EPCOT Testing Changes to Guardians of the Galaxy: Cosmic Rewind Pre-Show Experience

TrainsOfDisneyOct 01, 2025

I’ve only ridden guardians twice so wasn’t sure if what I had seen was “normal” but I guess it is. It does seem like an easier solution is to just admit less people at a time into the pre-show.

StarWarsGirlOct 01, 2025

I figured as much, lol. I have always watched out for them because when I was a kid, we went with another family who brought their elderly parent. She was afraid of hitting someone the entire trip. It made me super aware of them, and because of that, I've never been hit by one. But yes, you don't realize until you've been on one or until you've been with someone that you are so much more agile. And also that your point of view is different on foot verses driving a scooter, just in how you're seeing things. Like, you may see things I don't and vice versa. But that Guardians preshow was a headache every single time. I was always afraid I was going to hit someone because they were pushing past. But then I got annoyed enough where I was like "if you push past me, what happens is on you." The fact that this was the only location I ever had issues says something. Fantasmic? No issues; I just waited for the crowd to thin a bit before leaving. HEA? No issues, same deal. MMRR? I learned that unless I was first in, I should hang out by the back wall and be last out and it was a non-issue. Rise? Usually I would be last on the Transport, park parallel along the doors, and then I would be first off (people were more polite about that). Guardians? An exercise in frustration. Every. Single. Time.

StarWarsGirlOct 01, 2025

Unless you have driven an ECV as much as I have (two trips to WDW totaling about four weeks, two trips to Busch Gardens, and multiple times to Hersheypark, plus now around an apartment complex) you cannot make that call. There is a significant learning curve to driving them; I didn't even hand mine off to my parents except to briefly move it because they are so challenging to drive and it took me a while to learn. They are NOT like driving a car. There aren't any brakes. You lift up and are dependent on the machine stopping. Depending on the ECV, the stop time will vary. The ones from Scooterbug and Buena Vista Rentals are very good about stopping. The ones you rent in the park? Solid 2-3 second delay. If you are going very slowly, even the good ones (which the one I had from Buena Vista was solid) will continue rolling an additional 3-4 inches, at least, after I lift up. I (or any other driver) cannot control that. As a guest, I have NEVER been hit by an ECV. You have to make sure you give them enough space. Yes, there are a lot of rude drivers out there, and I suspect in Epcot there are a lot of drunk drivers (I don't drink and drive an ECV for this reason). But you cannot crowd the device. In other words, like in Guardians preshow as what happened both times, they had been TOUCHING THE ECV. You are too close in that instance, and yes, there is a high probability of you getting hit. The third time was my mother. She went diagonally in front of me and admitted that was her fault. We laugh about it now. I usually tried to enter and exit preshows last to ensure I had enough space to avoid this issue. The Guardians one though...it was frustrating every single time to go through that one. Especially if I was one of the first in and then had guests behind me shoving over me. I was by myself a good bit, but it got to the point with my family that they had to make a barrier around me and other guests.

Disstevefan1Oct 01, 2025

This is all in fun and your post made me chuckle. Maybe your post will win. Voting starts in November if I can figure out how to do this poll thing. And YES navigating with scooters is MUCH harder than on foot! We take for granted how agile we are on foot and how we can change direction instantly on foot and how WE CANT on scooter. Folks who have not used a scooter do not understand.

StarWarsGirlOct 01, 2025

Hey, you try driving one and come talk to me when you're done. 🤣 First time I drove one (I am injury prone *sigh*) at Hersheypark, I thought I was gonna take out every trash can. Now I'm recovering from surgery and using one around my apartment because it's easier than the stupid knee scooter. But yeah, if other people step out in front of me and get hit, that's on them, not me. Three weeks I was there and those were the only incidents.

Disstevefan1Oct 01, 2025

Nominee for the best post of 2025..

Fido ChuckwagonOct 01, 2025

If you hit 3 people with your ECV that’s a you problem.

Disstevefan1Oct 01, 2025

Unprecedented Demand! ;) And Disney CANNOT correctly estimate wait times!!!

SplashJacketOct 01, 2025

This doesn’t work.

gorillaballOct 01, 2025

Perhaps they were catching up LL from prior downtime.

Disstevefan1Sep 30, 2025

Sadly we have not yet rode this :mad: we were there just before standby was added! I am surprised WDW does not know how to do this right after all these years. Loss of institutional knowledge maybe?

Wall-eSep 30, 2025

Any time we’ve rode Guardians the line after the pre show rooms is always backed up. Why not decrease the amount of guests you load into the pre shows to match the actual amount of guests being moved down that hallway? I’m not terribly claustrophobic but there’s been more then one time we’ve been in that hallway thru multiple preshows running behind us and the crowd surge was real. There has to be a Goldilocks number of guests that you can move thru the pre shows to allow continuous movement down the hallway. As much as we all wish people didn’t have a me first mentality it only takes a few people to have that attitude to cause a cascading effect of others doing the same.

TouchdownSep 30, 2025

And Rise, Websligners, ToT, the list goes on.

FerretAfrosSep 30, 2025

There are two major factors at play contributing to the problem, neither of which are the guests' fault. First is the geometry of the space. Most other pre-shows empty out either into a wide corridor that's more or less aligned with the direction of travel so guests can easily move out of the space and into the next (HM, ROTR Rey room, ROTR transport into trooper bay), or one that has tight turns but the bottleneck (typically doors) is located before the turn, letting guests stay in the preshow room as they funnel down and re-form a queue (Dinosaur, M:S, TOT, RNRC, ROTR trooper bay into hallway). The Cosmic Rewind pre-show has a wide exit from the room (presumably to allow the long-cycle time preshow to begin its next group without having to wait for the prior group to rejoin a queue) that makes an immediate sharp turn into a much smaller corridor that continues to narrow the farther it goes. It's not a natural crowdflow movement, so parties routinely get separated while trying to navigate the chaos; the narrowing hallway only serves to extend the turmoil, since the obvious bottleneck isn't the actual one. The second is the storyline and mood of the preshow itself. The preshow's story is literally "there's an emergency, we all must quickly evacuate," complete with flashing red lights and tense music. With Disney self-aggrandized emphasis on "immersive" storytelling throughout the parks, it's no wonder that guests buy into it, whether conciously or not. The mood mellows out by the time guests get to the loading station, but there's always a mild sense of panic leaving the preshow, exactly as Disney designed. It also doesn't help that the pre-show uses it's two "wow moments" within seconds of its start, followed by long, overly-chatty, aggressively un-funny dialogue. There's nothing engaging after the room transformation and cosmic generator tricks, so guests naturally they start to work their way toward the exit. If the script were crafted in a way that held people's attention equally throughout (Dinosaur and M:S both manage this well, despite no flashy tricks), they wouldn't feel so compelled to find the exit before it ends. None of this is the guests' fault. They're simply reacting in completely normal and predictable ways to what Disney created.