If you’re heading to Disney World this Spring, changes to Virtual Queues on two major attractions could impact your trip.
Disney announced that the current Virtual Queues in place for Guardians of the Galaxy Cosmic Rewind in Epcot and Tiana’s Bayou Adventure in Magic Kingdom will end on February 24, 2025. Both rides will switch over to using traditional standby lines.
How This Change Will Impact Your Trip
These changes may impact your trip planning, especially if you want to get on these two rides during your Walt Disney World visit.
Expect Long Waits
Expect regular standby lines and wait times for these attractions to be long. While Virtual Queues never guaranteed a short wait, they did streamline the process and limited the amount of people in line at one time. People also had to reserve their spots at 7 a.m. or 1 p.m. which deterred some people from bothering with Virtual Queues.
The standby queues will now make these rides more accessible to everyone and wait times will likely be high.
It Might Change Your Rope-Drop Strategy
This change to virtual queues might impact your rope-drop strategy, especially in Epcot. It will likely pull a lot of people away from traditionally popular rope-drop rides like Frozen Ever After and Remy’s Ratatouille Adventure towards Guardians. You might see shorter waits for those attractions if people head to Guardians right away.
If you have young kids or your family just can’t handle the spinning and screens of Guardians, you might benefit from this change and be able to get on Remy’s and Frozen easier. However, if you want a shorter wait time for Cosmic Rewind, your best bet is to utilize early entry and rope drop and head there first.
Use Extended Evening Hours to Your Advantage
I recommend taking advantage of extended evening hours. If you are staying at a Disney Deluxe Resort, you will be able to stay in certain parks on certain nights for an extra two hours after everyone else has to leave.
While Tiana’s Bayou Adventure may not operate during extended evening hours in the Magic Kingdom, other popular rides, like Seven Dwarves Mine Train and Tron Lightcycle Run DO operate. This means you can try to hit Tiana’s first thing in the morning and save those other popular attractions for evening hours when the crowds are much lower.
Keep in mind that Tiana’s Bayou Adventure will still qualify as a Tier 1 attraction when using Lightning Lane Multipass and Lightining Lane Single Passes for Cosmic Rewind will continue to be available. So, if you really do want to skip the lines and the waiting, you can — you’ll just have to pay for it!
