Guardians of the Galaxy Ride
Best way to get in and out of Walt Disney World's EPCOT and the Guardians of the Galaxy Quickly - Orlando.
Have you ever wished you had an insider's tip from a local about how to get to the biggest ride in a theme park in the most efficient way? A huge advantage of being a Florida resident and living here near Walt Disney World is having an annual pass that allows you to come and go, based on park reservation availability, from park to park, especially during off-season, rainy or just cloudy, or cold days.[ he I]Guardians of the Galaxy[/I] ride at EPCOT remains the hot ticket item and I decided to see just how quickly I could get in and out from enjoying the ride and continue with my day.
First: The PrepUnless you pay to get on the
Guardians of the Galaxy ride at Walt Disney World's EPCOT, I'm only aware of two ways to gain entry. One, have your EPCOT pass reserved for that day (it's important! You can't enter the virtual queue otherwise) and check on the virtual queue line at 0700. Or two, at 1300, from within EPCOT, check onto the virtual queue that opens for a second round at 1 pm local time.
If you're on the Walt Disney World app, which you need to have downloaded to your phone, I highly recommend opening the app no later than 0655, opening the virtual queue button, and press refresh at 0659, and then repeatedly until it's accepted. If they're full of the people that have pre-paid for entry, you'll have to try again at 1300. Start at 1255 and the process is the same.
Guardians of the Galaxy Virtual Queue Reservation
This day, I was in luck, and received a boarding time that was quite early, earlier than I've ever been before with "boarding group number 21." The estimated wait time was 245 minutes. I set my alarm for an hour before 11:45, knowing I'd need to leave time to get to EPCOT, park, and walk in, and went about my morning, getting work done even before showering or eating breakfast.
Guardians of the Galaxy From Notification to My Turn On the Ride (fastest ever)
Imagine my surprise when I checked my phone and saw the alert on my phone that they were ready for me to board at 0900!
Disney is known (locally) for inflating their wait time, it's a reverse psychology that helps keep people happy, and I have no arguments with it. The shocking thing was the clock was ticking so I got moving, dressed and ate in a hurry and started my stopwatch the minute I walked out my door. I took screenshots of my time stopwatch, so I can keep you apprised of exactly how long everything took.
Guardians of the Galaxy Ride Interior - I've never seen this room empty before
It was the fastest I've ever made it through the interior rooms of the ride, with one section completely blocked off because they were moving the line so quickly.
Divvied up for the two seats in the four-seat car, I sat with a nice man whose wife doesn't like to ride and two other women, all excited to ride, even discussing the possibility of making funny faces through the camera.
Unfortunately, about halfway through our ride, our coaster stalled, in a very safe place, but they continued the ride without music. Disappointing. No one else was saying anything as we pulled into the exit, so I asked the staff member if, since we stalled and didn't have the complete experience, we could ride again.
I was so impressed when she said yes!
We did have to exit the car, though, and they took us through a super-secret passageway to get us back into the line. We only had to stay in the portion of the line where they load passengers, and we were quickly accommodated, still with our same seatmates.
Guardians of the Galaxy Ride causes new hairstyles...
We enjoyed our second experience, even more, bonded than before.
Fifth: A (not so) Quick ExitInstead of leaving the park immediately to return to my next appointment, I stopped for a few photos and errands so accepted that at least 15 minutes was delayed by me.
EPCOT 360 camera
When I returned home, I'd been gone a total of 104 minutes, so 90 minutes, really, attributed to riding the Guardians of the Galaxy ride (twice!).
Sixth: The Repeat AttemptWhen, at 1300, I tried to re-enter the virtual queue for one more ride that day, I learned that I was blocked. You're only allowed to enter the virtual queue once per day (I called to confirm).
Seventh: The Review
I enjoyed the experience, and it was good to know that door-to-door I could have that much fun in such a short period of time.
Never let it be said that you can't get in and out of Disney World's EPCOT, without a lot of fun in a concentrated period of time. It's just that much more fun to be able to track and share the information with others visiting the area.
