Opening Day Experience for Guardians of the Galaxy Mission Breakout




I've been to some opening days in the past but mainly it was for shows the most recent being the opening night for the 60th Anniversary fireworks. But this year I went to the opening day for Guardians of the Galaxy Mission Breakout which replaced the fan favorite Twilight Zone Tower of Terror. I've been looking forward to Guardians since the announcement since the attraction now fully uses the potential of the ride system to deliver multiple different experiences. The ride system for the DCA Tower of Terror was designed similar to the Tower in Orlando to be able run multiple ride profiles (For DHS Tower of Terror, the drops are randomized.) but wasn't tried until the final months of Tower of Terror when Disney introduced "Late Checkout" which provided the same drop sequence but delivered a different ride experience somewhat. With Guardians of the Galaxy, the Imagineers decided to randomize the experience for Guardians by using 6 songs with each song having its own drop sequence and show scenes to deliver a different ride experience each time.


I arrived at DCA 10 minutes before the parks opening to find the line already being at the front of the. I quickly found the end of the line which was moved every minute by the Carthay Circle Theater. The line started there, then went to the park gates, back up towards Hollywoodland, went into the queue area of the Hyperion Theater (which forced the ushers to let everyone into the theater for Frozen directly 30 minutes prior to the first show at 12pm. They were able to use the queue for Frozen again for the later shows as the line for Guardians subsided), into the rides extended queue area which was in a backstage area next to the rides fastpass machines and finally into the regular queue within the attraction gates.

So how long did you think I waited? 2 hours? 2 and half? Nope I waited nearly 4 hours and 30 minutes! I got out of the ride a bit after 12:15. Thats the longest I ever waited for an attraction and even if my friends heckle me for waiting that long (one of my friends has a DAS which allows him and a group to enter via fastpass entrance.) I don't regret waiting that long and I personally felt it was worth the experience!

The route Guardians line on Opening Day at the time of arrival

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