Virtual queue
A virtual queue is a line-management system used at Walt Disney World and the Disneyland Resort in which guests join a queue through the resort app instead of standing in a physical line. Guests request a place at set distribution times, are assigned a numbered boarding group, and are called back to the attraction when their group is boarding. Disney has used virtual queues mainly for newly opened, extremely high-demand attractions, replacing them with conventional standby queues once demand settles — and, as of February 2025, no Walt Disney World attraction was using one on a regular basis.
History
Disney had experimented with holding a place in line since FastPass in 1999, but the virtual queue as a ride's only means of access arrived with Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance, which opened at Disney's Hollywood Studios in December 2019 and at Disneyland in January 2020. Anticipating demand far beyond the ride's capacity, Disney offered no standby line at all: the sole way to ride was to win a boarding group in the app.[1]
The system survived the parks' COVID-19 closure, and its rules were repeatedly adjusted. From December 20, 2020, distribution at Walt Disney World settled into the pattern that defined the era: a first release at 7:00 a.m., which guests could attempt from anywhere, and a second at 1:00 p.m., for which guests had to be inside the park, with a park reservation for that park required in both cases.[2] Boarding groups routinely disappeared within seconds, and the 7 a.m. attempt became a ritual — and a grievance — of a Disney trip.
Rise of the Resistance itself paused its virtual queue on September 23, 2021 and moved to standby plus paid Lightning Lane access, but by then the model had spread to each new headliner in turn.[3]
Operation
A guest using a virtual queue opens My Disney Experience (or the Disneyland app in California), confirms their party, and attempts to join at the published distribution time. Successful guests receive a boarding group number; groups are called in numerical order through the day, and a push notification signals when a group's window opens. Guests then have a stated period — typically an hour — to reach the attraction. Joining is free, but guarantees nothing: demand regularly exceeded the day's groups.
The attractions that used the system at Walt Disney World were, in turn, Rise of the Resistance, Remy's Ratatouille Adventure, Guardians of the Galaxy: Cosmic Rewind, TRON Lightcycle / Run and Tiana's Bayou Adventure. Cosmic Rewind used a virtual queue continuously from its opening on May 27, 2022 — more than 1,000 days — before switching to standby.[4] At Disneyland, virtual queues were used for Rise of the Resistance and, for a period, WEB Slingers: A Spider-Man Adventure at Disney California Adventure.
Each attraction eventually converted to a standby queue, usually paired with paid Lightning Lane access. The era closed on February 25, 2025, when the last two, Cosmic Rewind and Tiana's Bayou Adventure, both moved to standby; from that date no Walt Disney World attraction regularly employed a virtual queue, though Disney noted the tool could return for future openings.[5] Disney has also used virtual queues for merchandise releases and event entries, and brought Rise of the Resistance boarding groups back temporarily for separately ticketed events such as Disney Jollywood Nights.
As of 2026, the virtual queue is best understood as a launch-phase instrument: a way to ration a new attraction's first months or years without a multi-hour physical line — at the cost of a high-stakes, seconds-long booking contest at 7 a.m.