No More Virtual Queues - How This Will Affect Your Next Trip
Beginning February 25th, 2025 - Virtual Queues will no longer be required for Guardians of the Galaxy: Cosmic Rewind (Epcot) and Tiana’s Bayou Adventure (Magic Kingdom). Personally I am very excited about this change, but many are wondering how this will affect their park day.
Virtual Queues
What exactly is a Virtual Queue? Luckily we don’t need to spend a ton of time on this since they are going away, but basically this was a way for Disney to control how many guests were in line for this attraction. This is a common practice for new rides as it helps Cast Members not get overwhelmed with unreasonably long lines while they get used to working out the kinks of running a new attraction.
You would have to get up at 7 am the morning of your park day and get on the app to book your ‘boarding group’. Then throughout the day, boarding groups would get called and when yours was called, you’d be able to get in line for the attraction. There was also an afternoon opening at 1pm, and again for Extended Evening Hours at 5pm. A lot to remember, right?
The big downside to this is that you never really know when your boarding group would be called and not everyone is able to snag one, leaving many guests unable to ride the attraction unless they paid additional for the Lightning Lane.
I think these do work well for the first month or so of a new attraction, but as time goes on (Guardians has been open for 3 years) it becomes a pretty unfair thing for guests who may not be aware that this is something they need to do.
Speaking from personal experience - I’m a local who visits the parks multiple times a week - morning boarding groups typically have little to no wait while those with afternoon boarding groups usually have to wait around 45 minutes - hour+. To me, this means an unequal spread of guests throughout the day while some guests don’t even get the chance to ride at all.
What does this mean for your trip?
In short terms, your day just got a whole lot easier!
Since you no longer have to get up and book those virtual queues, it’s one less thing to remember and you don’t have this weird unknown variable of when your boarding group may get called.
YOU get to choose when you get in line for the ride, so you can have a better plan for your day and you don’t have to worry about hiking all the way across the park because your boarding group got called.
But won’t lines be crazy now?
Listen, you are going to hear a TON of content creators worried about how insane the lines will be and showing the craziness of the first several days.
You have to remember, when something is new or updated or different, people come out in droves to experience it (and yes, make content about it) so you need to take the things you see online in the coming weeks with a grain of salt.
Remember when Rise of the Resistance first came off of Virtual Queue and the lines were insane for a few months? Well, now that attraction typically sees waits around an hour-hour 1/2 and only gets longer than that on really busy days. This is pretty normal for a popular attraction.
Tron is another great example! This just recently came off of Virtual Queue and the lines were also insane at first, but we are slowly starting to see things normalize.
I expect to see a similar trend with Guardians and Tiana’s when they move to Standby this week. It’s going to be nuts for awhile, but things will calm down!
How Should You Navigate this new change
There are going to be times of day that the waits get VERY long like mid-afternoon, and mid-morning - HOWEVER, that doesn’t mean you have to be stuck in those lines!
Utilize things like Rope Drop (arriving early to be one of the first in line) or Reverse Rope Drop (hopping in line right before park close) for some of the shortest waits. You can also keep an eye on the wait time and if you see it start to dip, hop in that line!
Be smart about it! But also, be glad that at least you aren’t at the mercy of being told when to ride.
If the idea of waiting in another line really stresses you out and you have the means, you do still have the opportunity to purchase the Lightning Lane!
This is the only way to skip the line (and has been the only way - virtual queue was never a ‘skip the line’ thing). Guardians of the Galaxy is available as a Lightning Lane Single Pass and Tiana’s Bayou Adventure is available with Lightning Lane Multi Pass.
Overall, don’t stress too much about it! Yes, Disney is a lot to plan, but the BEST way to do a Disney trip is to focus on a few priorities and then just enjoy the magic. Don’t let the FOMO of what you see online tell you how YOU should enjoy YOUR Vacation. It is after all, your time to relax and make memories together.
