Epcot opened up its flashy new ride Guardians of the Galaxy: Cosmic Rewind this spring. There are a lot of surprises on Cosmic Rewind, but one that many fans encountered may have been the hassle of nabbing a boarding group to even be able to experience the ride. With wait times on the lower side at Walt Disney World, it makes sense fewer people would be trying the coaster’s reverse launch, but this empty queue still blows my mind.
If you’ve already been on the new GOTG coaster, you may already know the queue is a pretty solid one compared to most rides. It takes riders through the "Wonders of Xandar" and has a lot of fun spots to translate Cosmic Rewind's alien language or just immerse yourself into a world Peter Quill and co. explored. But there doesn't look like there has been a lot of time to linger in the line as of late...
Low crowds at Walt Disney World result in an empty queue for Guardians of the Galaxy: Cosmic Rewind 🤯 pic.twitter.com/nZiJ9UTlrzSeptember 2, 2022
Reports over the last few days have indicated that Disney World is seeing lower attendance and shorter wait times right now. Though kids are getting back to school around this time of year, this is a bit surprising, as the theme parks had showed no signs of slowing down during what had historically been lull times since reopening during the pandemic.
I checked wait times a couple of days ago and Seven Dwarfs Mine Train was well under the hour mark during what would have typically been a busy time of day. (Given what we know about long Disney World wait times, this is low for that ride.) This is one example, but wait times have been low across the board and many blogs are marking it the "off-season" on crowd calendars.
Meanwhile, parkgoers are currently still only able to sign up for the Cosmic Rewind virtual queue once a day. (There is also an option to pay and use Lightning Lane for the Epcot coaster.) Ergo, if there are fewer people in the parks right now, there are likely fewer people in each boarding group and fewer people going through the queue at any given time.
Even if that’s the logic behind the small line in Drew Disney World’s video, it’s still rattling to see in practice. You don’t expect to see such minimal movement on the ride that should be the most popular at Epcot right now, if not perhaps the most popular ride between all four theme parks: Epcot, Hollywood Studios, Magic Kingdom and Animal Kingdom. It just shocks me that there would be a brand spankin' new ride that isn't being utilized to its fullest.
To note, given the Labor Day holiday, wait times have ticked up over the last couple of days. At the time of this writing even some pretty popular rides, like Tower of Terror, are seeing over an hour wait. (That ride’s currently at 85 minutes.) Other popular rides like Slinky Dog Dash, Avatar Flight of Passage and Remy’s Ratatouille Adventure are currently over an hour, so wait times are ticking up a bit over the holiday weekend.
We’ll have to wait and see if this past week was just a fluke, but I’m willing to bet the crowds will die off again after Monday. It’s yet to be seen if this is just a fluky time of year, but it will be interesting to see if the crowds get back on a semi-consistent schedule of busy times and less busy times after things have been all wonky the past couple of years.
We’ll keep you posted regarding wait times in the parks. In the meantime, if the queues do stay this slow, here’s hoping Guardians of the Galaxy’s latest ride finds ways to get more people on the ride – hopefully even more than once per day. There are six classic songs to try out on Cosmic Rewind, after all.
