Followed the plans on here and no Elsa FP

[cakebaker]

1) There are no 6 hour waits at A&E
2) If you can't get a fp+ and don't want to stand in any line at all, go at rope drop.

I would assume with a 1 day vacation, you were going to be there at rope drop- might as well head for A&E. I'm not sure why you chose AK if the only reason you did was for FP+ for A&E. There are much less expensive onsite resorts.

Before FP+, there were no character fp's at all. Just because they exist now doesn't mean you can't do them without it.

 

[MischaOz]

Oops sorry hit post too early.

Got the FPs less than 30 days out during medium crowd times by checking different times.

If meeting Elsa really is the sole goal of your trip, cancel MNSSHP and go go MK during the day, then you'll have more time to try to get FP (although you can get FP from 4-7 on party night). Or just wait in line like many people do. I can promise what the line will be but last time I was there in Feb it tended to be around a hour.

i don't know how old your children are, but how do they even know Elsa is there? There is so much to do at WDW it is really sad if you only want to do one thing. If I hadn't taken my daughter to see them, she wouldn't have known they existed and would have been none the wiser. I personally believe that the success or failure of a vacation (like most things in life) depends on outlook and attitude. I hope you are able to have a magical vacation regardless of whether you're able to get a FP to see one person dressed in a princess costume...

 

[jtowntoflorida]

You do know that the waits for A&E now average closer to an hour, rather than 6 hours, right? If you can't get a FP, is standing in line for an hour really out of the question for your #1 must do???

 

[ArwenMarie]

That's a bummer, I'm sorry. Hope it all works out.

 

[itchin2go]

OP - It sucks that you couldn't get the FP you were looking for, even though you logged on at the first possible moment. I don't like a system that works that way. And I understand being disappointed and angry.

However, take a deep breath and a step back. As others have said, even peak waits for A&E are not even close to 6 hours. If it were me in this situation, I would go at rope drop and make a beeline for A&E. When my daughter was little, they opened the Meet and Greet for Tinkerbell. No FPs for meet and greets in those days. We waited at a secondary rope drop for Toontown to be among the first to get in line for Tinkerbell. I think we ultimately waited about 45 minutes in the Tinkerbell line. Not ideal, but it worked and the pictures we have from that day are so cute.

If you have a 9 am opening, I would also try for a pre rope drop breakfast at BOG to get you in the gates faster.

All hope is not lost.

On the bright side, I love, love, love the AKL.

 

[larryz]

I don't know what to do. Our whole trip is about one thing...meeting Elsa. As crazy as that sounds. We have one full day at Magic Kingdom and a night at the Halloween Party. So standing in line for 6 hours will literally eat up our whole trip.

Staying at Animal Kingdom...stayed up till 12 am 60 days out...not one Elsa fastpass. I am so disgusted with Disney's ways...everything is so competitive. If I had known this would be like this I would have vacationed elsewhere...I can't get my money back at this point and I feel the vacation is going to be awful.

Do you have any suggestions? I also don't know how to switch my fastpass for just one or two people to check that way. Currently there is 3 of us. When I do...it deletes everything. At 12 at night there was no Mine train or Elsa...I find this so unfair- it's the only reason I paid top dollar at Animal Kingdom Lodge...to get this dang fastpass. TIA

Remember that people routinely cancel whole vacations just before the 45-day point, when the final payment is due. Check again around that time frame.

Oh, and AKL is a nice place, but the room rate is not what I'd call "top dollar" at WDW... check out the price of a CL suite at the CR or GF for "top dollar" prices...

 

[bcrook]

Remember that people routinely cancel whole vacations just before the 45-day point, when the final payment is due. Check again around that time frame.

Because I have never paid for a trip that way, I had no idea about this. And I am not a rookie around here or at WDW.

This just shows why repeating information for people is worth the time. This could be the most useful information. This would be something that the OP didn't know and could look forward to trying. Also a good reason for the OP to solicit tips in the midst of her struggle.

This is why I find the Disboards to be very helpful quite often.

 

[DisneyWishes14]

First of all, you will not be waiting 6 hours for Elsa. Now that they've moved to MK, the wait times aren't that long anymore. Also, if you are really serious about canceling, unless you rented DVC points, your room-only or package reservation is completely refundable at 60 days prior.

There are a lot of great suggestions on this thread. Going to Anna and Elsa directly at RD will cut down on your wait time. You could also try to get an early pre-RD reservation at BOG for breakfast which will place you in the back of the park very close to A&E when RD happens. Another option, as PP's have noted, try to get the FP+ reservation for 1 person and then copy that FP+ to the others in your party. I had to do this last year for 3 people. I was able to get 1 and then copied to the other two. All of the FP+ ended up overlapping and we only had a 10 minute window when we could all go in together which worked out just fine! We just made sure we were there as soon as the 10 minute window opened and it all worked out. Please don't worry. If you go one of these routes, your wait time really won't be long at all.

 

[larryz]

I have plenty of sympathy for people with real problems. This is not even close. Really? Going to ruin her entire trip? Get a grip.

 

[IceSkatingPrincess]

Elsa isn't 6 hours anymore. Think more like 1/1.5. Reasonable if it is such a big deal that not doing it will ruin your whole trip. So, just spend the hour in line. No big deal, and problem solved

 

[DVCcurious]

In the olden days you had to marry your cousin, so that was a real problem!

Op don't fear! You can still see Anna and Elsa with a short wait. The day before you go to mk talk to the front desk and figure out when the first bus to mk arrives. Be on that bus. Line up at the middle Mickey readers at mk. Then go to the left tunnel. When they open the park be as close to the rope as possible on the left side of the street ( be on the street not the sidewalk). Follow the rope through the castle then stay left around the carousel and stroller parking and follow the cast member into the a&e line. This strategy will result in a 30 minute wait max.



And be thankful you didn't marry your cousin!

 

[GaryDis]

When I first saw this thread, before there were any replies, I thought about responding along the lines of "making the trip about one thing is unwise". I didn't, because writing such a reply in a way that's useful, understanding, and sympathetic is difficult - and I like to flatter myself as someone with some degree of diplomacy in my writing.

At the same time, I don't berate the people who did respond that way, and I'm even a little glad. Partly that's selfish - they expressed something I thought but was afraid to express myself. Partly because it's not trivial to do better. Mostly it's not useful.

 

[mom2AidanAndEli]

If you're going to let one missing FP ruin your whole trip, if that's the only reason you were going in the first place, if that was the center of the whole trip, then I'd cancel! I can't imagine that's actually the case, but if it is then why go on the trip? The ONE thing you wanted to do, the way you wanted to do it, might not happen. Lot of money to spend to be disappointed! And if you go into it with the type of attitude you're showing here, you will be miserable and it will be a bad trip.

Complaining about staying at AKL? Easy, don't! Why you say the only reason you're staying there is for the FP is beyond me! Stay at a value resort. No one's forcing you to spend a lot of money on a room. That's purely your choice. But then you're upset about doing it.

And if meeting Elsa is the ONLY reason you're going, why are you spending more than one day there? Why go to the Halloween party? Why stay at AKL? Why make ADRs anywhere? Why...why...why... I would venture a guess that's actually a lot more that you want to do, that you're going to do, that you've already planned to do. But instead of focusing on any of that, you're focusing on the one thing that didn't go exactly your way.

It's all a matter of perspective--either make the decision to not let it get to you and have a good time. Or cancel the trip.

 

[Angel Ariel]

I don't know what to do. Our whole trip is about one thing...meeting Elsa. As crazy as that sounds. We have one full day at Magic Kingdom and a night at the Halloween Party. So standing in line for 6 hours will literally eat up our whole trip.

Staying at Animal Kingdom...stayed up till 12 am 60 days out...not one Elsa fastpass. I am so disgusted with Disney's ways...everything is so competitive. If I had known this would be like this I would have vacationed elsewhere...I can't get my money back at this point and I feel the vacation is going to be awful.

Do you have any suggestions? I also don't know how to switch my fastpass for just one or two people to check that way. Currently there is 3 of us. When I do...it deletes everything. At 12 at night there was no Mine train or Elsa...I find this so unfair- it's the only reason I paid top dollar at Animal Kingdom Lodge...to get this dang fastpass. TIA

Keep checking. Last year they did open some more availability at one point (it didn't help us for our trip, but it did help me score A&E for my friend's trip the week after). Also subscribe to the A&E Cancellation threads for the month of your trip here on this forum. The cancellation thread was the way that I finally got 2 FP+ for A&E on our trip last year.

Even if you never get a FP+, if you can get to the park about 30-45 mins before RD, you should be close enough to the front of the RD crowd to not have a huge wait when you get there. We were at the back of the RD crowd (arrived as the welcome show was happening), and the wait was 90 mins by the time we got in. They had opened the park 20 mins early (8:40am welcome show immediately followed by RD when the park was supposed to open at 9). Had we been there around 8:15ish we probably would have been OK.

 

[dfb]

OP. One second into my 60 day window opening for FP+ no A&Es were available. I didn't try everyday but would every few days when I had a chance. A&E was not a must do but more of an experiment for FP+ since it was our first trip under FP+. I did eventually get one when I checked in the morning. By watching the Disboards it seemed most people in my situation were getting A&E FPs when they checked in the morning, between 7 & 9 AM. Of course this not absolute but for some reason seemed to help chances.I didn't see when your trip was but on our trip the standy by wait times were anywhere from 50 to 120 minutes when we passed by.

 

[Angel Ariel]

Before FP+, there were no character fp's at all.

That's actually inaccurate. There were, at the very least, legacy FPs for Mickey at Town Hall and the princess M&G when it was at Town Hall. We personally used both on our DD's first trip. The machines were over by one of the MS shops (the chapeau, I think?) - over by a large door that leads to a backstage area (i think this is where the bypass on that side of MS comes out).

Anyway, I do agree that it isn't impossible to meet A&E without a FP. It is definitely possible - especially if you can be towards the front of the RD crowd, or if you can close out the park. I hope some of the other suggestions that have been posted to keep checking for FP+s might also pan out for the OP. Don't lose hope yet, OP - there's still a lot of time before your trip!

 

[cgattis]

If the main focus if the trip is Elsa, how about rope dropping the M&G at MK, then instead of the party, use that money to park hop over to HS for Frozen stuff? If you really didn't want to spend the money for AKL and can still cancel, why not consider changing over to a value or Swan/Dolphin? I personally love AKL but if it's a short trip and you're not going to spend much time there, maybe you could stay someplace cheaper to cover the cost of hoppers. Heck, that might be enough difference to cover the hopper and still do the party (which I also love).

And one other note...we never saw A&E on our last trip. We couldn't get FP (even checking a billion times) and DD, when offered, declined to stand in a 90 minute line (we couldn't rope drop our MK day). Did we want to see her? Yep, still do. But we just had to prioritize. Sucks when you can't do all you want when you pay $$$ for a ticket, I know.

 

[AgletWDW]

OP. One second into my 60 day window opening for FP+ no A&Es were available. I didn't try everyday but would every few days when I had a chance. A&E was not a must do but more of an experiment for FP+ since it was our first trip under FP+. I did eventually get one when I checked in the morning. By watching the Disboards it seemed most people in my situation were getting A&E FPs when they checked in the morning, between 7 & 9 AM. Of course this not absolute but for some reason seemed to help chances.I didn't see when your trip was but on our trip the standy by wait times were anywhere from 50 to 120 minutes when we passed by.

I would say I saw the most A&E FP+ show up during that time of the day too.

 

[bcrook]

If you're going to let one missing FP ruin your whole trip, if that's the only reason you were going in the first place, if that was the center of the whole trip, then I'd cancel! I can't imagine that's actually the case, but if it is then why go on the trip? The ONE thing you wanted to do, the way you wanted to do it, might not happen. Lot of money to spend to be disappointed! And if you go into it with the type of attitude you're showing here, you will be miserable and it will be a bad trip.

Complaining about staying at AKL? Easy, don't! Why you say the only reason you're staying there is for the FP is beyond me! Stay at a value resort. No one's forcing you to spend a lot of money on a room. That's purely your choice. But then you're upset about doing it.

And if meeting Elsa is the ONLY reason you're going, why are you spending more than one day there? Why go to the Halloween party? Why stay at AKL? Why make ADRs anywhere? Why...why...why... I would venture a guess that's actually a lot more that you want to do, that you're going to do, that you've already planned to do. But instead of focusing on any of that, you're focusing on the one thing that didn't go exactly your way.

It's all a matter of perspective--either make the decision to not let it get to you and have a good time. Or cancel the trip.

Not sure, but I didn't see in the OP where she asked to be treated like a child and lectured at, but if I missed it...you did a nice job.

 

[Babe the Blue Ox]

I don't know what to do. Our whole trip is about one thing...meeting Elsa. As crazy as that sounds. We have one full day at Magic Kingdom and a night at the Halloween Party. So standing in line for 6 hours will literally eat up our whole trip.

Staying at Animal Kingdom...stayed up till 12 am 60 days out...not one Elsa fastpass. I am so disgusted with Disney's ways...everything is so competitive. If I had known this would be like this I would have vacationed elsewhere...I can't get my money back at this point and I feel the vacation is going to be awful.

Do you have any suggestions? I also don't know how to switch my fastpass for just one or two people to check that way. Currently there is 3 of us. When I do...it deletes everything. At 12 at night there was no Mine train or Elsa...I find this so unfair- it's the only reason I paid top dollar at Animal Kingdom Lodge...to get this dang fastpass. TIA

If you can't get a FP+ for A&E you can always wait until later in the evening and find a short standby wait. Just keep in mind that the A&E lines closes 30 minutes before the park closes.

On a recent visit, we found a 10 minute wait for A&E at about 11:15 pm. The posted wait was 90 minutes. We still had enough time after visiting the princesses to ride 7D twice before the park closed at midnight. The posted wait was 65, but the actual wait was 20 the first time then 10 for the 2nd trip.

We thought this was a very efficient use of 45 minutes and probably more than could be done in the early morning.