When Rise of the Resistance first launched at Disneyland and and at Disney’s Hollywood Studios it was Disney Parks’ most anticipated attraction in years. And so, in order to deal with what was expected to be massive demand, it implemented a new Virtual Queue system. Rather than simply getting in line, or getting a FastPass+ return time, guests had to request their place in line via an app, and wait to be notified when it was time to return and actually get in line. There was no Standby Line option, and since FastPass was never offered on the ride, if you couldn’t get a virtual queue return time, you simply couldn’t get on the ride at all, but that will change beginning September 23.
Today Disney World announced that on September 23 the virtual queue will be “paused” and that instead, guests will be able to simply get in a traditional standby line in order to experience the attraction. The timing of the decision is interesting because barely more than a week later, on October 1, Remy’s Ratatouille Adventure will open at Epcot, and it’s already announced that the ride will use the virtual queue system when it opens.
The announcement comes as something of a surprise considering the ride first launched at Disney’s Hollywood Studios in 2019 and had only ever used the virtual queue system. The system was even just recently updated to make it a lot more user friendly. Having said that, there have been days recently when Rise of the Resistance was clearly seeing less demand than it used to, so it could simply be that the demand is low enough now that the virtual queue simply isn’t necessary. One assumes a big part of the need for the virtual queue was simply that the attractions space for the line wasn’t enough to handle the people that wanted to ride it.
Officially, the virtual queue for Rise of the Resistance is only being “paused” according to Disney, which indicates that it could come back in the future. This may simply be a test to see which solution works best.
Of course, this is also all happening just before the 50th anniversary celebration of Walt Disney World gets underway
More to come…