Need Speed? Disney Thrill Rides Pick Up The Pace

While not everyone thinks of Disney as a thrill-ride park, the last two new attractions added to Florida’s Walt Disney World include rides that move pretty fast.

TRON Lightcycle/Run, which opened on April 4, 2023, and Guardians of the Galaxy: Cosmic Rewind, which opened on May 27, 2022, both hit speeds of about 60 mph. While that’s not the fastest a ride at Walt Disney World has traveled (that title is held by Test Track), they do rank #2 and #3.

Rock ‘n’ Rollercoaster, travels at a speed of about 57 mph, but its numerous inversions make it way more intense than its faster cousins, and few things are scarier than the drop on The Twilight Zone Tower of Terror. Imagineers say it registers a speed of 39 mph, but it feels like 110 mph. I guess plunging straight down an elevator shaft just “feels” faster.

Disney is a master of enhancing the speed experience with special effects. For example, Space Mountain travels at a grandmotherly 27 mph but because the coaster runs on a track plunged in complete darkness, it is easy to be caught off guard. On Expedition Everest, the illusion of the track ending and the coaster hurtling backwards while avoiding an angry Yeti makes 50 mph feel reckless.