Epcot’s New Guardians Of The Galaxy’s Coaster Avoids Intense Wait Times Due To Virtual Queue, But Good Luck Nabbing A Reservation

Trailer for Guardians of the Galaxy Cosmic Rewind shows off the ride theming.
(Image credit: Disney Parks)

Walt Disney World is still in the middle of its, somewhat lackluster, 50th anniversary celebration but today is perhaps the biggest day since the celebration began, as the theme park resort’s newest E-ticket attraction, Guardians of the Galaxy: Cosmic Rewind, has finally opened to the general public. The good news is that the new ride doesn’t have insane wait times, but that’s because there are basically none. The attraction is using a virtual queue and the Individual Lighting Lane system only, and as you can probably guess, those slots are going fast.

There are two ways to get on board Guardians of the Galaxy: Cosmic Rewind. The virtual queue option lets Epcot guests use the Disney World app to try and get a slot at 7am, and then again at 1pm. When virtual queues have been used in the past, as they were for Rise of the Resistance for a long time, they were usually all taken up in seconds, so if you weren’t on the ball, or just had a slow internet connection, you were out of luck. 

The other way to get on the ride  is to use the Individual Lightning Lane system. Through the Disney Genie system, guests can pay money, in this case $17, the most expensive ride in the resort, to reserve a specific wait time. The issue there is that guests at Disney World hotels get access to this system before anybody else, and today, those guests grabbed every available reservation before other guests had a chance. 

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The virtual queue slots that are made available at 1pm will almost certainly vanish as quickly as the first batch did. Although, there are usually more boarding groups made available in the afternoon batch, so that, combined with the fact that many thousand people have already ridden it, increases the odds that guests will make it in the second group. Still, since every day more people that have never ridden Cosmic Rewind will visit Epcot, expect this to be what the attraction looks like for the foreseeable future. 

One thing that is new to the virtual queue system with Cosmic Rewind is that it does tell you what your approximate wait time will be when it’s your turn to get on the ride. It looks to be set at about 30 minutes, which isn’t too bad.  It’s a nice additional piece of information which at least gives riders the ability to plan the experience a bit better, especially since they may have dining reservations that the new ride doesn’t take into account. 

If there’s a silver lining to it all, it’s that, based on reports, the capacity and through put of Guardians of the Galaxy: Cosmic Rewind is significant. The ride is simply able to handle a lot of riders. So many in fact that it appears that the pre-show rooms are actually the major bottleneck, as it seems the coaster itself can handle more riders than it’s seeing on opening day.

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When it comes to opening day bugs and glitches at Disney Parks, this is probably preferable to overcrowding the ride. As time goes on we will likely see things adjusted on Cosmic Rewind to work a little smoother, and when that happens it may mean even more people can go on the ride in a day.  

Dirk Libbey
Content Producer/Theme Park Beat

CinemaBlend’s resident theme park junkie and amateur Disney historian, Dirk began writing for CinemaBlend as a freelancer in 2015 before joining the site full-time in 2018. He has previously held positions as a Staff Writer and Games Editor, but has more recently transformed his true passion into his job as the head of the site's Theme Park section. He has previously done freelance work for various gaming and technology sites. Prior to starting his second career as a writer he worked for 12 years in sales for various companies within the consumer electronics industry. He has a degree in political science from the University of California, Davis.  Is an armchair Imagineer, Epcot Stan, Future Club 33 Member.