Guest previews begin for Journey of Water Inspired by Moana, Virtual Queue now open

Sep 24, 2023 in "Journey of Water Inspired by Moana"

Journey of Water Inspired by Moana Passholder previews
Posted: Sunday September 24, 2023 9:14am ET by WDWMAGIC Staff

Walt Disney World Annual Passholder and Disney Vacation Club previews are now underway at EPCOT's Journey of Water Inspired by Moana ahead of the October 16 official opening.

Unlike other recent passholder previews, guests do not have to register for a preview window but do require an EPCOT park pass reservation.

Disney is using the large walkway alongside Spaceship Earth as a check-in and queue area, with guests required to scan admission media to verify passholder status.

According to managers in the area, passholders can experience Journey of Water Inspired by Moana multiple times a day if the standby line is available.

A Virtual Queue opened around 9:15am to provide guests with a return time. You can access it in "My Disney Experience" in the Virtual Queues tab. Managers in the area say it is unlikely that the standby line will reopen, and it will remain a Virtual Queue only for today at least. Guests can only use the Virtual Queue once per day, and guests must be inside the park to join.

Passholder previews will take place at EPCOT from park open to park close on the following dates:

  • September 24 to September 29, 2023
  • October 1 to October 4, 2023

To participate in this preview experience, Passholders must have a theme park reservation for EPCOT on the day of the preview. Note that:

  • If your theme park reservation is for a different theme park (and not for EPCOT), then you will not be eligible to participate in a preview that day.
  • If you enter EPCOT without a theme park reservation after 2:00 PM, then you will not be eligible to participate in a preview that day.

An in-depth look at EPCOT's Journey of Water Inspired by Moana


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BocabearMar 10, 2024

but then again, it should have been instantly corrected before people started tripping over them...Anyone can see it would be a problem... That is the biggest problem when we do installations...people tripping over our stuff as we are working...and even if they are beyond the barricades we installed, they will still blame us... So we have become hyper aware of this issue...I am shocked someone at Disney did not see this and flag it .... and come up with something for it... Tiny bench surround, etc.

retr0gateMar 06, 2024

I could be completely wrong here, but I find it hard to believe the mounds were an intentional part of the design. It seems far more likely that there was an issue with the grading and they decided to just leave it as is / improvise something during construction. I've worked on similar projects (albeit, not in theme parks) and what we draw does not always reflect what's actually built on site. You can usually expect to see a lot of small discrepancies like this, especially when it comes to site work like pavement, lighting fixtures, etc., usually because something was overlooked during installation, not the design process.

Disstevefan1Mar 03, 2024

LOL. This is why I love these boards! 🏆

_calebMar 02, 2024

*concrete

Cmdr_CrimsonMar 02, 2024

How bout this....😏

Disstevefan1Mar 02, 2024

I don’t know what this means, but the mounds of cement the designers chose as lamp post bases in World Malformation in EPCOT was a tripping hazard and they looked ugly. It makes you wonder, did they run out of time and/or money and the cement mounds was just a cost cutting mistake? Maybe a CFTOD inspection flagged it and made them fix it? LOL! Whatever the reason, they are ending up spending even more money to correct it.

Cmdr_CrimsonMar 02, 2024

CntrlFlPeteMar 02, 2024

I found it crazy when I was there the other day in the way they had Pluto out in the walkway right across from Daisey (who was in one of the sections). Each time I needed to go through that area, I needed to dodge folks going between the two characters while the crowd is trying to walk in the walkway. Just looked/felt like a cluster that did not need to be.

SoFloMagicMar 01, 2024

Or just ban double wide strollers

HauntedPirateMar 01, 2024

That would make much more sense, and I sincerely hope your guess is correct and that there is work being done in that area to move the queue. Without a change in the queue placement, that walkway is going to be miserable during busier times. Even when it's not terribly busy, it only takes a few families and a few dozen people going each way to clog things up.

James AlucobondMar 01, 2024

If you look back at the plan from when the festival center was still a thing, it did appear to include the M&G oriented in that way (see below for flow). We basically have the exit area on the right, and I suspect they're working on some variation of the proposed queuing area right now, though it might ultimately be a bit more of a straightaway that also provides backstage access rather than what was originally proposed. I could be wrong, though.

HauntedPirateMar 01, 2024

That would definitely be a preferable area for that queue.

James AlucobondMar 01, 2024

I'm hoping they intend to swap the queue to the opposite side between the M&G and Coral Reef once that area is done. They're doing a lot of paving over there that wasn't in the original site plan, so I have to imagine it's in support of the M&G, which also wasn't in the plan.

HauntedPirateMar 01, 2024

I really wish they had better placement for the meet and greet. In its current spot, the line has a tendency to create a choke-point on that walkway when things are busy. Or when you have a couple of families with double-wide strollers and they don't see the need to move close to the side. ;)