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If you attempt to join the virtual queue for Guardians of the Galaxy or simply use Disney World technology, you may be met with some strange errors and more. Here is our experience.
Riding Guardians of the Galaxy
The free way to ride Cosmic Rewind is using the virtual queue. Virtual queues have come a long way since the early days of Rise of the Resistance, but they can still be tricky to manage. To join the virtual queue, guests must go to My Disney Experience at exactly 7:00am or 1:00pm to try to grab a boarding group.
For the lucky ones that get a boarding group, simply go about your day as normal until your boarding group is called. Check out these great tips to join the Virtual Queue HERE. Not only that, but guests staying at deluxe Disney resorts get an extra boarding group. Check out details on this HERE.
On opening day, Guardians of the Galaxy: Cosmic Rewind’s boarding groups were taken within seconds! However, we’ve seen a downward trend in boarding groups since then. See Susan’s story on this HERE.
The other way to ride Cosmic Rewind is by purchasing an Individual Lightning Lane, which can be as expensive as $18/person. Unfortunately, you may have issues doing either or both of these!
Our experience
This morning, May 30, we attempted to get everything set up to purchase Genie+ and join the virtual queue for Guardians of the Galaxy. Knowing it’s a very busy holiday weekend and the ride is only a few days in operation, we were not expecting a seamless process. However, it was much harder than previous days.
Unfortunately, it was an uphill battle from the very beginning. First, we spent nearly 45 minutes trying to purchase Genie+ alone. The My Disney Experience app kept glitching and giving out errors like it was Oprah Winfrey. Fortunately, we were able to successfully purchase Genie+.
Then, at 7:00 am, we attempted to get into the virtual queue for Guardians of the Galaxy: Cosmic Rewind. Oddly, it forced us to reset our password and so we missed the chance to get a boarding group. So option #2: we got an Individual Lightning Lane. Was this an accident or is Disney making it easier to purchase ILLS vs joining the free virtual queue?
Next up was trying to obtain our first return time for Genie+. Again, it forced us to reset our password. THREE TIMES. Three! It should not have to be this difficult to get everything set up for your day in the parks. We hope no one else experienced this, but this is definitely something to be aware of for your future trip.
How can Disney fix this?
It seems their servers are not prepared for the extreme influx of Guests logging into MDE at 7:00 am. Why they have people join a queue, purchase Individual Lightning Lanes, and get the first return time for Genie+ all at the same time is beyond me.
However, if Disney had different times for each opportunity, it could be even more confusing for Guests to remember all the times. Updating servers seems to be the only solution.
The password issue is a bit puzzling since we do not see this issue very often. This could have been a one-time event.
Have you ever experienced such technical difficulties to get on your favorite rides? Let us know in the comments below and on Facebook.
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