Since Guardians of the Galaxy: Cosmic Rewind opens on May 27th, this is how to experience it. It is a mix of Virtual Queue and Lightning Lane Single Pass, meaning you cannot just walk up to the Guardians of the Galaxy: Cosmic Rewind attraction and just wait in line. We spruced up our article on how to experience this fantastic new addition again. (Updated 7/18/24)
This post will arm you with knowledge on how to join a virtual queue, and also go over how to grab an individual Lightning Lane. Both systems take a quick hand and a lot of planning! We have gotten a boarding pass 100% of the time and have been on Guardians multiple times since it opened.
From Disney’s site:
“When Guardians of the Galaxy: Cosmic Rewind opens, a virtual queue will be in place. Guests will need to use the My Disney Experience app to enter the attraction. A standby queue will not be available. Each Guest can enter the virtual queue no more than once per day.
Boarding groups for a virtual queue are limited, subject to availability, and are not guaranteed. Not all boarding groups may be called to return, based on availability of the experience.”
Over two years later virtual queue remains on this attraction to our surprise.
How to use Individual Lightning Lane Multi Pass & Lightning Lane Single Pass
In order to utilize Lightning Lane, you need a cell phone with the “My Disney Experience” app, and also, purchase Lightning Lane Multi Pass. To purchase Lightning Lane Multi Pass you can purchase this 7 days before you arrive if you are staying at a Disney Resort, or 3 days for all other guests. You can purchase this at 7am EST on your first day of eligibility.
To complicate things more, certain rides aren’t even included in the purchase of Lightning Lane Multi Pass. You actually have five attractions, that you have to purchase separately. These are called “Lightning Lane Single Pass”, or Lightning Lane a la carte. These attractions are currently: Please note Disney opted to leave Seven Dwarfs Mine Train as a ILL making this the first park with Lightning Lane Singe Passes.
- Magic Kingdom: Seven Dwarfs Mine Train & TRON Lightcycle /Run
- EPCOT: Guardians of the Galaxy Cosmic Rewind
- Disney’s Hollywood Studios: Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance
- Disney’s Animal Kingdom: Avatar Flight of Passage
Each Lightning Lane Single Pass can be purchased 7 days by guests staying on property for any of the attractions above. Guests not staying on property can purchase them 3 days in advanced, however be warned of the attractions above are gone within the first couple minutes or even seconds in the case of Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance and we are sure TRON will even be faster for a while. So be ready for your timing based on your travel plans.
Also, one more point of contention, if you are managing Lightning Lane Multi Pass and also Lightning Lane Single Pass, you have a choice to make during your scheduling. The positive change for this new system is that you aren’t trying to do this all at 7am while also trying for a virtual queue. For Seven Dwarfs you can read our strategy here, but we would not purchase Lightning Lane Single Pass for that attraction.
Virtual Queue
Virtual Queue started with Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance (SWRotR). It was created in part to control how many guests could ride the attraction. SWRotR breaks down a lot, and if you can imagine, it was worse when it opened. Virtual lines were introduced to avoid the PR nightmare of guests who waited an obscene amount of time to experience SWRotR, and couldn’t do due it breaking down.
Now I am not saying Disney didn’t have plans to use this technology, but SWRotR helped propel it forward. Virtual Queue comes with it’s own set of problems. It is a lot of overhead for the guest who controls the tickets for the travelling party.
Disney lays out how to use the system very lengthy here, however I will give you the shorter version.
Step 1: You need the “My Disney Experience App” from the Google Play Store or the Apple App Store.
Step 2: Make sure all of your group members are in your party on the app. It is very important to do this the day of your park reservation, and before 7am. Any delay will cost you the boarding group. You can practice this on other days, and even from home in the app. You just won’t be able to see party members since you don’t have a park reservation for the day.
Step 3: Right at 7am, or any other distribution time, click Join Virtual Queue. Don’t hesitate, check all the party members are checked in the app as fast as you can. You cannot spend time checking and unchecking or you will miss it. It IS a race. If you miss 7 am there will be another opportunity at 1pm.
*Important to note that for the 1pm virtual queue opportunity everyone must have already checked into EPCOT for the day. You can tap into EPCOT and leave but you do physically have to go in before 1pm.
Step 4: Assuming you grabbed a boarding pass you should see an anticipated return time for your group
And that’s it!
An addition to the two times above has been included for guests who have access to extended evening hours. If EPCOT has extended evening hours, and you are staying at an eligible resort, you can try to get a boarding pass at 6pm even if you were successful in the morning, meaning you can actually get two boarding passes if you are eligible for the evening attempt.
Our Experience With The Virtual Queue So Far
As we mentioned above we have been flawless on getting a virtual queue so far for Guardians of the Galaxy: Cosmic Rewind. From what we are seeing it is easier to get this virtual queue versus Star Wars ROTR so far at 7 am. Also worthy of a mention is how the 1pm queue has been lasting a lot longer than the 7am queue offering.
We have tried the 1 pm queue only once versus our other 7 attempts at 7am, but we noticed that the 1pm one from what we heard from other guests was still available up to 15 minutes past 1 on the day we were there, so this means you have a great shot at getting a virtual queue boarding pass if you are paying attention even the slightest.
Conclusion
While we are excited for Guardians of the Galaxy: Cosmic Rewind, we are not excited that we cannot simply wait in line for it. Individual Lightning Lane makes sense for Disney and revenue, on the other hand we do not feel that the Virtual Queue should have been used, and we feel this virtual queue will disappear promptly after Labor day, but we shall see!
What are your thoughts? Will you be trying for a boarding group, or try to purchase the Individual Lightning Lane? Let us know in the comments.