Disney World announced on Tuesday the park will soon end the virtual queue systems at two major attractions later this month.
Newsweek has reached out to Disney via email for comment.
Why It Matters
Disney World, in Orlando, Florida, is the largest of Disney‘s two domestic parks, with the other being Disneyland in Los Angeles. Despite recent downturns at the U.S. parks, data indicates that overall attendance at Disney’s locations has been increasing domestically and globally since the pandemic.
The end of the virtual queues can allow the many guests to line up at their convenience, potentially reshaping crowd patterns at EPCOT and easing the pressure on guests to secure boarding groups early in the morning.
What To Know
According to Disney, starting February 25, Tiana’s Bayou Adventure and Guardians of the Galaxy: Cosmic Rewind will no longer operate by virtual queue and instead will open a traditional standby line.
Guests wanting to ride either attraction will need to secure a spot in the free virtual queue early in the morning or pay extra for Lightning Lane access.
According to Disney, when a virtual queue is in place, guests can request to enjoy that attraction as soon as possible or experience it later in the day. Guests will then need to wait on their virtual queue boarding group to be called to enjoy the ride, but a standby queue is not available to those in the virtual queue.
With the end of the virtual queues, guests will be allowed more flexibility in planning which attractions to ride.
The change comes after both attractions have been two of the most popular rides at the park.
Since its debut in May 2022, Guardians of the Galaxy: Cosmic Rewind has been a crowd magnet at EPCOT. Given its immense popularity, Disney’s decision to implement a virtual queue was expected.
But by June 2023, observant visitors noticed Disney had quietly extended the physical queue for the ride, soon adding umbrellas to shield guests from the summer heat.
Tiana’s Bayou Adventure at Magic Kingdom, which has consistently drawn large crowds since opening in June 2024, initially introduced a virtual queue to manage overwhelming demand.
Disney had previously stated the system would be temporary, used only during the ride’s “initial opening days.” But concerns over the attraction’s reliability extended the virtual queue’s run longer than anticipated.
This is not the first time Disney has removed virtual queues. The park also ditched the system for TRON Lightcycle Run in September.
After implementing virtual queues for some of its other popular attractions, including Remy’s Ratatouille Adventure and Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance, Disney has also dropped those queues and the rides now have standby queue options.
Disney Park Attendance
The change comes after attendance at Disney’s U.S. parks saw a dip toward the end of 2024, which the company has attributed to the effects of recent natural disasters.
The company held its quarterly earnings call earlier this month, during which it announced that revenue in its experiences division—which operates Disney’s parks, resorts and cruise lines—had seen its operating income stay essentially flat in the three months that ended December 28, 2024, compared to the same period the previous year.
Disney’s domestic experiences and parks saw “lower volumes attributable to declines in attendance,” the company said, though it did not specify how much attendance dropped in the quarter.
It added in its quarterly report, “Domestic parks and experiences’ operating results for the current quarter were unfavorably impacted by Hurricane Milton and, to a lesser extent, Hurricane Helene.”
Florida among the states hit hardest by the two hurricanes that made landfall toward the end of 2024—Helene in late September and Milton only a month later. Disney World was forced to close in early October as a result of Milton.
But while Disney does not release attendance figures, the 2024 Theme Index report, cited by Magic Guides, found that annual visits to the Magic Kingdom have grown from 12.7 million in 2021 to 17.7 million in 2023.
What People Are Saying
Disney, on its website: “Virtual queues continue to be helpful with the launch of popular attractions and the debut of new experiences and offerings, so we may use them again from time to time for select experiences in the future.”
Disney CEO Robert A. Iger: “Our results this quarter demonstrate Disney’s creative and financial strength as we advanced the strategic initiatives set in motion over the past two years…Our Experiences segment demonstrated its enduring appeal as we continue investing strategically across the globe.”
What Happens Next
While both attractions will now have a traditional standby line, Tiana’s Bayou Adventure will remain part of the Lightning Lane Multi Pass offering, and Guardians of the Galaxy: Cosmic Rewind will remain a Lightning Lane Single Pass attraction.
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