Did Cosmic Rewind Make Epcot Wait Times Worse?


Guardians of the Galaxy: Cosmic Rewind opened at Epcot on May 27. A new major attraction will definitely draw crowds, but it will also add ride capacity to the park. So did Cosmic Rewind make Epcot wait times worse? We’ll look at wait times before and after the ride opened. For current wait times at Epcot, check out our RideRouter.

In this graph, each point represents a single attraction. The horizontal position represents the average standby wait time for that ride in the 10 days leading up to Cosmic Rewind’s opening (May 17-May 26), and the vertical line represents the wait time in the 10 days after Cosmic Rewind opened (May 27 – June 5). So being in the bottom right means that the line was long before Cosmic Rewind and short after, while the top right means that the line was long before and after the new ride opening. The red dots are the attractions at Epcot. Other colors represent other parks at Walt Disney World, which are included to show how lines are changing as we head into summer vacation. That will help us see if changes at Epcot are due to Cosmic Rewind, or if the changes are normal.


The diagonal line is the line where the two wait times would be the same. To look for wait times that changed when Guardians opened, we look for dots that are farther from the diagonal. The attractions that changed by more than 10 minutes, and are furthest from this line, are:

  • Avatar Flight of Passage. After Cosmic Rewind, the queue increased by an average of 24 minutes.
  • Millennium Falcon. Its average queue increased by 17 minutes.
  • Alien Swirling Saucers. Its average queue increased by 17 minutes.
  • Ratatouille. It’s average queue increased by 11 minutes.
  • Mission: SPACE. Its average queue increased by 10 minutes.
  • DINOSAUR. Its average queue increased by 10 minutes.
There are two at each of Epcot, Animal Kingdom, and Hollywood Studios. Magic Kingdom and Animal Kingdom each have one. With only two of the six being from Epcot, it doesn’t look like the park is seeing longer lines just because Cosmic Rewind opened. This means that even though the ride may be drawing more people, the added capacity is enough to handle the extra crowds.

When Galaxy’s Edge opened at Disneyland, Disney was very concerned that the park would get too crowded. They spent months preparing for it by widening walkways and trying to change crowd movement. Because entrance to the new land was limited with reservations, Disney didn’t end up needing this extra space. Other attraction openings have drawn larger crowds and ended up increasing ride times. This gives us a clue about what effect new rides have on a park. Because Disney is limiting capacity for Cosmic Rewind by using Virtual Queue, there may not be as many people heading to Epcot to try to get on it. When Virtual Queue ends, we may see an increase in other lines, so we’ll run the numbers again after the standby line becomes available.

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