Context: This is the review of a 30something childless adult woman. If you a have children this may not apply to your experience. While I am a fan of the Frozen franchise, this ride is truly skippable for me because it is truly just not a good ride and the ride it repacked was.
The quick notes: if you are a family with small children or children who love the Frozen franchise, yes you will probably love this. I highly recommend investing in the lightning lane as the wait time is without fail Always horrendous. It does not mater what time of day or year, what day you are in park, the weather...the wait is absolutely ludicrous. And the queue has some really adorable elements but it is largy kind of meh. They could have really added some fun interactive elements (especially as they cut the original ride short to make the queue area larger) but they just didn't bother in the haste to open the ride in a short window.
This one for me is a skip every time out of spite unless i'm with a group which needs to do it. It actually makes me angry every time I have to ride it because it could have been so good but instead it's just lazy.
Here's the Tea: The ride they closed to replace with the current Frozen Ever After was an excellent ride. Beautifully themed. Interesting. Educational. Fun and silly. There wasn't an once of of the track o show that felt forgotten about. It was actually set in Norway which is a plus considering Frozen is not. There was continuity with the surrounding shops and bakery. It truly was a gem. Yes, I am a child of the 90s who did in fact grow up with this ride. Is there nostalgia at play here, absolutely.
The thing is, the mandate for Frozen, was get it open quickly. They did it in six months. In this, rush they shortened the ride to add to the queue area. While the queue has its cute moments, interactive elements they are not always on, so they don't really have a place or any use at all...and the rest of the line is quite boring and dark. They actually took out design for dead space.
As far as the ride is concerned, as I said they shortened it. Thy took out the element of "falling" over a waterfall on the exterior of the building making both the ride and the exterior less interesting. But most egregiously, there are whole sections of this ride that have no theming or decoration of any kind whatsoever. Just dead space with nothing. A wall and floor painted black. It kind of unbelievable. Especially when you consider the wait time this ride always has, and the fact they removed beautiful elements to just leave those spaces empty.I thin the idea was that guests won't be looking away from the main elements of the stay so who cares about the wall on the other side, but like me...I care. I'm an adult and there are other adults on the ride who are not like glued to the snowman at all times. It's just lazy, kind of insulting, and sort of the epitome of whats wring with the Disney company for the past 10 or so years. Slap some half way done IP on there and who cares if it's well done. Lastly, the egregious projection mapped egghead animatronics they use in these are down often. when they are down, they do not have faces. When I say egghead, I'm not being bombastic or mean...they are just that. White ovals stuck on top of an animatronic body. When the system is down they're super creepy, even scary. Ever seen iRobot?...stick a princess dress on those then you have an idea for what you would be in for.
In short, when you remove something that is beloved and really high quality, you better replace it with something 10 times better not something 10 times worse...but hey it's IP so who cares.
I get it, it gets a star because if you have kinds all they will see is their favorite character and be delighted so the IP so it gets a star...but its really not worth the excruciating wait it always has. It is not a good ride by any means and i do find it to be a bit of an embarrassment for a company that prides itself on producing quality entertainment. For me this is a 1 star every time and will be until they fix it.
Big tip: Get a bunch of food at the Kringla Bakeri Og Kafe (Norway Bakery in the left just before the queue) BEFORE getting in line. It will be long and having the snacks will help ass the time. read more