Frozen Ever After Draws Large Crowds for Opening Day at Epcot (Photos, Video Including Queue & Attraction)

Hi everyone!

Today was the first day of the new attraction Frozen Ever After, set in the Norway pavilion in World Showcase. The ride replaces the former Maelstrom attraction, which closed in September, 2014. Notable is that the hours for Frozen Ever After begin at 9:00 a.m., as opposed to most of World Showcase (most pavilions open at 11:00 a.m.). Mexico is also following suit, opening early and both pavilions now offer a counter service breakfast menu.

More photos & a new video were added June 23rd.

There was a pretty large crowd waiting to be let into Epcot, with almost everyone heading toward the new ride.

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Guests made their way to World Showcase.

This was our view of Norway with the crowd waiting to enter the queue.

Frozen Ever After was posting a 45 minute wait at this point. It quickly went up, and I think we were in line for 90-100 minutes or so. While Fastpass is available for the attraction, personally I think it is worth waiting a reasonable amount of time to see the whole queue at least once (I wouldn’t wait four hours just to include the queue).

The waterfall was turned on this past week, but the hole was plugged up some time ago.

Kristoff and Sven can be seen outside.

Looking up to the statue.

It says here that you may get wet. I don’t think I did, not more than a few drops. It was a nice change since my last trips through Pirates of the Caribbean.

Before entering, the standby sign said 135 minutes.

Disney Ambassador Nathaniel Palma was on hand for hours to greet guests.

Portraits of Kristoff and Sven are inside the queue.

There are also Scandinavian decorations on the wall.

More items can be found not only on the wall…

But on shelfs.

There is a message board with a variety of notices.

The left one says to “Beware the Duke of Weselton”.

Oaken’s Tokens (and Sauna) is having a Summer Snow Day Blowout.

Kristoff is playing at the Royal Arendelle Playhouse.

Prince Hans is the disgraced son.

Near the entrance to Frozen Ever After, a door with a Chisel & Pick sign above it.

A proclamation tells guests the reason for their upcoming experience.

The Kingdom is invited to a Summer Snow Day Celebration in honor of the day that Princess Anna saved her sister Queen Elsa with an unselfish act of true love.

There are some fun details in the artwork.

The heart of the queue includes Oaken’s Tokens ahead.

Oaken’s Tokens and Sauna sign.

Summer Snow Day Blowout sign.

There is also a Golden Crocus sign.

Fashions for All Seasons.

Elsa is shown on this lantern.

Welcome sign for Oaken’s Tokens and Sauna.

This is the interior for Oaken’s Tokens and Sauna.

This was a fun place to get stuck for 10-15 minutes as the ride went down for what was probably the first time today (there were a lot of glitches, hopefully it smooths out quickly). Oaken can be seen at the sauna window every minute or so, and there are several different reasons for it. If you go through the Fastpass line, you won’t see this.

In this one, he created Olaf from the condensation and you can see Oaken’s face in it.

Here is a closer look.

Oaken puts his hand up to the window.

In one of the scenes, he creates a snowflake. There are others too. Here he just presses his face up to the window.

Behind the counter are vegetables and a scale.

A ship can be seen on a building in the queue.

Official Summer Snow Day proclamation.

Entering the ride.

And we finally made it on the ride! I wasn’t expecting to enjoy it as much as I did, being quite Frozen-weary over the past year or two. But Disney has done a great job with the attraction as well as the meet and greet and I do look forward to riding again.

Here is our video of the queue and ride.

Olaf is in the first scene with Sven.

Sven and Olaf.

The trolls are next.

Anna and Elsa can be seen.

Olaf.

I believe the characters are all supposed to be audio-animatronic and then with projections. Anna and Kristoff are shown in this starry scene.

Anna turns to Kristoff.

Sven has his tongue stuck to a pole.

Kristoff looks on at Anna.

Elsa is on the balcony of her ice palace.

She sings “Let it Go”.

Elsa creates wintry magic.

One last look at Elsa before we go backwards.

The backwards section of Maelstrom is still here in Frozen Ever After.

Elsa can be seen in these panels.

Snowgies before the drop.

Fireworks above Arendelle.

Elsa and Anna in their summer outfits, with Olaf.

The line went back to China today. It went down many times, and sometimes only took Fastpass+ guests.

The wait time when there was a standby line went up to 300 minutes.

Ice water was set out for guests.

I was going to lunch and didn’t take one, but it was nice seeing Mickey bars being handed out to guests waiting for the ride. Later in the day I read there were other treats being given.

With all the attraction downtime today, it felt more like a soft opening day than an actual opening day of a ride. While I would have preferred to see a Norway based attraction, I did enjoy this one very much and we plan to ride it again tomorrow (we had planned to ride once more today, but that didn’t work out). Frozen Ever After should be a very popular addition to World Showcase.