TRON Lightcycle Run, at Magic Kingdom, has officially switched from a virtual queue to a traditional standby queue. In this post, we break down our early thoughts on how this impacts your touring strategy at Magic Kingdom. Let’s see what TRON moving to standby means for the most Magical place on Earth!
About This Post
This post supplements our core Magic Kingdom content:
Once the standby queue has been operating for about two weeks, we plan to integrate all our thoughts into that post.
Week 1 Update
Note: This section is an update from the first week TRON used standby. It’s meant to provide some quick notes on topics discussed below. If you haven’t read the rest of this post yet, you’ll want to do that to understand the context of this update.
From ThrillData, here’s how the average waits for TRON have compared to Seven Dwarfs Mine Train for the first week TRON has used standby (by day, given as TRON v. Seven Dwarfs Mine Train):
9/15/24 52 v. 38
9/14/24 82 v. 56
9/13/24 47 v. 37
9/12/24 75 v. 54
9/11/24 64 v. 49
9/10/24 39 v. 33
9/9/24 58 v. 47
Now, average wait time is just one metric you might wonder about. You could also do some digging into peak waits, when the rides have their peak waits, and what morning wait times look like. From my point of view, any time you “save” by pre-queuing for TRON during Early Entry (TRON is still not a part of Early Entry) is not enough to make up for the fact that you’re missing out on the chance to (1) ride Seven Dwarfs Mine Train during Early Entry and (2) rope drop the other side of the park when it opens.
Of course, with Jungle Cruise under refurbishment, the park-opening rope drop isn’t swimming in options. If you could be one of the first people on TRON—particulatly if you have Lightning Lane Multi Pass to help you get on Big Thunder Mountain Railroad, Haunted Mansion, and Pirates of the Caribbean—I could see deciding just to check that one big box early. It’s not a bad strategy.
Personally, I’d still prefer to head west at park open, since I could hopefully get on Big Thunder Mountain Railroad, Haunted Mansion, and Pirates of the Caribbean with minimal waits. Big Thunder, Pirates, and Haunted Mansion all averaged over 30 minutes on September 14 but were mostly walk-ons the first hour of the day, for example.
There’s a detailed report over on WDWNT from the first day of rope drop at TRON. While the author doesn’t note the time they got to the park, it looks like they did not have Early Entry and were instead joining the TRON queue behind guests with Early Entry. They noted making it the locker bay about 44 minutes after getting into line.
What We Know and Don’t Know
Let’s start with the basics—explaining what is changing and why we don’t immediately have the answer to every question about that change.
What This Change Means
If you’re unsure what this means to begin with, here’s a quick refresher. Currently, TRON (at Magic Kingdom) uses a virtual queue instead of a regular standby line. You can’t just go up to the ride and get in line. Instead, you have to try at 7AM or 1PM, in the app, to secure a “group.” You then go get in line for the ride when your group gets called. This all changes September 9. Beginning September 9, TRON will operate like most rides you’re used to—you go to the park and get in line for it when you feel like.
Separately from all this, TRON also has a Lightning Lane Single Pass option, where you can pay (usually $20) to secure a specific one-hour block of time during which you can skip the line altogether. No changes have been announced for TRON’s Lightning Lane Single Pass option.
Aside from those specifics, you’re now faced with the question of how to fit TRON into your day. Previously, the “strategy” was pretty simple—join the virtual queue, go when your group gets called (or buy the Lightning Lane Single Pass).
Moreover, when it switches to standby TRON will not be a part of Early Entry. This caught us by surprise, but it’s presumably one of those things that comes down to money/staffing. Hopefully Disney is able to add TRON to the Early Entry lineup in short order, since it is odd to have Tomorrowland but not TRON open during Early Entry.
With all that noted, let’s move onto how things are going to change at Magic Kingdom, with one quick reminder that we don’t know everything about how this will play out…
What We Still Need to Find Out
The first big question we need to see is what do TRON wait times look like? Seven Dwarfs Mine Train is the reigning queen when it comes to wait times, so we’ll want to see whether TRON becomes the most popular ride in the park. Pricing for Lightning Lane Single Pass certainly suggests Disney thinks TRON (usually $20) is more popular than Mine Train (usually $10-$12).
We’ll be keeping our eyes on TRON’s wait times in the initial days. It’ll take time for guest flows to stabilize as we all see what waits look like throughout the day—don’t expect wait time patterns on day 1 to look like wait time patterns on day 7. There could also be some unexpected nuance—TRON is arguably more beautiful at night than during the day—will wait times reflect this? We’ll see!
The other thing we don’t know is when/whether TRON will join Early Entry. I assume it will, but I can’t speak to when. “Soon” seems like the right word to throw up. But, if “soon”, then why not “now”? I just don’t know. I’m hoping it gets added to Early Entry within about a month, at which point we’ll all have to rethink—again—our Magic Kingdom touring strategies.
How Park Strategy Will Change
Now, for how park strategy could theoretically change…
Impacts on Rope Drop and Early Entry
Sorry—big “oops” on our part writing this post originally assuming TRON would be a part of Early Entry. Maybe can’t blame us for expecting the most important hotel perk Disney offers, and which includes Fantasyland and Tomorrowland, and which includes Seven Dwarfs Mine Train already, would also include TRON. Still, sorry.
But, even though it isn’t immediately a part of Early Entry, TRON will still impact both Rope Drop and Early Entry strategy at Magic Kingdom.
Let’s start with some basic geography that you just might not know. TRON is in Tomorrowland. Like, way in Tomorrowland. It’s accessible primarily via a small path to the left when facing Space Mountain, which is already deep in Tomorrowland. (TRON is also accessible via a path from Storybook Circus in Fantasyland, but it’s a long path and we don’t expect there to be any good “tricks” using that path in the morning.)
Guests without Early Entry cannot access Tomorrowland until the park is scheduled to open. Guests with Early Entry can access Tomorrowland during Early Entry. So, there’s just no sensible way around the fact that guests with Early Entry will have the advantage of waiting outside TRON before guests without Early Entry.
Rope Drop crowd heading into Tomorrowland
If you have Early Entry, you’ll probably have the option of waiting somewhere close to TRON as soon as Early Entry starts. This probably won’t be an official queue—since the ride doesn’t open until the park opens—but you’ll at least be among the first people on the ride.
While I don’t love the idea of doing this, there is a pretty simple factor for why it’s a good idea—money. The TRON Lightning Lane Single Pass usually costs around $20. The Seven Dwarfs Mine Train Lightning Lane Single Pass usually costs around $11. Our standard/old advice is something like “ride Seven Dwarfs Mine Train during Early Entry so you don’t have to buy the Lightning Lane.” Well, that leaves you still having to deal with TRON. If you’d rather not pay for its $20 Lightning Lane, maybe it makes sense to buy the less expensive Seven Dwarfs Mine Train Lightning Lane and spend your Early Entry time queuing for TRON.
Of course, by spending that time waiting on TRON you’re not just missing out on riding something like Seven Dwarfs Mine Train or Peter Pan’s Flight. You’re also missing your chance to rope drop something on the other side of the park (like Jungle Cruise or Big Thunder Mountain Railroad) when the park opens—you’ll be at TRON.
For the first few days it uses standby, I wouldn’t be messing with “pre-queuing” for TRON during Early Entry. I don’t like the uncertainty—the prospect of wasting 30 minutes of Early Entry standing around for a ride that might wind up with, say, a 45-minute wait throughout the day just doesn’t appeal to me. (Of course, maybe the wait is 90 minutes all day—we’ll see.) It helps that I don’t hold TRON in particularly high regard, I must say, and that I much prefer to ride it at night.
That said, I don’t think using Early Entry to wait for TRON is the worst idea in all cases. I’d be most open to pre-queuing for TRON if you have Lightning Lane Multi Pass (so you’re not under as much pressure to rope drop Jungle Cruise or Big Thunder Mountain Railroad), and you can ride Seven Dwarfs Mine Train or Peter Pan’s Flight in time to still beat park-open crowds to TRON.
If you don’t have Early Entry, you’re left waiting in the hub for Tomorrowland to open to you. Then you can go to TRON, but you’ll find some guests with Early Entry already there (and probably in line at that point). How many guests? I can’t say, but I would say it’s enough that I’d suggest doing something else—something on the other side of the park that you can get on right away—rather than getting right in line for TRON.
Other Ways to Fit TRON Into Your Day
If you don’t ride TRON at rope drop, when should you fit it into your day at Magic Kingdom? Your best two options will be (1) the very end of the day and (2) during or immediately after the parade. The first option is always risky, if the park closes at 9PM and the ride breaks down at 8:55PM, you probably won’t get to ride if you saved it for the end.
If you’re going to ride it during or immediately after the parade, you’ve got two sub-options. First, you can watch the parade from the Tomorrowland side of the hub and then rush to TRON as soon as it passes you. This is straightforward enough and a fine option. Second, you can watch the parade from Frontierland and then hustle your way through Fantasyland and to Tomorrowland, getting you there slightly earlier than if you just watched from Tomorrowland. I don’t think the difference here would be huge, but it’s an option.
Impacts on Lightning Lane Strategy
Finally, there is still the option to just buy the Lightning Lane Single Pass and bypass the standby line altogether. The switch from virtual queue to standby queue changes the analysis for the pricey (usually $20) TRON Lightning Lane Single Pass.
With the virtual queue, it was really a question of how much you wanted to risk missing out on the ride altogether. While the virtual queue usually entailed some amount of wait, you weren’t usually paying the $20 just to bypass time in line—you did it because you didn’t want to deal with the 7AM chaos of the virtual queue.
With a standby queue, there’s no more 7AM chaos. You always have the option of getting in line. That’s a comfort. On the other hand, that standby queue will come at the cost of some possibly significant portion of your day.
Personally, I’ve never really felt TRON was worth $20 per person, so I’d usually avoid this route. Certainly if you’re heading to the park before the end of September, though, you might want to avail yourself of this option rather than hoping standby waits are manageable.
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