What's the deal with Anna and Elsa?

[Beer Me]

Obtaining FP is nearly impossible and wait times seem to constantly hover around 2 hours. One poster mentioned up to 5 hour waits! That's insane! I'm fascinated by what motivates so many people to make this sort of effort. I understand 7 dwarves a little more. A new ride at MK is always a big deal.

My trip is in a few weeks. I've preselected all FPs not including A&E because my 2 boys don't seem to care about it. I can't see waiting for hours so chances are we will be skipping this attraction. What will I be missing?

 

[Burnedout]

Eh, to each their own. No little girls here but my boys waited to meet jack sparrow and Robin Hood.

 

[mslhb]

Everyone has different priorities. My DD(6) is a big chicken and HATES roller coasters. But the hug from Elsa she got last week was priceless! I was up at 12am and luckily got a fast pass as there was no way I would wait for 2+ hours. 90 minutes probably would have been my limit. But I understand everyone is different. If you live close and/or are going to be at the MK several days I can see spending a couple of hours for a meet and greet that is really important.

Ok... now I am going to selfishly AW my DD's pic with Elsa. First time posting a photo. Hope this works!

 

[Legendteri]

Yep, to each their own. People will wait much longer than that to meet their favorite sports heroes.

 

[elaine amj]

A couple of years back we waited over an hour to meet Ariel. I had it carefully planned to meet her later with a much much shorter wait. But circumstances were what they were and it seemed like a good idea at that time. My DD was thrilled as Ariel's her favorite princess.

As for Anna and Elsa, they are the newest princesses and most have not met them as yet. Plus when you have two characters interacting with each other and the kid, lines are always longer.

There has always been a craze when new princesses arrive - remember the lines for Merida? What about Rapunzel?

That said, Anna & Elsa seem to have inspired even more fan fervour - probably because the movie is doing so much better than Brave and Tangled. My DD is completely obsessed with all the music from the movie and watches youtube constantly. That said, i doubt i'm dedicated enough to brave a 5 hr lineup LOL!

 

[FLchick415]

I have slept overnight on the NYC streets for a movie premiere, but I will not wait longer than 20 minutes to meet a character at Disney. LOL

 

[Kevin_W]

There has always been a craze when new princesses arrive - remember the lines for Merida? What about Rapunzel?

Yep, I remember those well. I'm glad that you can meet those two more reasonably these days.

As for Anna and Elsa, it was the one thing my DD wanted to do the most during our vacation. The look on her face was priceless.

 

[Beer Me]

Yep, to each their own. People will wait much longer than that to meet their favorite sports heroes.

Good point. When we go to mlb games we have to get there when the gates open (usually 2 hours early) so my son can hang around trying to get an autograph which hardly ever happens. A lot of waiting for basically nothing.

Different strokes. I get that.

But when someone mentioned a 300 minute wait it blew my mind.

 

[Hootch]

Memorial Day weekend at the beach. The hotel plays movies by the pool each night. The three nights we were there the movies were Despicable Me 2, Frozen and The Little Mermaid.

Frozen was the only movie shown also in their activities room. I gues they anticipated a big audience. When Let It Go was being sung, many of the kids around the pool sang along with the chorus. This didn't happen with Happy which is a much bigger pop hit.

Kids feel a real connection with Frozen and we parents often do a lot things for our kids.

 

[soxfan040713]

To some, even older people, they are seen as the "celebrities" of WDW right now. I think another part of the obsession is that anything Frozen is so rare in the parks as far as merchandise and other character M&G's that it becomes almost a bucket list for your trip. And the reason the lines are so long is that they're not a ride that continuously moves. Figure each person/family probably spends 2-3 minutes with them, all it takes is 20 families in front of you to get the wait time up to an hour.

 

[luvmy2babies]

I was up at midnight on the day I could reserve fast passes and was fortunate enough to get one for our last day. They have rocketed to the top for my daughter, particularly Elsa. She was really grateful for the fast passes we had and the characters were great during the interaction.

It’s crazy. There was a Frozen portion in the Castle projection show set to “Let it Go” and I’ve never been among so many people singing along with a song other than the Star Spangled Banner.

 

[TwinPrincessMermaids]

Wow. We were on the Disney Magic the second week FROZEN songs were made available to the Family Karaoke (usually our favorite place for funny entertainment!). Let It Go was sung by ALL! Boys, girls, adults, everyone, and so were all the Open Doors and Snowman songs...but Let It Go was on at least 4-5 times every session!

My condolences to the CMs working the DLounge on all the Disney Ships...

 

[MikeandReneePlus5]

ah, who can fully explain the zeitgeist?

right song, right movie at the right time.

 

[mcconnellfam96]

Each trip to WDW, we ask our kids what things are their "must do's" for the trip. For our trip next month, by DD17 (yes, I said SEVENTEEN) ~ her only must do was meet Elsa & Anna. So funny. Frozen is a BIG hit at our house. I am the mom who listens and sings along to the soundtrack when I am alone in the car.

 

[Momma2PrinceNPrinces]

Disney characters are "real" to our little ones, so to them meeting Anna and Elsa would be like us ladies meeting Brad Pitt! Personally, I don't understand spending so much $$ on a Disney ticket just to spend the day waiting in a line for hours to meet a character. However I would do it for DD with a FP if she wanted to.

 

[2Tiggies]

I'm fascinated by what motivates so many people to make this sort of effort.

...........What will I be missing?

I don't understand it. I acknowledge it. I accept it is justifiable to those who do and most of them report back that it was worth the wait 10 times over, but I suppose as a PP said earlier in the statement "Each to his own ..." It is just that. I'd rather be chasing the rides than standing in the same line. I can't think of anything I have ever been willing to wait that excessively for. But while I don't get it (personally), I do get that it is very important to those who do.

I wonder how long this craze will last

 

[Dan Murphy]

Everyone has different priorities. My DD(6) is a big chicken and HATES roller coasters. But the hug from Elsa she got last week was priceless! I was up at 12am and luckily got a fast pass as there was no way I would wait for 2+ hours. 90 minutes probably would have been my limit. But I understand everyone is different. If you live close and/or are going to be at the MK several days I can see spending a couple of hours for a meet and greet that is really important.

Ok... now I am going to selfishly AW my DD's pic with Elsa. First time posting a photo. Hope this works!

Beautiful!! Thanks for sharing.

 

[MomForFrozenAddicts]

I'm just so happy that Disney moved the M&G to MK. I was giving talks to my girls about how we couldn't wait 5 hours in EPCOT to meet Elsa and Anna. Now, I just have to cross my fingers for the FP+.

 

[ConnieB]

Obtaining FP is nearly impossible and wait times seem to constantly hover around 2 hours. One poster mentioned up to 5 hour waits! That's insane! I'm fascinated by what motivates so many people to make this sort of effort. I understand 7 dwarves a little more. A new ride at MK is always a big deal.

My trip is in a few weeks. I've preselected all FPs not including A&E because my 2 boys don't seem to care about it. I can't see waiting for hours so chances are we will be skipping this attraction. What will I be missing?

Different strokes for different folks, lol........waiting 2 hours for SDTM would be worth it.....well, we had a FP+ twice the first week it opened up, and I have no real desire to even wait the 10 minutes it took for our FP+.

Also keep in mind that with 2 boys, they wouldn't want to wait 5 seconds to see a Princess....but what if it was Captain Jack Sparrow? They might be more interested.

Given the number of little (and not so little) girls wearing Frozen costumes, tshirts, etc......that is your reason that some parents wait 5 hours (this isn't quite as common anymore, but was definitely the norm when they were in Norway). Me....I like the music more than the movie, lol....so if Idina was going to be there I might consider a 2 hour wait. My girls, however, want to see the characters, so we'll go only if we get a FP+.

 

[dsk727]

Yeah the obsession over Frozen is real for some kids! We were one of the lucky who had a FP for our trip last month. The wait was 300 inutes and I had to take a cpiture of it because it was insane to see. We only waited 5-10 minutes and it made my daughters day!