Today marked a significant achievement in the operations of the TRON Lightcycle Run attraction at Magic Kingdom. TRON Lightcycle Run operated a standby queue for more than 500 days (524 since opening, plus soft openings before that), and it’s not even close to claiming the title of the longest-running Virtual Queue at Walt Disney World. For that title, we skip past even Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance and head to EPCOT. That’s right, Guardians of the Galaxy: Cosmic Rewind has been utilizing a Virtual Queue for a whopping 836 days in a row now. The popular attraction has utilized standby during special events, but for guests wanting to ride the innovative roller coaster during normal park operations, you’ll either have to join a Virtual Queue or purchase a Lightning Lane Single Pass.
A Short History of Virtual Queues
The concept of a Virtual Queue can be traced back to then-Parks Chairman Bob Chapek and the opening of Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge at Disneyland. In the opening months of the immersive new land in Disneyland, crowds were extremely low, but Disney said it all went according to plan. In a shot confidently aimed at Universal Orlando’s opening of Hagrid’s Magical Creature Motorbike Adventure, which drew massive lines on opening day, Chapek said that “10-hour lines are not a sign of success”.
One of the wins that we had with the opening of the original Galaxy’s Edge is that we didn’t have the waits. The deep secret is that we don’t intend to have lines … If you build in enough capacity, the rides don’t go down and it operates at 99% efficiency, you shouldn’t have 10-hour lines.
So, 10-hour lines are not a sign of success. It should be seen as a sign of, frankly, failure.
Since the opening of Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge, Disney theme parks have utilized Virtual Queues for the opening of attractions (big and small). Basically, the thought is that demand will be so outrageous during the initial opening period of an attraction that guests would rather join a Virtual Queue (at 7am nonetheless), and spend the hours that they would’ve otherwise spent in line for Disney’s newest attraction doing other things like riding other rides, shopping, dining, or enjoying entertainment offerings. In theory, this is a pretty solid plan, especially when you consider that new attractions may not always be reliable (more on that in a bit).
Our first recorded use of a Virtual Queue at Walt Disney World was not in a theme park at all, but in Blizzard Beach, of all places. As we documented, the Blizzard Beach Virtual Queue was not nearly as high-tech as it is today, with wristband distribution for select attractions taking place in person. Before then, a Virtual Queue-style system was in place for experiences like the indoor playground at Dumbo the Flying Elephant, and seasonally for the Santa meet and greet at Disney Springs.
It wouldn’t be until the opening of Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge that Virtual Queues would be put in place for guests visiting the theme parks. After an initial opening period in Disneyland using a reservation-based system, a Virtual Queue was introduced for day guests for when the land was at capacity. Basically, Disneyland said that they would take as many guests as they could to start the day and then introduce a Virtual Queue to allow guests to “wait” to enter the land while they enjoyed other sections of the theme park. This Virtual Queue system would come to Walt Disney World for the opening of Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge in August 2019, but it was never needed.
While the use of a Virtual Queue to enter a land wouldn’t be needed at Walt Disney World, new attractions seemed to be the perfect spot to utilize the system to create a better guest experience. Enter: Rise of the Resistance. The period from early December 2019 until the theme parks closed for COVID-19 in March 2020 was a wild ride. Crowds were massive, Disney’s most immersive attraction to date had just opened, and interest was at an all-time high.
The Virtual Queue for Rise of the Resistance was…imperfect. Changing rules led to extremely early mornings and disappointment. It was so rough that I even wrote an article titled “Don’t Visit Disney’s Hollywood Studios Right Now” in February 2020. That overwhelmingly bad guest experience eventually led to the modern implementation of the Virtual Queue rules and timing for new attractions at Walt Disney World.
Walt Disney World’s Longest Running Virtual Queue
The shortest-running Virtual Queue at Walt Disney World was probably the one that was briefly used to manage access to Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge at Disney’s Hollywood Studios. From my recollection, it was only used for a portion of the opening day and then was never needed again. However, the point of this article is to focus on the longest-running Virtual Queue at Walt Disney World.
- Moana Journey of Water | 1 day
- Tiana’s Bayou Adventure | 73 days and counting
- Remy’s Ratatouille Adventure | 101 days
- TRON Lightcycle Run | 524 days
- Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance | 658 days (including COVID shutdowns)
- Guardians of the Galaxy: Cosmic Rewind | 836 days and counting
The question then becomes, when will Cosmic Rewind get rid of Virtual Queue? Unfortunately, there is no end in sight. Guardians of the Galaxy: Cosmic Rewind opened Memorial Day weekend 2022 and Disney has only utilized standby during special after-hours events. To be clear, Cosmic Rewind is not only one of the most popular attractions at EPCOT, but it is one of the top rides at all of Walt Disney World.
Disney has seemingly toyed around with the idea of ending Virtual Queue at Cosmic Rewind over the years. They have asked guests if they prefer to use standby or Virtual Queue for the attraction in surveys, but perhaps the biggest hint that they were considering opening up standby was the installation of an overflow queue back in June 2023. Disney even added umbrellas to the area shortly thereafter, indicating that the area would be used by guests during the daylight hours. There was a lot of optimism that Disney World would end the Virtual Queue at Cosmic Rewind and then they…just didn’t.
Speculation about the use of a standby queue for Cosmic Rewind restarted once Test Track was closed and it seemed tailor-made for the introduction of a standby queue to soak up crowds. Again, Disney World didn’t do anything and left the Virtual Queue in place. Now, as we circle February 20th in our calendar to celebrate 1,000 days of a Virtual Queue for Cosmic Rewind, it looks increasingly likely that we’ll reach that milestone and continue on with no end in sight.
Another attraction to keep an eye on is Tiana’s Bayou Adventure. Unlike Cosmic Rewind, which seems to be working fine, Tiana’s Bayou Adventure has justified reason to keep the Virtual Queue in place due to unreliability. When the Virtual Queue was announced for Tiana’s Bayou Adventure, Disney World said that the Virtual Queue would be in place “during the attraction’s initial opening days”. Of course, we’ve long surpassed the “initial opening days”, but we expect that a Virtual Queue will remain in place until the attraction becomes reliable.
Overall, we think it’s long overdue to remove Cosmic Rewind from the Virtual Queue system, and Disney World needs to allow guests the option to get in line for a ride if they want to wait. Yes, Cosmic Rewind doesn’t have a ton of indoor queue space, but that was a choice Disney World made when retrofitting the building – just like they’ve chosen to keep the Virtual Queue in place for a whopping 800+ days…and counting.
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!