Anna and Elsa...or die trying

I am bringing my small family across ‘the pond’ at the end of August for my daughter’s 8th birthday. Although this is not our first trip to WDW, it is the first since Frozen was released.

My daughter is a big ‘princess’ fan, and is totally in love with Elsa / Anna, and her birthday (and life) would not be complete unless she gets to meet the pair on the day.

However, I have seen the horror stories of up to 6hr lines and do not want to spend the whole day at the Magic Kingdom stood in a queue for a two minute meet and greet. Now I know the obvious answer is FP+, but we are staying off-site in Kissimmee so I am concerned that there will be no FP+ left available when we get our chance to book them 30 days in advance.

Does anyone have any tips / miraculous ways for us to be able to meet the Frozen duo without having to queue for a whole day? My sanity and ‘best daddy ever’ tag depends on you, so any help would be appreciated.

The Kitchen family,
Devon, England

Just keep trying for the FP. Stuff opens up a lot especially the closer you get to your trip and people start finalizing their plans. Luckily the wait times are five and six hours anymore. It’s more common these days to see the times top off at about 90 mins or so. going at the end of August is a pretty low crowd level so you’d likely not see anything over that. Also if you go right there at opening or can stay a bit later toward the end of the night the crowds thin out a lot.

Picking a random day on the TP projected wait times in late August they are guessing the wait time will top out at around 50 minutes.

Don’t worry I think you’ll be ok either way.

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We interrupt this Frozen discussion to say that my family history is from Devon :smiley: mostly Plymouth and Exeter. My dad spent an entire day in the family records office in Exeter when we visited in 2006. Now, back to your regularly scheduled princesses.

We live on the edge of Exeter and are blessed to live in a beautiful part of the world. I hope you enjoyed your trip to our little corner :grinning:

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Many thanks for the advice, @Outer1. My thoughts were to head there first thing in the morning, if we fail to get a FP+.

Fingers crossed our wait will not be overly long! :fearful:

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It was March, so very rainy, but a beautiful city indeed! I bought a dress for graduation from Debenham’s, we stayed at the Clock Tower hotel, and ate dinner at the Ship Inn (Sir Francis Drake ate there apparently, and he’s a relative in some fashion or another, so my dad insisted we had to go haha)

your best bet is going to be to try to be there the very first thing and just suck it up (although it won’t be anywhere near the 5-6 hours it once was). You could try to get an ADR at Crystal Palace or CRT for breakfast before the park opens, and that will put you inside the park and in a position to queue up the moment the park opens.

Waits for Anna & Elsa are way down since the 6 hour lines that may have been present when they first arrived in Florida, though 60-90 minute posted times are pretty common these days. Rope drop, as you mentioned, could lead to a shorter wait, but there will be a lot of other people trying to do the same thing. If you skip the Magic Kingdom Welcome Show to position yourself in front of the line at in one of the tunnels into the park, study the route that you will have to follow, and walk briskly, then you should find yourself near the front of the line. If your family is not comfortable with that, then you’ll end up with a substantial wait even first thing in the morning.

Other possibilities if you can’t find FPP would be to search for a pre-rope drop ADR at either Be Our Guest or Crystal Palace. You may overpay and not get the leisurely meal you may want (since you’ll have to finish eating before the rest of the guests are released into the park), but that could help you cut some of the line. I’ve also heard people talk about wait times dropping during Wishes, or possibly during some of the parades.

Thanks for the advice. I hadn’t thought of getting a breakfast reservation inside the park.

Hi,

thanks for the advice. I will probably try and make a reservation within the park for breakfast and then make a quick dash at opening.

Hoping for a quiet (ish) day!

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If a&E are critical then get in line about 30 minutes before Wishes. Folks start abandoning the line then. Good luck!


The pre-rd BOG breakfast worked perfectly for us a couple of weeks ago. In and out of Anna and Elsa in less thAn 10 mins. Plus yummy breakfast and we got some great photos in front of the castle without the crowds. Great morning all around! we were offsite too so no chance at Fpp.

@Shandunn I have looked into a pre-rd brekkie inside the park but they are all booked up for the two week period we are there in august. I think my only option is to make a bee-line for Anna and Elsa and bite the bullet on the wait.

I can always save time with my touring plans for the rest of the day.

Do keep checking, though, people cancel reservations all the time! I never thought I’d get Chef Mickey because we planned our trip so late but I kept checking and one opened up about 6 weeks prior to our trip. If you do end up doing RD, just get there early and it won’t be too bad! Have fun!

Rope drop is your best bet without FP. We did it a couple months ago and it really wasn’t that bad. Stay as close to the CM/rope as possible and you should be in 20 min or less. I found that WAY more people were doing Mine Train.

The Meet & Greet is well worth the wait. They are efficient but each of the princesses have a way of making each guest feel so special and welcome. It does not feel rushed at all.

Well, first I have to ask, do you by chance have relatives in Eastern/Atlantic Canada by the name of Kitchen?

On to your question -

You could always look at booking a one night stay in a Disney resort. That way you would get your Magic Bands for free ($17 each), free parking for two days ($17 each day) and you would get the option to book your Fast Passes at 60 days out. If you have a family of four, that $150 hotel room, would really only end up costing you $48 (assuming a family of four for Magic Band value), and you’d get the 60 day Fast Pas window.

Otherwise, rope drop! Try and get an EARLY breakfast reservation for 7:30 or 8:00. If you do that, you will have a very good chance of being very early in line for A&E. The other option is to try for late at night. As others have said, also, keep checking, people change or drop their FP+ all the time.

Hi,

Thanks for your message, and to answer your first question, I don’t believe so, although my father, who orginates from Manchester, UK, is very guarded about his family roots!

I like your option of spending the one night in a Disney hotel. We are already booked into a 2 bed condo for our two week stay, but I am sure my daughter would love to spend her birthday in one of the Disney properties. If we are to book FP+ for 23rd August, would I need to book a room for 22nd or 23rd?

I think booking for either night would be fine. As long as you have your tickets and reservations linked MDE, I’m pretty sure you can book FPP at.60 days for both check in day and check out day

I would book for the 22nd. Once you link your tickets you’ll be able to book for 60 days + 1, so, if you book for the night of August 22nd, at 60 days from August 22nd, you’ll be able to book your FP+ for the 22nd AND the 23rd.

If you book the room for the 23rd, other people will have already been booking A&E for 24 hours, and you’ll have less selection. Also, the benefit is - you’ll be able to book your FP+ 60 days out for the entire length of your tickets/trip, NOT just for the dates that you stay on site :wink:

You can’t book them all at once, you have to wait for your 60 days from each day, so say you plan on being in the parks August 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, you’ll be able to book August 22nd & 23rd on June 23rd. Then you’ll be able to book August 24th on June 25th, August 25th on June 26th and so on…