Ughhh....No FP+ for A&E for my whole week!

[evcollins]

This ^^ and because there may be only one room open instead of two because they may reduce staff. I booked my A&E on Mon. at 12:10 a.m. and didn't have a problem but I did get mine towards the end of the trip. I was able to do 4 at a time but even then they weren't available before 11 or 12. I would keep trying because people play around with their times. Try at the 45 day mark because that is when the balance is due for those of us who have packages and people may cancel.

Thanks for the tip on the 45 day mark! Let me put another reminder on my calendar in case I don't score one before then.

I'm new here, and I've only been to WDW once, 7 years ago. We are attending again in April at the Beach Club. If the crowds are smaller, and everyone is FPing the A&E, would the wait time in line not be as bad w/o a FP? Again, I'm hardly an expert, but maybe just waiting in line wouldn't be AS bad as it normally would???

From my understanding, right at RD you can have at least a 75 minute wait. If you FP, it's pretty much in and out within 15 minutes. You could technically wait right at RD, but you miss the opportunity to get a lot done in that time frame you're just standing there. And the lines get pretty bad for the rest of the day from my reading. Maybe by April the hoopla will have died?? Just keep your eye on the boards when everyone reports back.

 

[Abow75]

I was suggesting that since the crowds are smaller in Sept. It might not be as bad, especially if everybody is using FP...but you are probably right, it will be bad no matter what. We're going spring break week, which is the exact week we went 7 years ago, and the crowds are horrible, so I may not even try!! My girls will almost be 13 and 10 by then, so I don't think they'll care if they miss it, even though they do love Frozen, but my 3 year old son( he'll be almost 4 by the ) LOVES Frozen and would love to meet the characters...so if it happens, great! If not, what he doesn't know won't hurt him Good luck with A&E guys!!

 

[Frozen2014]

A&E has become panic zone again now for September because park hours are lower and they do not book FP for the Halloween parties.

I assume by this, you mean that you cannot book a FP after 7pm? i.e. but you can still book earlier in the day Really hope so, as I wanted to try for the Thursday of our trip, which is a MNSSHP day

 

[mickeygirl78]

My FP window opened today, I was able to get right in at midnight to start booking. I tried to book A&E for our party of 7 for our 5th day, no luck. I was able to finally get it for three of us (in a group of 2 and one) in a time that overlaps. I even tried for our last day, 14 days out and I could get it for all of us but not til late in the day. I really thought booking at midnight I would be able to get something in the morning.

I ended up only booking the FP for the three of us on our 5th day, since that is the day my niece goes to BBB and wants to meet them.

Other than that, booking the FP went well.

 

[bryanb]

Wow, can anyone describe how the meet-and-greet area is set up?

I guess that Anna & Elsa meet-and-greet would not have a very high capacity. (If they spend only 90 seconds with each group, that's still only 40 visits per hour, right?)

Even if they're available for 12 hours with no breaks, that's fewer than 500 visits... a number that can be easily booked up whether it's high season or low season.

The only solution is to operate multiple greeting rooms at once, but I haven't seen the setup so I'm not sure if that's possible.

 

[GigiDisneyfreak]

I assume by this, you mean that you cannot book a FP after 7pm? i.e. but you can still book earlier in the day Really hope so, as I wanted to try for the Thursday of our trip, which is a MNSSHP day

Yes you will be able to book it early in the day of the MNSSHP. Good Luck!

 

[Frozen2014]

Yes you will be able to book it early in the day of the MNSSHP. Good Luck!

Thanks for clarifying

 

[Altoqueenkelly]

I was suggesting that since the crowds are smaller in Sept. It might not be as bad, especially if everybody is using FP...but you are probably right, it will be bad no matter what. We're going spring break week, which is the exact week we went 7 years ago, and the crowds are horrible, so I may not even try!! My girls will almost be 13 and 10 by then, so I don't think they'll care if they miss it, even though they do love Frozen, but my 3 year old son( he'll be almost 4 by the ) LOVES Frozen and would love to meet the characters...so if it happens, great! If not, what he doesn't know won't hurt him Good luck with A&E guys!!

Sorry but I dont think your theory works. Even though there is a lower overall crowds at WDW in this time of year, this attraction is likely to be on most (if not close to all) of everyone's to do list. Also, lots of families with children under five visit in the fall to avoid out-of-school crowds.... that is also target audience for an A&E M&G. I'm afraid to say that if FP+ are booking up at 60+ days then likely the standby waits will creep back up from the current times back to what it was in the spring (3-5 hours).... especially IF they are reducing A&E to one room!

 

[Altoqueenkelly]

Wow, can anyone describe how the meet-and-greet area is set up?

I guess that Anna & Elsa meet-and-greet would not have a very high capacity. (If they spend only 90 seconds with each group, that's still only 40 visits per hour, right?)

Even if they're available for 12 hours with no breaks, that's fewer than 500 visits... a number that can be easily booked up whether it's high season or low season.

The only solution is to operate multiple greeting rooms at once, but I haven't seen the setup so I'm not sure if that's possible.

They already do this. Currently there are four sets of A&E available, they are in two rooms with two sets (one per room) on stage while the two other sets are backstage taking a break. They rotate them every so often or so to keep the M&Gs constantly going.

The theory is that in the fall they may reduce it back down to running one room at a time and only having two sets, one onstage and one off.

 

[wareagle57]

I agree that reducing staff for A&E seems illogical. Yes, you reduce the staff in low season, but A&E are only two people and that ride is still in high demand. You wouldn't save ANYTHING by having 2 less people, but you would make your most in demand attraction move twice as fast if you kept them on. It makes ZERO sense to have 2 less A&E's

 

[Shelly]

Anyone know if A&E are available during EMH? I was thinking if so they may be a bit easier to see at that time.

 

[bryanb]

They already do this. Currently there are four sets of A&E available, they are in two rooms with two sets (one per room) on stage while the two other sets are backstage taking a break. They rotate them every so often or so to keep the M&Gs constantly going.

The theory is that in the fall they may reduce it back down to running one room at a time and only having two sets, one onstage and one off.

How much time do A&E spend with each group of guests? I would think that even having two rooms isn't enough. Assuming only 90 seconds per group, operating two rooms only gets you 80 groups per hour. I'd assume that most guests will feel that 90 seconds is rushed, so the actual capacity is probably less than 80 groups per hour.

 

[Ava]

I'm booking my FP+ for our Sept trip next week. My A&E strategy is to try for as late as possible on the day we're going to MNSSHP (which also happens to be the last full day of our trip, day 7). It seems like a lot of people want morning times, so I figure I might have a better chance of getting a time between 4-7pm.

 

[FidFam]

This is simliar to the BOG fiasco where people with longer trips (+10) get first dibs and those who have shorter trips might lose out.

Ding! We're only doing 3 days at WDW in mid-September and I tried the method of working from the last day forward at midnight of my 60 window - and nothing for A&E and there's only three of us. Alas, we'll just have to hope for the best and go standby, and I'll keep checking every once in a while to see what gives...

 

[Altoqueenkelly]

I'm booking my FP+ for our Sept trip next week. My A&E strategy is to try for as late as possible on the day we're going to MNSSHP (which also happens to be the last full day of our trip, day 7). It seems like a lot of people want morning times, so I figure I might have a better chance of getting a time between 4-7pm.

You should be okay getting it for day 7 of your trip. I got ours for day 7 and the earliest time slot available at midnight was 12:40pm. They had more for the afternoon still open.

I would suggest logging on to MDE at midnight though

 

[Abow75]

Sorry but I dont think your theory works. Even though there is a lower overall crowds at WDW in this time of year, this attraction is likely to be on most (if not close to all) of everyone's to do list. Also, lots of families with children under five visit in the fall to avoid out-of-school crowds.... that is also target audience for an A&E M&G. I'm afraid to say that if FP+ are booking up at 60+ days then likely the standby waits will creep back up from the current times back to what it was in the spring (3-5 hours).... especially IF they are reducing A&E to one room!

Wow...I'd never wait 3-5 hours. Crazy!

 

[wishtdream]

There are currently late evening fp+ available for A&E for 9/20 for a party of 4 MDE is offering me three different time slots. It is 2:14pm

 

[evcollins]

Okay, Dissers...I gave you my story how I wasn't able to grab an FP for A&E and today was the day for magic to happen!

Now, let me tell you, I have been stalking the website every day since my 60-day window opened and I was unsuccessful. No doubt I felt like I was checking every hour for the past four days!! I split up our party of nine so it was just two of us, myself and my DD(11). Even after that, I split us up as a party of one so I could copy over to her if I was able to get an FP. Scored one just now and even more exciting, in the time frame we needed!!
No other times were available, which is amazing how it's all falling together. I copied over the FP to my DD and there is a 10-minute overlap, which is no big deal at all.

Keep obsessively checking!! Hopefully luck will fall in your laps, too! Just wanted to pass on the good news to all of you who are still looking for a September FP.

 

[jcjen519]

keep looking. we booked a last minute trip 30 days out and i was able to book a&e and had multiple time options. I think they may add additional times later.