On an efficient morning at EPCOT, you can ride multiple E-Ticket attractions in World Showcase or the front of the park, paving the way for a laid back day without Lightning Lanes. This Early Entry report enters via International Gateway and basically addresses whether Guardians of the Galaxy: Cosmic Rewind is worth doing when coming from the back entrance.
This covers a busy day at EPCOT, when the park had a 9/10 crowd level and the peak wait time for Cosmic Rewind was 135 minutes. The park opened at 9 am to the general public and Early Entry began at 8:30 am. That’s about par for the course right now, even on dates with higher attendance forecasts. This has been true for Thanksgiving, Christmas, Spring Break, etc. Even when Magic Kingdom and Hollywood Studios move forward their opening times (as happened on this date), EPCOT doesn’t budge.
As noted above, this Early Entry report starts from International Gateway, as I was staying at Disney’s BoardWalk Inn. Skyliner and Crescent Lake Resorts arrive via this back entrance, which is superior to the front entrance for Remy’s Ratatouille Adventure and Frozen Ever After, the headliners in World Showcase. However, Cosmic Rewind is much closer to the front entrance, so we wondered if the same would be true in reverse–that International Gateway guests would be at a major disadvantage for doing Cosmic Rewind during Early Entry.
My morning began when my flight from California landed in Orlando. I’m a big fan of redeye flights for their efficiency and convenience, as they allow me to hit the ground running, reduce my number of hotel nights, and force my body to adjust to the time change. Sarah thinks that I am, in a word, “crazy” for this.
Anyway, just wanted to throw in my endorsement for redeye flights (and Sarah’s repudiation of them, for balance) since many Walt Disney World fans now find themselves considering new approaches to air travel in the aftermath of Southwest’s controversial changes. If you like saving money and are a crazy commando tourist, redeye flights are for you! If you are a so-called “sane person,” perhaps not so much.
After a surprisingly efficient Mears Connect ride, dropping my bag off at BoardWalk, and one gigantic cup of coffee, I walked over to EPCOT. I arrived at International Gateway at approximately 7:35 am. That’s almost a full hour before Early Entry officially started, which you may or may not want to factor into the total wait time for Cosmic Rewind.
My impression was that the International Gateway turnstiles had just opened within the last 5 minutes (probably right at 7:30 am), because there weren’t that many people in front of me.
From there, I proceeded up the hill towards the bridge and was greeted by two lines. This is where Cast Members verify Early Entry eligibility by scanning MagicBands, resort room keys, or whatever appropriate identification you might have if staying at one of the participating third party hotels. You get held back by the gift shop and can’t access the rest of the park without scanning here.
In a new-to-me move, there were now two lines holding guests here. It used to be the case that this checkpoint opened immediately along with the turnstiles, or perhaps shortly thereafter, and eligible guests could proceed to the next checkpoint. Now, this is a holding point, with Cast Members pre-verifying Early Entry status (meaning they go up and down the line to scan MagicBands, room keys, etc.), but holding guests here.
From what I could gather, how long guests are held here probably depends on how far the line backs up. Meaning that it cannot get all the way to the turnstiles, or else more guests couldn’t enter the park. I could see Cast Members radioing back and forth, and we were finally released at 7:56 am. That’s a random time, which further reinforces the theory that this is subject to change based on congestion.
Upon being released from this holding point, guests can either head towards Canada or France.
The only attraction in the direction of France is Remy’s Ratatouille Adventure. If you’re doing Frozen Ever After first, you’ll need to go towards Canada, as there’s another hold point before the Morocco pavilion. That also opens at random, but the bottom line is that if you’re doing Frozen Ever After first, you shouldn’t even bother with it–head towards Canada.
Also, you shouldn’t bother with doing Frozen Ever After first unless you want to loop it. Getting there this early for one ride on Frozen Ever After is a waste. The only worthwhile starting points during Early Entry at EPCOT are Remy’s Ratatouille Adventure or Guardians of the Galaxy: Cosmic Rewind. If you’re prioritizing anything else, you don’t need to be in the park this early–you can show up around 8:45 am and be fine!
The bigger new-to-me change, which also explains why guests were being held before the France bridge, is that there’s no longer a secondary checkpoint between the United Kingdom and Canada. This is huge.
It means that once you’re past the initial holding area by the front of International Gateway, you can proceed all the way to the front of the park. This didn’t used to be the case, which was why guests who wanted to do Test Track during Early Entry were at a distinct disadvantage if arriving via International Gateway.
I hadn’t tested Early Entry in a few months prior to this, but I’m going to assume the change coincided with Guardians of the Galaxy: Cosmic Rewind switching to standby and joining the Early Entry lineup.
The lack of secondary holding points within World Showcase also means there’s a long and wide path allowing guests to jockey for position without “cutting” anyone around them. This is very clearly not a line, nor is it led by a Cast Member setting the pace. It’s a free for all.
If you’re a fast walker, you can gain some ground–to the point that it probably doesn’t matter that much whether you start out at the front or back of this pack. However, it’s also worth pointing out that over 75% of guests heading towards the former Future World are going to be power walkers. The bottom line is that if you’re slow, you should stick with Remy’s Ratatouille Adventure. There’s still no “race” to that–it’s an orderly line.
Normally, when I test Early Entry or rope drop strategy, I throttle my pace and stop for photos in order to simulate what an average guest might experience. I did no such thing on this particular morning because, again, everyone else was power walking and since I don’t recommend this approach to slower parties. Since I am very good at walking, I had made it to nearly the front of the pack (even with a few photo stops) by the end of this stretch.
At 8:03 am, I arrived at the Innoventions Breezeway.
It had been smooth sailing up until this point, but here’s where things get dicey. There was not a large crowd here, but there were probably ~100 people. What was immediately clear is that even the first guests coming from International Gateway are behind those from the front entrance. Not a huge surprise, as that’s a ton of ground to make up.
Equally significant was that, even though Cast Members were doing their best to keep this orderly, it was still a large and amorphous crowd and they were encouraging guests to fill in all available space. Meaning that Cast Members set outer boundaries for the perimeters of this holding pen, but encouraged people to pack the center.
In practice, this meant that about half the people who arrived in the 5-10 minutes after me actually ended up in front of me. I had strategically (or so I thought) chosen a spot along the perimeter, but it didn’t make much of a difference.
Guests still continued to fill in all available space, with many parties clearly having sent “runners” to save spots and have the rest of their party join them. There might’ve been ~100 people in front of me when this started, but there were easily 200+ before all was said and done. Perhaps I need to practice sharpening my elbows a bit better.
Admittedly, this made for a bit of a stressful experience. Part of that is on me for being intense and lacking chill. But part of it is inherent to the Early Entry mentality. No one is getting up at the crack of dawn and being at the park long before opening to see their competitive advantage slip through their fingers.
It also didn’t help that the crowd was held in this breezeway until 8:27 am.
So much of this could’ve been mitigated by simply preloading the overflow queue for Guardians of the Galaxy: Cosmic Rewind. By putting guests in an actual queue instead of a blob-like holding pen, there would be less chaos and more order. And maybe that’ll happen over time–Cosmic Rewind’s standby line is still fairly new.
In any case, we started moving at 8:27 am, with Cast Members slowly guiding the blob towards the line, taking a winding route towards Mission Space and into the physical line. There was a bit more jockeying for position through this, and I was at a slight advantage in being at the far right side.
Here are a few more photos of this process:
In the end, I made it into the line for Guardians of the Galaxy: Cosmic Rewind by 8:32 am.
The line was constantly moving outdoors and for most of the indoor queue. It only slowed towards the end, which I’m going to assume is a byproduct of the pre-shows filling up with the guests in front of me.
Nevertheless, I made it into the first pre-show holding area (so not the actual first pre-show, but the blank room before that) by 8:42 am. The multiple pre-shows are one of the reasons why preloading the queue–and even starting the pre-shows prior to 8:30 am might make sense.
Unlike Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster, there is no bypassing any of these, which means both that the minimum time requirement for Cosmic Rewind is higher and that the roller coaster is operating inefficiently first thing in the morning. To the latter point, I saw it dispatching empty ride vehicles on this particular morning due to the gaps between the pre-shows.
All of the aforementioned ‘jockeying’ for position normally wouldn’t matter.
However, it does with Guardians of the Galaxy: Cosmic Rewind. That’s in part due to the aforementioned pre-shows, as just making or missing a cut-off can save or cost you an extra several minutes. It’s also because of the total experience duration. Then there’s the reality that Cosmic Rewind is currently far and away the highest priority attraction at the front of the park, and that 95% of rope drop guests arriving via the front entrance are heading towards Cosmic Rewind.
This means that far and away the best strategy for Early Entry is simply doing Guardians of the Galaxy: Cosmic Rewind twice. But this is only possible if you’re near the front of the pack and don’t get unlucky with timing the pre-shows.
On this particular morning, I was unlucky.
Even though I was off Cosmic Rewind with minutes to spare before official rope drop, I nevertheless missed being able to loop the ride and re-enter the standby line before the rope drop crowd by less than one minute. In the photo above, you can see the front of the rope drop crowd just beating me into the standby line as I exited Cosmic Rewind.
I probably could’ve looped into this crowd, but I’m not sure how well-received that would’ve been with rope drop guests. Whether that’s cutting or simply merging is a grey area, one of Walt Disney World’s great ethical dilemmas–a question for smarter people than me. Regardless, I didn’t have the temerity to test it.
Another alternative, which is what I ended up doing once Cosmic Rewind was taken off the table, was heading to World Showcase for Frozen Ever After.
On a good morning, I would’ve been able to do this attraction with very little wait (<15 minutes). This wasn’t a good morning. Not only was it a 9/10 crowd level day, but Remy’s Ratatouille Adventure had broken down during Early Entry, so everyone who otherwise would’ve prioritized the Rat Ride was heading towards Norway.
When I arrived at Frozen Ever After, the extended queue was already in use and the posted wait time was 40 minutes. Highly skeptical that the wait was only 40 minutes–especially with more guests arriving and starting to use Lightning Lanes–I balked at this. That was my first bit of good luck, as Frozen Ever After went down within the next 10 minutes.
Instead, I raced over to the Land and did Soarin’ Around the World as a near walk-on.
By the time I was done with that, it had a 60 minute posted wait time. Even with this being a busy day, I strongly suspect that was an outlier. Both Remy’s Ratatouille Adventure and Frozen Ever After had broken down, while Cosmic Rewind was already posting a triple-digit wait. Of course the crowds would be diverted to Soarin’ at that point.
In the coming months, this strategy will change again once Test Track 3.0 debuts. My hope is that this leads to a scenario where positioning for Cosmic Rewind matters less (it’ll still be the clear #1 priority) because the best play will become Cosmic Rewind -> Test Track -> Frozen Ever After. That would be a great run. For now, though, that isn’t possible.
The bottom line is that I waited either ~10 minutes or ~60 minutes for Guardians of the Galaxy: Cosmic Rewind, depending upon whether you start the clock when I entered EPCOT or from the time Early Entry started. Either of those times would be well below-average for a 9/10 crowd level day, when Cosmic Rewind seldom dropped below triple-digit wait times. So if the question is simply whether it’s possible to beat the crowd and save time at Cosmic Rewind from International Gateway, the answer is a definite yes.
However, it’s equally worthwhile to consider the opportunity cost and the time that I could’ve saved with an alternative approach. One that did not require power-walking from the back of the park to the front, sharp elbows, or the other stresses of starting at Cosmic Rewind from International Gateway.
Given that it’s highly improbable that guests arriving from International Gateway will be able to consistently double-up on Guardians of the Galaxy: Cosmic Rewind (it will be possible from time to time, especially in low to moderate crowds), I question whether this is the best use of Early Entry. Or rather, I did question that on this particular day. This was the first of 4 straight days of Early Entry testing at EPCOT, so I already know the answer: it’s not.
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YOUR THOUGHTS
Have you done Guardians of the Galaxy: Cosmic Rewind via Early Entry or throughout the day now that it’s switched to standby? Thoughts on Early Entry at EPCOT? Have you experienced this on-site hotel perk? What’s your preferred approach to mornings at EPCOT–starting in World Showcase or the front of the park? How would you have done things differently? Any other feedback on arriving early to the Walt Disney World theme parks? Agree or disagree with our advice or approach? 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!
