New Tron Coaster Permits at Disney’s Magic Kingdom

Tron Coaster Permit

Walt Disney World is always moving forward and recently filed permit applications show they are doing just that with their Tron Coaster plans for the Magic Kingdom. The Park will get its version of the “Tron” ride next to Space Mountain, said Bob Chapek, chairman of Walt Disney Parks and Resorts, during D23, the official Disney fan club, in July in Anaheim, Calif.

Days after filing permits for a Ratatouille ride, Disney has some more attraction plans on the books. New permit documents filed Nov. 20 show the location of a planned Tron coaster in Magic Kingdom’s Tomorrowland.

A concept map for MK2 — the working title for Walt Disney World’s Tron coaster — shows it will be adjacent Space Mountain on its north side.

The coaster will be modeled after Tron Lightcycle Power Run at Shanghai Disneyland. The coaster-style attraction invites guests to board a train of two-wheeled Lightcycles for a ride through Tron’s high-tech universe.

Tron Lightcycle Power Run

Orlando-based design firm Heery International Inc. is listed on the designs. Illinois-based engineering firm Professional Service Industries Inc. is conducting geotechnical work on the site.

In a letter to Walt Disney Imagineering, an engineer from Professional Service Industries noted,

“At this time, we have no information on the building size and column/foundation loads. Additionally, there is no information on the finished grades of the floor slab. We would expect foundation loads to be moderately heavy and similar to other attractions in the area.”

The permit for the Tron coaster is bundled into a permit for The Main Street Theater (labeled “MK1”) that will occupy most of what is now a parking lot southwest of the Carousel of Progress and behind the shuttered Galaxy Palace Theater.

This falls in with Walt Disney Co.’s plans to invest in more projects around its Orlando theme parks in the coming year.