Waiting Hours for Anna and Elsa...Worth It?

[MariaJ]

No.

I don't understand spending thousands of dollars to visit and then spending a half a day standing in line for two characters.

Just my humble O, answering the question!

Hope you have a wonderful trip!

 

[famy27]

It's different if you have kids... trust me.

I've got two DDs (8 yrs and 21 months). The toddler is OBSESSED with Frozen. She watches the movie a few times each week. And there is no way I would wait more than 30-45 minutes. I'd only wait 4 hours if A&E were handing out bags of gold at the end.

We did A&E at DLR last week at RD. Wait 20 minutes or so. It was a very fun interaction, but not worth 4 hours of vacation time for us. We have FPs for June. If the FP didn't work out, we'd skip it. YMMV.

 

[ferd]

I have seen them twice (so far.) The first time was just before the movie opened (Nov 17) and my husband and I waited with our 2 year old around 3 or 4 in the afternoon for about an hour.

The second time I saw them (mid January) I took my 2 year old daughter alone. She and I were at the park for rope drop and I pushed her in her stroller like mad back to Norway and waited about 2- 1/2 hours to see the girls. I made sure to bring plenty of snacks and toys (her Nabi was very helpful). I brought body glitter that the other little girls in line also liked playing with. We chatted with other people in line with us, my daughter chased the little birds that were hopping around and I even changed her into her Elsa costume dress about 30 minutes before we saw Anna and Elsa. All of this while waiting in line. The worst part about the Norway line is that it is out in the sun and heat (and rain and cold) but overall it's not that bad (and I say this as a mother who endured it alone with a busy toddler.) I would happily do it again. (But we already have 3 FP+ booked so I hope we won't have to wait quite so long next time.)

And it's all relative, I personally waited on a sidewalk for over 8 hours to see Christian Bale, and it was BEYOND worth it, so 2 measly hours in a line to see my child smile is more than worth it.

I will add though, that I am an AP and I live very close to the parks, so I can go to the parks simply to see A & E and then go home. I know I can do the rides and other things another day easily. For those of you who are planning a vacation and have limited time in the parks, I wouldn't necessarily 'waste' half of one of my precious days standing in a line, but if you're in Epcot already, there's not a whole ton of stuff to do with smaller kids, so you could still do A & E and plenty of other stuff there in one day.

 

[chrismb22]

I would love to say no but I think back to if it was Woody/Buzz -- that interaction alone made my son's trip. I think I would do it in a heartbeat to give him that joy again.

Then again, you are talking to the woman who once slept on a sidewalk for 26 hours -- in Philly in February -- to score concert tickets to Bon Jovi so I'm probably not a good judge.

 

[Paula Sedley-Burke]

Sorry to intrude but I don't see them show up as a FP+ option anywhere in May. Where did you see it?

 

[jaberwock]

I have a 4 year old dd and a 2 year old ds who both are in love with Frozen. Tried to get fp for it but couldn't so they will not be meeting A&E. With kids that small sometimes 4 hours is the majority of your time and I would rather them experience more of the parks.

 

[ferd]

Sorry to intrude but I don't see them show up as a FP+ option anywhere in May. Where did you see it?

They will be in Fairytale Hall in MK starting April 20. If you go into the MDE and go in to select your FP+ options for MK after that date, you will see them listed there. It is a good possibility though that they will be 'greyed out' (meaning all the FP+ are currently gone and the attraction is standby only.)

This is what the picture looks like of Anna and Elsa as a FP+ selection:

 

[dsneygirl]

It's different if you have kids... trust me.

Depends on your kids. There are probably hundreds of parents who dropped $200 at BBB and said it was so worth it to see the look on their daughters face after her makeover. As a mom of 2 boys that is mind boggling to me. $200 x 2 daughters pays for a lot of other stuff.

Or people who ask whether the parties are "worth it". You know your kids best.

 

[Paula Sedley-Burke]

They will be in Fairytale Hall in MK starting April 20. If you go into the MDE and go in to select your FP+ options for MK after that date, you will see them listed there. It is a good possibility though that they will be 'greyed out' (meaning all the FP+ are currently gone and the attraction is standby only.) This is what the picture looks like of Anna and Elsa as a FP+ selection: http://s27.photobucket.com/user/ferdalump/media/annaelsafpeast_zps676c1165.png.html

thank you! I will go in and check!

 

[farrahalex76]

It's different if you have kids... trust me.

I have 3DD and they are of course Frozen crazy, but there is no way I would spend that many hours waiting for a character. 45 minutes would be my limit. When I told my DD6 how long their lines were she even said she wasn't waiting that long to meet anyone. But we do have FP+ booked now.

 

[andreajanowiak]

As much as I absolutely love Frozen, I wouldn't do it. On our Epcot day in February, we stood in the Norway gift shop just long enough to get a peek a the girls, and that was good enough for all of us.
Me, being a child of Fastpass- meaning that I can't remember a trip where we didn't use fastpass. I remember being 7/8 years old and being the "runner" for the Legacy FP. Hence, I get antsy waiting in a line for longer than 30 minutes. The same day we peeked in at Anna&Elsa, it was a big decision on whether I wanted to get in like at 1:05 for the 1:45 Aladdin and Jasmine m&g- which was 30 minutes. I couldn't imagine standing in line for even twice that.
Another thing- I'm always afraid of the really lame interaction. On our last November trip, at the time, Rapunzel was my favorite Princess. We made sure to get a fastpass for her, and I was ecstatic to meet her. I got in and began talking to her, and she just didn't seem very Rapunzel. Then, at the end, just like I had been doing with other characters, I went to take a silly selfie with her. I said "Let's make funny faces" and she said "Well you can do that, I'm going to smile" and I was a bit disappointed. If I met Elsa and Anna, I wouldn't want to get hyped up to take a cool selfie, then be shot down.

 

[DanieD0909]

We went and saw Anna and Elsa at Epcot - had a reservation at Askerhaus and then headed over. We were probably the 15th person in line and were out in about 45 minutes.

It was literally the best character interaction ever. The girls were so in character, their costumes are beautiful! The interaction was not rushed or anything - in fact I was starting to feel bad how long they were taking with us! But they really take a long time with each family - it was so nice to see them be so patient and they definitely did not let the long line "get" to them

My daughter is not frozen obsessed but if she was I would say the max I would wait would be three hours for the kind of interaction we had with them! I hope that you are able to meet them!

 

[deserrai]

No way! There is no way I'm standing in line for hours to do anything on vacation.

 

[AndreaA]

It's different if you have kids... trust me.

No, no it isn't. I have two boys who both LOVE Frozen. One of them carried around a picture of Elsa for a couple of days and can belt out the whole soundtrack.

I still wouldn't wait for hours to meet "them". And I use those quotes purposefully.

These CMs are NOT Anna & Elsa. They don't have the same voices, they don't have the same mannerisms. I've seen pictures and they don't even much LOOK like them, beyond the obvious (REAL obvious) wigs and costumes.

We do lots of character meals, including CP so that we can meet lots of characters, but I would never stand in a long line to meet an actor who isn't even the REAL actor.

 

[mousefan73]

No, no it isn't. I have two boys who both LOVE Frozen. One of them carried around a picture of Elsa for a couple of days and can belt out the whole soundtrack.

I still wouldn't wait for hours to meet "them". And I use those quotes purposefully.

These CMs are NOT Anna & Elsa. They don't have the same voices, they don't have the same mannerisms. I've seen pictures and they don't even much LOOK like them, beyond the obvious (REAL obvious) wigs and costumes.

We do lots of character meals, including CP so that we can meet lots of characters, but I would never stand in a long line to meet an actor who isn't even the REAL actor.

You have a very good point and I had to laugh because if my 7 yr old DD suddenly demanded that we wait in line for over an hour to meet them, I just might lose it and scream outloud in line " but they arent even real!!"

But really, If I had a child that was such a fan and we knew ahead that this was a must do, then I would somehow plan my schedule that we are not waiting over 1 hour..

If I didnt get a FP, this would be a reason for us to drag our arses out of bed to make RP and make a run for it. Not sure if their MG times, area are set up so this is possible.???

I would even lie and tell my child you need tickets for them which we dont have.. move on... My experience is kids love one thing for a while but can be easily distracted by the next thing.... Call me selfish but 4 hours of waiting is asking too much. If it was waiting for surgery yes,,, a character MG no. Think of the lost $$ time, you are wasting that could have been spent elsewhere.

I have read too that you can see them from a distance even if not doing the MG.. I would encourage my child to do this. But the PP was right, from the pics I have seen I think they look nothing like them.. Maybe it's the Pixar look, humanly hard to copy.

 

[GillianP1301]

Totally subjective and depends on how badly you or your kids want to meet them. My DS can take or leave the princesses and wasn't that huge a fan of Frozen, so I know this will be a non issue for our trip. But, if it were something or somebody he really wanted to see he would (and has) wait. He's a really patient kid (more than me) and has been known to stand in a line for 90 minutes or more for a favourite attraction and never complains. So, I could totally see him planting himself in line for a few hours to see a favourite character, if it came to that.

 

[isabellea]

No way. My dd is a huge fan of Frozen and there’s no way I would wait for more than 20-30 minutes. The only thing my dd knows is that we are going to WDW for 1 day after our trip to the beach this summer and that there might be some princesses. I didn’t tell her we’re staying in a LM room at AoA (she will freak out when she sees it) or that I have a CRT reservation at 8:05am where she will meet Cinderella and other princesses (hopefully Ariel will be present). And if I get FP+ for A&E I think I will keep it a surprise too so she’s totally flabbergasted when we get there. I love surprising my dd! And if I don’t get the FP+ at my 60 days mark? Well, we will try to go directly from CRT at 9am and if the wait is too long, too bad. Since she doesn’t know they are there, she won’t be too disappointed. In fact she often ask me if they will be at Disney when we go and I try to keep my answers very vague so that not meeting the Frozen girls won’t ruin her trip. Yes it’s difficult to keep everything under wrap but so worth it IMO!

 

[nugov2]

For us I would say no. We don't wait very long for a ride and when we were there last any character meet. I don't know if any of them would want to meet them that badly(even though they love the movie), when we were there we did a lot of character meals everyday so we wouldn't really spend any time on the meet and greets. There were a few that we still did but they were pretty much all walk ups. I just can't see spending any real amount of time in line to meet anyone, character or celebrity...just doesn't hold any interest to me and I can't see any of my kids wanting to waste 4 hours of ride time to do it. Now if it was something they were going to WDW and it was a must on their list I would try to come up with some plan to reduce that wait significantly....character meal....early entrance to the park so my dh could hustle to the line to reduce that to something much less...we have pretty good luck with that. We used a great Concierge service when we were there last time...I'd pay his fee just to have him hold a spot for us

 

[skysmom99]

"To each his own." "Hakuna matata," doesn't seem quite right here, but maybe that, too.

Luckily for me, my boys don't usually care to meet characters, and my daughter & I just try to hit ones with short waits. None of my kids would be willing to wait an hour and certainly not 2+ to meet a character. I'm okay with that. We only get a few precious park days every couple of years, and none of us wants to spend them in a meet-n-greet line.

 

[MichelleVW]

No way. My dd is a huge fan of Frozen and there’s no way I would wait for more than 20-30 minutes. The only thing my dd knows is that we are going to WDW for 1 day after our trip to the beach this summer and that there might be some princesses. I didn’t tell her we’re staying in a LM room at AoA (she will freak out when she sees it) or that I have a CRT reservation at 8:05am where she will meet Cinderella and other princesses (hopefully Ariel will be present). And if I get FP+ for A&E I think I will keep it a surprise too so she’s totally flabbergasted when we get there. I love surprising my dd! And if I don’t get the FP+ at my 60 days mark? Well, we will try to go directly from CRT at 9am and if the wait is too long, too bad. Since she doesn’t know they are there, she won’t be too disappointed. In fact she often ask me if they will be at Disney when we go and I try to keep my answers very vague so that not meeting the Frozen girls won’t ruin her trip. Yes it’s difficult to keep everything under wrap but so worth it IMO!

The bolded is the key!! There is no way these little kids would know they are there and that they can meet them unless the parents tell them! So they won't be disappointed in not meeting someone that they don't know is there.