It’s been a hot topic of discussion lately, and Disney World has recently updated its rules for guests arriving past the arrival window for their virtual queue. With the opening of TRON Lightcycle Run, Disney World is presumably so worried that guests will find the nighttime experience far superior to the daytime experience that they’re worried that guests will purposefully show up late to their Virtual Queue to ride at night. If enough guests do this, it will clog operations in the last few hours of park operation and they might have to stay open later to process all guests.
Because of this concern, Disney World has updated its Virtual Queue late arrival policy on its Virtual Queue webpage to reflect the fact that “late arrivals may not be accommodated”. Here are screenshots that we took of the policy before it changed, and after it changed.
The line that was added reads:
“Please arrive at your attraction once your boarding group is called. Be advised that late arrivals may not be accommodated.”
To be clear, this is a change in operational policy from how the Virtual Queue currently works around Walt Disney World property. Notably, at Guardians of the Galaxy: Cosmic Rewind, guests have not historically been turned away if they show up late to their Virtual Queue Boarding Group window.
This strict policy carries over from the soft opening period, as we previously reported. This policy, while protecting Disney and TRON Lightcycle Run operations, does little for the average guest and it is something that we have previously called anti-vacation. In our opinion, if Disney is so worried about nighttime rides, then they need to adjust the rules to allow for them to block Boarding Group squatting, while still allowing guests who are simply unable to return during a 1-hour window. A window, we might add, that seems to be wildly shifting when estimating return times. In our observation, the return window can shift more than the 1-hour window that guests are expected to return during. This makes it hard to plan if you’re not already in Magic Kingdom. And it still can make it hard if you are in Magic Kingdom but doing other things while on vacation such as waiting to watch a parade or enjoying lunch.
To be clear, we’re completely against Boarding Group squatting, no matter how much better TRON Lightcycle Run is at night (and it definitely is). But, strict adherence to a new late arrival policy that is not consistent with other Virtual Queue-enabled attractions is not, in our opinion, the answer.
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!
What is boarding group squatting?
It’s a term we’ve coined to mean intentionally not redeeming your Virtual Queue Boarding Group when you can and instead waiting until a more favorable time to redeeem. In the case of TRON Lightcycle Run, that would mean intentionally waiting until nighttime when the ride is “better” due to activated lighting effects
The exception to “boarding group squatting” is locals who are working and still trying to fit Disney into their schedule. These people are not on vacation all day and can only get to the parks at night. It is insane to ask these people to pay a ILL every single time they want to experience the ride. Otherwise, I don’t really see why people want to wait until nighttime if they don’t have to! The outside portion of Tron was not enough to make me intentionally wait hours to ride it at night. I really preferred the inside part best! But I guess that’s just me.