Hi, I am visiting with my 3yo daughter in April (April 23rd to May 1st) for the first time and getting beyond excited.
We fly home in the evening of May 1st, I heard a while back that Frozen Ever After is scheduled to open on that day, so to try and avoid missing out on the attraction due to the inevitable Frozen mania, I booked us into an 8am breakfast at Askershaus for a little princess time with the hope of getting in line for the new attraction early and avoiding too long of a line.
Is this an ok idea, how long do you think we will have to wait?
Should I try to get a FP+ for this, or is this unnecessary if we are in line by 8.45am?
Does anyone know when FP+ might open for Frozen Ever After and A&E the Meet and Greet?
If the answer to 2 is no, as it our last day, (and we will have already done a full day at Epcot earlier in the trip), I was hoping that we could go to MK after the Frozen experience and use our FP+ at MK that day for a last good bye. Can anyone let me know if they think this might work or if it is a bad idea?
Planning on having breakfast and then staying for the Frozen ride. Then leaving after that for MK. However if we need to use FP+ for the Frozen ride, I might change that plan.
The World Showcase usually doesn’t open til 11am. Is there reason to think that Frozen would open earlier? I don’t think anyone could know at this point when FP+ will be available.
@felicia333. That is a really good point. It hadn’t crossed my mind and I just assumed it would be open earlier. Do you think that the Frozen ride will be an exception to the usual World Showcase opening times because it will almost certainly be the most popular attraction in the park (at least until Soarin re-opens)?
I’m not sure of the Disney FP+, however would they have FP+ for the proposed opening day for an attraction, or would they wait until the attraction is fully operational before offering FP+? Do you know what Disney have done on previous new attractions? I’m not sure how many other “big” attractions have opened since the introduction of FP+ so there may not be a precedent?
The “best” answer to all of your questions is that no one knows, because Disney has not released an opening date yet. There are “guesses” that it might be Memorial Day weekend (that’s when 7DMT made it’s “soft opening” debut), but it’s just that - a guess. If it follows the 7DMT model, there will not be FPPs until the “official” grand opening date several week later. I have no “insider” knowledge, but here are my answers/personal predictions, based on how things have gone down in the past - IF it’s even open on May 1st (which I personally doubt)
Frozen Ever After will be a Tier 1 FPP. The A&E M&G will also have FPPs, possibly ALSO a Tier 1. This will “force” families to choose between the two, and keep the insane demand for both slightly under control. This will also make getting FPPs for Soarin’ (when it reopens) and TT somewhat easier to get.
SB lines for the ride will several hours long all day. If they decide to open Norway at park opening time, the SB lines for both will hit 60 min within 20 min of park opening and will build from there. Especially for the first 6-8 months, lines of up to 3-plus hours will not be uncommon. If they hold the opening until WS traditionally opens at 1100, a pre-RD ADR will be of little value, and people will be lining up to get into WS hours before it actually opens.
When FPPs become available, you’re going to need a 180+10 to get one - unless they do a staggered availability, which it is rumored that they did for 7DMT. In this case it will take constant monitoring to see if any show up.
Unless a stroller parking structure is planned, the Norway area of WS, with 3 major kid-centric attractions, will become so congested it will be very difficult for “normal” crowds to get through the bottle neck.
If all of this sounds negative, there is a plus. For those of us with little to no interest in ANYTHING “Frozen”, SB lines in FW will probably be shorter and FPP availability will probably improve.
Whether my exact predictions come true or not, the addition of the 2 Frozen attractions will have a MAJOR effect on crowd levels/flow in EP, and trying to develop a realistic, data-driven TP will be almost impossible for the first few months that they are open.
I think all we can do sometimes is make (semi) educated guesses based on past experience and logic. But I don’t doubt that Disney have thrown some curve balls in the past which defy any amount predictive insight. But what you say makes sense. It will be interesting to see how this goes.
Re point 5. Lucky you, I don’t have that luxury…if it’s open, we will be in the middle of the madness.
@bswam26: A quick terminology question. In your point 3, what does “180+10” mean? Is this like ADRs when you can book farther than 180 days out because you can book the ADR for every day of your reservation beginning on the first day of the reservation, i.e. if you are booked for 10 days, this would be 180+10?
Have you thought about how these new attractions might make it easier to get in at the A&E meet and greet in MK that day? (assuming they keep that one open that is)
We are prioritising the A&E meet and greet at MK for earlier in the week (assuming it is still open) to make sure that our little Mouse will get to meet them. As pointed out above, the new ride and meet and greet are far from certain to be open at that time, so you are right to highlight as a good option.
[quote=“bswan26, post:6, topic:19688”]
When FPPs become available, you’re going to need a 180+10 to get one - unless they do a staggered availability, which it is rumored that they did for 7DMT. In this case it will take constant monitoring to see if any show up.[/quote]
I’m sure you’re right about these FPPs “selling out” quickly, but I think you meant to say you’ll need to get them right at the 60 day mark for on-site guests, as opposed to the 180+10 time for ADRs.
Yes, I misspoke. I meant to say that when you hit the 60 day mark when you can make your FPPs for the duration of your vacation, they may only be available for the last days of your trip. And I fear that those with shorter trips will “lose out” to people with longer ones…
When A&E was meeting in EP it opened at 9:00 I believe. It think that is why everyone is assuming both the ride and the meet and greet will be 9:00.
I believe that your breakfast ADR is designed to take more than an hour. I am concerned about you having to drag your family out of the restaurant when they can see a Princess about to come to your table!
@Principal Tinker - Thanks for the heads up. With some luck we will be able to get out in under an hour, but we will have to make the call during breakfast. We will get the check early so that we can leave quickly if necessary.
All, thanks for your help. It is really appreciated and taken onboard! We are so excited about the trip and I’m sure it will be a better experience thanks to people like you all who help to answer these kind of questions!
I spent some time on some of the “insider” boards yesterday and there are “rumors with traction” that the Frozen ride is a bit behind schedule and it is looking like a mid-to-late June opening. But as I said, rumors…
Obviously, like any other construction project I’m sure Disney won’t announce they’re behind schedule. I’m wondering how far out do you think we may hear anything about the ride opening? Or will it just be like many of the other Disney projects, where it opens as a soft open? Thinking about my trip in September and my FP window in June. I would imagine there would be some resolution by then.
Well, nuts. That means unlikely to have FastPass + 60 days out. Thoughts on what they do for soft opening / unofficial opening when they do open it? Will they open up FP+ just 1-2 days out, or not allow FP+ (like SKipper Canteen can’t reserve yet) or what?
Visiting late June, I was hoping open by late April so I could get 60 day FP+ for it.
“Soft openings” are actually a trial period where they work out bugs, address crowd management issues, etc. At the early stages, a soft-opened ride may only run a few hours out of a day, may not be running at all on a given day, or some combinations of the two. Typically, after a week or two, a ride will be mostly open most of the time. Using 7DMT as an example, the first “soft openings” started mid May and were hit and (mostly) miss at first. As of Memorial Day Weekend, it was running more-or-less from opening to closing, not counting times that it was closed for technical reasons. The “official” grand opening was several weeks later. I rode it the Friday of Memorial Day weekend (at 6:30 AM; it was the 24 hour day) and FPPs were not being used yet. I’m not sure of when they became available.
