It looks like Walt Disney World is finally getting ready to announce the opening date of TRON Lightcycle Run at Magic Kingdom. This post shares the cryptic clue posted to social media, which could reveal the opening date and previews…or nothing at all.
In case you’ve forgotten about it, TRON Lightcycle Run is a roller coaster that has been under construction at Walt Disney World for 84 years (give or take). It was first announced back around the time that Kevin Flynn was promoted to CEO of ENCOM International–during the heyday of video game arcades and VHS players. Or so it feels.
Joking aside, TRON Lightcycle Run is an opening day attraction from Shanghai Disneyland, and was meant to open in Florida in time for the start of Walt Disney World’s 50th Anniversary. The roller coaster starts with guests entering a huge gravity/show building where they step onto the Grid and board their own cycle. Like Space Mountain or Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster, much of the ride is in a darkened show building; unlike those, the climax of the attraction is a loop underneath a large color-changing canopy, which is also the iconic feature of TRON Lightcycle Run’s exterior.
At last year’s D23 Expo, Disney announced that TRON Lightcycle Run was delayed until Spring 2023. (Or stated more optimistically, the company narrowed and locked itself into opening the roller coaster in the first quarter of this calendar year.)
Since then, Walt Disney World fans have been anxiously-awaiting an opening date. We sat through terrible Thanksgiving and Christmas Day specials with the assumption that a date would be shared. Nothing. That is, until today…maybe?!? Here’s what Walt Disney World just posted on social media:
>◎//: Need a Clu? pic.twitter.com/fRflNcphH7
— Disney Parks (@DisneyParks) January 9, 2023
While it’s unclear what any of this is, once we assume it’s about TRON and start solving some of the clues, a clearer picture emerges. Here’s what immediately jumps out:
- ???
- ???
- TRON Legacy Release Date – December 17, 2010
- Jeff Bridges’ Birthday – December 4, 1949
- Magic Kingdom Opening Day – October 1, 1971
- Disneyland Opening Day – July 17, 1955
- TRON Release Date – July 9, 1982
- ???
- Shanghai Disneyland (and OG TRON Lightcycle Power Run) Opening Date – June 16, 2016
- ???
Now, let’s try to solve for some of the trickier ones…
Number 10 is attributed to CM, which is Disneyspeak for Cast Members.
A good guess here is that this stands for Cast Member previews of TRON Lightcycle Run occurring 04/4-8/2023. This could mean that Cast previews for TRON Lightcycle Run will occur April 4-8, 2023.
I don’t know what numbers 1 or 8 could reference.
It’s possible these are dates for Annual Passholder and/or Disney Vacation Club previews. If Cast Member previews are scheduled, it would stand to reason that those are as well. However, I don’t have the slightest inclination as to why or how.
Finally, the big one–#2. This is attributed to US, which possibly represents the United States debut for TRON Lightcycle Run.
If that assumption is correct, the score is 13,212,023. Working backwards, that’s 2023 (year) and 21 (day). However, the month is the tricky part since there is no “13” month (yet). It’s possible we’re supposed to disregard the first digit, in which case the opening is March 21, 2023.
However, that’s not the only (or even the best) interpretation, in particular because it would mean #10 is not Cast Member previews. (Those are not going to occur after the ride has already opened to the general public.)
Rather, our best guess is that we’re supposed to add 1+3 (=4), arriving at April 21, 2023 for TRON Lightcycle Run’s opening date. This is probably it, and it’s meant to be a bit more difficult than the rest of the clues (or at least the ones we’ve answered). Nothing else disregards numbers, so I’d imagine that’s true here, too.
Given the lethargic nature of this particular project, there’s also the outside chance that 13/21/2023 is actually January 21, 2024 (the 13th month of this year actually being January of next year). That would be quite the cruel joke, and we hope that is not the case!
Another possibility is that Walt Disney World just executed an epic troll of overly-sleuthy fans who parse the internet for clues where there are none, and there’s absolutely nothing to see here. In which case…well played, Disney!
While a fun detective game, this has nothing on last year’s unintentional tease for Guardians of the Galaxy: Cosmic Rewind. Sadly, Geoff Morrell no longer works for the Walt Disney Company, so he was presumably unavailable to “announce” the opening date a la his leak of the Cosmic Rewind debut.
In case you missed that little instantly-deleted gem last year, he tweeted: “Just another day at the office—got to “test ride” the new @Guardians of the Galaxy rollercoaster at @EpcotCentre. @WaltDisneyCo Imagineers designed this one like no other ride you’ve ever been on. Have to ride it to believe it! Check it out starting Memorial Day weekend!”
That was truly the perfect way to reveal the ride’s opening, right down to tagging the parody account.
Ultimately, it’s clear that this is supposed to be a coded message about TRON, and almost certainly teasing something about the upcoming attraction in Magic Kingdom. With this dropping after 5 pm Eastern, we should have an official opening date for TRON Lightcycle Run very soon. Possibly as early as tomorrow or later this week.
While this is later than we were hoping–especially since the attraction is finished and has been testing with human riders for a while–at least TRON Lightcycle Run is finally preparing to open. Now let’s hope it lives up to the sky-high expectations of Walt Disney World fans who have waited years for this to debut!
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Your Thoughts
Are you excited for the official opening of TRON Lightcycle Run at Magic Kingdom? Think this is a cryptic clue, or meaningless nonsense? What’s your predicted opening date for TRON Lightcycle Run–March 21, April 21, or something else entirely? What about soft openings or AP/DVC and CM previews? Do you agree or disagree with our analysis? Any questions we can help you answer? Hearing your feedback–even when you disagree with us–is both interesting to us and helpful to other readers, so please share your thoughts below in the comments!
