No More Virtual Queues At The Walt Disney World

Virtual queues have been a controversial topic since Disney has introduced them. The virtual queues were developed to reduce wait times for guests on new big ticket attractions. The way they worked was you would log onto your My Disney Experience app and join what the "Virtual Queue." When joining this queue, your party was given a boarding group number for that specific ride. As the day went on, the attraction would slowly cycle through all the boarding group numbers until it reached your party's boarding group number. Once this was called, you had one hour to make it to the ride entrance to get in line.

Photo taken by Jeremy Thompson

The reason this was so controversial was because many people loved them, and others absolutely could not stand them. Those that loved them saw it as a time saver, since the line wouldn't be as long as it normally would have been without the virtual queue. This allowed their party to wander the park and reduce the time they would have had to wait in line.

The negatives to the virtual queue were not very good however. For starters, the first virtual queue opening was at 7am. This means guests would have to wake up early on their vacation in order to guarantee a spot in line. If only it were that easy... The virtual queue had a limited number of spots, so if you were to slow or just had bad luck/internet, you weren't getting in that queue in the morning. Disney had plans for this though.

They also added a time slot at 1pm that guests could retry to get into the virtual queue and secure a boarding group. This also was not guaranteed, and on busy days could fill up right away as well. This left some guests annoyed that they weren't able to get on a ride for that day even though they were at that specific park. Disney had plans for this as well. Disney also allowed you to purchase a lightening lane to be able to ride the ride, but this meant you were paying a fortune for your entire party to ride a single ride.

The major issue most people had was the fact that there was a chance that they were unable to go on an attraction that they wanted to, even though they had already paid to go into the park. Not only this, but for some families, they may not be coming back to that park again in this vacation. For some, it may have even been their only trip ever to this Disney Park.

On top of these issues, you also had older folks who aren't as tech-savvy or that don't have a smart phone. These older people would either struggle to figure out how to ride the attraction or just not be able to at all. I also remember the vast number of individuals and parties that were denied at the gate of an attraction, just because they didn't even know that they needed a virtual queue.

Disney using technology was supposed to make the guest experience more magical, easier, and overall better experience. However, this system left many guests empty, stressed, and possibly even ruining their vacation.

If you were on the side that didn't enjoy the virtual queues, well you are in luck! As of February 25th, 2025, Disney World no longer has any virtual queues in it's parks. Both Tiana's Bayou Adventure in Magic Kingdom and Guardian's of the Galaxy Cosmic Rewind in EPCOT have changed from virtual queue to a stand-by queue.

Photo taken by Jeremy Thompson

Many guests were excited and anticipated this change since they were now allowed to ride it multiple times in a day if they wanted. They also had the guarantee of getting on the ride as long as they were in line before the park closed, barring any ride issues. This isn't just your classic happily ever after story though.

The first week has had its issues. Ride times for both rides have been extremely long, where guests are having to wait hours to get on Tiana's Bayou Adventure or Guardian's of the Galaxy Cosmic Rewind. Tiana's Bayou Adventure also has had a history of breaking down often, which can force people who have been waiting for a long period of time out of line.

Overall, both of these big ticket rides are going to continue to demand high crowd levels, but after some time passes, hopefully the wait times will decrease. Do you like virtual queues and what they have to offer or do you prefer using the stand-by queues? Let us know in the comments below!