Credit: DisneyGuardians of the Galaxy:Â Cosmic Rewind is one of the newest rides at EPCOT at Walt Disney World.
Opening to the public in May 2022, the ride is an indoor roller coaster themed after the Guardians of the Galaxy films. Guests are “tasked” to help the Guardians recover a stolen Cosmic Generator and are blasted back in time as the ride starts. This marked the first roller coaster in EPCOT, and similar to Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster Starring Aerosmith, riders can hear one of six songs as they shoot along the coaster tracks.
Being a bigger attraction, Disney announced that the ride would be available with a virtual queue upon opening, similar to the attractions in Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge. With the virtual queue, Guests have two chances throughout the day to register for a spot, once in the morning and once in the afternoon, and must have a valid Park reservation and ticket in order to ride. With the virtual queue, Guests are given a return time for the ride, as there is no current standby offering and if a Guest fails to secure a spot in the virtual queue, they have no opportunity to ride on that given day.
Opinions on the virtual queue system are mixed, and one Disney fan took to Twitter to announce his disappointment that Guardians of the Galaxy:Â Cosmic Rewind is still operating with a virtual queue almost a year after opening, even though it was designed to handle a large capacity. Responses to the post were mixed, with several arguing in favor of the virtual queue.
Guardians of the Galaxy opened 283 days ago… that’s over 9 months ago AND YET it is still using a virtual queue despite the being designed to handle large capacity.
Josh D’Amaro it’s about time this becomes a standard attraction offering. pic.twitter.com/AITCVTIOOz
— Jack Kendall (@ivebeenjack) March 6, 2023
As @wheelsee says,
“I really enjoy a virtual queue. Why would I want to spend 2 hours waiting in a line?”
And @ThisAccountIs43 agrees,
“Unpopular opinion: I really love the virtual queues. Wish all the popular rides did it. I think it’s easy to do it from your phone, in bed at 7am and then plan ur day accordingly around that time slot (if you get one)”
Several others stated that they think the Parks should actually do offer virtual queues for more of the rides, or allow multiple drops during the day to allow more Guests a chance to ride.
Other commenters, like @chescazurin, pointed out that with TRON Lightcycle / Run opening next month, it’s possible that Guardians will revert to a typical standby system.
“I feel like when they open Tron they’ll switch this to regular lines. Not sure but I noticed they do virtual queue one attraction at a time.”
Guests will have to wait and see if they’ll get a change to ride Guardians of the Galaxy:Â Cosmic Rewind without a virtual queue reservation once TRON Lightcycle / Run opens. While the virtual queue does work to make it seem like there’s less of a wait, it can make it difficult for Guests to ensure a reservation and with the size of attendance increasing, it would make more sense to ask Guests to wait in lines in order to try and thin out the crowds throughout the Park.
What do you think of the virtual queue system? Are you a fan, or not a fan? Let us know below!