Imagine that you’re in charge of Walt Disney World and it’s April 2020… While you might’ve been expecting for a major financial boost from Spring Break crowds, your four theme parks are instead empty. At the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, every Disney Park on Earth was closed at once in an effort to stop the spread of a virus transmissible by air – something people share a lot of in theme parks.
When Walt Disney World re-opened in June 2020, it was with extremely limited capacity, physical distancing, and a major cutback on attractions and entertainment. And for better or worse, one thing was certain: nothing was going to be “normal” for a very long time… From a transformed labor market and a global construction supply shortage to years of tourism industry downturn, just about everything Disney had planned was going to need rethought.
Remember, you’re in charge. And even as you face the looming countdown to an immovable 50th Anniversary in October 2021, you have some tough decisions to make. For example, you have two mega E-Tickets en route for the 50th Anniversary – TRON Lightcycle Run at Magic Kingdom and Guardians of the Galaxy: Cosmic Rewind at EPCOT. But with limited resources and months of construction lost, you can only choose one to rush order, knowing the other may not be ready until after the 50th Anniversary campaign (which already doesn’t have much to do) is over. Which do you choose? And did Disney choose right?
“Yes, and…”
In improvisational comedy, one of the most foundational concepts is the “Yes, and…” In other words, if you’re doing a real-time, improvised comedy routine with someone and they say something silly and outrageous, your job as their partner is to take their idea and run with it; add to it; build-it up to be even more outrageous. That’s what keeps the skit moving – adding on, raising the stakes, and building upon what came before.
Maybe you can sense where we’re going here.
On paper, both TRON Lightcycle Run and Guardians of the Galaxy: Cosmic Rewind have a lot in common. They’re both high-speed, high-action fusions of dark ride and roller coaster; they both have a unique “upgrade” to the roller coaster base (the “Lightcycle” seating style and the rotating “Omnicoaster”, respectively); they both also heavily feature on-board audio and music as an essential element of the ride.
Don’t get us wrong – TRON Lightcycle Run is a great ride. If you were to simplify it to its most basic elements, you’d say that it’s a mostly-indoor coaster that begins with a high speed launch, then winds and dives through projected environments to a high-energy musical score. It’s short, but it’s a blast while it lasts – about 90 seconds from beginning to end.
But then, you’d probably describe Guardians of the Galaxy: Cosmic Rewind as a fully indoor, multi-launch coaster that begins with a high speed backwards launch, then winds and dives its way through projected environments while rotating to view show scenes, traveling forwards, backwards, and sideways to a high-energy musical score that changes on each ride. Oh, and it’s the longest indoor roller coaster on Earth, with more than a mile of track – about 3 minutes from beginning to end.
“No, without…”
Once you see it, it’s hard to think of Cosmic Rewind as anything other than a “yes, and…” of TRON Lightcycle Run. And because Cosmic Rewind came first, that sort of makes TRON feel like the ultimate sin in improv: a “no.” TRON Lightcycle Run is Cosmic Rewind without…
So even though TRON Lightcycle Run may be a great attraction, maybe you can understand why many fans are beginning to feel that Disney made a foundational error in their choice to prioritize completing Cosmic Rewind first; that TRON feels like a “step 1” rather than a “step 2”; that after forking over $15 for an Individual Lightning Lane on TRON, it’s understandable to wish you’d used it on Cosmic Rewind instead…
But now, we want to know your thoughts… Vote in the poll below and let us know in the comments: do you think Disney should’ve chosen TRON Lightcycle Run as the priority, then opened Cosmic Rewind?
