Animation Class at DHS

[scrappinginontario]

My 6yo DD and I want to attend one of these classes. Is their a minimum age to attend? What do we need to do to attend a class? I've often seen people gathered waiting but haven't looked into the details of attending a class so want to be prepared when we go in September.

Thanks for your help!

 

[chris41aug]

My dd and I do this multiple time during each trip. There isn't a minimum age requirement. It is a nice relaxing way to cool down on a hot day and makes for a cool keepsake. It's basically just get in line and then walk in. We have had to wait for multiple sessions before because they fill up. Not sure if it's worth waiting too long to do, but it is nice if the line isn't log

 

[BLLB]

No minimum age, it is must do for us!

 

[Cando86]

No minimum age requirement!

This is one of our favorite things to do in Disney. We learned, in January, that you do have to arrive pretty early to be guaranteed a spot in the next show. For example...let's say you arrive at 12:20 for the 12:30 show. There will already have been people lined up prior to noon even for that 12:30 show. They have a line and a holding area. The holding area is where people from the line are let in and those people get to go into the next show. They usually fill that holding area right after they let people in for the prior show (so for the 12:30 show, they would have let people in to the holding area at noon). If you don't make it into the holding area, you have to wait for the NEXT show which would be the 1:00 show in this case. We ended up discovering we usually had to wait for one show to make it in (so if we arrived at 12:15 for the 12:30, we would have to wait for that 12-12:30 show to finish, then the 12:30-1 show to finish and then we'd make it in by 1).

Sorry if that seems complicated! It surprised us that we had to show up earlier than we were expecting. It is so worth it though! We were even there in January so it was a slower time and we still found we ended up having to miss a couple shows due to ADRs because we wouldn't have made it in until 45 minutes later PLUS the show is a half hour. It takes a chunk out of your day for sure. But a very worthy chunk!

 

[scrappinginontario]

Thanks so much for all your help everyone! The details you provided @Cando86 are very helpful!!

We're going the second week of September so a quieter time of year but will still plan to go early and be prepared to wait. We've planned a second day at DHS to go back and do our favourite things + attend one of these classes.

@chris41aug you mention you go several times a trip. Does what you draw vary from class to class or are all classes in a day (or week) draw the same character?

My DD loves watching the drawing videos on youtube Disney Parks videos so this is a 'must do' (at least once) this trip for sure!

Thanks again everyone!

 

[Terra Nova guy]

The character drawn changes every class. At the beginning of the class, the animator asks for suggestions for which character to draw and generally the one with the most "votes" gets drawn, but I believe the animator makes sure the same character is not done on the same day. Brush up on some trivia because the animator will give away their drawing, usually whoever answers a trivia question about the character drawn.

 

[princessesandpascal]

Different animators choose differently! We had one that said "we are drawing Daisy, if you are unhappy remember the motto: keep calm and... Draw it anyway!" One didn't tell us who we were drawing and had people guess as we went along and whoever guessed got to keep it. And one polled us to find a character new to everyone (we ended up with Dale!). They make sure that the same one doesn't repeat in a day, but if you do it on separate days you could get the same one: we drew Grumpy twice on back to back days.

 

[cgncga]

No minimum age requirement!

This is one of our favorite things to do in Disney. We learned, in January, that you do have to arrive pretty early to be guaranteed a spot in the next show. For example...let's say you arrive at 12:20 for the 12:30 show. There will already have been people lined up prior to noon even for that 12:30 show. They have a line and a holding area. The holding area is where people from the line are let in and those people get to go into the next show. They usually fill that holding area right after they let people in for the prior show (so for the 12:30 show, they would have let people in to the holding area at noon). If you don't make it into the holding area, you have to wait for the NEXT show which would be the 1:00 show in this case. We ended up discovering we usually had to wait for one show to make it in (so if we arrived at 12:15 for the 12:30, we would have to wait for that 12-12:30 show to finish, then the 12:30-1 show to finish and then we'd make it in by 1).

Sorry if that seems complicated! It surprised us that we had to show up earlier than we were expecting. It is so worth it though! We were even there in January so it was a slower time and we still found we ended up having to miss a couple shows due to ADRs because we wouldn't have made it in until 45 minutes later PLUS the show is a half hour. It takes a chunk out of your day for sure. But a very worthy chunk!

We have found that the wait is much shorter if we go to one of the earlier classes of the day. Sometimes, we have been able to do the first two or three classes of the day back to back by starting our day at the Animation Academy. This does not work mid-day, though. We usually travel to Disney at the end of August (just before Labour Day) so the crowds are somewhat lower.

On our visit last summer, there was also a colouring station set up just below the waiting area for the Animation Academy. My 10 year old enjoyed taking a break to colour some of the pre-drawn characters and talking to the artists there. This section was never very crowded while we were there and seemed much less frustrating for some of the younger kids.

 

[scrappinginontario]

Thanks so much for all the great information!! We're going in mid-September when the crowds are anticipated to be lower. Since we're doing this on our 2nd DHS day I'll plan to go early and possibly we'll be able to attend a couple of classes. My DD will just be 6 1/2 though so we may find that 1 in enough. Time will tell.

Thanks again! Your help is greatly appreciated!!