Previews of Test Track 3.0 are now underway for Cast Members, and Walt Disney World has announced dates and details for when and how Annual Passholders, Disney Vacation Club Members and others can get a sneak peek of the reimagined ride at EPCOT before the general public. We have all of the info, plus speculation about soft openings and more.
Let’s start with the basics, which is that Walt Disney World announced that Test Track will officially open on July 22, 2025. So regular ticket holders have to wait another full month (almost) before taking a spin on the reimagined ride. In between now and then, there will be a range of previews and (hopefully) a few days of soft openings.
Imagineers along with teams from corporate alliance partner Chevrolet have reached back into history for inspiration from the original World of Motion, and have brought that spirit of optimism to the next iteration of Test Track. They’re pushing innovation forward and celebrating humanity’s enduring drive on the thrilling road to a brighter tomorrow.
The queue of Test Track 3.0 features 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.
Walt Disney World has described the reimagined Test Track as offering guests 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.
As we’ve previously shared, Cast Members previews of Test Track 3.0 are currently underway now through July 10, 2025.
Cast Member previews are almost always done first, and have become a hybrid ‘test & adjust’ and preview period in recent years.
The reasons for this should be fairly self-evident. It’s a nice job perk for Cast Members, but not only that, they’re an easier audience. Most Cast Members have experience working in the service industry, so they’re more forgiving of guests and less entitled. The idea should be similar with APs and DVCs, but sometimes the opposite is actually true.
Walt Disney World has now announced previews for select affiliation groups, including Disney Vacation Club Members, Annual Passholders, Golden Oak Residents, Club 33 Members. If you’re a member of these groups, you should keep an eye out for emails later today (fingers crossed) with specific policies and protocol. For now, we have high level dates and details.
Annual Passholder Previews of Test Track 3.0 will be held July 13-16 and July 18-19, 2025. These will be done via regular Park Pass reservations and a virtual queue, with entry times at 7 a.m. and 1 p.m. This will mirror how AP previews were handled last year for Tiana’s Bayou Adventure according to Walt Disney World (see below).
Club 33 Members and Golden Oak Residents will have their Test Track 3.0 previews on July 11, 2025. This will be done via a registration system, with details to follow via email.
Ditto Disney Vacation Club, which will have its member previews on July 12, 2025 and also via unique registration with details likewise to follow via email. To the best of my knowledge, all of these previews are being conducted in the same way as TBA. So let’s turn to the policies and protocol for those previews from last summer…
To refresh your recollection, here’s how Annual Passholder previews worked last year for Tiana’s Bayou Adventure:
- First, make a park reservation to Magic Kingdom park on a preview date to have the opportunity to join the 7:00 AM virtual queue for that day. Or, you can make a park reservation to any theme park on a preview date to have the opportunity to join the 1:00 PM virtual queue.
- On the date of your reservation, request to join the virtual queue by using the My Disney Experience app. There will be 2 opportunities to join each day of previews.
- The 7:00 AM virtual queue will be available to Passholders with a park reservation to Magic Kingdom park for that day.
- The 1:00 PM virtual queue will be available to Passholders with a park reservation to any theme park for that day.
- Passholders do not need to have entered a theme park when they request to join the virtual queue.
Important Information
- Passholders must have a Walt Disney World Resort Annual Pass with valid admission on the preview date. Applicable pass blockout dates apply. Park reservations are limited and subject to availability.
- Each Passholder can request to join a virtual queue no more than once per day.
- Passholders may hold boarding groups for the preview virtual queue and an attraction virtual queue at the same time, when available.
- Joining the virtual queue does not guarantee the ability to participate in the preview. Boarding groups for a virtual queue are limited, subject to availability and are not guaranteed. Not all boarding groups may be called to return, based on availability of the attraction. Learn more about virtual queues.
- Offering, dates and hours are subject to change or cancellation without notice or liability.
Note: there could be slight differences between Tiana’s Bayou Adventure AP previews and Test Track. Although Walt Disney World confirmed that these previews would be conducted in the same format, discrepancies are always possible. I’ll update all of these sections with official details for Test Track 3.0 previews once available. For now, I figured the dates were the most important detail.
As for the DVC preview of TBA, it was limited to Disney Vacation Club Members who are eligible for Membership Extras benefits. Must hold a qualifying Disney Resort reservation using their Membership. In order to attend, you and the number of guests on your resort reservation as of a set date must have a valid theme park admission and a theme park reservation for the park on the day of the preview event (unless not required for your admission type).
Other Important Information for DVC Previews:
- Advance preview registration is required for this event and walk-ups will not be accommodated.
- A valid Disney Vacation Club Digital Membership Card and photo ID are required at event check-in. The Member listed on the Digital Membership Card must be in attendance.
- Must have the Disney Vacation Club Digital Membership Card downloaded to a mobile device’s wallet to check in for the event.
- Offering and operating hours are subject to availability, closures and change or cancellation without notice. Entry to the preview is not guaranteed.
- Attendees younger than 18 years of age must be accompanied by a participating parent or guardian.
Hopefully, you all already have your park reservations for EPCOT. Back on June 17, we advised readers to “pre-register” for AP previews of Test Track, and recommended targeting July 13-18, 2025. We were off on the range by one day (and hopefully no one booked July 17), but otherwise, that was right on the money. If you didn’t, you should really make EPCOT reservations ASAP. They will book up in the coming hours and days.
Last year, park reservations for Magic Kingdom were fully booked within an hour or so of the announcement about Tiana’s Bayou Adventure previews. However, all 3 other parks still had availability for several days (sometimes right up until previews actually started), suggesting that a lot of Annual Passholders didn’t read the fine print.
This was despite NOT needing a Magic Kingdom park reservation in order to participate. That was definitely strategically advantageous, but you could still attempt to join the 1 p.m. virtual queue–which tended to have better availability, anyway, no matter which park you book. Not only that, but you didn’t even need to have entered Magic Kingdom or any park to attempt to join the 1 p.m. virtual queue. It didn’t work like normal–you could try your luck from the comfort of home!
To each their own, but if it were me…I’d probably make multiple days of park reservations to hedge my bets. I would want three cracks at the virtual queue. That’s the smart play, and you better believe other Annual Passholders have the exact same idea. Given that, it wouldn’t surprise me if the success rate for this theoretical Test Track 3.0 preview virtual queue is under 50%. Maybe it’s closer to 25% or 33%?
If it were me and I didn’t care about being first, I’d probably target dates towards the tail end of the preview period. Most APs will want to be among the first to experience Test Track, so demand could decline as the preview period continues. We saw exactly this with Moana’s Journey of Water, followed by another spike once the walk-through officially opened.
(We did not see this drop with Tiana’s Bayou Adventure, but that could’ve been because the ride was so unreliable that many people got shut out and had to keep trying. Don’t expect a repeat of that with Test Track.)
If you’re wondering about soft openings, the potential good news is that July 20-21 is being left open. The bad news is that this could be for private previews. There probably won’t be a big gala media event given the last minute nature of the announcement and this being smaller-scale than a fully-fledged new attraction, but I’d expect a couple of events for media, as well as General Motors employees and executives.
In other words, don’t hold your breath on soft openings for Test Track 3.0. Aside from TRON Lightcycle Run, which was an anomaly since Disney clearly timed previews in such a manner to allow for soft openings during spring break, Walt Disney World hasn’t done soft openings for a major attraction in several years. It’s all been these controlled previews for select guests. Test Track 3.0 is even more of a ‘known quantity’ less in need of previews since the ride system is unchanged from its predecessor, so I’m inclined to bet against soft openings in this case.
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YOUR THOUGHTS
What do you think? Will you be making park reservations for the Annual Passholder preview dates of Test Track at EPCOT? Agree or disagree with our assessment? 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!