Disney World’s New “Olaf Draws!” Uses Unconventional Virtual Queue to Control Crowds When Busy

Walt Disney World has confirmed that “Olaf Draws!” will use a virtual queue to avoid long lines as necessary when demand is high, but with a new twist on the common crowd control tool. Here’s how to use the VQ, which will not involve the normal 7:00 am fast fingers and speed strategy protocol, and won’t even be available via the MDX app.

As basic background, the Magic of Disney Animation has quietly soft opened ahead of its scheduled debut on Monday, September 14, 2026! With this, everything inside the Roy E. Disney Animation Building is now open, and that includes Olaf Draws, which is using a standby line…for now.

While “Olaf Draws!” is the main…draw, the Magic of Disney Animation also features the Once Upon a Studio Theater, Drawn to Wonderland Play Area, “Off the Page” Character Meet & Greets, and common areas for guests to explore. As of Friday, September 11, 2026, all of this has soft opened.

Olaf Draws is the new Animation Academy experience at the Magic of Disney Animation. In this attraction, everyone’s favorite snowman takes center stage as your cheerful host. With his signature warmth, optimism, and playful humor, Olaf invites guests of all ages to explore the art of character drawing.

Olaf Draws eschews the typical live host in favor of an all-new Olaf Audio-Animatronics figure paired with pre-recorded video of legendary Walt Disney Animation Studios artists, who team up to teach guests (and Olaf himself) how to draw.

Olaf welcomes you into a space inspired by one of his most memorable moments from Once Upon A Studio sitting at an animator’s desk, joyfully discovering the art of drawing. Stepping into a reimagined animator’s studio with playful nods to Frozen, guests of all ages are invited to sit down and learn to draw.

You’ll go step-by-step through the creative process, guided by Disney Animation artists through recorded tips, techniques, and stories from inside the studio. Add in Olaf’s playful humor, and it becomes a fun, laugh-filled experience that leaves you feeling inspired.

Young animators in the making can spark their creativity at sleigh‑themed tables, while animator‑desk–style workstations invite kids at heart to feel as though they’ve stepped right into the studio.

Since Olaf can’t quite draw on his own, he turns to the expertise of some legendary Disney Animation artists whose pre-recorded guidance brings the class to life. Together, they guide you step-by-step through the creative process, sharing tips, techniques, and stories straight from the studio as you learn how beloved Disney Animation characters come to life.

Each class features a different character, inspired by timeless classics and modern favorites, giving you a unique reason to return again and again. You may find yourself sketching:

• Mickey Mouse, with Dan Abraham, director (Once Upon A Studio, Baymax!)
• Minnie Mouse, with Hyun Min Lee, animator (Frozen 2, The Princess and the Frog)
• Donald Duck, with Austin Traylor, animator (Once Upon A Studio, Moana 2)
• Genie, with Eric Goldberg, animator (Aladdin, Hercules)
• Moana, with Samantha Vilfort, story artist (Encanto, Zootopia 2)
• Stitch, with Fawn Veerasunthorn, director and head of story (Wish, Raya and the Last Dragon)
• Olaf, with Trent Correy, director (Once Upon A Studio, Frozen 3)
• Ursula, with Michael Woodside, animator (Big Hero 6, Encanto)
• Judy Hopps & Nick Wilde, with Byron Howard, director, (Zootopia, Zootopia 2)

We fully expect Olaf Draws to be a huge hit with families. Our daughter enjoys Animation Academy at DCA, but she really loved Olaf Draws. The inclusion of the Audio Animatronics figure will give it drawing power that it wouldn’t have otherwise had.

There will be a strong desire among regulars to repeat the attraction to get all 9 versions of the experience. We’ve done 4 thus far (Aladdin, Mickey, Stitch, Olaf), and they’ve all been hilarious.

Speaking of all 9 versions, it’s also our understanding that not all 9 characters will be drawn every single day. At some point, there will be a listing in the My Disney Experience app indicating which characters are available. It won’t be set showtimes (that would be a logistics nightmare, especially with a virtual queue), just the random rotation for that day.

A bit inside baseball, but it’s also our understanding that the rotation could be dictated by duration. Not all of the classes are the same length, so on busier days, Walt Disney World might elect to run the shorter ones to improve capacity and throughput. All of this is what we’ve heard, and has not been officially confirmed by Walt Disney World.

The virtual queue details, on the other hand, are official…

Olaf Draws Virtual Queue

Although it’s not yet on the official website, Walt Disney World representatives have confirmed with DTB that a virtual queue may be in use from time to time throughout the day as needed for “Olaf Draws!”

We feared this might be the case, due to a confluence of factors. First, the theater is small and has limited seating. Second, the experience is moderately long, with the turnover time for each show probably being around 20 minutes in total (if not slightly more). These two factors alone mean an hourly capacity that is probably on par with an “Off the Page” meet & greet, just based on my back of the envelope math.

On top of that, there is very little room for a physical queue unless it’s routed out into the courtyard. That would pose its own crowd flow challenges, as guests would have difficulty entering the building for other experiences.

In terms of logistics, Walt Disney World has informed us that Olaf Draws will not use a traditional virtual queue that is available via the My Disney Experience app at 7 a.m. or other times during the day. Instead, guests will need to sign up in person when the virtual queue is in use.

If the virtual queue is in use, guests will sign-up in person to receive a return time via text message, so they can continue enjoying the attractions, entertainment, and dining offerings throughout Disney’s Hollywood Studios before returning for the Olaf Draws experience. To sign up, visit the attraction and check in with a Cast Member to be added to the virtual waitlist.

The virtual queue may not be used if the standby line is manageable. In practice, this likely means that Olaf Draws has a standby line to start the day, before the virtual queue/waitlist is deployed. For the best chances of success, rope dropping Olaf Draws will be the best course of action. It also means that, after the initial opening rush, there’s no virtual queue at all. It could also mean that there isn’t one during the ongoing off-season, but it’s utilized during Fall Break, Thanksgiving, Christmas, etc.

This is not the first time that Walt Disney World has used this type of virtual queue.

In fact, right now, you could head out to Gideon’s Bakehouse at Disney Springs and encounter a similar system. Or venture off-site to the Disney Character Warehouse Outlet, which likewise uses this approach.

In both cases, there is still a standby line, with the virtual component being utilized due to a lack of physical space and to reduce wait times for guests. Obviously, those are not theme park attractions, so not exactly an apples to apples comparison.

More apt is Moana’s Journey of Water, which used this same approach for approximately one day around this same time in 2023. That was an unmitigated disaster.

There was a QR code that guests needed to scan in order to join the virtual queue, and unsurprisingly, a long line formed to scan the QR code. But some people didn’t join that line, and instead just bypassed the line to scan the code (in their defense, I don’t think I’d ever previously seen a line for scanning a QR code).

The virtual queue wait time ended up being 9 hours long, which seemed shocking at the time given the smaller-scale nature of Moana’s Journey of Water (however, it is also low capacity). But then at the end of the night, the walk-through was dead.

By the second or third day of Moana’s Journey of Water, the virtual queue was integrated into My Disney Experience and the QR code approach was ditched. I don’t recall when the virtual queue was retired, but it was fairly quickly, and a standby line routinely opened up in the evenings.

Earlier this summer, Bluey’s Wild World similarly debuted with a virtual queue (albeit via the My Disney Experience app) and it lasted only a few days before being retired.

There was a lot of speculation about guest complaints about families being shut out of Bluey and confusion driving the decision, but we found that the standby line ended up working just fine. Demand burned off pretty quickly, and the standby line worked fine. There was still a modest wait for much of the summer for the dance party itself, but we seldom saw the line get outside the building after early June.

Just yesterday, we did Bluey’s Wild World with no wait whatsoever. Our daughter is a big fan of the experience, although “toddler loves Bluey” probably isn’t exactly stop-the-presses news. Of course, we would also note that Walt Disney World has not been truly busy since Bluey’s Wild World debuted.

All of this is a long-winded way of saying that we don’t know how the Olaf Draws virtual queue will change or ‘evolve’ going forward. It could be the case that the virtual queue is used for portions of today, this weekend, and September 14-15, but never again.

It could be the case that the hybrid standby-virtual queue approach works well, but is used longer than that, from time to time throughout the remainder of 2026. I assume Walt Disney World is banking on this virtual queue either being retired completely in short order, or only being necessary on rare occasion during portions of busy days.

Again, the true test could still be to come around Fall Break and beyond, especially since Walt Disney World’s tourist-heavy demographics mean the experience will still be “brand-new” to the vast majority of guests for the remainder of this year and 2027. (The same could be said for Bluey’s Wild World, for that matter.)

My guess is that the Olaf Draws virtual queue is either retired in under a week or evolves and is incorporated into the My Disney Experience app.

The current approach strikes me as Walt Disney World not wanting to advertise another virtual queue since fans have reflexive negative reactions to them, while also realizing one is probably going to be necessary to some degree. That’s probably why it’s being quietly communicated (for now), as opposed to another ‘how to’ page being added to the official WDW website.

If that ‘degree’ ends up being greater than initially anticipated, a more formal process will probably be necessary. That means using the infrastructure that already exists in the My Disney Experience app. At least, that’s my take from the outside looking in, as someone who has used a lot of virtual queues over the years at Disney and beyond. I’ve never encountered one like this in a theme park setting that works well at scale.

Anyway, Olaf Draws is open daily from park opening until park closing at Disney’s Hollywood Studios. Normally, this means 9 am until 9 pm, but there are some busier days when DHS will be open until 9:30 or even 10 pm. In which case, so too is Olaf Draws. Likewise, when DHS has 8:30 am openings, Olaf Draws starts operating then.

Currently, the Magic of Disney Animation is not scheduled to open during Early Entry or Extended Evening Hours. However, we wouldn’t be surprised if that changes by popular guest demand. Maybe I’m overestimating the popularity of this space, but I could see both Olaf Draws and Off the Page pulling crowds even before official park opening on busier days, and not just opening week. But I could also see Walt Disney World waiting to assess its ‘staying power’ and then adding MoDA to EE and ExEH in mid-October if the demand is still there. We’ll keep you posted!

Planning a Walt Disney World trip? Learn about hotels on our Walt Disney World Hotels Reviews page. For where to eat, read our Walt Disney World Restaurant Reviews. To save money on tickets or determine which type to buy, read our Tips for Saving Money on Walt Disney World Tickets post. Our What to Pack for Disney Trips post takes a unique look at clever items to take. For what to do and when to do it, our Walt Disney World Ride Guides will help. For comprehensive advice, the best place to start is our Walt Disney World Trip Planning Guide for everything you need to know!

YOUR THOUGHTS

Have you done Olaf Draws? Did you use the standby line earlier in the day or virtual queue later in the afternoon? If you’ve experienced the Magic of Disney Animation, what did you think of the experience? Where does this rank among the recent DHS additions for you? Do you agree or disagree with our advice? 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!