Walt Disney World announced the late Summer 2025 opening date of Test Track 3.0 at EPCOT. This shares the debut date and new details, plus predictions about soft openings & previews, Lightning Lanes vs. standby lines, crowds, and more!
In case you’re unfamiliar with it, Test Track 3.0 was announced out of the blue, during the last Destination D23. Imagineers along with teams from corporate alliance partner Chevrolet are reaching back into history for inspiration from the original World of Motion, and are bringing that spirit of optimism to the next iteration of Test Track. They’re seeking to push innovation forward and celebrate humanity’s enduring drive on the thrilling road to a brighter tomorrow.
The queue of Test Track 3.0 (not what Walt Disney World is calling the attraction–it’s just the third iteration of Test Track, so that’s what fans have dubbed it) will feature six distinct exhibits, and within each room celebrate the vehicles – and people behind the vehicles – that push the envelope and help get people to our next chapter in our motion journey. New show scenes will be added showcasing technological advances and how our lifestyles and relationships to mobility connect everyone.
Enjoy a joy ride through scenes focusing on onboard technology, customization and personalization. Followed by a trip through a scenic outdoor route reminding us all of the joys of driving, taking in the world around us and spending quality time with friends and family. Prior to today, no opening date had been set for Test Track’s return–it was just scheduled to debut at EPCOT in Late Summer 2025.
Fans won’t have to wait too much longer, as the construction walls have already come down and Test Track is testing! Walt Disney World announced that Test Track will officially open on July 22, 2025.
This Test Track ride reimagining will debut an all-new musical score, as well as new scenes that highlight technology making our cars smarter and our lives more fun.
One of those scenes showcases how vehicles can use advanced cameras and sensors to “see” the world they drive through. Walt Disney Imagineers were able to represent this tech utilizing over 29,000 points of light. To explain a little more how guests will see through the “eyes” of a vehicle, meet Leigh and Cole:
FIRST LOOK at one of the all-new scenes for Test Track 3.0, opening on July 22 at EPCOT! This scene uses 29,000 points of light to showcase how vehicles use advanced cameras and sensors to “see” the world they drive through. pic.twitter.com/aGr0HX9LYT
— Drew Smith (@DrewDisneyDude) June 16, 2025
While Test Track has always celebrated new and future automotive technology, it’s also a reminder of what a road trip is all about: spending quality time in the company of friends and family while embracing the beauty of the world around you.
Imagineering also shared another first look inside Test Track 3.0, this time focusing on the trees in the new attraction:
NEW: Walt Disney Imagineering shared a FIRST LOOK inside Test Track 3.0, opening on July 22 at EPCOT. pic.twitter.com/ZkP1P2ykPT
— Drew Smith (@DrewDisneyDude) June 16, 2025
The Imagineers shared that they wanted to bring a thick canopy of trees inside the show building, creating a thick canopy overhead to conceal the large show building. They wanted to create a feeling of driving through the Pacific Northwest, and focused on four different types of foliage: Cedar, Spruce, Maple and Oak.
Past iterations of Test Track were in a conceptual world, whereas the goal of Test Track 3.0 is to be rooted in reality. I’m certainly not averse to this, as the previous Test Track felt cavernous and largely empty. But I also hope there’s more to the show scenes than just trees. Perhaps I’m overly sensitive to this, but this feels eerily similar to Tiana’s Bayou Adventure–which is filled with expanses of dark bayou–and I’m worried this could be a repeat of that.
Now, let’s turn to questions about Test Track’s Lightning Lane status, potential soft openings, AP/DVC previews, and more…
Soft Openings
Soft openings are also known as trial operations or technical rehearsals, and are basically an unannounced and controlled test period. They provide an opportunity for theme parks to open an attraction prior to its official opening and conduct operations and Cast Member training in a more forgiving and low stress environment.
Typically, these are not publicized via official resources: not on park maps, the official Disney Parks Blog, annoying TikTok videos, wait time boards, or even in the My Disney Experience app. As a result, they always draw significantly fewer crowds than official openings. They’re a nice perk for guests who are already in the park and the most plugged-in Walt Disney World fans.
Walt Disney World had moved away from soft openings in the last few years, before bringing them back with TRON Lightcycle Run two years ago. That was the last big brand-new attraction to debut, before Tiana’s Bayou Adventure last summer, which did not have soft openings.
However, Test Track 3.0 is much more like Tiana’s Bayou Adventure than every major attraction opening since 2021. Aside from these both being ride reimaginings as opposed to new attractions, the big difference is that each of those attractions were originally slated to debut “in time for” Walt Disney World’s 50th Anniversary, but was delayed due to the closure and subsequent phased reopening.
In all of those cases, Walt Disney World purposefully postponed the openings–it wasn’t simply a matter of staffing shortages or construction progress. The opening dates were slow-rolled for strategic purposes. It’s a totally different story with Test Track. As opposed to being purposefully postponed, Test Track has been accelerated–it’s been a race against the clock just to get it ready in time for Summer 2025!
Accordingly, we can’t make any confident predictions with regard to general public soft openings. It really all depends upon how conservative Walt Disney World is with the official opening date, how smoothly work goes between now and then, if unanticipated issues arise during test & adjust, and what the schedule is like for AP and DVC Member previews. There could be time to spare, or it could be a mad dash to make the opening date, with work continuing after hours even after the official debut date and delayed openings for months to accommodate.
Keeping in mind that I know absolutely nothing, my gut says there will be no soft openings. Given what we know about the timeline and existence of affiliation previews, it just doesn’t sound like there will be time for soft openings.
AP & DVC Previews
Walt Disney World’s recent approach has been to forgo soft openings in favor of more controlled previews for select affiliation groups, including Cast Members, Disney Vacation Club Members, Annual Passholders, Golden Oak Residents, Club 33 Members. The press release announcing the opening date of Test Track 3.0 mentioned all of these affiliation previews, so it’s safe to expect that they’ll start in the weeks to come before the attraction officially reopens.
The construction walls came down around Test Track last week, with rolling planters replacing them. At the same time, stanchions went up where the overflow queue will be. All of this didn’t happen for no reason, and suggested that Cast Member previews are right around the corner–likely starting within the next 1-2 weeks.
After that, it’s entirely possible that previews for DVC Members, APs, and other affiliation groups start around Independence Day. That might be too accelerated of a timeline, but we nevertheless expect 2-3 weeks of previews for the aforementioned guest groups. Working backwards, that means CM previews need to begin ASAP.
Expect this to work almost exactly like the previews for the last several years, right down to all eligible APs not receiving the email before slots started filling up. (I wouldn’t expect Disney to go the ‘no registration’ route of Moana’s Journey of Water, as that was a walkthrough and this is a much more limited-capacity venue with showtimes.)
In any case, receiving the email for preview registration does not matter! The link inside is what’s important, and anyone who is eligible can use that. Both of us will be monitoring our emails like hawks in the coming weeks and will give you a heads up ASAP if/when preview registration goes live. You can subscribe to our free email newsletter for instant alerts.
Lightning Lane Status
Next up, whether Test Track 3.0 will be part of Lightning Lane Multi-Pass or becomes another Lightning Lane Single Pass at EPCOT, joining Cosmic Rewind across the courtyard. This is really a “wildcard” in name only, since Walt Disney World hasn’t officially announced anything. We fully expect Test Track 3.0 to be part of Lightning Lane Multi-Pass, not Single Pass.
Test Track 3.0 is only a ride reimagining, and almost certainly one that’s less ambitious in nature than Tiana’s Bayou Adventure at Magic Kingdom. It’s totally different than TRON Lightcycle Run or Cosmic Rewind in that regard, and should follow in the footsteps of Tiana’s Bayou Adventure in being part of Lightning Lane Multi-Pass. (The attraction being sponsored by General Motors and the reimagining largely funded by that partnership makes its direct monetization via Single Pass even more unlikely.)
The better question is probably whether Soarin’ Around the World gets demoted to Tier B in Lightning Lane Multi-Pass at EPCOT. My guess is that it will not, but I think this is a much closer call than whether Test Track 3.0 is Multi-Pass or Single Pass. (At the risk of stating the obvious, it’ll definitely be Tier A, just like before, if it’s part of LLMP.)
Single Rider Status
We fully expect Test Track 3.0 to offer a Single Rider line…at some point. The physical queue for it is still there, so it’s all a matter of enabling guest access.
My guess is that Test Track 3.0 will not offer a Single Rider line when the ride reopens on July 22, 2025. It’s pretty common for new or newly-reimagined attractions to wait for a bit before using Single Rider. Some fans offer up ulterior motives for this, such as wanting to sell more Lightning Lanes or whatever.
This isn’t the real reason. Instead, it has more to do with attractions finding their operational footing and guest demographics upon reopening. On July 22 and for the rest of the summer, there will be a disproportionate number of solo visitors (bloggers, vloggers, influencers, locals, etc.), all of which spike demand for the Single Rider line.
Even on normal days, there have been times when I’ve done the Single Rider line at Test Track that it’s backed up and I’m pretty sure the posted standby line was massively inflated. On at least a couple of occasions, I wouldn’t be surprised if I didn’t save any time whatsoever. Other times, Single Rider on Test Track was great. But right when the ride reopens, the Single Rider backups are more likely to be an issue due to demographics. Give it a few weeks, and we’d expect to see Single Rider return.
Early Entry & Extended Evening Hours
Test Track was previously part of both the Early Entry and Extended Evening Hours at EPCOT lineups. There is every reason to believe it’ll be part of both again in due time.
However, it’s possible it won’t be part of one or both lineups immediately. It seems unlikely that Test Track will be part of Early Entry on July 22, and I’d probably bet against it being part of Extended Evening Hours on July 28, 2025. Neither are outside the realm of possibility, I’d just put them at under 50/50 odds.
The ride rosters for these offerings are dictated by staffing and budgetary constraints, which is one of the reasons why TRON Lightcycle Run is inexplicably still not part of the Early Entry lineup at Magic Kingdom. (Although that excuse is wearing thin.) That’s another extreme case, though, and I wouldn’t bet on Test Track taking that long to be added to the ‘extra hours’ lineups. My guess is that it happens in August 2025.
Test Track’s reopening is still over a month away, so we could see all of this being squared away by then, but it wouldn’t surprise us if it’s not. Test Track is really needed for both sets of ‘extra hours,’ as the ride rosters for both are quite thin, and if even one attraction has downtime (as is often the case), it exacerbates wait times elsewhere.
This is especially true during Extended Evening Hours at EPCOT during the summer months. That perk can be awesome or awful depending upon downtime and weather, and we’ve had some rough nights in August and September when ExEH is actually worse than a regular day at EPCOT. With Extended Evening Hours moving from Magic Kingdom to Animal Kingdom starting in July, it would be a nice little win to have Test Track back for the perk.
Standby vs. Virtual Queue
Another big question is whether Test Track 3.0 will use a virtual queue. With Guardians of the Galaxy: Cosmic Rewind finally dropping its virtual queue after over one-thousand days and Test Track not needing a VQ previously, the answer to this probably seems obvious.
On the other hand, Splash Mountain never needed a virtual queue, and yet Tiana’s Bayou Adventure ended up with one–and long after the initial surge in demand had ended. So it’s always possible that a ride reimagining has somehow made Test Track even less reliable than it was before (and it’s always been breakdown-prone).
That plus heightened demand for the initial reopening period plus weather-induced downtime during storm season might make Walt Disney World give consideration to using a virtual queue for Test Track. I highly doubt this will happen.
Walt Disney World eliminated virtual queues in large part to reduce confusion and friction, and I can’t see this being the attraction that causes them to undo that. If this does use a virtual queue, it’ll only be to manage crowds during the initial reopening rush–I wouldn’t expect any potential VQ here to last into August 2025. But I really hope it doesn’t come to that, period. I’d rather wait in a ~300 minute line on opening day if it comes to that than have to write another treatise on virtual queues.
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Your Thoughts
Are you excited for the opening of Test Track 3.0 at EPCOT on July 22, 2025? Think it’ll have a virtual queue or standby line right at opening? What about soft openings? Lightning Lane Multi-Pass vs. Single Pass? Hoping to attend Disney Vacation Club or Annual Passholder previews? Do you agree or disagree with our advice? 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!