Lukewarm on FEA...

[Kazi7]

Just back from the World. I went ahead and got FP's for FEA on our 2nd Epcot day because I thought we should try it since it's new-ish. My kids are teens and 20-something's. We all thought it was "meh". We should have just done Soarin again. We loved the new movie!

 

[bobbiwoz]

I was hoping for more. I do enjoy the sing along at DHS, so that's where I'll get my Frozen fix.

 

[GaSleepingBeautyFan]

Soarin' scares me so I've enjoyed FEA. I'm interested to see what my husband thinks when he gets a chance to ride the attraction. He likes Soarin'.

 

[Gina Starr]

I loved FEA and I feel most people will if they have reasonable expectations. It's similar to 7DMT: awesome but short and looong lines. If I can ride either with short lines then I'm happy!

 

[Megara5115]

It was worth checking it out once, but unless DS 9 months grows up to be a big Frozen fan in the next several years I think we will be skipping it from now on.

 

[Ds4angels]

I'm interested just to see the difference between the old version and FEA

 

[CampbellzSoup]

It is what it is...a dark ride in this day and age.

I set my expections low so I can always be surprised!

Even though I am so beyond over frozen I thought the ride was well done and clever!

 

[DisMommyTX]

We finally got to ride FEA on our fourth attempt. Every other time it was either down when we arrived or broke down (for 30+ min) while we were waiting in line. Perhaps if we had been able to ride on our first attempt, it would have fared better; however, after 3 failed attempts, everyone found it sorely lacking. I would rather ride Donald's boat ride in Mexico.

 

[HopperFan]

I was not expecting much, and even on seeing the videos I was not impressed. When we rode it I got off pleasantly surprised and thought it was well done. I would have liked some more detail in the sets where the girls were, looked like stages instead of scene. It's a dark ride - much like Pooh, Small World etc where there is no major WOW moments.

At this point I would not wait SB for the ride but am more likely to use my FP+ for Test Track, so it might not be a ride every trip. New Soarin' you can have it, what a disaster unless you sit dead center ......... and I hate all the fake CGI. Right now Epcot is just not rocking it.

 

[Accident]

My biggest complaint with disney rides that aren't thrill rides is they are basically nice scenery, basic animatronics and somethign at the end to woo you. (haunted mansion being the exception and why it's so beloved in my mind). FEA was finally a ride of all types of new animatronics, effects timed really well with the boat, and an impressive way to handle the ride.. However it has very basic scenery so it's the opposite and you basically see nice animatronic after nice animatronic and nothing to immerse you so there is nothing else in the scene to discover or miss seeing and no climax at the end leaving you wanting to jump back on right away. I was thinking pandora that might change but it sounds liek the ride is another nice immersive ride, basics until your woo'd right at the end..

I personally am fascinated by the animatronics and placement in how they handled some characters so I like the ride, I don't like it if I don't get right on and wouldn't wait more than 2-3 minutes to ride.

 

[Gillbob316]

I've been to Epcot more times than I can count, and was traveling with a friend there in Sept who had never been. Point is I was a highly researched and experienced veteran, and she was a newcomer with no prior opinions or expectations. I told her before we rode it that it was new, I'd never been on it either and knew little, but I definitely wanted to ride it because I never had, though I'd heard the ride didn't really live up to the hype (Her response was, "Kind of like the movie!")

We both got off feeling highly impressed by the animatronic quality, and thoroughly entranced by the overall magic and whimsy of the ride on the whole. Upon reconsidering what I'd heard about the ride being no big deal, we both landed on an opinion along the lines of (paraphrasing), "That was amazing, and the quality was a notch above most other rides out there. *** is wrong with people!? Everyone is so damned jaded and cynical these days. That was spectacular."

We both agreed we'd absolutely like to have ridden in again if the wait times weren't so long.

 

[Nancyg56]

I liked it. I thought it was lovely inside, and honestly, for the dark rides, that is kind of what I look for.

 

[loves to dive]

I have yet to ride it and have been to WDW at least 3 trips since it opened. I'm not a big fan of the movie (o.k. I thought the movie was cute but if I didn't think it was all that) so I'm not going to wait in a hour long line to ride it. I'm not crazy about the new Soarin either, I've ridden it twice and I might be done with it unless it has no more than a 10 min. wait. As others have pointed out, unless you sit dead center everything is crooked and not everyone can sit dead center. I don't mind the CGI but it just doesn't seem as exciting as the old one did.

 

[holden]

We've ridden it twice. The 4 of us agreed that we don't need to get FP for it. If it happens to have a short line (which will probably never happen), we will go on it. If we never get to ride it again we are ok with that.

 

[AngelDisney]

DD and I are not big fans of Soarin but we have never been on it with the new movie. We both like the Frozen movie. I was planning to use my FP+ on Soarin then try to ride FEA at the end of a EMH pm in late August. I have read reports about the Soarin movie distortion. Should I just skip Soarin and use my FP+ on FEA just to experience it once? DD doesn't care much about Soarin. We rode the old version once and that's it. We have been skipping it whenever we visit Epcot. It does give me motion sickness. On the other hand, I am curious about the new movie. Any advice is appreciated! TIA!!

 

[OhioStateBuckeye]

It's a very pretty ride. The scene with Olaf ice skating is beautiful. I thought it was going to re-tell the movie story or tell a new story but it really didn't tell a story at all. Just a mish mash of different songs/scenes. Is it my imagination, or did Kristoff and Anna used to sing 'Love is an Open Door' at the beginning and they changed it to something different...or do they do different songs in that scene? I swear the first time I rode it they sang 'love is an open door'...which was odd to have Anna and Kristoff sing.

I was disappointed in the story and in all the unused blank spaces of the ride. When you are going backwards there is basically nothing to look at.

 

[Fratthouse]

I was underwhelmed by it, too. Everyone else in my group thought it was awesome, though! It helps that we had a frozen-obsessed 2 year old little girl as part of our ) We weren't able to get fastpasses, so we went just before park closed and waited less than 10 minutes. It was worth that to experience it once. But we didn't bother trying to ride it again on our other 3 days at Epcot.

 

[JennaDeeDooDah]

We rode it for the first time earlier this month. We were staying at Boardwalk and International Gateway seemed to open up earlier than the main entrance so we were in the second boat to launch that morning. The queue area looked cute but we really didn't get to experience much of it since the wait was so short. My mother-in-law and six-year-old daughter absolutely loved it, but my husband and I were not terribly impressed. I do think it is a beautifully done ride as far as the technology goes, though. Personally, I'm still irritated that they took out a ride that had something to actually do with Norway and replaced it with a ride that has nothing to do with Norway. Because of that, I really think the ride would have been much better suited in Magic Kingdom in Fantasyland. Also, I feel like it didn't fit with the track. The track made sense for Maelstrom. Not so much for FEA, in my opinion. No real reason for us to go backwards and then to suddenly have Marshmallow change our course and send us down the hill. It just felt forced as if they said, "Hey, we want to put in a frozen ride so let's just take some scenes and throw them on the track." It didn't feel well thought out.

 

[Madonna3]

It's a very pretty ride. The scene with Olaf ice skating is beautiful. I thought it was going to re-tell the movie story or tell a new story but it really didn't tell a story at all. Just a mish mash of different songs/scenes. Is it my imagination, or did Kristoff and Anna used to sing 'Love is an Open Door' at the beginning and they changed it to something different...or do they do different songs in that scene? I swear the first time I rode it they sang 'love is an open door'...which was odd to have Anna and Kristoff sing.

I was disappointed in the story and in all the unused blank spaces of the ride. When you are going backwards there is basically nothing to look at.

So glad to know I am not alone. I thought it was going to tell a story as well, maybe something about their homeland that was somewhat relevant to Norway. So perhaps my own expectations are the reason I didn't enjoy it, but I thought it was confusing and I wasn't sure what the point of it was.

I have yet to ride it and have been to WDW at least 3 trips since it opened. I'm not a big fan of the movie (o.k. I thought the movie was cute but if I didn't think it was all that) so I'm not going to wait in a hour long line to ride it. I'm not crazy about the new Soarin either, I've ridden it twice and I might be done with it unless it has no more than a 10 min. wait. As others have pointed out, unless you sit dead center everything is crooked and not everyone can sit dead center. I don't mind the CGI but it just doesn't seem as exciting as the old one did.

I agree. I actually preferred the old version of Soarin'

We've ridden it twice. The 4 of us agreed that we don't need to get FP for it. If it happens to have a short line (which will probably never happen), we will go on it. If we never get to ride it again we are ok with that.

We all felt the same after riding it as well.

 

[Paula Sedley-Burke]

I also set my expectations low for FEA. It is not a ride you can do in a wheelchair so I only got to do it as a one off with my wife lifting me in. We both really enjoyed it!

Soarin was ok but I did not like the way the buildings appear to bend at the top. That looked naff in my view.