Virtual Queues Coming to Disney

In response to COVID-19, Disney has been doing everything it can to start opening its gates to Guests. Last week, Disney Springs opened with its first phase. The big question is when will Disney’s U.S. theme parks reopen?

There has been chatter about virtual queues ever since the option has been popping up intermittently in the My Disney Experience and Disneyland mobile apps. The CDC is still requiring physical distancing and capacity measures. To accommodate this, Disney is looking into using the virtual queues to eliminate stand-by.

There has been no confirmation from Disney about how they will handle attractions and Guest capacity at their U.S. Disney Parks. We imagine they are looking closely at what Shanghai is doing.

What are your thoughts on using virtual queues to eliminate stand-by lines?

11 Comments

  1. If they start that, I think people are going to want it to continue forever

  2. Virtual queues will limit the number of attractions you can do in one day. I think that once people see that they will want to get rid of them once the pandemic is over. Disney may want to keep them though because then they will be able to more tightly control crowd flow, numbers of people per day on the attraction (and thus CM staffing), and closing times. No more “in line by closing, and you ride!”.

    • That’s a very good point! A virtual queue is not something I want to be the norm so I hope Disney doesn’t use this as an excuse to permanently implement that process

  3. The only issue with this in regards to social distancing is that instead of barely anyone being in line, you’ll now have everyone wandering about the park. You can see how congested Disney Parks are during a typical normal day when there are no virtual queues. You’d REALLY have to limit how many people you can let into the park at any given time if you eliminate ride lines.

    • This is a really really good point. Im curious what their limit for guests per day will be (tickets sold)

  4. This will be very interesting to see how they make it work. The last thing I would want is for people to virtually hop in line for a ride without having to actually go to the ride and to have that “feature” stay permanent after the pandemic wave subsides. This was and continues to be my beef with FP+. I liked that people had to make an effort to physically go to the attraction to pull a pass for later. With virtual queuing in place it could make it potentially impossible for someone coming into the park in the evening to ride anything. Look at RotR. If you’re not there at park open, you’re out of luck!

    As to people wandering the park instead of waiting in line, here I think Disney has a more hybrid approach based on what I’ve seen. Your time comes up in the virtual queue and then you get in the physical, socially-distanced queue for the ride. It’s not like FP+ where you essentially walk on in 5 or 10 minutes. There would be the virtual wait followed by the physical wait. I think that part is smart, but only for the present circumstances.

    • So what you’re saying is you think this will work like the boarding groups?

      • I’m saying in one way it probably will, but in another way, I hope it doesn’t. There are some queues that really are part of the story and I’d hate for them to be bypassed altogether. You can enjoy them without packing people into the room like they did before the pandemic. I just hope that if you are in one virtual queue, you can’t also be in another one at the same time. That would be unfair since under normal circumstances, you could only join one line at a time anyway.

        • Yeah I know what you mean. If Universal is anything to go by, that’s what they’re doing. They’ve stopped all pre-shows for the time being and re-routed some queues that involve crowded waiting areas. Like you said, I hope they don’t make that permanent. There are some rides I’m fine not to FP because I want to enjoy the queue.

  5. We kind of have that now with Fast Pass. The difference is, Fast Pass is designed around people waiting in other lines, so they can speed through a high population attraction.

  6. i kinda dig the whole virtual queue idea (at least for the more popular rides, and assuming it works like a boarding group.) i also think without fastpass lines are gonna move A LOT faster

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