The Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster Starring The Muppets opens to the general public on May 26. Before that happens, Annual Passholders get three days of exclusive preview access starting Wednesday, May 21. The virtual queue for those previews is now live on My Disney Experience, and the window to prepare is essentially closed, as the first drop is in three days.
Here is everything that matters before Wednesday morning.
The Three Windows
Each preview day has three separate virtual queue opportunities and the one you can access depends on what reservation you have.
The 7 a.m. window is the one to target. Passholders with a Disney’s Hollywood Studios park reservation can join the virtual queue at 7 a.m. on May 21, 22, or 23. The detail that makes this window valuable beyond just the early timing is that you do not need to be physically inside any park to join at 7 a.m. You can be at home. You can be at your hotel. You can be in the parking lot eating breakfast. As long as you have a Hollywood Studios reservation and your My Disney Experience app is open at 7 a.m., you can get a boarding group.
The 11 a.m. window expands who can participate. At 11 a.m. Passholders with a reservation to any Walt Disney World theme park can join the virtual queue, not just Hollywood Studios. This is where park hopping becomes a real strategy. Reserve Magic Kingdom or EPCOT in the morning, hop to Hollywood Studios later in the day, and join the 11 a.m. queue on your way over.
The 3 p.m. window is the broadest and the last. At 3 p.m., the virtual queue opens to all Annual Passholders regardless of whether they have any park reservations at all. This is the fallback for everyone who could not secure a reservation anywhere. Based on the demand this attraction has already generated, it will not last long.
The Muppets Demand Is Already Telling
Two of the three preview dates sold out Disney’s Hollywood Studios park reservations almost immediately after Disney announced the previews. May 22 sold out first, carrying extra pressure because the same date marks the launch of the new Mandalorian and Grogu mission at Millennium Falcon: Smugglers Run, which alone would have driven significant reservation demand. May 21 sold out shortly after. Both have since become available again but the initial sellout tells you exactly how those virtual queue windows are going to behave on Wednesday morning.
If you have a Hollywood Studios reservation for any of the three preview days, the 7 a.m. window is going to move fast. The 11 a.m. and 3 p.m. windows will move faster than most people expect.
The Perk That Disappears After May 23
Passholders who ride during the May 21-23 preview window receive a complimentary download of their on-ride photo. That perk is exclusive to the preview period. After the attraction opens to the general public on May 26, the free photo download will no longer be available. If you ride during previews, it is free. If you ride after opening day, it is not.
A virtual queue is not planned for when the attraction officially opens on May 26. Opening day will operate on standby and Lightning Lane, and if the preview demand is any indication, Lightning Lane availability during opening week is going to be competitive from the moment the parks open.
What the Muppets Ride Is
Rock n Roller Coaster Starring The Muppets keeps everything that made the original attraction a Hollywood Studios cornerstone for more than two decades. The high-speed launch. The inversions. The G-Force Records setting is now under the ownership of Scooter’s uncle, J.P. Grosse. The core premise of a band is that it needs to get across town fast for a concert.
The band is now The Electric Mayhem. The queue features Muppet props, Electric Mayhem band posters, and celebrity cameos. Disney released the complete tracklist featuring rock covers performed by the band. The physical experience of the ride is unchanged. The thematic world around it is entirely new.
For Annual Passholders, the app is ready, the queue is live, and May 21 is three days away.
Set the alarm. Open the app. Have your plan before 7 a.m. Wednesday.
