Frozen Ever After Review & Tips
This post reviews the new Frozen Ever After attraction in Epcot, with strategy for experiencing the ride with short a wait as possible. Page 1 of the post is spoiler-free, covering tips for minimizing your wait if you’re unable to score FastPass+ for Frozen Ever After. Page 2 features on-ride photos and my review of the attraction. (Last updated February 18, 2018.)
Let’s start with some tips for experiencing Frozen Ever After. As the newest attraction at Epcot in Walt Disney World and one based on a popular film and one with a low hourly capacity, this attraction is destined to have long waits for the next several years. Even nearly two years after the attraction debuted, wait times are still averaging ~60 minutes. I wouldn’t expect those numbers to change for the foreseeable future as the attraction’s capacity is low, and Frozen has proven that it has staying power.
The best strategy for experiencing Frozen Ever After with minimal wait is to reserve a FastPass+ for it (see our Guide to FastPass+ at Walt Disney World post for more background and tips on making FP+ reservations). If you cannot score a FastPass+, there are some other ways experience the attraction with minimal wait, including the Frozen Ever After Dessert Party…
This is still one of the most-coveted FastPass+ selections in all of Walt Disney World, right up there with Avatar Flight of Passage and Seven Dwarfs Mine Train. It’s one you will want to score as close to the 60 day mark as you can, as availability tends to be scarce inside 30 days. Disney’s Hollywood Studios FastPass+ aren’t in nearly as high of demand, so you might even consider making Frozen Ever After FastPass+ for multiple days in case you decide to Park Hop, or in case park hours/your plans change.
We’d recommend a FastPass+ for around noon, to give yourself time to do Soarin’ Around the World and Test Track prior to Frozen Ever After. This is also still early enough that you can secure “bonus” FastPass+ after doing Frozen Ever After. We’ve noticed that IllumiNations was available day-of certain days of our trip, so grabbing a FastPass+ for it would be a nice bonus.
If you’re staying off-site or you otherwise aren’t able to make a Frozen Ever After FastPass+, you have a couple of options–besides waiting in a long line. The first of these is rope dropping the attraction. In an ideal world, you’d arrive at Epcot at least 60 minutes prior to park opening. This is because a lot of other people will also be arriving early, and because the turnstiles will likely open around 30 minutes prior to park opening. You also have to get through bag-check and all of that. So really, the amount of time you’re standing around waiting is minimal.
After entering the park and walking “briskly” (as much as we might think the rope drop dash should be a full-contact sport, running and throwing gratuitous elbows is “frowned upon”) towards Norway, guests are stopped in a holding area in front of the Mexico pavilion, and slowly walked from there towards Norway (you’ll see this processional in our vlog below). It behooves you to be as close as possible to the front of this pack.
If you decide to do Frozen Ever After at rope drop, we recommend entering through International Gateway in World Showcase. Not only is the distance from there to the Mexico pavilion shorter, but also the crowds at International Gateway will be lower.
This is because the International Gateway entrance is primarily used by guests staying at the Crescent Lake resorts, whereas the front entrance is used by everyone else. Even though there are far fewer turnstiles back at International Gateway, it still is advantageous to start from back there. If you’re not staying at one of those resorts, consider taking an Uber to Beach Club and walking.
Alternatively, a pre-park opening Advance Dining Reservation (ADR) for Akershus is a great way to get in the front of the line. This is a hot ADR, so you’ll want to make this reservation as close to 180 days in advance as possible, and then cancel it if you’re able to score a Frozen Ever After FP+.
It doesn’t matter whether you have an 8:00, 8:15, 8:30, etc. ADR, so long as you have a time prior to park opening, you’ll be allowed to enter Epcot around 7:45 a.m. If you want to have time to enjoy your breakfast and meet the princesses, you need to get to the turnstiles before 7:30 a.m. so that you’re among the first guests seated at the restaurant. When we did this, we were in the park at 7:47 a.m., checked into the Akershus by 8:01 a.m., and seated at 8:06 a.m.
We explained to our server that we wanted to be out of the restaurant in time for Frozen Ever After rope-drop, which was clearly a common request, as she indicated she’d bring the check at the start of our meal along with to-go cups for our drinks at around 8:45 a.m.
Although our breakfast was a bit rushed, we were able to make 3 trips to the buffet, meet every princess, and still be out the door by 8:54 a.m. The Frozen Processional from Mexico arrived at 9:02 a.m. All of these times are subject to change on a day-by-day basis, so it’s probably best to play it safe and be out of Akershus no later than 8:50 a.m. Read our full Akershus Breakfast Review for more thoughts on whether this meal is worth the money.
The easiest option if you’re unable to secure a FastPass+ is getting in line at the very end of the night. As is the case with all Walt Disney World attractions, so long as there is 1 minute left in the operating day, you can get in line. On most nights, this means skipping IllumiNations (which starts at park close), so you have to determine which matters more to you.
If you want to have your cake and eat it too, the best option is going to Epcot on an Extra Magic Hours evening, seeing IllumiNations, doing some other stuff, and then jumping in line for Frozen Ever After at the very end of Extra Magic Hours (which will normally be 10:59 p.m.). We did this one night, and our actual wait in line was just under 30 minutes.
Although wait times have died down from the initial levels that occurred the first few months the attraction was open, 60+ minute waits are still the norm as of February 2018.
One final “last ditch” option for experiencing Frozen Ever After with minimal wait is the Frozen Ever After Dessert Party, which is offered on select nights. This starts near the current FastPass+ viewing area for IllumiNations: Reflections of Earth (which is a short walk from the Norway pavilion) and includes unlimited desserts and drinks.
Following the fireworks, dessert party guests will walk over to Frozen Ever After to enjoy a ride on the attraction with little-to-no-wait after normal park closing time. The Frozen Ever After Dessert Party is offered select dates–almost every night of the week except Tuesdays, currently. The cost is $79 per adult and $47 per child.
Personally, we think this is a pretty steep price to pay for a dessert party when you could just as easily follow one of our other strategies to experience Frozen Ever After with minimal wait, but different strokes for different folks…
We did a vlog on our experience rope-dropping Akershus and being among the first in line for Frozen Ever After. The middle of the vlog does include a full HD ride-through of Frozen Ever After.
You’ll want to skip from the 4:10 minute mark to the 8:58 mark to avoid that footage if you haven’t done Frozen Ever After yet. Following the on-ride footage, we offer a brief (spoiler-free) review based upon our first ride-through:
That covers it in terms of tips for Frozen Ever After. On Page 2, I’ll offer review the attraction, rant about Epcot, and share some of my on-ride photos. If you have yet to experience Frozen Ever After, I would encourage you not to read the next page.
This isn’t some sort of tricky reverse-psychology click-bait. I’m a firm believer that spoilers diminish the initial in-person attraction experience. Your first time through, everything should be fresh, new, exciting, and you shouldn’t have any preconceived notions besides your own. You’re going to want to do the attraction regardless of anyone else’s opinions, so what does it matter what I think of it? If you’ve already ridden Frozen Ever After, seen spoilers, or just can’t help yourself, click here to continue reading on Page 2.
I have another tip for reducing wait times at FEA. Unless they’ve changed it in recent months, there are no FP+ times offered for that attraction before 11am. This means from the time the park opens at 9am until 11am, there are ONLY standby passengers getting put on the ride. The standby line moves very quickly before 11am! If you check out the posted wait times during the day, you’ll see the wait is typically posted as under an hour until 11am.
For example, looking at the predicted wait times for this Saturday, June 24 (nearly the height of crowd season at Disney!), the predicted wait time at 10am is just 36 minutes. Shortly after 11am, when the FP+ starts up, the standby wait time pretty much doubles. In my opinion, there’s no need to rush there at rope drop and get to the park 1 hour early. Besides, if you get to the park 60 minutes early to avoid waiting 60 minutes in line, is it really much different? I know you’re saving park time, but you’re still spending your time waiting! As long as you’re in line for FEA by about 10:30, the standby wait should be minimal.
Thank you for the great POV for Frozen ride. You take amazing pictures and videos, but they do not do Sarah justice. She is beautiful. Where did she get the dress in the video?
All good strategies…but I wanted to comment on the pre-park ADR. The time of your ADR does matter. We had an Akershus ADR for 8:15 this April and arrived at turnstiles at 7:45. We informed CMs of our ADR as well as our need for additional time to travel to the Norway pavilion because we needed to stop and rent a scooter for a member of our party with a disability. We were not permitted to enter the park until after 8. We were consequently late arriving at our ADR and there was no way we could have made it in the Frozen ride line by 9 while alsp enjoying our dining experience (which we actually wanted to do). So I would not count on being able to dine at Akershus and get in line for the ride unless you truly have an ADR before 8 a.m., or you don’t care about the princesses and you want to inhale your food.
On the other hand, we’ve done Frozen ever After at least 5 or 6 times with no ADR using the rooe drop strategy. It works well as long as you get in line at the turnstile by 8:15 a.m.
We just rode this for the first time, so I’d avoided the review. If this were in fantasyland alongside Peter Pan, Little Mermaid (or even Snow White/Pinnochio) if would easily stand out as the best attraction there.
I agree that I wish it *were* there rather than in Norway. (and that we got extra attractions instead of replacements)
I am so glad my girls (10 & 8) never bought into the Frozen craze. We Fastpassed Frozen this past May, so upon arriving at EPCOT, we rope dropped Soarin’. Had a five minute wait. Outstanding! Later that day, when we went to FEA, as predicted the line was ridiculous. Even taking into consideration the relatively short Fastpass line, Frozen is still not worth that wait! This ride is a “one and done” experience for my family. Not having to waste a FP on it in the future is such a joy as it allows us to focus on Soarin’ and Test Track.
We were not planning on going to EPCOT this trip. My kids would like to ride this ride, is it worth using a day’s ticket (no park hoppers)?
Ride is not worth waiting in line more than 15 minutes. Some areas look incomplete. Lacking.
I agree. I was under impressed with the ride, which is very short. Fortunately we had fast passes and got through the entire thing (wait, ride) in about 20 minutes.
Hi! This is a great article. Can you tell me (I never rode Maelstrom) how the boat rides? Is it slow like a small World/pirates in MK? Thanks!
I’d say closer to pirates because of the small drop. There’s a small drop here as well.
what time was your reservation? we have one at 8:20, will they let us dine early if we arrive at the suggested time of 7:30? thanks!
I’ll add my experience from following this post’s advice on a Sunday in January 2017.
We did not decide to go to Epcot until a couple weeks before the trip, so we were unable to get a FastPass for FEA or early breakfast reservations. We arrived at Epcot around 8:00am to be ready for the scheduled park opening time at 9:00am and found that the lines were only 10 or so people deep at the entrance at that point, which seemed like a good sign. The wait was easy. At about 8:20, there was a park opening show which provided good entertainment for about 10 minutes. By the time the show ended, the lines to get in had doubled or tripled in size. At 8:30, they opened the entrance, and people started making their way toward the ride of their choosing. I had expected a massive rush towards FEA, but it was clear right away that the early arrivers were dividing almost equally between FEA, Soarin, and Test Track.
Heading into the World Showcase area, we expected to be stopped at the Mexico pavilion. However, there was no such rope there on this particular day, so we went right to Norway and right into the line for FEA. We also expected to wait until 9:00am for the ride, but they were already letting people on at 8:50am, so we basically walked right onto the ride. After exiting, the wait time was posted as 10 minutes, so we got right back in queue and rode again. So, by about 9:10am, we had already done FEA twice, and that seemed like a small victory for the day! We noticed a number of other families doing the same thing.
After that, there was still time to head to Soarin and get on with only a 10 minute wait. The single rider line at Test Track was about 20 minutes after that. By 10:00am, we had already been able to do FEA twice, Soarin, and Test Track. That was a good start to the day and allowed us to use our FastPasses later in the day when the lines were longer!
I wanted to share something from my FEA experience: So, we went a few weeks back and decided to get in line for the ride as soon as we entered Epcot (around 9:30am) because my WDW Lines app said actual line waiting time was shorter than the posted time (25 mins vs 50 mins). The actual line wait was somewhere in between (probably 35 minutes), but the ride went down when we were about 7 people from the front of the line. The cast members had to evacuate people on the ride while they fixed it, but announced over the loudspeaker that people could stay in line despite not knowing when it would be back up and running. Although, they did encourage those to leave who had FPs to other attractions. I think the ride was down for 20 or so minutes, but during that time A LOT of people left. My husband and I witnessed many heart-broken kids being dragged out of line by their parents – VERY SAD 🙁 . We stayed in line because we figured the frequency of it going down, they pretty much had the fixes down pat. We ended up at the top of the line with one other couple our age due to many families leaving. I asked a cast member about the frequency of breakdowns with this ride and he said it’s due to the incredibly sensitive sensors. So, basically, any time the boats have a bit more weight than normal or for other various reasons, the sensors go haywire and stop the ride.
We were on the first boat once the ride was up and running again – I was a little surprised they didn’t do a test run of boats before allowing visitors to ride…but then again, if it was a sensor issue that happens all the time, I guess that makes sense.
The ride was awesome! I was really impressed by the animatronics. And loved the “Let it Go” portion.
We had a Fast Past for the ride at 2pm-ish, but we’ve we tried to use it the ride was down again. Being that it was boiling hot at that time, we decided not to wait. Happily, Disney emailed to inform us that because the ride was down during our appointed time, we could ride it any time during the rest of the day. We elected to go back that night. It was up and running again, but due to the HUGE backlog of FPs, they were only allowing those with a FP to ride. This line was longer than your typical FP line, but at 20 minutes it wasn’t too bad.
We chatted with a couple with a young son in front of us in the line. The woman was using an anytime FP that she was given a week or so ago because when she was in line previously she, like us earlier, got to the top of the line but the ride went down. But it went down because a woman’s foot/ankle got caught between the boat and the edge of the side while exiting the ride. YIKES! It was apparently quite a scene and they had to evacuate the ride and the lines due to this. But my guess this is definitely an uncommon event, because I noticed the space between the boat and disembarkment edge was so, so slim (maybe 3 or 4 inches).
Anyway, that was my experience with the ride. And my take-away – if allowed, stay in line if the ride goes down.
Tom,
How does entering through the International Gateway work if you are not staying on property? Is there parking available there? Thanks so much.
You have the best job EVER!
We are staying at BCV so we will enter at International Gateway. I was told that they don’t let people thru the turnstiles before park open to do rope drop like at the front entrance. Do you know if this is true? Also, how far do they let the people go into the park from front entrance before rope drop. TIA
Hi Tom,
It’s been a few years since my last comment. I’m still an avid reader and just wish our family was able to do half the Disney things you and Sarah accomplish. The Goodnight Kiss is big on my bucket list, but with little ones who are monsters if tired out, it hasn’t happened yet. Fortunately, grandparents live close by which will allow us some adult nighttime Disney once the baby is a little older. Your blog was indispensable during our recent CA road trip, which I said had to include a trip to Disneyland since I didn’t know if this might be a once and done trip. Since we only had 1 1/2 days for Disneyland and CA, knowing which rides were nearly identical to Disney World was so helpful. We skipped those and only rode those which differed or don’t exist on the east coast. However, another trip is in order now, as after reading your blog I was convinced we needed to stay at the Disneyland Hotel. My husband said that our road trip budget did not allow for that, and is blaming this blog on my need for a quick return trip 😉
We’re Disney World season pass holders and my husband and I made a 1 day trip to Epcot about a week after Frozen Ever After opened. We dropped our 2 oldest kids off at Grandma’s house beforehand. It’s so much easier to navigate with one baby than two talking, opinionated kids to slow us down 🙂 Shh!! Don’t tell them they missed out. I think it’s funny, but my husband thought the vignettes left the ride feeling a bit disjointed. I agree with you and think it works better this way. To each his own I suppose.
We were able to get FassPass+ twice for Frozen Ever After the day of. I hate to give away our secret, but we’ve found that constantly searching and refreshing for FastPass + the evening before or the day of almost always guarantees us a FastPass+ for the most popular ride at a park and often we can hit almost all E-ticket rides. Unfortunately it didn’t work for Soarin’ Around the World that day because it was 3 pm before we could search again given our first Frozen Ever After time. We got to ride at California Adventure last week so “no harm no foul”. However, for the most part the system has yet to fail us. Granted we only had two people and a baby riding vs. our normal 4 that day, but it seems to us it’s much easier to get FastPass+ when everyone is switching around their itineraries than weeks in advance. For example I’ve already search for FEA at the 60 day out mark (we’ll be staying on property in a few weeks for a conference) and FastPass+ is already booked. I have no doubt we’ll be able to get FastPass+ using our system though when we’re there. The one thing our strategy doesn’t seem to work with is firework viewing, but we tend to play fireworks by ear anyway given our kids’ ages.
Thanks again for the blog and keep up the awesome reviews, news, and tips.
Your blog, vlog, and other comments by users are very useful and an enjoyable Sunday morning read. It’s been two and a half years since my last WDW trip and not one in the near future. It’s actually because of World Showcase Morocco and France that I’m planning a trip there next summer. Like it was said earlier most of us won’t get a chance to visit all these places and keeping true to what is found us the essence of WS.
Great post. Thank you.
I am going 2nd week of September staying in non-Disney accommodation. Do you think there’ll be a chance to get a FP+ for FEA if I get onto the app as soon as it opens 30days before or will they have sold out?
Thank you
Love, love, love the vlog! We will be taking the kids early november and all Frozen things are must do’s. Do you think it’s useful getting the early ADR’s for akershus if there’s a morning extra Magic hour? Will we be let in even before 8 am?
Tom,
The Epcot dedication plaque doesn’t say anything about an epcot future filled with drunk college students swilling drinks late into the night inside the world show case. Perhaps the family friendly frozen ride in an area in need of change is an appropriate upgrade, despite what the plaque says.
Bob
I think how out of hand Food & Wine has gotten (which I suspect is partly to bolster the bottom line with alcohol sales because the park otherwise isn’t cutting it) should also be addressed.
Just because one problem exists doesn’t mean you throw everything else out the window.
You know, I was warned that I may encounter the crazy, frat-like drunkedness on a Friday night of the Food & Wine Festival, but I didn’t imagine it being worse than some of the crazier weekend night places in NYC (where I live). Talk about cognitive dissonance! Being child-less, I noticed and appreciated during our day time visit to Epcot (my first time visit to the park) skewed more towards adult, but wow…making my way through a crowd of drunks during the otherwise more pleasant night time climate was a bit more stressful than I’d wanted. We saw Disney guards escort drunk people out. That’s a sight I thought I’d never see. Anyway, we got to do a second ride on Frozen Ever After, so it was all worth it. Plus, a dinner of F&W bites was nice too.
I was surprised that it looked like you videoed (is that a word?) the ride on what I presume was your first time on it. I thought when you were in Shanghai you said you always enjoyed the first time without pictures or video. Were you not planning on riding it again or were you afraid it was going to break down and you wouldn’t be able to ride it again so you figured you better get your footage the first time through? Just curious. I really liked your idea of just immersing yourself and enjoying rides the first time through.
The video was shot on our third (and final) ride-through on the attraction. Didn’t take any photos or video the first time. The magic of editing! 🙂
You’re good! Even your conversations made it seem like it was your first time on the ride. You’re almost as magical as Disney!
Haha, the conversation after the ride-through (and literally everything else in the video) was shot right after we got off the attraction for the first time. The only thing shot later was the ride-through footage itself.