Guardians of the Galaxy: Cosmic Rewind Queue & Pre-Show Shenanigans Status Report
Walt Disney World has tested stop-gap solutions to its problem with the queues and pre-show for Guardians of the Galaxy: Cosmic Rewind over the last six-plus months. Although shenanigans persist, it seems like they’ve arrived at a semi-permanent protocol to fix these issues to the extent possible. Here are my recent experiences with the current procedure, which aims to mitigate a pinch-point, improve crowd flow, and reduce tensions among guests.
Let’s start with a quick recap of what Walt Disney World was previously testing at various points starting late last summer and fall, which we previously covered in EPCOT Testing Rule Changes to Cosmic Rewind. At the time, Cast Members at Guardians of the Galaxy: Cosmic Rewind were separating the pre-show rooms with one side for standby and the other for Lightning Lane guests.
This was happening after the merge point in the respective queues, which comes before these rooms, meaning that the lines hadn’t really been merged at all. Instead, that test was continuing to divide guests into two sides when they entered the holding room.
Standby guests were directed to the left, with Lightning Lane guests on the right. Cast Members stood in the middle with outstretched arms to keep the groups separated. This process with Cast Members serving as a divider in between each pre-show repeated in the Big Bang room (the one with Glenn Close and Terry Crews) and again in the teleportation room.
The end result was that Lightning Lane guests were closer to the doors exiting the pre-show and leading to the load platform. This test worked to improve crowd flow, eliminating the all-too-common scene of guests crammed into one corner of the teleportation room while the other side was empty. That’s gotta be a safety issue, and I’ve seen tensions get high as guests jockey for positioning over there.
It also gave Lightning Lane Single Pass purchasers an advantage, which I assume was intentional and a result of complaints.
Cosmic Rewind is one of the Walt Disney World attractions with the longest wait from merge to load, with two holding areas plus a pre-show, and then another line before load. I’d hazard a guess that the wait from merge to load is often 20 minutes or more, and that might not be what some guests have in mind when paying extra for line skipping, even if that is the nature of the beast.
In any case, this test ended last fall. I haven’t seen this approach when riding Cosmic Rewind since November, but nevertheless wanted to circle back to this subject since I have consistently seen the same protocol since then (including on a few rides in April 2026) and Cosmic Rewind queueing is a hot topic. Here’s what you’ll encounter now, assuming another test doesn’t take place…
As before, all guests merge at the end of line at the first holding area (not really a pre-show) room. Lightning Lane guests are typically loaded first in here, but were not directed to a certain side or area. It was a “fill in all available space” situation.
Given guest demographics, I’d assume Lightning Lane purchasers are going to the front. Standby guests gravitate to the right side, even if that means being behind more people.
From there, guests walk straight into the Big Bang pre-show room, and then into the teleportation pre-show. There are neither physical stanchions nor Cast Members dividing guests in these rooms. It’s another straightforward “fill in all available space” situation. If you’ve been on Cosmic Rewind, outside of that test late last summer and early fall, this is presumably what you’ve experienced.
On a positive note, the teleportation effect was working on all of my ride throughs this month. This was reportedly broken for several consecutive weeks earlier this winter, which meant disabling the wow-moment of (spoiler alert) going from EPCOT to the Nova Corps ship. I’ve done Cosmic Rewind with that effect not working in the past, but it’s been sporadic. It doesn’t surprise me at all that this effect is a problem from time to time.
With the teleportation room back to normal, that also means guests rushing to the right side of the teleportation room is once again happening. If you’ve never done Cosmic Rewind (or have been exceedingly lucky), it’s normal for a high percentage of guests to immediately cram to the far right side of the room, jockeying for position by the exit doors.
Short of putting switchbacks in this room, I’m not really sure how Disney avoids the stampede. I’m also not sure the degree to which switchbacks are a viable solution. For one thing, a physical queue would negatively impact the atmosphere of the scene and, subjectively, I don’t think that’s worth the sacrifice. There’s also the practical side of the teleportation scene, which changes the size of the space and creates more breathing room.
A final consideration is the speed with which guests need to be cycled through this pre-show to turn it over, and lack the operational expertise to know whether that would be negatively (or perhaps positively?) impacted by a physical queue. Stanchions might be a non-starter.
For now, Walt Disney World’s duct tape solution is blocking off the middle set of doors leaving the Nova Corps pre-show and leading into the load platform queue. This creates some separation in guests and effectively allows for the creation of two lines leading into the load area.
Walt Disney World has been doing this on and off for a while. I did extensive testing for Best & Worst Times to Ride Guardians of the Galaxy: Cosmic Rewind last spring, and I never saw it then. By summer, that door was blocked off some of the time. Since last November, I can’t recall a time I’ve done Cosmic Rewind without that middle door being out of commission. (The above is by no means a comprehensive timeline of the door blockage; just what I recall from firsthand experiences.)
Exiting the pre-show, I’ve seen a couple of approaches. One is a quickly-funneled merge after the doors, and another is two distinct lines until the juncture in the hallway and a Cast Member between them. The latter seems to be the new normal for Cosmic Rewind based on my rides over the last few months.
My recent experiences doing Guardians of the Galaxy: Cosmic Rewind were mostly positive.
This was probably a matter of timing. These rides were the two weeks around Easter, no weekends, and all earlier in the day. This meant there were a lot of first-timers and infrequent visitors to Walt Disney World, multiple tiers of Annual Pass blockouts, and locals less likely to visit since it was the workweek.
I never heard any unsavory answers to Terry Crews asking “what do they call themselves?” Instead, kids gave cute answers on a couple of rides and there was radio silence on another. (I was shocked. It’s been a while since I haven’t heard the oh-so-funny “drunks” or “day drinkers” retort.)
This reinforces my rule of thumb to ride earlier in the day, and never after 8 pm unless during Extended Evening Hours. Bigger picture, I try to avoid weekends at EPCOT at all costs; I aged out of the frat party scene long ago.
There was also little to no rush to the right side of the room in the final pre-show. It was definitely more crowded than the left side, but there have been times in the past when I’ve been literally the only person on that half of the room. It’s a slightly comical scene, as if I’ve forgotten deodorant or otherwise caused an exodus to the far corner. All three of these times, there were people around me. Guess I didn’t smell that bad.
As always, I always hung back and was the last guest out of the room. I see no need to save 2-3 minutes, especially since I was solo each time, meaning it’s going to be luck of the draw with which of the lines I’m sent to at the load platform.
On two of the three rides, leaving the pre-show and merging those two queues was entirely uneventful. Similar to the Haunted Mansion post Stretching Room, where it can be slightly awkward, but everyone is mostly courteous.
One of the times, the lines were moving slower than normal. As a result, they were still backed up past the merge point junction when the next pre-show dumped out. When that happened, I had several parties who were first out of that room more or less push past me (and others from my pre-show) to get ahead.
This was a new-to-me experience, but I can’t say I’m shocked that it happened. I’ve seen people push towards the doors in the pre-show, and that devolve into chaos. It stands to reason that if someone is comfortable to do that, they’re willing to do the same immediately after the doors.
I don’t know what possesses people to behave like this for what amounts to a savings of a few minutes, but to each their own, I suppose. Hopefully this is not a common thing; I still think hanging back on the left and letting everyone else crowd towards the doors is the way to go here.
Our Commentary
It’ll be interesting to see if Walt Disney World ever “solves” the pre-show problem in Guardians of the Galaxy: Cosmic Rewind. My guess is that the closed middle door isn’t a permanent solution, and we’ll see more tests followed by physical infrastructure tweaks.
It might all seem a bit silly, but this is something that Walt Disney World needs to address. The stampede towards the doors can be aggressive, and it’s not hard to envision a kid, elderly or disabled guest being trampled or made to feel unnecessarily uncomfortable. This is doubly true later in the evening, when alcohol can exacerbate the issue.
The closed middle door and makeshift lines leading towards the load juncture strike me as an imperfect solution to a real problem. Honestly, that might be good enough, as I’m not sure how else Disney might realistically fix this. (The previous test involved several Cast Members, making it labor-intensive.)
While guests behaving badly bothers me, and there’s no excuse for pushing past people, I also understand why the rush towards the exit of the teleportation pre-show happens. In (tepid) defense of everyone who does this, the lead-up to the actual ride-through portion of Guardians of the Galaxy: Cosmic Rewind is interminably long.
After the lines merge, there are three separate holding areas, the first of which serves no ostensible purpose. It’s tedious, and easy to see why guests tire of these holding rooms by the time they’re at the marquee pre-show that is actually fun and funny.
This is a problem with poor pacing and pre-show design. Cosmic Rewind could’ve and should’ve been done differently to maintain attention and interest through the final pre-show (Battle at the Ministry and Rise of the Resistance strike mas good multi-phase attractions that are very well-designed).
The physical infrastructure also fails to account for guest behavior; this could’ve been built with only two doors exiting, spaced better apart, and with physical queues immediately thereafter that merge more smoothly. But that doesn’t excuse guests behaving badly during and leaving the final pre-show.
The confounding part of the bad behavior is that it’s not even logical. The very first people through those doors are maybe going to save a 2-4 minutes on average when aggregated over time.
In order to achieve that negligible theoretical time savings, those guests are spending more time in uncomfortable congestion while missing the cool pre-show. And if they did push past others, they’re squished among other guests who they’ve probably just annoyed. So it’s also socially uncomfortable. The best case scenario here is still a net-negative outcome.
Not only that, but on each individual ride-through, there’s no guarantee of any time-savings whatsoever by being the first party versus the very last party out of the room. You might save 30 seconds, 3 minutes, negative 30 seconds, or somewhere in between.
Cosmic Rewind has a dual load platform, and so much is determined by which side you’re assigned and how you’re grouped. As noted above, I’m always the last to leave the pre-show.
Despite this, I routinely have found myself passing other guests who rushed through the doors before me. Not always or even most of the time, but enough to know that luck plays a big role. On other occasions, I’ve occasionally gotten my own ride vehicle because sometimes the pre-shows don’t pulse through quickly. (A bit tangential, but this also feels like a design flaw.)
Staying left in the teleportation room and waiting out the chaos is the subjectively superior strategy, and arguably even the objectively better approach on balance. I would contend that it is–there’s way more upside than there is downside to letting the herd of humanity pass and tightly wedge its way through the corridor.
Ultimately, we’ve said all of the above before so no sense in belaboring the point, even if it’s one of my strongly-held but seemingly unpopular Walt Disney World opinions. I’m reiterating it here to help “remind” readers, many of whom are fixated on efficiency, not to miss the forest for the trees here. Your overall experience will be better by savoring the pre-show, and you’re not sacrificing material or consistent time-savings.
Don’t follow the crowd to the right. That dynamic is fueled by FOMO or FUD or whatever and is not logical. It is my strong belief that rushing the exits in the pre-show at Cosmic Rewind is counterproductive, making your own experience and that of first-timers worse.
You will continue to find me on the far left side of the room, actually enjoying the pre-show. As longtime fans who appreciate attractions as opposed to rides, there’s a reason we pay the big bucks to visit Walt Disney World as opposed to regional amusement parks. There’s a time and place for efficient itineraries, but the parks should be savored like a fine wine as opposed to chugged. To each their own, but that’s another Walt Disney World hill that I’ll die on.
Planning a Walt Disney World trip? Learn about hotels on our Walt Disney World Hotels Reviews page. For where to eat, read our Walt Disney World Restaurant Reviews. To save money on tickets or determine which type to buy, read our Tips for Saving Money on Walt Disney World Tickets post. Our What to Pack for Disney Trips post takes a unique look at clever items to take. For what to do and when to do it, our Walt Disney World Ride Guides will help. For comprehensive advice, the best place to start is our Walt Disney World Trip Planning Guide for everything you need to know!
YOUR THOUGHTS
Thoughts on the pre-show shenanigans at Cosmic Rewind? Does ‘disabling’ the middle door and having two queues leading to load strike you as a good-enough duct tape solution? Do you agree or disagree with our assessment? Any questions we can help you answer? Hearing your feedback–even when you disagree with us–is both interesting to us and helpful to other readers, so please share your thoughts below in the comments!
It’s our favorite ride, and the one I dread going on the most with my children. We do rider swap, and the last time we did it, we went from being the very first group in the first merge room to the last group up the ramp after the last pre-show. Most people pushed past us in the first 2 pre-shows because I don’t rush with my kids. Then to top it off, a family of grown adults decided me walking side by side with my 5 and 7 year old (one on each side holding my hand because I know how bad it gets in those rooms) was too slow for them and literally pushed through my daughter and knocked her into the railing leading to the ramp. If she weren’t holding my hand, she would have been really injured. She was hurt and scared and started crying, and the family ran up the ramp without a care in the world as I yelled some choice words at them. All to save 2 minutes, they ended up going only one launch before we did. I don’t know what the answer is, but it’s not just the young kids or drunk adolescents, I’ve seen actual families with children steamroll their way from the back of the line to front multiple times.
People who crowd the right side and stampede to save a minute or two are low-IQ idiots. Disney should however figure out a fair way to fix this.
I kind of hope they just leave it to hoards to go where they want to go. I also always go to the left and am pretty much always the last person to enter the line after the pre-show.
That 2-3 minutes of wait time I lose would only be a negative if the ride breaks down just as I’m about to get on. I like my odds there.
It’s also comical after a few minutes in that line to see the rush of the crowd behind me to grab the coveted spot looking at my backside.
I don’t know what it is about this attraction that seems to bring out the competitive side of people. Rope dropping the ride is a similar experience of people wanting to push and shove their way past people on the walk from the holding area to save a few minutes in line. It was a sour vibe to start our day on and as fun as the actual coaster itself was, I’m not sure it was worth dealing with the other people.
My biggest problem with this ride is how rider swap works. When you have to do rider swap, even with ILL, it takes in excess of an hour no matter how long the standby line is. Let the swap happen after the two pre shows so that everyone watches the pre shows together. It would significantly reduce the amount of time for a group to go through.
Yes, the Universal approach to rider swap is sooo much better and more efficient than Disney’s.
to be honest, if all lightning lane guests were give the option to skip the pre shows then I think a lot of this would be alleviated. I’m sure rider swap is a huge headache! if I had little kids I would take them over to play in the mission space play area while waiting bc guardians takes FOREVER no matter what.
I hope there is a solution as guest behavior decreases the enjoyment of the preshow. I cannot think of any viable solutions, so I understand the dilemma. Other preshows for attractions have more narrow or smaller holding areas (Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster, Monsters Unchained, Tower of Terror) or have a rolling preshow (Velocicoaster). Cosmic Rewind has an efficient load, so fewer guests in the room results in lost capacity, and a rolling preshow loses the transportation effect.
Thinking about this makes me realize how the preshows of Rise of the Resistance are brilliantly executed. Even after over 6 years of operation, I have never experienced individuals trying to jump ahead during the preshows.
Also, I understand why those in the Lightning Lane are upset. On 4/15, there was a 55 min posted wait, and I waited about 10 minutes in Standby before the merge point, for a total experience time of 40 minutes. Definitely not worth $20 per person in that situation.
This is a great point about Rise, which has similar open loading areas. I’ve seen a few individuals rush through the Star Destroyer, but there’s so much to see that it helps slow people down.
best way to fix it is if guests were just nicer about. it. it really doesn’t make that big of a difference in the grand scheme of things. but everyone has to be first like it is some sort of race. that’s why driving is terrible around central Florida too.
We did Extended Evening hours for the first time at EPCOT this past July and one of my kids and I were nearly stampeded…the loud, drunk crowd pushed so hard during the pre-show before the teleportation that they pushed the doors wide open and there were CMs on the other side shocked and scrambling to get them closed again. My kid and I decided we are never riding in the evening again.
(We also wonder if it would be possible to build in a queue setup in there and make it sort of look like/mimic the “leaning bars” at the China and Canada pavilion- sort of make it seem like you are going to watch a “Xandar 360” situation.)
The worst behavior I have seen is from groups the form themselves into a human chain, with each hanging onto the person in front, and usually the first person is large and burly. They barge through everyone else pulling the rest of the party along with them. Its more swat team than conga line, and seems to be used by groups of 6+ people.
May they be forever cursed to ONLY get “Conga” for their soundtrack!
Team left side here as well!
Glad you haven’t seen anymore people pushing open the doors DURING the preshow like I have. That was crazy, people are weird haha
Get rid of pre shows. They slow everything down when queues are short. They ruin it for lightening lanes. And after seeing them once they are completely boring and sometimes even stressful.
This I agree with or at least the option to skip it. When we were there early December, my daughter and I rode Single Rider for ROR. As soon as we entered and encountered the first cast member, he announced that this line would not see the pre-show which was great for us! He went on to say that he ruined many guests vacations when they would turn back around and go back to get in the stand by. My daughter and I rode together anyway. Didn’t matter to us if we did or didn’t but the single rider line and skipping the pre-show was a great option for us!
This was probably one of the most over researched articles yet over a meh ride. I could have answered the question without the 1,500 minimum word essay…..lack of CMs to manage the ride and crowd flow and the intentional reduction of ride availability to increase LL sales. And the dig about local APs not coming during the week…..so we’re to blame for Disney’s lack of crowds? Um, no, it is Iger and D’amaro’s mismanagement. Little one is sooo over Disney now and he’s still little. He doesn’t want to wait in 60 minute lines for broken rides. When we were at MK recently we walked around the entire park (mostly construction walls) and kept asking him about this or that ride….little one didn’t want to do any of them except the Swiss Family Tree House, which I’m sure is on the next chopping block. He used to love TSI but you know how Disney tears down non-monetized areas for 30yo IPs that are so 3 generations ago. But by all means, blame us local APs for Disney’s downfall cause we’d rather eat the better food at SeaWorld etc….ID.me just announced all VAs get free entrance through the end of May. Disney….construction walls and bland, overpriced Sysco food truck food. Our BLUE CARD dvc just renewed in March and I have no interest in booking a vacay. Usually we would of already had it booked but Disney has stolen all the good will from us.
cool.
Not a fan of preshows- seems like they lead to people acting badly and the “me first “ attitude- just have a regular line to the rides
We’ve started always going to the left in all 3 rooms to avoid the congestion, often being within the last 5 or so people in the line (sometimes there’s a contest to see who can be absolutely last!) Anecdotally, since we started this, I’ve never gotten my two favorite songs on the ride. I feel like I’m being punished!
I rode at close a few times in mid April and I was not a fan of people after those experiences. So much crowding, so much rudeness. Even people being rude when I was trying to move to the left and out of the fray. There was also a ton of line skipping before the pre-shows. I love the ride like crazy but Disney has to figure out a better solution.
ROTR pre shows works so well because they flow a smaller amount of people more frequently
Cut down on the number of people let into the holding pen at any given time, and reduce the pre-show running times by about 30 seconds in each room. Shape the room on the right side of the preshow into curved funnel to the hallway leading to the catwalk rather than a larger room turning to a narrow hallway.
How did a company that has been operating theme parks for more than 70 years manage to create their own operational problems like this? Shouldn’t they have decades of data and experience in crowd dynamics to design a properly flowing queue?
I think that they think people are better than they are. Imagineers + CEOs never having spent time in standby queues probably with all of the line jumping, and insanity of being run over by scooters and pushed by teenagers. They experience the attractions in ideal circumstances, unfortunately. That said the worst line jumping I’ve ever experienced was in early March at Test Track. It was SO bad that we just got out of line and didn’t do the ride. you can only take so many teenagers pushing you over and over again stuck in switchback rooms with no CMs for hours
We hang out on the left side and wait for the crowds to leave too. It’s a better view of the preshows and less stressful. The middle door has been closed every time we’ve visited since January so maybe they have settled on a “solution.”
We rode 2 or 3 times during the busy Christmas – New Years week and had no one respond to Terry Crews! It was great. We also hung out on the left side and enjoyed the space, but the crowding at the door seemed less than the previous year. Perhaps we were lucky, or perhaps people are learning it doesn’t really matter. The (final) pre-show is a great part of the attraction and perhaps the best in WDW (depending if you consider the shuttle ride in RotR part of the pre-show or not; either way it’s light years ahead of FoP). But I do agree that the first holding room is just annoying.
As was the case with my Easter-time visits, my bet would be that you ‘benefited’ from the guest demographics.
While I could see some fans learning from past mistakes and changing their behavior, I doubt it would be a critical mass. And that’s really what underlies this dynamic–if enough people rush towards the doors, it creates a bit of a self-fulfilling prophecy as other guests, who wouldn’t think/know to do it on their own, emulate the behavior due to FOMO or whatever.
Thanks for the update! I think your last paragraph really hits my feelings about what makes the parks worth a visit; savoring the details and not just rushing from ride to ride, bulldozing everyone in your path. One of my all time favorite trips to Walt Disney World *ever* was in November 2020 because the safety protocols meant it was the only time I haven’t had people stepping on my heels in every single queue and walkway the entire time. When it comes to Disney’s queue designs, I’m a little surprised that an attraction as new as Guardians of the Galaxy was built with such a chaotic progression baked in. You’d think with their 70+ year experience building attractions Disney would have someone on every design team with the sole job of taking bad guest behavior into account.
Cosmic Rewind is interesting for a few reasons. A portion of its queue and pre-show were developed around the old Universe of Energy building; elements of this changed fairly late in the project; a lot of the work happened during the COVID era, and probably remotely.
None of that excuses the design and pacing lapses with the queue and pre-show…but perhaps we should thank our lucky stars that the resulting attraction as a whole is so good considering the circumstances!
I do wonder how much the need to use the original Universe of Energy building forced their choices, and if budget cuts are to blame for any other lapses in more creative ways to move from room to room. But I totally agree, the queue oddities do not take away from what a fantastic attraction Cosmic Rewind is. I don’t think I’ve ever had so much fun on a roller coaster anywhere.
I’m not sure if this is just a rope drop thing, but we were in the park Saturday 4/25 and were in the first 50 or so on the ride, so the first groups in the pre-shows. The middle door was still blocked, but when the doors opened, there was a cast member on the other side blocking guests so that the left door could enter the queue first. There was no warning they would be there and was probably a little dangerous for them as the doors swung open and the crowd moved only to be stopped to a halt a few steps in. There was definitely a crush into me as I was stuck about the door frame.
Thanks for sharing!
While there was a Cast Member in that location during my rides, they weren’t actively doing anything. I assumed they were there as a chaperone of sorts if tensions rose or something went wrong, but that person didn’t react at all even when guests were pushing through this area. Maybe what you experienced is (already) the next evolution of this system. Or maybe it was another one-off? Guess I have more ride research to conduct next month!
Rode it 2x with LL this week on 2 different days and as noted just 2 doors opened – right side was held by a CM on other side of door while left side CM ushered people on through.
We went last week during the extra evening hours for deluxe guests. I was very pleasantly surprised that there was no major cattle rush to the side nor any stupid jokes about being drunks. All around, a smooth and enjoyable experience, maybe largely due to it being vacationing families instead of regulars?
Thanks for mentioning this. Extended Evening Hours is my #1 exception to the ‘no rides after 8 pm’ rule. That does seem to be more vacationing families, although not necessarily infrequent ones (which is fine).
I don’t mean to cast aspersions on regulars or APs (since I’m both!), as it’s a small chunk of both that are problematic. And if anything, I think that drunk college aged kids and/or drinking crews are the biggest offenders, and I’d hazard a guess they’re statistically less likely to qualify for ExEH.