Walt Disney World is ending all virtual queues, and will be without any for the first time in years! Tiana’s Bayou Adventure and Guardians of the Galaxy: Cosmic Rewind will both discontinue their boarding group systems and switch to standby soon. This post shares official announcement details, plus our commentary about Magic Kingdom and EPCOT finally dropping the last remaining VQs.
The last time Walt Disney World dropped a virtual queue for a ride wasn’t that long ago. It was back on September 9, 2024 when TRON Lightcycle Run switched to standby. We’ve done comprehensive field testing then, and despite TRON still not participating in Early Entry, it’s going pretty well without a virtual queue.
Prior to that, it had been a long time since Walt Disney World dropped a virtual queue–a few months after the opening of Remy’s Ratatouille Adventure. That change came only a few months after Disney’s Hollywood Studios “paused” the virtual queue for Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance. That pause, thankfully, turned out to be permanent.
Technically, there was about 1-week of no virtual queues at all in Walt Disney World between the time in late September 2021 when Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance dropped its virtual queue and when Remy’s Ratatouille Adventure opened one week later. Given that was one of the lowest crowd stretches at Walt Disney World in the last 5+ years, we’re guessing not many of you experienced it.
For the last meaningful stretch when Walt Disney World was without a virtual queue, you’d have to go back even further–all the way to the halcyon days of December 2019, before the closure and phased reopening, prior to the opening of Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance. Back when free FastPass, evening Extra Magic Hours, etc. were all still alive and well.
Fast forward to today and Walt Disney World has announced that starting February 25, 2025, standby queues will be available at Guardians of the Galaxy: Cosmic Rewind at EPCOT and Tiana’s Bayou Adventure at Magic Kingdom. Virtual queues will be in place for both from now through February 24, 2025.
Currently, there are 2 daily opportunities during regular operations to request to join the virtual queues for Cosmic Rewind or Tiana’s Bayou Adventure:
- 7:00 AM (Guests do not need to be in Magic Kingdom to join the virtual queue at this time)
- 1:00 PM (Guests must have entered Magic Kingdom to join the virtual queue at this time)
Please be aware that as of February 25, 2025, these virtual queues will no longer be available. This will included Extended Evening Hours at EPCOT.
These changes are long overdue. Tiana’s Bayou Adventure is still using a virtual queue for its “initial opening period.” While a standby queue will not be available during the attraction’s initial opening days, Walt Disney World expects to open a standby line soon after the attraction’s opening.
The italicized above is what Walt Disney World said when first announcing the opening date and details for Tiana’s Bayou Adventure back in last May. Disney’s language at the time strongly suggested Tiana’s Bayou Adventure wouldn’t have a virtual queue for nearly as long as any other ride at Walt Disney World. In fact, we predicted it would be dropped by July 8. That was over 7 months ago!
What we didn’t predict–and what no one could’ve predicted–was that the reimagined ride would have so many reliability and downtime woes. It is somehow much, much worse than Splash Mountain. Don’t even get me started on Tiana’s Bayou Adventure’s issues. After encountering repeated headaches with that during the course of field testing last week, I’m at my wits’ end with that attraction. Another story for another day, though.
The good news (unless you’ve been visiting recently) is that Tiana’s Bayou Adventure has been closing early on certain dates throughout Winter 2025, which we’ve assumed was due to conditions (low crowds and temperatures) conducive to extended overnight maintenance. Based on the development that Tiana’s Bayou Adventure is ending its virtual queue on February 25, that’s seemingly confirmed.
Then there’s Guardians of the Galaxy: Cosmic Rewind, which has become the longest running virtual queue at Walt Disney World by a wide margin.
Guardians of the Galaxy: Cosmic Rewind opened 2 years, 8 months and 21 days ago. For the math whizzes out there, it’ll “celebrate” its thousandth day of having a virtual queue later this week. I’m honestly shocked Cosmic Rewind’s virtual queue has lasted so long–we first predicted it’d be retired in August 2022 based on demand and smooth operations.
Obviously, that was very wrong. One potential complicating factor with Cosmic Rewind is less physical queue space, but they installed overflow outside (complete with umbrellas!) over a year ago, and it’s just been sitting there since. It’ll be interesting to see the extent to which this is needed once Spring Break crowds arrive in full force.
As is well-documented in our many posts, our perspective on virtual queues has evolved over time. In large part, this was motivated by Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance improving its reliability and uptime, meaning guests in the standby queue were less likely to endure a breakdown.
The shift to a standby line for Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance was largely vindicated. Although it still has too much downtime, it’s more or less on the outer bounds of what’s acceptable. Same goes for Remy’s Ratatouille Adventure and TRON Lightcycle Run, both of which are below average in terms of ride breakdowns. (They do happen, just not as often as RotR or TBA.)
Suffice to say, it’s hard to see any reason why these rides still “needs” virtual queues so long after their initial launch season–especially if Tiana’s Bayou Adventure has fixed what was making it so unreliable.
In our view, virtual queues are guest unfriendly and should only be used when absolutely necessary. Whenever they can be dropped, they should be dropped. It is patently obvious to me that the VQ can be dropped at Guardians of the Galaxy: Cosmic Rewind. Tiana’s Bayou Adventure might be a different story given its history of reliability problems, but if Disney is moving forward with this decision I assume it’s because they’re confident they’ve found a fix.
As Walt Disney World has undertaken initiatives to simplify and improve the guest experience, eliminating the remaining virtual queues seems like an obvious next-step. And I say all of this as someone who selfishly likes virtual queues because they give me (and other knowledgeable, frequent guests) an advantage over the average visitors. But I also recognize that what’s good for me is not always good for the park-going public.
The thing is that ride capacity is a zero-sum game. If the virtual queue is filling up with a bunch of APs and locals who would skip a triple-digit standby wait, those spots are coming at the expense of someone else. The losers in this scenario are likely disproportionately first-timers and other low-knowledge or technology-averse guests.
Whereas these people often are oblivious to virtual queues or are unsuccessful at joining, many of them are able or more inclined to wait in a long standby line. The balking point is higher for them–they’ve never done the ride, so their tolerance for lines or threshold for waiting is higher than the average AP who skips any standby line that’s over 30 minutes.
First-timers or infrequent visitors are the very demographics that, in my opinion even as a biased and self-interested AP, Walt Disney World should be favoring. It’s better for the sake of guest satisfaction and creating new fans to make things easier for these people, and removing one layer of friction.
This is doubly true when it comes to newer attractions that are the focus of marketing campaigns. There are people who have booked trips after seeing ads for Cosmic Rewind or Tiana’s Bayou Adventure…who haven’t been able to ride because they failed at the virtual queue, or didn’t understand how to ‘play’ in the first place. Or maybe those are just the rides they really, really want to experience over and over again–in which case, they should be able to do so if they’re willing to endure multiple 100+ minute waits. That should be their choice!
As most of us have complained about the amount of screen time and overreliance on technology in visiting Walt Disney World, we should likewise continue to support the retirement of virtual queues. They may benefit us on an individual level, but are bad on a holistic level.
Overall and in aggregate, virtual queues are a negative for the guest experience–and one that leads to more complaints and opportunities for disappointment that has no potential resolution. Virtual queues add yet another unnecessary layer of friction and make things overwhelming and intimidating for inexperienced and older guests.
As such, we applaud the end of the virtual queue at TRON Lightcycle Run in Magic Kingdom. It should’ve happened a full year ago, but better late than never. Next up, Guardians of the Galaxy: Cosmic Rewind. I don’t care what the operational excuse is for keeping that 2 years longer than necessary–it’s a bad one and also needs to go.
Given that this is the first time that Walt Disney World has ever retired two virtual queues simultaneously, and is effectively ending boarding groups for the foreseeable future (the next “chance” at them returning for rides isn’t until 2027 when Tropical Americas opens), it’s natural to question the “why” of this move.
As covered in Walt Disney World is Worried About Its High Prices, the company has internal concerns about Disney alienating the middle class, with growing fears about how price increases and unpopular decisions are angering fans and losing guest goodwill. This is not just price increases. It’s those coupled with corresponding cuts, nickel and diming, and other ways the guest experience has been diminished. Price isn’t the only concern. It’s the value proposition, which has taken hits in both directions.
That has been a hot topic making major headlines for the last week-plus thanks to a report in the Wall Street Journal, and it even necessitated a ham-fisted response from Disney. As we predicted in Disney Responds to Rising Costs Criticism, we fully expect substantive action as a “we’re listening” response from the company.
The last time something like this occurred, a little over a month later Walt Disney World made 3 big changes to restore value and improve flexibility, including the return of free overnight parking at the hotels. Mere months after that, the company announced 5 major improvements to make your visit easier. More recently, there was the switch from Genie+ to Lightning Lane Multi-Pass along with other queueing changes aimed at better balancing the interests of all guests.
Otherwise, not a whole lot has happened to improve the guest experience in the last 365+ days. This could be the opening salvo in Walt Disney World’s attempt to improve guest satisfaction and reduce the amount of friction in visiting its parks. Or it could be entirely coincidental.
It’s possible that the explanation here is simply that maintenance teams found a fix to the problems plaguing Tiana’s Bayou Adventure, to the point that park operations is satisfied that it can run reliably and doesn’t need a virtual queue. From there, management might’ve thought it’s a good idea to eliminated both remaining virtual queues in one fell swoop, as the one at Cosmic Rewind has likewise outlived its usefulness. Personally, I’d prefer to believe that this is Act One in a “we’re listening” campaign. But I guess we shall see.
As for changes to Lightning Lanes, there are no changes to Lightning Lanes.
Tiana’s Bayou Adventure continues to be part of the Lightning Lane Multi-Pass ride roster, whereas Guardians of the Galaxy: Cosmic Rewind sells the a la carte Lightning Lane Single Pass. See our Guide to Lightning Lanes at Walt Disney World for everything you need to know.
For whatever it’s worth, Lightning Lane Single Pass is Selling Out Faster than it used to, and Cosmic Rewind is the most popular LLSP. It’s often gone several days in advance. For its part, Tiana’s Bayou Adventure is the firm #1 pick on our list of the Top 10 Toughest Lightning Lanes at Walt Disney World.
To that point, whenever Walt Disney World has removed virtual queues in the past, a subset of fans has complained that they’ve done so out of “greed” and as a way to push Lightning Lane sales. Ironically, another subset has complained that this is what virtual queues do. There really is no pleasing everyone.
We are highly skeptical that Lightning Lane sales have any bearing on virtual queues. If they did, more attractions would add or remove them, as the case may be. With the benefit of hindsight from the Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance change, it’s safe to say that was/is not the driving motivation.
Lightning Lanes sell out for most attractions on a daily basis, regardless–it doesn’t appear that the virtual queue changes the calculus for prospective buyers one way or the other. This is doubly true for these two attractions because, as discussed above, they are both the #1 most popular rides on LLMP and LLSP. You cannot sell more of that which is already sold out. (Well, they could by increasing supply…but that’s already an option.)
As for the motivations of moving it from a virtual queue to standby, my guess is that this is once again a matter of guest satisfaction. Virtual queues are exceedingly unpopular with guests, who find them counterintuitive and are surprised to arrive and find they do not have the option of standing in line.
Not everything is a conspiracy or done by Disney with ulterior motives to make even more money. That’s not just a cynical perspective, but one that makes our collective voice as fans easier to ignore. If we complain about everything, there’s no point in the company listening to us.
Planning a Walt Disney World trip? Learn about hotels on our Walt Disney World Hotels Reviews page. For where to eat, read our Walt Disney World Restaurant Reviews. To save money on tickets or determine which type to buy, read our Tips for Saving Money on Walt Disney World Tickets post. Our What to Pack for Disney Trips post takes a unique look at clever items to take. For what to do and when to do it, our Walt Disney World Ride Guides will help. For comprehensive advice, the best place to start is our Walt Disney World Trip Planning Guide for everything you need to know!
YOUR THOUGHTS
What do you think of this news that Walt Disney World will end the Tiana’s Bayou Adventure and Guardians of the Galaxy: Cosmic Rewind virtual queues on February 25, 2025? Do you agree or disagree with this change? Any questions we can help you answer? Hearing your feedback–even when you disagree with us–is both interesting to us and helpful to other readers, so please share your thoughts below in the comments!
