Tron fans rejoice, for getting to The Grid is about to get a little bit easier. Today Walt Disney World announced that starting Monday, September 9, guests will no longer be required to secure a Virtual Queue boarding group to avoid paying for an Individual Lightning Lane to experience Tron: Lightcycle Run, the newest roller coaster at the resort. Instead, guests will only be required to…get this…stand in line.
It seems crazy, but standing in line to get on certain rides at Walt Disney World has become a luxury. For the last several years every new attraction at Disney World and Disneyland Resort has included a Virtual Queue, requiring guests to secure a spot in line early in the day, in hopes of riding at some point, and with no line to stand in.
Virtual Queues Have Their Time, And This Time Has Passed
Virtual Queues have been a regular occurrence for every new Disney World attraction since Rise of the Resistance opened in 2019. The idea is that so many so many people are going to want to ride the newest attraction, that the line would simply get out of control. By having guests get a boarding group, and calling groups of guests over the course of the day, the line is easier to manage for Cast Members, and guests get to go do other things and not spend all day in line.
The Virtual Queue is a nice option to be sure, but it can be a pain for guests as anybody who isn’t on their phone right when boarding groups are made available runs the risk of losing out entirely. If that happens, the only choice is to spend extra money on an Individual Lightning Lane, because standing in line simply isn’t an option.
While nobody loves standing in line, a standby line has the benefit of simply letting any guest who is willing to stand in it get on the ride.
Tron Is Ending Its Virtual Queue, But The Guardians Of The Galaxy Roller Coaster Still Has One
When Guardians of the Galaxy: Cosmic Rewind opened in 2022, it also opened with a Virtual Queue. It’s also a roller coaster, just like Tron, but while Tron’s VQ is ending the one for Guardians of the Galaxy is remaining in place.
The only other Virtual Queue currently in place is for Tiana’s Bayou Adventure, the recently reopened update to Splash Mountain. That VQ was announced as a limited-time offering and is expected to end at some point fairly soon.
When it does end, this will leave Guardians of the Galaxy: Cosmic Rewind as the one VQ offering in all of Walt Disney World, which is an odd attraction to be the only one using it since it isn't the newest or even (as far as we can tell) the most popular ride.
One assumes there must be reasons the attraction will continue to use a Virtual Queue, though it's unclear what they are. To be sure, Cosmic Rewind has a lower height requirement than Tron: Lightcycle Run, so the number of guests that can use it is greater. Cosmic Rewind is also the only roller coaster at Epcot, while Magic Kingdom has three. This may mean that Cosmic Rewind is, comparatively, more popular in its park than Tron is now.
At the same time, while there will always be guests who have never ridden it visiting the parks every day, anybody who visits Disney World on any sort of regular basis has had their chance to do it, so it’s unlikely that a standby line would be that crazy today. The line for Rise of the Resistance can still get over two hours. The line for Tron will likely be significant starting Monday.
Honestly, the Virtual Queue is really the only option for Cosmic Rewind in my opinion. Using a Lightning Lane for the Guardians' roller coaster skips a great deal of the work done to make the queue interesting and special. It gets you on the ride faster, but it loses much of the fun.
Virtual Queues aren't going away. Every new attraction is almost certainly going to have them. But, like Tron: Lightcycle Run, Guardians of the Galaxy: Cosmic Rewind isn't new anymore.
