HELP! Why Won’t Disney World Fix This Unnecessarily Complicated Ride Rule?!

Disney World is a place of magic, adventure, and… unnecessarily complicated ride rules?

Look, we know Disney World has a lot of systems in place to keep things running smoothly, and for the most part they work just fine. But every now and then, there’s a rule or process that just feels way more complicated than it needs to be. Case in point: the locker situation at TRON Lightcycle / Run in Magic Kingdom. Let’s talk about it.

For those who don’t know, TRON requires guests to store their larger items in a locker before boarding. This is nothing new—rides like VelociCoaster over at Universal Orlando do the same thing. But where Universal’s system is relatively seamless, Disney’s take on ride lockers introduces an extra layer of frustration for certain guests.

Here’s the issue: The TRON lockers open with either a MagicBand, a ticket card, or a linked MagicMobile pass on your phone. Sounds simple enough, right? Well, what happens if you don’t have any of those things? That’s where things start to get unnecessarily complicated. Instead of having an easy backup system in place, guests in this situation have to track down a Cast Member for assistance.

Imagine this: You’re excited to finally experience TRON. You get to the locker area, ready to store your belongings, only to realize you don’t have a MagicBand or physical ticket card. Now, instead of smoothly moving through the process, you’re stuck waiting for a Cast Member to come over and manually open a locker for you. Depending on how busy it is, this could be a minor inconvenience—or it could completely disrupt your flow through the queue.

Wouldn’t it be easier if Disney had a more user-friendly backup option? I mean, how about implementing facial recognition for their lockers, which would eliminate this exact issue. Even something as simple as having physical locker access cards available in the queue before reaching the lockers would be a major improvement.

The frustrating part is that this problem isn’t affecting every guest—just those without a MagicBand or ticket card on hand. But that’s still a significant number of people! What about international visitors who may not use MagicBands? Or families who rely on one person holding all the tickets digitally? Or what if you locked your phone with the ticket on it in your locker?! Should they really have to go through an extra step just to store their belongings before riding?

We love TRON Lightcycle / Run. The ride itself is an absolute blast, and the locker system is a necessity for the attraction’s design. But Disney needs to take a page from Universal’s book and rethink how guests without traditional access methods can open a locker without unnecessary hassle.

In the meantime, stay tuned to AE for more Disney news.