How to Join a Disneyland Virtual Queue for Mickey and Minnie's Runaway Railway

Leap's note: Well that was fast! As of Feb. 22, 2023, Mickey Mickey & Minnie's Runaway Railway will operate with a standby line instead of a virtual queue. The virtual queue could come back if needed, so we will leave all our tips in place for now. The option to purchase an individual Lightning Lane to skip the line remains. World of Color still utilizes a Virtual Queue, so hop down to that section for more details. 

Set your alarms! There are potentially three times a day that virtual queues open at Disneyland. You can join the free virtual Disneyland queue for Mickey Mickey & Minnie's Runaway Railway ride and the World of Color — One show. The Disneyland virtual queue gives you access to the best free reserved viewing areas for World of Color — One at Disney California Adventure. (Fantasmic! and fireworks do not utilize a virtual queue.)

Before we get into the details of how to join each virtual queue, let's go over some important information regarding when to join and eligibility to join. Here are the times that virtual queues open and how to know if you are eligible to join:

7 a.m. for Mickey & Minnie's Runaway Railway — You need a Disneyland Park ticket and reservation, but do not need to be in the park.

12 p.m. for World of Color — You need to have entered a theme park to join. You must have entered Disney California Adventure or have entered Disneyland Park with a Park Hopper ticket.

1 p.m. for Mickey & Minnie's Runaway Railway — You need to have entered a theme park to join. You must have entered Disneyland Park California or have entered Disney California Adventure with a Park Hopper ticket.

Join the Disneyland Virtual Queue for Mickey & Minnie's Runaway Railway

Ride virtual queues are back! Mickey & Minnie's Runaway Railway opened with a free virtual queue as of Jan. 27, 2023. If you used a virtual queue for Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance or WEB SLINGERS: A Spider-Man Adventure when they were new, you'll find that this virtual queue works the same way.

Disneyland virtual lines, also called boarding groups, save the day for select attractions, allowing park guests to enjoy other areas of the parks rather than standing in line all day. You can eat a churro and ride other rides instead of standing around for hours waiting for one popular new ride or experience!

Love them or hate them, virtual lines at Disneyland are here, and they are a tool the park can use to allow guests to enjoy the rest of the park’s attractions, restaurants, restrooms, etc., instead of standing in long lines. So, how do we use them?

The Disneyland virtual queues can fill quickly (within seconds). If you do not get in, you do not get to ride that day (without buying your way in with an individual Lightning Lane). Technical errors aside, there is a certain amount of fairness in the virtual queues. For the most popular rides, guests can only join the boarding group once per day, per ride. That gives most park guests a chance to ride their favorite attractions, as opposed to only the most agile. Everyone must join the queue the same way. Granted, you must have a smartphone with a good connection through Wi-Fi or your data plan.

As much as we feel like we’ve mastered joining a virtual queue, sometimes it comes down to plain ol' good luck! But speed is the name of the game, calling for speedy fingers, as well as a speedy internet connection.

What Are the Rules for Virtual Queues?

While the main concept behind virtual queues assigns guests a time window to return to the selected ride with a short standby wait, there are a few additional rules to Disneyland virtual lines.

Here is what you need to know about the virtual queue:

• You can only join each ride’s boarding group once per day (to allow the greatest number of guests a chance to ride).
• Make sure you have all the tickets linked to your Disneyland account in the Disneyland app to be able to join.
• A valid ticket and park reservation for the appropriate park are necessary for joining a Boarding Group.
• For the 7 a.m. eligibility period, you do not need to be in a park or on Disneyland property to join. But you need to have a ticket and reservation for Disneyland Park.
• If you are not successful at 7 a.m., you get another opportunity at 1 p.m.
• You need to have entered a theme park for the 1 p.m. joining opportunity. You must have entered Disneyland Park or have entered Disney California Adventure with a Park Hopper ticket.
• Joining a virtual queue does not guarantee you will get to ride (ride breakdowns do occur).
• You may be issued a backup boarding group in the afternoon.
• If you use the Disability Access Service, you will need to join a boarding group, and then talk to a cast member at the ride entrance. Once DAS is verified, you may be sent to a different queue to enter. You do not need a separate return time to ride.
• The 7 a.m. boarding groups are generally meant to board between park opening and 1 p.m. or 2 p.m., given normal operations.
• The 1 p.m. boarding groups generally board from about 2 p.m. until right before the park or the ride closes.

The Disneyland app says, "Boarding groups for a virtual queue are limited, subject to availability, and are not guaranteed. Not all boarding groups may be called to return, based on the availability of the experience."

Step-by-Step Guide to Join a Boarding Group for Mickey & Minnie's Runaway Railway

There are a few ways to join the virtual queue in the Disneyland app. You can locate the Disneyland Virtual Queue box on the home page of the app (this is preferred), or you can tap the three horizontal lines in the bottom right-hand corner of the app and tap the Virtual Queues box.)

Prep to join a boarding group (one hour before go time):

• Acquire a valid theme park ticket for the park(s) and a theme park reservation.
• Download the latest version of the Disneyland app.
• Register or log in to a Disney account.
• Link the tickets of all party members to at least one account in the Disneyland app.
• Confirm your party. An hour before the joining period, tap Confirm Your Party.
• Your eligible party members should appear. You can tap Change Party if you need to make adjustments.
• Set alarms for 2 to 5 minutes before join time so you don't froget.

Time to join:

• Have a clock or watch with a secondhand. You can pull up a world clock, but we’ve had just as much success with our Apple watch (which seems to be one-half of a second to one second ahead of the world clock).
• Be in a place with a good signal on your phone. We tend to turn off Wi-Fi in the park because it works best for us. Others leave it on.
• A few minutes before enrollment time, you can tap Join Virtual Queue.
• You'll choose the park and ride you want or are eligible to join.
• The Disneyland app usually defaults to Disneyland Park no matter what kind of ticket you have, but if not, select Disneyland at the top before enrollment time arrives.
• On the Confirm Your Party screen there is a refresh button at the bottom. Tap that repeatedly in the seconds leading up to enrollment until Join Virtual Queue appears. 
• Confirm your party. Tap Confirm Your Party. You can tap Edit if you need to make adjustments (remove any guests who have not yet entered the park).
• There should be a Refresh button at the bottom of the screen. You can repeatedly tap that as the joining period approaches or pull down to refresh until the blue Join Virtual Queue button appears. We wait until 11:59:58 to tap Refresh. Then we keep rapidly tapping the same spot until the Join Virtual Queue button shows up so that we can tap it immediately. We keep tapping until we see Done.
• The other refresh method is the pull-down method. In the five seconds before enrollment time, begin to refresh the app by putting your finger on the screen and repeatedly pulling down long enough to see the refresh bar appear. You can practice right now. When it's time to join at exactly 7 a.m. or 1 p.m. a blue Join Virtual Queue button will appear. We have not had as good of luck with that.
• Tap Join Virtual Queue ASAP.
• You'll receive your boarding group number if you were successful.
• Make sure you have push notifications selected for the Disneyland app.
• Bring a portable charger to keep your phone fully powered (always a good idea at Disneyland).

Unfortunately, if you're unable to acquire a boarding group, you will likely face some disappointment, especially if that attraction was your main motivation for visiting. Croak! Try to move on and make the best of your day. After all, you're still at Disneyland or Disney California Adventure and there are so many great things to do, especially with the Disney 100 celebration underway. If you must ride, try again at 1 p.m. or purchase an individual Lightning Lane selection.

It is always important to set reasonable expectations for your visit! There is a possibility that you will not get to join a boarding group. There have been days in which a ride is unavailable and is not able to board anyone. Even if you do join a boarding group, there is a possibility that your group will not be called back. Have alternate plans in place so you do not let this ruin your day.

Which Disneyland Virtual Queues Am I Eligible for Based on My Park Ticket?

Let's simplify this based on your park ticket and the park you are visiting:

• 1-Park Ticket for Disneyland — You are eligible to join a boarding group for Mickey & Minnie's Runaway Railway at 7 a.m. and/or 1 p.m. (but may only join once per day).
• 1-Park Ticket for Disney California Adventure — You are not eligible to join a boarding group for Mickey & Minnie's Runaway Railway at 7 a.m. or 1 p.m.
• Park Hopper Ticket Starting at Disneyland — You are eligible to join a boarding group for Mickey & Minnie's Runaway Railway at 7 a.m. If you are unsuccessful, you can try again at 1 p.m.
• Park Hopper Ticket Starting at Disney California Adventure — You are eligible to join a boarding group for Mickey & Minnie's Runaway Railway at 1 p.m.

If members of your party have not scanned into their first park by 1 p.m., you will want to remove them from the party before joining the queue at 1 p.m.

We have joined using a variety of methods, and we have also failed at joining. It comes down to speed and your phone's signal. Ticket or party issues used to be a problem for some people, but now that can be done in advance, eliminating that problem.

Once you have joined, to check your status, you have two options:

• You can tap My Queues in the Virtual Queue box (preferred).
• You can tap the three lines in the bottom right corner of the app, then tap Virtual Queues and My Queues.

Keep an eye on which groups are boarding and the estimated time before your group is called. Once it's time to ride, you will receive a notification that it's time to head to the attraction by a specified time. You may have just an hour to return. Keep checking as these notifications can be easy to miss when you are having fun. Click View Entry Code to display your code for scanning by a cast member to access the attraction. We always recommend taking a screenshot just in case you have problems pulling it up when you need to or in case lines take longer than planned. Have your entry code out and ready to scan at the attraction entrance.

Pay to Ride an Attraction with a Virtual Queue

Do you struggle with virtual queues due to a slow phone connection, or maybe even slow fingers, but desperately want to ride?  You can purchase an individual Lightning Lane to bypass the virtual queue and standby line.

Guests can purchase a particular ride once per day for a maximum of two different rides per day to use the Lightning Lane. You can join the virtual queue and purchase an individual Lightning Lane selection if you want to ride twice. The other rides that offer individual Lightning Lane selections include Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance and Radiator Springs Racers (in Disney California Adventure).

Keep in mind that other rides could join the Disneyland virtual queue lineup at any time. If there are two rides on the virtual queue system, you'll need to enter those virtual queues one at a time. But you may enter a virtual queue for a ride and one for entertainment (such as World of Color) at the same time.

You can join the virtual queue and purchase an individual Lightning Lane selection if you want to ride twice. If you purchase an individual Lightning Lane and the ride breaks down, you can ride later if the attraction reopens.

How to Join the Virtual Queue for World of Color

The virtual queue for this high-demand show may move quickly, especially since there is a new show for the Disney 100 Years of Wonder celebration: World of Color — ONE. That means you'll want to be ready to go before the queue opens each day. Here's what you need to know:

• The World of Color virtual queue opens at noon daily.
• All members of the party who wish to watch the show and make a virtual queue selection must have entered a theme park by this point to be eligible to join the virtual queue.
• You can join after entering Disneyland or Disney California Adventure (depending on your ticket).
• You must have an eligible ticket or Magic Key pass and theme park reservation: You can either have a 1-park per day ticket that starts in Disney California Adventure, or a Park Hopper or Magic Key pass that starts in either park. If you have a 1-park ticket with a reservation starting in Disneyland, you are not eligible to join the queue or watch the show on this day. May we suggest Fantasmic! or the fireworks or projections show instead? You don't need a virtual queue to watch those nighttime spectaculars.
• Guests may hold a boarding group for World of Color and a ride.
• Boarding groups for a virtual queue are limited, subject to availability and are not guaranteed. Not all boarding groups may be called to return, based on the availability of the experience.

If there are two World of Color shows that day (showtimes vary), you will not get to choose the show you watch or the entry area. Show boarding groups could disappear very quickly. If you do not get to join the virtual queue, don't give up. There are other ways to see the show by standby (arrive 45 minutes early), dining packages and dessert parties. You can read all about them in our World of Color post.

Step-by-Step Guide to Joining the Virtual Queue

So, here's how to prepare:

• Download the latest version of the Disneyland app.
• Bring a portable charger with you to the park.
• Set an alarm (we usually set ours at 11:55 a.m. to give us time to prepare).
• Use your ticket to enter a theme park before noon (the Monorail entrance counts as a theme park entrance).
• Make sure all tickets in the party are linked to the person or people trying.
• Get off the park Wi-Fi if you can and find a good cell signal with full bars.
• Close out all other unnecessary apps.
• Have someone pull up a world clock to count down to noon (we use the second hand on our Apple Watch, which works pretty well. It's about a half second faster than the world clock.
• A few minutes to an hour before noon, open the Disneyland app and tap on the three horizontal lines at the bottom right-hand corner. Our preferred option is to use the Virtual Queues box on the home screen.

• Tap Virtual Queues.
• Tap Join Virtual Queue, then select Disney California Adventure Park at the top.
• Confirm your party. Tap Confirm Your Party. You can tap Edit if you need to make adjustments (remove any guests who have not yet entered the park).
• There should be a Refresh button at the bottom of the screen. You can repeatedly tap that as the joining period approaches. Or pull down to refresh until the blue Join Virtual Queue button appears. We wait until 11:59:58 to tap Refresh. Then we keep rapidly tapping until the Join Virtual Queue button shows up, and we keep tapping until we see Done.
• Tap Join Virtual Queue as soon as you see it appear. Use your speedy fingers to tap it ASAP! That's why we rapidly tap until it shows up. If you take the time to look for it and read it, it could be too late if you are going for the first show! We go a few seconds slower when we want the second show.

• Hopefully, you have "No troubles. Only bubbles!" and get assigned a show time.
• The app will indicate when there is no availability for a specific distribution time, or if a backup group is available. We got lucky and scored the first show, but it automatically assigned it. We did not put in a preference.
• If you join a boarding group, it should tell you or let you know which show. When your boarding group is called, you'll receive a notification 45 minutes before show time to tell you which color entrance point to use (Blue or Yellow).
• You can locate your show time by tapping Virtual Queues in the app.

If you do not have a smartphone, ask a cast member in the park about your options for getting a ticket. There are no longer distribution machines.

Hopfully, we've answered your questions about the Disneyland virtual queue system. If you still need Disneyland tickets, you can save some green when you purchase discounted multi-day tickets through your favorite froggy friends.

Related: How to Use Disneyland Mobile Order Service

Related: What to Expect at the Reimagined Toontown at Disneyland 

Keep hopping!