I Learned a HARD Lesson in Disney World — Pirates of the Caribbean Nearly Cost Me a Virtual Queue Reservation

There are lots of lessons to learn in Disney World, and unfortunately, sometimes you have to learn them the hard way.

Pirates of the Caribbean

We’ve been there FAR too many times ourselves. Some lessons you learn once and never make again, like forgetting your ID at home (that’s a one and done), while other times, we have to learn the same lesson over and over and just HOPE we’ll finally get it (like remembering to bring rain gear…oops). When we were talking as a team about hard lessons we’ve had to learn in the parks, I thought of one that I NEVER expected to run into, but alas it happened — here’s why you should never ride this ONE Magic Kingdom attraction when you’re on a time crunch.

Early in 2025, Tiana’s Bayou Adventure still used a Virtual Queue system. Since going to Disney is always a ballin’ on a budget trip for me, I wasn’t about to pay for a Lightning Lane Single Pass to guarantee myself a spot, so I figured I’d try for the second VQ drop of the day, which was at 1 PM.

Tiana’s Bayou Adventure

Right around 12:30 PM, I noticed that Pirates of the Caribbean only had a 15 minute wait, and knowing the ride was only about 10 minutes long, I figured that was the perfect amount of time to check the attraction off my list and have some time before the VQ dropped. I got in line, which moved pretty fast, but did have a bit of a slowdown near loading. By the time I got there, the VQ was going to drop in about twelve minutes, and I knew I’d be cutting it close. I figured I could still grab the VQ on the ride if I needed to, right?

Pirates of the Caribbean Entrance

WRONG. I got on my boat with exactly ten minutes until 1 PM, and was hoping for the best…until we got a few scenes in and I realized that there was no service! I mentally smacked myself — I KNEW the ride went down deeper into the building (thanks to that drop at the beginning), and so it didn’t surprise me that there was no service, but I couldn’t believe I hadn’t thought of it sooner.

Pirates of the Caribbean

Then, things got worse — we stopped. Boats started stacking up right before the “hey look, everything’s on fire” scene, and the clock was ticking. I got ONE bar of service and prayed to George (the supposed ghost inside the attraction) that I could grab a VQ spot, since I’d never gotten to ride Tiana’s before. Lo and behold, I got VERY lucky and had just enough service as we were all stuck there to grab myself a spot for three hours later.

Getting stuck on this ride is certainly interesting!

Thank goodness my return time was pretty far out, because I ended up getting evacuated off the ride! Checked that off my bucket list, which was nice, since Pirates of the Caribbean is a ride I always thought would be extra interesting to get evacuated off of (it was!), and then I had some time to kill before my Tiana’s ride, where I reflected on the fact that I would NEVER make the same mistake again. If there’s something I’m trying to book at a specific time, I’ll do whatever is needed to NOT be somewhere with no service for a solid ten minutes ahead of time.

Tiana’s Bayou Adventure at Magic Kingdom

So, don’t be like me. Plan ahead, and even if you’re trying to make the most of your trip and do absolutely everything you can, if a reservation is more important than riding a different attraction, or heading somewhere with not-so-great service, just stay out in the open with plenty of service until the reservation has been made!

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