We’ve had a good series of good rope drop runs at Walt Disney World lately, meaning we’re overdue for disappointment. Enter our Early Entry at EPCOT Epic Fail, which shares a recent experience trying (unsuccessfully, as the title suggests) to knock out two headliners before official park opening. Here’s my step by step photo report on what went wrong, how I could’ve pretty easily fixed it, etc.
During a reasonably efficient Early Entry at EPCOT, you can ride two knock out two headliner attractions in World Showcase or the front of the park before the rope drop rush, opening the door for a day without Lightning Lanes. It doesn’t really matter whether you arrive via International Gateway in the back of the park or the front entrance, either.
This field test was done on a peak holiday season day at EPCOT, when the park had a 9/10 crowd level. Since Test Track reopened, there have been more and more days like this, with the worst so far being over fall break (December 22 through January 4, 2026 will be significantly worse). This was not nearly that bad, but wait times for Guardians of the Galaxy: Cosmic Rewind, Remy’s Ratatouille Adventure, Frozen Ever After and Test Track were all between 60 and 180 minutes throughout the day.
This Early Entry report starts from International Gateway, as we were staying at Yacht Club. Skyliner and Crescent Lake Resorts arrive via this back entrance, which is superior to the front entrance for Remy’s Ratatouille Adventure and Frozen Ever After, the headliners in World Showcase.
If you’d prefer to start with Guardians of the Galaxy: Cosmic Rewind or Test Track, it’s also possible from International Gateway if you don’t mind a bit more walking. As these two attractions now have higher average wait times than their World Showcase counterparts by roughly 10 minutes each, this is what I was setting out to “prove” with this field test.
I did this field test alone during a family trip, which meant that I was running late and crunched for time. (Fun fact: it’s impossible to be on time when traveling with a toddler. It’s actually the little-known Fourth Law of Thermodynamics. It’s true–ask the scientists in Living with the Land!)
I was still early to Early Entry, but not as early as I would’ve liked to have been. I didn’t arrive before bag check, security, or anything else opened. I was nevertheless among the opening ‘rush’ of people heading towards Future World from International Gateway, but I couldn’t tell you precise times when any checkpoints opened.
Upon entering International Gateway, there’s a row of Cast Members scanning MagicBands, resort room keys, or whatever to verify you’re eligible for Early Entry. You get held back by the gift shop and can’t access the rest of the park without scanning here, after which time you can proceed.
In case you missed it, one change that occurred earlier this year is that there’s no longer a secondary checkpoint between the United Kingdom and Canada. Once you’re past the initial holding area by the front of International Gateway, you can proceed all the way to the front of the park.
This started back when Cosmic Rewind joined the Early Entry ride roster and is a hugely positive change. This is what makes Cosmic Rewind and Test Track feasible from International Gateway. This wasn’t the case before!
Here are some photos from my leisurely-ish walk through World Showcase to Future World/World Discovery:
It also used to be the case that there was a holding area for Early Entry in the breezeway between Connections Cafe and Creations Shop. In my more recent experiences since Test Track reopened, this is no longer the case. The only checkpoints now are near the respective entrances and everything is open-access from there. (It’s possible that changes from time-to-time.)
One thing of which I’m not sure is whether International Gateway opens slightly early, if both entrances open at the same time, or it’s luck of the draw. Realistically, I’ll never have any way of testing this definitively because I’m one person doing the testing. Even if I could coax Sarah and Megatron to join me, they’d still be coming from the same direction.
I could’ve asked people in front of me in line for Test Track whether they came from the front entrance as we pass one another in switchbacks. I’m disinclined to do this, as I already draw side-eye when using my ‘big camera’ to take queue photos. The last thing I want, while stuck in a crowd of people, is to awkwardly draw even more attention to myself. “Excuse me ma’am, I would like to know where you came from this fine morning? Don’t worry, I’m not a weirdo; this is Very Important Research.” What could possibly go wrong?!
I can make the trek from France to World Discovery in just under 10 minutes. You don’t need to walk this fast to start at Test Track or Cosmic Rewind, though, as I’ll explain in a minute.
The bigger issue is that the walk adds a lot of steps to a day that’ll already have a ton of steps. Given how much food “research” I do in a day at EPCOT, I’m okay with this extra walking. I also personally prefer Test Track and Cosmic Rewind when by myself. Speaking of unwanted attention, same goes for a middle-aged dude riding Frozen Ever After or Remy’s Ratatouille Adventure by himself at the crack of dawn. Single riders on thrill rides are much more common and socially accepted.
Nevertheless, I want to underscore that I do not necessarily endorse this approach of entering through International Gateway and walking all the way to the front for Early Entry. It’s probably not for the average guest. But it should work well for the high-stamina commando tourists.
Anyway, I made it to Test Track at around 8:07 am.
The outdoor overflow queue was fairly full, and there was a steady stream of people flowing into World Discovery from both the front and back entrance at this time. I also passed a few people heading towards Remy’s Ratatouille Adventure from the front, but not until I was already in Future World.
This suggests to me that International Gateway had released guests slightly before the Spaceship Earth checkpoint. Observationally, this seems like a common occurrence; it happens fairly often in my testing. But that’s just anecdotal and could be luck of the draw as opposed to policy. There’s no way to make this perfectly fair, so it is what it is.
I’d also hazard a guess that most (~75%) of the guests in front of me in line for Test Track had come from the front. But that’s just a guess, as I did not survey those in front of me in line. Sorry. I love doing these field tests, and I’d like to keep it that way.
Honestly, it doesn’t really matter!
Some Walt Disney World fans get so caught up in being at the front of the pack for Early Entry that they don’t consider the actual upside and downside of doing so. The goal should be balance–arriving as late as possible while still beating the crowds. Being too early has its own costs (sleep, fatigue, midday breaks, etc).
Although not all vacation time is of equal value, it’s still senseless to arrive to EPCOT at 7 am or some ridiculous hour and spend ~90 minutes waiting for nothing. Especially when arriving then versus 7:45 am might amount to being a couple dozen people farther forward and saving 1-2 minutes in line for your first ride. Every minute matters during Early Entry, but not that much. There’s also the fact that it isn’t a single file line from the entrance to the rides, anyway; walking speed matters more than when you arrive once the checkpoint opens.
Arriving to Test Track at 8:07 am easily clears that bar for ‘still beating the crowds’ and the same would’ve been true had I shown up at 8:14 am. My photos indicate that there were only another few dozen people in line behind me by then, which isn’t much. The real rush happened between 8:15 am and 8:25 am.
The doors to Test Track opened and the line started moving at around 8:23 am (prior to that, only the outdoor overflow queue had been pre-loaded). I was inside the building by 8:25 am, so I couldn’t tell you what arrivals after that looked like.
What I can tell you is that you can make it to Test Track or Cosmic Rewind from International Gateway before 8:15 am regardless of your walking speed, and whichever entrance opens first. Whether you should do it is another story entirely. But the point is, don’t sweat this small stuff too much. Other variables outside your control are more outcome-determinative in a successful rope drop run.
Once the interior queue opened and filled up (presumably because the line outside had gotten so long), the line stopped once again. Based on my observations, the ride started loading at approximately 8:38 am.
That’s 8 minutes after the start of Early Entry. Eight excruciating minutes.
I’m not trying to sound melodramatic or anything, but after just coming off an incredible streak of Early Entry experiences at Magic Kingdom and Disney’s Hollywood Studios–during which Slinky Dog Dash, Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance, Seven Dwarfs Mine Train, TRON Lightcycle Run, and more all started running well ahead of the published time–even on-time would’ve felt late. I had been spoiled by success.
In this particular case, I had purposefully chosen to do Test Track first because it’s faster.
Guardians of the Galaxy: Cosmic Rewind has something like a half-dozen pre-shows, and even if you barge through the doors like a heathen, it’s still a tough task to finish that attraction before the regular rope drop rush. And that’s on a normal day, not a 9/10 crowd level one. The total minimum time commitment is much higher. This matters a lot when it comes to Early Entry.
Conversely, Test Track did away with its pre-show during the recent reimagining. On a good day, it’s possible to be in and out of Test Track in 10 minutes or so. This was not a good day.
Unfortunately, Test Track has an above-average amount of the dreaded delayed openings. This wasn’t that, though!
At least with a delayed opening, I would’ve known there was a problem in advance–a line of Cast Members would’ve been preventing guests from even getting in line. (At least, usually. I’ve had delayed openings where operations is, ahem, ‘wrongly optimistic’ about their ability to have a ride up and running.)
Given where I was in line, a smooth 8:38 am opening still would’ve given me enough buffer to beat the wave of rope drop crowds to Cosmic Rewind. But it wasn’t smooth; there were stops and starts.
Adding insult to injury (okay, now that is a bit melodramatic), I was standing right next to the Single Rider line for the delay.
There wasn’t a single person in the Single Rider line. To the contrary, I watched one person who got in line at 8:46 am get loaded onto the attraction ahead of me! Now obviously, I knew about the Single Rider line at Test Track; I’ve used it many, many times.
But the whole point of this field test was research to “prove” it’s possible for normal guests to knock out both Test Track and Cosmic Rewind during Early Entry. Using Single Rider would’ve defeated the purpose of the test, since most guests aren’t using it! (Hence the line being so much shorter.)
The people around me don’t know all of this, of course. So in their eyes, I’m just stupidly standing in a longer line by myself for no reason. Maybe I should’ve said “no it’s okay, I’m doing this for the internet.”
Then they just would’ve thought I’m weird. But they probably already thought that from all of the queue photos I was taking with a big camera–better at that point to just be weird than weird and stupid. Perhaps I could’ve cleared up everything with a brief survey?!
Joking aside, I know other guests are there with their families or friends and couldn’t care less about what I’m doing or why. Thankfully. This is just my inner monologue, which was bored and amused while killing time before the ride.
I was finally loaded on Test Track at 8:48 am. Still enough time to be off and in line for Guardians of the Galaxy: Cosmic Rewind. Nothing could stop me now!
Except two stoppages while riding Test Track, lasting 3 and 5 minutes each. One of which was shockingly abrupt, to the point that I wouldn’t have been surprised if it caused (very minor) guest injuries or lost phones. I don’t think I’ve ever experienced the ride coming to that quick of a halt.
Long story short, I was off Test Track at 9:04 am, behind the rope drop wave. Below is what the Guardians of the Galaxy: Cosmic Rewind queue looked like then; a posted standby wait of 75 minutes, which was well lower than the average for this day–but it was still climbing!
Ultimately, even though I had a “fail” for Early Entry at EPCOT, it should be clear that my plan would’ve worked had there not been the dreaded delayed opening and ride stoppages. Those ate up the majority of Early Entry; with the extra hours only being 30 minutes in the first place, there’s not that much margin for error.
The easy fix, as intimated above, would be just riding via Single Rider. Had I been willing to do that, I actually would’ve started at Cosmic Rewind and tried to do that twice. It wouldn’t have worked on a 9/10 crowds day, but I didn’t realize going in that it’d be that busy. (I did have success with Cosmic Rewind twice during the off-season.) Then I would’ve done Test Track via Single Rider. The other “easy” answer is not getting unlucky with downtime or delays. Simple as that.
This also wasn’t a complete failure, as my all-in wait was still well below-average for that day. In fact, when I exited Test Track, the standby wait had already exploded to 125 minutes. I never saw it drop below triple-digits for the day. Really a ‘not-so-epic’ fail in light of that.
Even though I failed at both, this should nevertheless illustrate that Test Track followed by Guardians of the Galaxy: Cosmic Rewind is possible during Early Entry from International Gateway.
That would’ve been true even if I arrived a few minutes later and walked slower to the front. At least objectively, this is the best plan of attack in terms of time-saved. It also helps that on a normal morning, you could easily knock out Soarin’ next without much of a wait there, either.
Whether it’s the best realistic or reasonable EPCOT Early Entry plan of attack comes down to how whether you’re arriving via the main entrance or International Gateway. And if the latter, how much you’re willing to walk. Backtracking is pretty common at EPCOT, to the point that you can easily do double the number of steps during a day here versus Disney’s Hollywood Studios.
If you want to take the path of least resistance, start with the major headliner closest to your entrance and with the shortest duration. This means beginning at Remy’s Ratatouille Adventure or Test Track. Follow that up with the next closest option, meaning Frozen Ever After or Guardians of the Galaxy: Cosmic Rewind. From each of those starting points, you have a few third-step options.
As always, there’s also the subjective side. I love that morning stroll through World Showcase, and either one of the above approaches give you that (either France to Norway past Morocco, or France to Canada past the UK). The better walk is the inside one, but they’re both enjoyable. That leisurely World Showcase powerwalk is my favorite part of Early Entry, not any of the rides themselves!
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YOUR THOUGHTS
Thoughts on Early Entry at EPCOT? Is Test Track your top pick now that it’s the #1 longest line in EPCOT? What’s your preferred approach to mornings at EPCOT? What’s your top priority now that there are 4 bona fide headliners open during Early Entry at EPCOT? Agree or disagree with our advice or approach? Any questions we can help you answer? 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!