How FAST Paid Rides Sold Out on Christmas Day in Disney World

This holiday season marks a FIRST for Disney World with one important thing.

Holidays in Magic Kingdom

This is the first year we’re seeing SURGE pricing for the holidays on Genie+, which means that the price of the standard Genie+ can go up in price depending on the date. That, however, is something that has been in place for a while for Individual Lightning Lanes — the pay-per-ride options you can buy for Disney World’s most popular rides.

Guardians of the Galaxy: Cosmic Rewind is the newest ride in Disney World, and the coaster was available for $17 as an Individual Attraction Selection in EPCOT on Christmas Day.

We expected this to go FAST on the holidays, but on Christmas Day…well, at approximately 11:45AM, the option was still available! While the virtual queue for this ride did fill up in seconds when it first opened this morning, it took significantly longer for the Individual Lightning Lane to sell out. We finally saw the option sell out when we checked back closer to 1:30PM.

Interestingly, when the virtual queue opened (for the second time of the day) at 1PM, it remained open for a while. At 2:07PM, it was still available for people to join.

What’s even more surprising about all of this is that all other rides with the Individual Lightning Lane option had sold out for the day ahead of Guardians of the Galaxy: Cosmic Rewind (at least from what we saw). Based on our time refreshing the app, Seven Dwarfs Mine Train sold out first (around 10AM). Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance and Avatar Flight of Passage had sold out by the time we checked closer to 11AM.

So, what are your options if you’re looking to ride Disney World’s most popular rides on a busy day? Well, for Guardians of the Galaxy: Cosmic Rewind you have two options. There is the Virtual Queue (free to join), which is available to join at 7AM and 1PM. Though the 7AM one may fill up quickly, consider looking again when it opens again at 1PM.

If you want to really secure your spot, then paying for an Individual Lightning Lane might be the way to go. But if you can join the virtual queue and feel comfortable waiting for your group to be called back, you might be able to avoid the extra cost. Individual Lightning Lanes are available to purchase at 7AM for those staying at Disney World hotels, and at park open for all others.

Click here for our tips on visiting Disney World during the holidays, and read more about our best Genie+ tips here! Stay tuned for more news!