With Guardians of the Galaxy: Cosmic Rewind now open to the public, we have our first impressions of how the ride will operate over the summer. Guests will initially be required to use a Virtual Queue to experience the attraction, and there will be no standby available during the indefinite opening period. In this article, we’re going to take a look at the Lightning Lane and Virtual Queue options, offer some first thoughts, and try to put together a strategy that amounts to more than “refresh and pray”.
How to Ride Guardians of the Galaxy: Cosmic Rewind
Guests currently have two main options for riding Guardians of the Galaxy: Cosmic Rewind – free Virtual Queue or paid Lightning Lane.
Virtual Queue
Guests hoping to ride Guardians of the Galaxy: Cosmic Rewind for free need to join the Virtual Queue, which is only available for guests who have a Disney Park Pass reservation and ticket for EPCOT. Guests with Park Hopping are excluded from being able to join the Virtual Queue during normal park hours.
The Virtual Queue opens to all EPCOT guests at 7am. This is your first chance for either elation or disappointment, depending on how quickly you’re able to navigate the My Disney Experience app. If you miss out on the 7am drop, there is a second distribution window at 1pm. The only difference between the 7am drop and the 1pm drop is that for the 1pm drop your entire party must have already entered EPCOT. You don’t necessarily need to be in EPCOT at 1pm, but you must have at least tapped into EPCOT.
We have tried to join the Virtual Queue multiple times since the attraction opened to the public and we’ve been met with some successes and some failures at 7am. In short, you can set yourself up for success by ensuring that your party is created properly up to an hour before each distribution time. From there, it really is a matter of clicking through as quickly as possible.
Here’s a look at the flow of joining the Virtual Queue, starting with creating your party on the left and clicking through to join the Virtual Queue. Our technique is to smash the refresh button seen at the bottom of the second screenshot right at 7:00:00am. We keep clicking that area of the screen because it will eventually turn into the “Join Virtual Queue” button. At that point, you pray to Eson and hope that there is still space.
We have a more extensive look at how to join the Guardians of the Galaxy: Cosmic Rewind Virtual Queue in our article below.
Individual Lightning Lane
For guests with more money than time, an Individual Lightning Lane is available for purchase. The price will range from $14 at times with lower demand, to $17 at busier times. Thankfully, the price won’t change during the day but could change from day to day. For a general look at how to purchase Individual Lightning Lane, check out our article below.
There are two things to consider when attempting to purchase a Lightning Lane. The first is whether or not you are a resort guest. While Genie+ selections open to all Walt Disney World guests at 7am, only Resort Guests are able to purchase Individual Lightning Lane attractions between 7am and park open. If you’re not staying at a Disney World Resort, you will not be able to purchase Individual Lighting Lane selections until the official park open time for each individual theme park.
Until today, Individual Lightning Lane availability for Cosmic Rewind has not made it to park open, which means that only Resort Guests have been able to purchase Individual Lightning Lane. However, Individual Lightning Lane availability lasted until 9:44am today, which means that non-resort guests could purchase access to Cosmic Rewind if they wanted to. One day isn’t a trend, but hopefully, we’ll see more options for non-resort guests as we get further from opening day.
The next thing to consider is whether or not you should try for a Virtual Queue first, or make an Individual Lightning Lane purchase first. We’ll talk about that in the next section.
Lightning Lane vs Virtual Queue Strategy
So, should you try to get a Virtual Queue spot first or purchase an Individual Lightning Lane first? Overwhelmingly, the answer is to try for a Virtual Queue spot first. The past few days, the Virtual Queue spots have filled in less than 4 seconds at 7am and the Individual Lightning Lane spots have lasted for more than an hour. Even when demand was super high on opening day, Individual Lightning Lane spots still lasted for 3-5 minutes versus 3 seconds for Virtual Queue.
Of course, attempting to ride with a free Virtual Queue is likely a better option than dropping a minimum of $60 for a family of four to ride. Beyond the price factor, the Virtual Queue utilizes the longer “standby” queue once inside the building, so the queue experience will be better with Virtual Queue than with Lightning Lane as well. The difference between Lightning Lane and standby at Cosmic Rewind is almost as stark as the difference is over at Flight of Passage. Basically, the Lightning Lane guests skip the entire Xandar Gallery, which includes some fun Easter Eggs and wonderfully designed models.
It is very important to note that over the past couple of days, the 1pm distribution time has been easier to find success. Recently, the 1pm drop has lasted anywhere from 3-15 minutes which is plenty of time to join if you have difficulties at 7am and might not be ready to shell out for Lightning Lane.
In short, try for the Virtual Queue first, and then use the Lightning Lane option as either a backup or even to ride multiple times. Disney allows you to get a free Virtual Queue and paid Lightning Lane on the same day to ride twice. If all else fails, set an alarm for 12:45pm and be ready to grab a Virtual Queue spot at 1pm.
As always, keep checking back with us here at BlogMickey.com as we continue to bring you the latest news, photos, and info from around the Disney Parks!
Do you know if the hotels at flamingo crossing count as “Resort Guests” to be able to buy the individual LL at 7 AM?
The whole thing is a shambles! A disgrace! The magic of Disney has been ruined for us with genie+ and lightning lanes. All my children keep saying is can we go home now mummy, this is not magical, it’s stressful. How disappointing 💔