Guardians of the Galaxy: Cosmic Rewind is the newest roller coaster at EPCOT. And we are excited to ride this new “Guardians of the Galaxy ride” today. “Cosmic Rewind” for short, it’s touted as the first ever reverse launch coaster, also rotating 360 degrees. We have been looking forward to this new ride opening and just need to get in the Virtual Queue.
Virtual Queue or Lightning Lane for Cosmic Rewind?
Unfortunately, you cannot just get in line for this ride when you show up at EPCOT. You have to join a virtual queue first. If you don’t know what a virtual queue is, back-up. First you need to have a park reservation for EPCOT before you can try the virtual queue. So after you have your tickets, make sure you make your park reservations at https://disneyworld.disney.go.com/ or on their app. Once you have your park reservations you can either join the virtual queue or purchase Individual Lightning Lane passes. And here’s where planning comes in.
We recommend not trying to buy Individual Lightning Lane passes unless you’ve tried the virtual queue first. The virtual queue is free, but the Lightning Lane passes will cost between $14-$17 per person. So, try the free option first. And just like the park reservations, you can join the virtual queue in the app as well. It’s very similar to making a reservation, so have the app downloaded and ready. For more information, see Disney’s web page at: Guardians of the Galaxy: Cosmic Rewind – | Walt Disney World Resort.
Joining the Virtual Queue for Cosmic Rewind
We made EPCOT reservations for 2 days in a row in case we don’t get into the queue the 1st day. But the good news is there are multiple times you can try to enter the virtual queue:
- 7:00AM the day of your park reservation. This weekend the park doesn’t open until 8:30AM, but the queue starts at 7:00. Don’t wait until 7:00 though. Make sure you’re whole party is listed on the app and be ready early.
- 1:00PM the day of your park reservation after you have entered EPCOT. Unlike 7:00AM, you have to be in the park to join at this time. You can only join the queue 1x per day, but 1:00 is a 2nd chance if you missed at 7:00.
- 6:00PM the day of your park reservation is only available for registered guests at deluxe hotels on select dates during Extended Evening Theme Park Hours.
So, we try option 1 at 7:00AM first. A few minutes early, our party of 3 is set. But, we try to refresh the app and it just keeps spinning until 7:00. But luckily, Paul’s brother Chris already had the 3 of us in his party. Chris is driving to Disney with his wife Christy and their girls to meet us, and got us all in the queue first. That’s lucky because if you don’t try right at 7:00, it usually fills up within seconds.
You can’t get in the queue twice, so better that 1 person tries for your whole group. But we didn’t realize Chris added us to his party, and glad he did. He got us all in boarding group 17 with an estimated wait showing 185 minutes. So, we should be able to enter the line in about 3 hours.
Boarding Group for Cosmic Rewind
Knowing that we don’t have to get to the park when it opens, we take our time. However, as we’re getting ready, we check the app and see our party has already been called. We were expecting to be called after 10:00AM, but in the past, they give you a window to board. However, this time they say to board by 9:45AM, and at 9:46AM, the app says our entry window has expired! We’ve never had this happen before so we rush to get to the park hoping we can still get in.
We park before 10:00 and walk into the park. And we get to the Wonders of Xandar Pavilion by 10:10 and walk up to a cast member. We first ask if our whole party needs to be here because Chris and the girls are not here yet. Luckily, we all don’t have to be present to enter the line, and they can enter when they get here. Secondly, we show our magic bands to enter the line and it shows blue. We are so worried about our expired boarding group, but the cast member at the line enters something on a tablet. And the entry light turns green! And without saying anything, she just waves the 3 of us through. We are in!
The Galaxarium
We enter the doors into the building where we see the sign Wonders of Xandar. Once in the building, we are in the Galaxarium, or a galaxy-like planetarium. A projection screen on the ceiling is voiced by the World Mind, which explains about how they are learning about Terrans, aka us. It’s kind of neat to walk through this first part as we walk up a curved ramp. When we get up to the top, we see the end of the line.
Once past the line then meanders through a gallery of Xandarian ships, Nova Corp uniforms and more. Probably the most entertaining section is a screen with an interview of the Guardians of the Galaxy. Like the movies, there is plenty of Guardians humor while different members are interviewed. Once through the line, uh Galaxarium, everyone is pushed into a room.
Pre-Show
Once we get into the pre-show pre-room, we’re no longer in a line. We are pushed toward some doors. And after about 3 minutes, the doors open to another room. In the next room, there are screens at top. Nova Prime, played by Glenn Close in the movies, talks to us about space travel. She explains how their Cosmic Generator creates “jumppoints” to travel across the galaxy much quicker. And they plan to teleport us to a Nova ship above the Earth to demonstrate it.
Somehow Terry Crews is now in the Nova Corps. And he tells us we can’t use recording devices and we are teleported to the Nova ship. But the ship loses power and the Cosmic Generator is stolen by some cosmic being. This celestial plans to take Earth back to the beginning of time for a reset, but we don’t want that. Terry, aka Centurion Tal Marik, calls up the Guardians of the Galaxy for help. Rocket comes up with a plan to re-wire our shuttles to follow the celestial through the jumppoint to recover the generator. And the doors open to a corridor leading to loading platforms.
Cosmic Rewind
The pre-show takes about 5 minutes, then we are back in a line. And we can see the “shuttles” being loaded, but it takes us another 20 minutes to get on the ride. In fact it takes us almost 50 minutes from entering to getting on the ride. Once firmly secured, we blast off to Disco Inferno by the Trammps. You may remember this disco song by the refrain “Burn, baby burn”. We had heard they had a classic Guardians “mix-tape” and thought this song was a perfect choice for the ride.
The ride takes you through multiple jumpholes with the Guardians supporting you in chasing the celestial. This fully-enclosed coaster rotates 360 degrees keeping you in the action. The Nova Corps help to contain the celestial as the Guardians blast away the Cosmic Generator. The coaster reverse launches in an explosion spinning through jumpholes to the end. Not for the faint of stomach, this ride can make you nauseous or light-headed. Even those that normally don’t feel ill on rides have reported they have after Cosmic Rewind. And the ride pictures that automatically load to your Disney app may reflect this. Though our daughter felt fine, she said it was terrifying, but she would do it again when she is 10.
Exiting and the Store
The ride itself seems to go by really fast though it takes almost 5 minutes from getting on the ride to exiting. But, you should plan an hour from once you get into the line until you exit. Surprisingly, the exit takes us outside instead of through a store. But just past the exit is the opening for the store. However, they are limiting the number of people in the store, so there is a small line to enter.
The store is called Treasures of Xandar and contains a lot of expensive stuff for any Guardians geek. They have everything from Baby Groot toys to Infinity Gauntlets to Star Lord’s mask and jacket. It’s a neat store to look around in, but we didn’t find anything we had to have. But, we are hungry.
Connections Eatery Lunch
Luckily, the Connections Eatery is next to the Wonders of Xandar pavilion and just opened. This quick-service restaurant is the newest restaurant to open at EPCOT so we decide to give it a try. We usually try to avoid most quick-service restaurants, but this is just convenient. So we head into the restaurant which is pretty packed. Don’t confuse the eatery with the Connections Cafe, a Starbucks coffee shop, on the other side.
This restaurant basically has burgers, slices of pizza, and salads as well as standard kids meals. They also serve beer, wine and a specialty cocktail if needed. We order a French Bistro Burger which comes with fries and a Meatball Pizza which comes with a side salad. Our daughter gets the kids five-cheese pizza which comes with 2 sides and a drink. She gets fries and orange cuties and we also get drinks we can fill at the soda station.
The burger was actually really good. Not only was it a tasty burger, but it came with caramelized onions, bacon, brie and mushrooms. We split the burger and the pizza, but the pizza was not as good. It was a large slice with an adequate amount of meatballs. But there wasn’t a lot of sauce on the pizza and was just ok. For some reason, Disney likes to overfeed kids and our daughters meal was good, but a lot of food. She enjoyed the cheese pizza and cuties. The fries and side salad weren’t bad either.
Club Cool
As if we didn’t have enough soda, we decided to finally check out the new Club Cool. The old one was an EPCOT favorite place to walk through on your way to the World Showcase. You could stop in to cool off and sample some Coca Cola flavors from around the world. During the EPCOT construction, they closed the old one, but reopened the new one across from Connections Eatery.
Unlike the old one, you cannot walk through it. There is only one door in and out. But they still have the Coca-Cola flavors around the world. And many of the flavors are kind of weird. The Sprite cucumber from Russia is refreshing. And the watermelon soda from the Philippines isn’t bad. If you want to play a trick on your friends, tell them to try the Beverly. This bitter soda from Italy tastes like licorice and is generally not liked.
After waiting our turn, we are able to try all of the sodas. They have multiple dispensers for people to try the different flavors. And the new Club Cool is also a shop which may be why they only have 1 exit. They have some snacks and Coca Cola related merchandise. But what is funny is they actually sell soda at the back counter for $3.99. However, you can’t get the flavors from around the world, just the normal Coca Cola flavors. So, we just stuck with the free samples.
After Club Cool, Becky has to go back and do some work so we head back to our resort. But before we do, Chris and the girls just finished the ride and we meet up. Our daughter wants to stay with her cousins, but we’ll be back for dinner.
Cosmic Rewind Again
Since we had park reservations for EPCOT 2 days in a row, we try to get on Cosmic Rewind again the next day. Since Chris has us all set-up, we sleep in and let him try the 7:00 queue. He gets us in Boarding Group 51 which should board after noon. So we hang out at our resort in the morning. Becky has to take our daughter to a birthday party today. So, Paul gets to ride it again with Chris, Christy and their girls.
From the time we entered until the time we got on the ride also took around 50 minutes. So the wait times seem consistent. However, this time the song was different. Got Everybody Wants to Rule the World by Tears to Fears and loved it.
Summary of Guardians of the Galaxy: Cosmic Rewind
We were able to get in the 7:00AM virtual queue 2 days in a row for EPCOT’s newest ride! The Guardians of the Galaxy: Cosmic Rewind goes really fast and it’s kind of hard to follow at times. But Cosmic Rewind is a blast unlike any coaster we have ever done. We love the Guardians movies and this was a great addition to the franchise. The theming and story are fantastic even if the ride may cause some to feel nauseous. Though the ride didn’t feel jerky at all and we can see this being a very popular ride. Tell us what you think in the Comments below.
In addition to the ride, we also got to check out the new Connections Eatery next door. The burger was very good but the pizza was just okay. But this restaurant is a good and convenient option near the ride. We also went to the new Club Cool also close by. It still has the flavors around the world and worth a stop to cool off on a hot day. Try the Beverly 😉