One of the early predictions about the Disney theme park reopenings that ended up being completely wrong was the growing use of virtual queues, with the only attraction continuing to use the virtual queue system at Walt Disney World and Disneyland post-reopening being the Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance attraction, which already used the virtual queue before the COVID-19 shutdown. However, it looks like Disney is testing out expanding this system at Disneyland as they have begun testing a “hybrid” virtual and physical queue at Indiana Jones Adventure today.
Under this new system, the regular standby queue opens with the park in the morning, but as crowds grow the attraction switches to a virtual queue, which guests can access through the official Disneyland app. Like Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance, guests will be recalled to the attraction through a boarding group number, and guests can only use the virtual queue for this attraction once per day. Once all boarding groups for the day have been called, the standby line may reopen.
Right now this is only a limited time test, but if it proves successful at helping to manage crowds, we can see it becoming a permanent option at Disneyland, and perhaps paving the way for more “hybrid” queues to be used in the future, potentially even at the new Web Slingers: A Spider–Man Adventure ride, opening next month at Disney California Adventure.
Do you like the idea of hybrid virtual queues, or do you prefer the standby only queues that have been in use since last year’s reopening?
