Disney has announced that Mickey & Minnie’s Runaway Railway, the big new attraction opening at Disneyland on January 27, 2023, will use a virtual queue and sell Individual Lightning Lane access. This ride guide covers how to experience it since there will be no standby line when it debuts–strategy for successfully scoring spots in the VQ and buying an ILL for the Toontown ride.
After Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance and Web Slingers: A Spider-Man Adventure both stopped their virtual queues, there are currently no rides at Disneyland utilizing this much-maligned system. With that said, World of Color – ONE will also use a virtual queue, just like all other versions of that nighttime spectacular at Disney California Adventure. Disneyland Resort also uses virtual queues for certain shopping and limited merchandise releases, so it’s not like VQs have been vanquished completely.
In case you’re new to the virtual queue “conversation,” Disney’s rationales for using them mainly involve crowds, but reliability/downtime and physical queue space have been other issues. With Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance in its first few months, there was also the issue with guests arriving at Disney’s Hollywood Studios earlier and earlier, which resulted in refinements to its virtual queue when the same ride debuted at Disneyland.
Before we get into the details of the virtual queue for Mickey & Minnie’s Runaway Railway and its likely motivations, we’ll start with the news that the ride will be an Individual Lightning Lane attraction. This actually comes as a slight surprise.
Even though Mickey & Minnie’s Runaway Railway had Individual Lightning Lane status at Disney’s Hollywood Studios, it was one of the less popular secondary options, above Expedition Everest and Space Mountain, but behind Remy’s Ratatouille Adventure. As you might recall, Walt Disney World shifted all of its secondary Individual Lightning Lanes to Genie+ a little less than a year ago on a temporary basis, which was made permanent last fall.
The differences at Disneyland are two-fold. First, Mickey & Minnie’s Runaway Railway is brand-new in California, whereas it opened at Walt Disney World in March 2020. The ride briefly offered FastPass+ pre-closure and was standby-only for a little over a full year after that.
By the time it obtained Individual Lightning Lane status in Fall 2021, Mickey & Minnie’s Runaway Railway was barely one of the top 5 wait times in DHS. In other words, a lot of the demand from locals and Walt Disney World regulars–who otherwise might’ve bought ILLs–was exhausted during the FastPass+ and standby window.
Second, Disneyland is incredibly ride-dense and offers a wide variety of attractions–arguably the most well-rounded ride roster of any Disney theme park in the world. Disneyland is essentially the opposite of Disney’s Hollywood Studios, which is incredibly top-heavy, with a number of headliners, but not enough “supporting players” to help absorb crowds.
This is significant because Disneyland has the capacity for Genie+ to work well without Mickey & Minnie’s Runaway Railway being added to the lineup. As we’ve pointed out previously, our comparative lack of coverage about Genie+ at Disneyland is not due to neglect or lack of interest (we’ve used it many times over the last year-plus), but because the system works fairly well most of the time. Continued coverage would be overkill, whereas that is very much not the case at DHS. (To be sure, it’s getting better at Walt Disney World…but still has problems.)
From those perspectives, it makes sense that Disneyland would sell Individual Lightning Lane access for Mickey & Minnie’s Runaway Railway. Fans will be upset, but it’s a good way to capture more revenue and the a la carte line-skipping won’t negatively impact Genie+ users.
It’s really a question of how much Individual Lightning Lanes will cost for Mickey & Minnie’s Runaway Railway and how quickly they’ll sell out each day. My guess is that it’ll be very comparable to Web Slingers: A Spider-Man Adventure both in pricing and popularity. Despite being newest, that was the least-popular of the ILL offerings, behind both Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance and Radiator Springs Racers. I like Mickey & Minnie’s Runaway Railway, but it’s not as good as either of those modern classics.
That Mickey & Minnie’s Runaway Railway will use a virtual queue is the more interesting news, so let’s turn to that…
Here’s the info directly from Disneyland’s page on virtual queues:
When Mickey & Minnie’s Runaway Railway opens on January 27, 2023 a virtual queue will be in place. Guests will need to use the Disneyland app to enter the attraction. A standby queue will not be available. Each guest can enter the virtual queue no more than once per day.
Follow these important guidelines to join the virtual queue and experience this wild and wacky attraction:
- Guests with a valid ticket and theme park reservation for the same day may have 2 opportunities to join the virtual queue via the Disneyland app, subject to availability:
- To access the virtual queue in the morning, Guests must have a valid ticket and theme park reservation for Disneyland Park. Guests can confirm their designated party starting at 6:00 AM and then check for an available boarding group starting at 7:00 AM.
- To access the virtual queue later in the day, Guests must have entered Disneyland Park with a one-park ticket or Park Hopper ticket, or Disney California Adventure Park with a Park Hopper ticket. Guests can confirm their designated party starting at noon and then check for an available boarding group starting at 1:00 PM.
- If the Guest’s boarding group is called, they will receive a notification through the Disneyland app to head over to the entrance of Mickey & Minnie’s Runaway Railway within a designated return window.
Get Ready to Join the Virtual Queue! – On the day of your visit, you may have the opportunity to join the virtual queue at daily distribution times, which are subject to change or cancellation as availability allows. Distribution schedules will be available in the Disneyland app. Follow these steps to join the virtual queue:
- Step 1 – Check Availability: Log in to the Disneyland app at one of the distribution times. Select “Virtual Queues” on the home screen to view the current status and next steps for joining a virtual queue. The app will indicate when there is no availability for a specific distribution time, or if a backup group is available.
- Step 2 – Enroll Your Group: As long as your Disney account is linked to your group’s park tickets, and everyone has valid admission and park reservations for the park you will visit, you can enroll everyone in the virtual queue at the same time (subject to availability).
- Step 3 – Enjoy the Experience: If your boarding group is called to return, you’ll receive a notification via the Disneyland app. Then, head over to the entrance of the experience within your designated return window.
If you previously used the virtual queue for Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance or Web Slingers – A Spider-Man Adventure, you’re undoubtedly familiar with this process–and to a greater degree than what Disney describes. If you haven’t, that probably didn’t do enough to familiarize you with the virtual queue process.
In terms of strategy, our advice here is similar to we’ve covered in past posts. However, Mickey & Minnie’s Runaway Railway hasn’t opened yet, so some specifics could differ. (We’ll supplement this once the ride debuts.)
In the meantime, it’s important to optimize to ensure your timing is accurate and your phone and internet connection are as fast as possible to join the Mickey & Minnie’s Runaway Railway virtual queue. This might sound like overkill, but milliseconds matter. We’d recommend doing a quick speed test a few minutes before it’s time to enter the VQ.
Anything at or above 50 Mbps should be sufficient, but the higher the better. If necessary, move around to get away from other people or increase your speed to that threshold. Additionally, test on both WiFi and cellular to see which is faster and use that.
Second, make sure your phone is fully updated and force close all apps, including the Disneyland app shortly before it’s time to join the virtual queue. This will speed up your phone so there’s no lag on your end.
Finally, double-check the time on your phone or watch against time.gov, which is what Disneyland uses for opening the virtual queue. Attempt to join the virtual queue for Mickey & Minnie’s Runaway Railway the second the clock on time.gov hits 7 am or noon. These three simple steps can often be the difference between success and failure!
In terms of commentary, the big question among readers is likely going to be why Mickey & Minnie’s Runaway Railway given that it’s counterpoint at Walt Disney World never used one–despite opening only a few months after Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance.
As a reminder, Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance debuted with a virtual queue during normal operations because it was (and still is) highly unreliable, inefficient, and prone to hour-plus breakdowns. It’s possible that Mickey & Minnie’s Runaway Railway has a virtual queue because, like Rise of the Resistance, it’s unreliable and breaks down a lot. I highly doubt that. That wasn’t the case with the first version of the attraction, so it’s unlikely to be true with the cloned copy.
Instead, let’s look to differences between the two incarnations. The obvious one for me is the “blessing of size” enjoyed by the Disney’s Hollywood Studios version. Not in the traditional sense that’s often touted by Walt Disney World fans, but specifically, for this one attraction.
Mickey & Minnie’s Runaway Railway is located at the end of Hollywood Boulevard in DHS, in a huge open courtyard. There is a ton of space for an extended queue, and on opening day way back in March 2020, that line stretched back down the entrance street. (Since then, it has simply filled the ample courtyard space.)
By contrast, Mickey & Minnie’s Runaway Railway is opening at Disneyland while the rest of Toontown is still being reimagined. No one knows what that means at this point–it could mean a corridor of construction walls leading to the attraction entrance. It could mean that there are Cast Members stationed at the Disneyland Railroad underpass and only allowing guests with virtual queue or Individual Lightning Lane reservations back into Toontown given the lack of space.
Neither scenario would surprise me. No matter what the situation, Mickey & Minnie’s Runaway Railway will have significantly less available space for an extended queue at Disneyland. The ride’s popularity will need to die down a bit before it can use a standby line.
The good news is that the rest of Mickey’s Toontown reopens on March 8, 2023. At that point, Mickey & Minnie’s Runaway Railway will have been open for over one month, so the initial surge of locals should be starting to die down and the land should have more available space.
I wouldn’t expect the virtual queue for Mickey & Minnie’s Runaway Railway to be retired on or around the time Mickey’s Toontown reopens, as it’ll see a second-wind of popularity then. However, after the Spring Break crowds subside (so around April 17, 2023) the end of the virtual queue seems highly likely. Who knows, though. I also don’t think Guardians of the Galaxy: Cosmic Rewind has “needed” a virtual queue since about last August, and yet it still has one.
It’ll be more interesting to see how long Individual Lightning Lane access sticks around at Mickey & Minnie’s Runaway Railway. It’s already gone at Web Slingers: A Spider-Man Adventure, which does not have a clone in the United States.
However, the potentially key difference is that Disney California Adventure has much less Genie+ Lightning Lane capacity than Disneyland. So that change might be less about ILL demand, and more about Genie+ supply. As such, I’m not prepared to make any bets or guesses about when Mickey & Minnie’s Runaway Railway will drop the ILL. It could last only a few months, or a few years.
Ultimately, we’re slightly disappointed by this news. Not that Mickey & Minnie’s Runaway Railway will be an Individual Lightning Lane attraction–that actually doesn’t bother me all that much even though we never buy ILLs. More so that it’ll use a virtual queue. While we’ve gotten good at gaming the boarding group process (and have “speed strategy” advice so you can achieve similar success), my personal hope was for a standby queue.
Having a standby line is the more guest-friendly approach that levels the playing field, is less stressful, and results in fewer complaints. Then again, if it ends up being anything like Cosmic Rewind, the afternoon drop will become very easy most of the time. That’s similarly a high-capacity and efficient attraction, and the VQ there has basically become a “free” ride reservation. So perhaps the Mickey & Minnie’s Runaway Railway virtual queue will be a net positive for most guests once the initial rush subsides!
Planning a Southern California vacation? For park admission deals, read Tips for Saving Money on Disneyland Tickets. Learn about on-site and off-site hotels in our Anaheim Hotel Reviews & Rankings. For where to eat, check out our Disneyland Restaurant Reviews. For unique ideas of things that’ll improve your trip, check out What to Pack for Disney. For comprehensive advice, consult our Disneyland Vacation Planning Guide. Finally, for guides beyond Disney, check out our Southern California Itineraries for day trips to Los Angeles, Laguna Beach, and tons of other places!
YOUR THOUGHTS
Are you looking forward to Mickey & Minnie’s Runaway Railway? What are your thoughts on the virtual queue? Worried that this is going to be common for future attractions, or agree that it’s likely a temporary thing resulting from construction walls in Toontown? Are you planning a visit to Disneyland Resort for the opening of Mickey & Minnie’s Runaway Railway and kick-off of the Disney100 Celebration, or will you wait until later? Do you agree or disagree with our assessment? Any questions? 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!
