and far too similar to Space.

Dark rides are an entirely different matter. They should be viewed as a medium, like film, that can serve an endless variety of stories in every possible genre. They emphasize tone, mood, narrative, visual and audio style, etc. and in doing so offer huge range for creativity. Saying MM is like HM may be true to the extent that Fast 9 is like My Dinner with Andre - they’re both films, but they differ in every other significant way to the extent that the original statement is meaningless.

Theoretically, all this is true also of dark-ride/ coaster hybrids. They have certain inherent limitations- most obviously, they tend to be shorter and feature a much heavier emphasis on physical sensation that fights for focus with storytelling elements. But some coaster hybrids have clearly overcome and/or taken advantage of these limitations - notably Thunder and Hagrid. This makes the indictment of Disney’s string of incredibly similar sci-fi-y coasters in a box even sharper. They make no effort to be significantly different. They’re coasters in the dark, with vague, impressionistic lighting effects - even GotG, which tries and fails to emphasize story to a more significant degree. It’s a shocking failure of imagination.

 

[DavidDL]

@egg; Sure, images can be cherry-picked. Yours is an example of the extreme opposite; an under construction photo from a vantage point pretty much only viewable to those climbing the treehouse and zooming in with their camera or staying at the Contemporary Resort. But as the Skyway has taught us; any attraction/location that offers views from on high is always going to reveal some backstage that we're not "meant" to see.

I'm not trying to say that Disney gets sightlines correct 100% of the time. They absolutely don't. I think Guardians of the Galaxy is probably one of the most egregious examples of this I have seen in recent years. That said, I don't think the image you shared is what "most" Guests are going to be seeing. Most Guests walking up are going to have a ground level view that looks more like this:

Is the show building still slightly visible in this example? Sure. But no where near the issue your original image made it out to be.

But I'll be fair, too and say that there definitely is an area Disney needs to improve the sightlines for day Guests and that would be the Storybook Circus/Barnstormer:

While one could make the argument that only small children and their families waiting in line for Barnstormer would be subject to this view (thus being less likely to notice or care), I don't think that's a proper case to be making. This view in particular absolutely should be worked on and could absolutely be simply fixed with some more stinkin' (taller) trees.

 

[SilentWindODoom]

I’d guess that more often, in person, people are seeing stuff like this:
View attachment 704272

You think people are hanging out on the roof of Bay Lake Tower more than leaving Tron?