W.T.F.* Character Meals?

[slappy magoo]

*W.T.F. - Where's the Frozen?

We booked every Princess character meal just on the off chance that WDW might see the value in adding Anna and Elsa to them. Sure beats using a FP+ or waiting for hours for a meet and greet. Any news on the gals being added to any character dining experience?

 

[Matt_Black]

I don't think they've added any of the newer princesses to any meals yet. Tiana, Rapunzel and Merida don't appear, at least on a regular basis, to my knowledge.

 

[Arty Cordova]

No news yet. The best chance you have without a FP+ is to go on a Disney cruise

 

[walter1901]

WDW really irritates me because they won't solve some problems and just add a Frozen meet and greet at DHS and bring back the Epcot so waits could be relatively shorter at all of them, so people are more spread out than all gathering at on park.

 

[Matt_Black]

It's not as simple as that. Three separate meet & greets require at least 3 pairs of friends for Anna & Elsa. That's at least 6 cast members that need to be hired and trained.

 

[walter1901]

It's not as simple as that. Three separate meet & greets require at least 3 pairs of friends for Anna & Elsa. That's at least 6 cast members that need to be hired and trained.

True, true but due to popularity there could be other cutbacks such as the Stitch meet n greets at Epcot and DHS. And others could be made to solve these problems.

 

[GetAPaperBag]

I don't see a problem with using a FP+ on them. Isn't the point of fast pass to avoid long waits? Isn't a FP+ that gets you in to meet them in about 10 minutes to avoid a 3-5 hour, worth it? We've met them twice. Once at Epcot at rope drop, waited about a half hour. Once at MK with FP+, waited about 10 minutes. It's definitely possible, and not too terribly difficult to meet them, if you plan appropriately.

 

[mweier]

I don't see a problem with using a FP+ on them. Isn't the point of fast pass to avoid long waits. Isn't a FP+ that gets you in to meet them in about 10 minutes to avoid a 3-5 hour, worth it? We've met them twice. Once at Epcot at rope drop, waited about a half hour. Once at MK with FP+, waited about 10 minutes. It's definitely possible, and not too terribly difficult to meet them, if you plan appropriately.

I've heard of waits of 60-90 for fp+ on days when there's 4-5 hr standby lines... Clearly there's more demand than princesses.

Rather than more m+g, a frozen stage show by the castle would be cool to feed a larger audience demand... While I'm sure some will always be "meet or bust", having a way to help the less fervent fans see Anna and Elsa seems in order.

 

[GetAPaperBag]

I've heard of waits of 60-90 for fp+ on days when there's 4-5 hr standby lines... Clearly there's more demand than princesses.

Rather than more m+g, a frozen stage show by the castle would be cool to feed a larger audience demand... While I'm sure some will always be "meet or bust", having a way to help the less fervent fans see Anna and Elsa seems in order.

Even then, a 60 minute FP+ wait when standby is 4 hours+ , just saved you 3 hours. No other FP+ will save you as much time. I kinda value my FP+ selections based on how much time they save me to do what I want to get done. The more time they save me, the more value they have.

Not saying I don't think a larger Frozen presence in the parks is a bad idea though. Clearly more meet & greets or pretty much anything Frozen-related, would be a crowd pleaser.

If they have A&E at a character meal, that meal suddenly becomes almost impossible to get an ADR for and now a bunch of other people are unhappy because "it never used to be this hard to get an ADR".

 

[Christine in NJ]

Easier than all this, the day you're going to the airport, just hire an Anna and Elsa to come hang out with your kids for a little bit from a local place. Will they be as good as the Disney versions, maybe not, but rather than stand in line for hours for 30 seconds of face time, you can hire them to spend an hour hanging with your kids providing personal attention and lots of photos. You also just bought yourself hours of doing other fun things at the parks!

 

[slappy magoo]

I don't see a problem with using a FP+ on them. Isn't the point of fast pass to avoid long waits?

Sure. But so is a character meal and then that's one fp+ that can be used elsewhere. Can't blame a guy for asking or hoping.

 

[slappy magoo]

If they have A&E at a character meal, that meal suddenly becomes almost impossible to get an ADR for and now a bunch of other people are unhappy because "it never used to be this hard to get an ADR".

But it is that hard now at times. CRT routinely sells out at the 180 day mark or comes close. Akershus is also a highly booked meal. 1900 park fare slightly less so but I bet it would change if they added A&E. Heck, I'll bet they could extend to lunch and still sell out (currently it only opens for breakfast and dinner). Meanwhile these are people with less of a need for fast passes to meet them, freeing them up for other people.

 

[disneygirl1024]

*W.T.F. - Where's the Frozen?

We booked every Princess character meal just on the off chance that WDW might see the value in adding Anna and Elsa to them. Sure beats using a FP+ or waiting for hours for a meet and greet. Any news on the gals being added to any character dining experience?

Glad you clarified that!!!

 

[Gabe1]

It's not as simple as that. Three separate meet & greets require at least 3 pairs of friends for Anna & Elsa. That's at least 6 cast members that need to be hired and trained.

Meh, thinking since what fall of last year to June, they could have trained far more than 6 cast members in this time frame. I believe Disney is up to that challenge, heck they added a float and Anna & Elsa into a parade. If motivated they could fix this mess.

 

[cw1982]

Meh, thinking since what fall of last year to June, they could have trained far more than 6 cast members in this time frame. I believe Disney is up to that challenge, heck they added a float and Anna & Elsa into a parade. If motivated they could fix this mess.

Agreed.

I have a theory about why they're taking longer to do this... I could be way off base, but part of me wonders if this didn't have something to do with the roll out of the new FP+ system. Maybe Disney figured it made sense to take advantage of the opportunity to have a huge people eater like this in place while they saw how FP+ would work in larger crowds. Notice that they have just recently added more hours for Anna and Elsa, so that they are now available from park open to close. I, too, think they've had plenty of time to add more Annas and Elsas to remedy this; instead, they let the current demand absorb part of their crowd through the spring break season, the 24-hour event, and even through the official opening of 7DMT. By now, they could have easily had more girls working those roles at various parks and/ or in character meals to help alleviate the demand, and yet they still haven't done it. Adding the extra shift so that the two are there open to close may help some, but not enough. If my theory is even close to accurate, we may see more opportunities to meet them crop up right after the 4th of July (or around there, anyway). As they see the system in action in a busier season, they'll start alleviating some of the demand for Anna and Elsa and let the FP+ system handle more of the crowds.

But again, like I said... just my thoughts. I very well could be wrong. I hope so!

 

[Matt_Black]

Meh, thinking since what fall of last year to June, they could have trained far more than 6 cast members in this time frame. I believe Disney is up to that challenge, heck they added a float and Anna & Elsa into a parade. If motivated they could fix this mess.

Well, remember, the original plan was to only have them meet from November to January. No sense in training a whole bunch of friends if the movie turns out to be a bomb.

 

[Arty Cordova]

Its very simple. Disney says you want to meet and Anna and Elsa, then please reserve a room at one of our beautiful resorts and you will have a huge head start over everybody else with the 60 day fast + reservation. I think its brilliant.

 

[LAKid53]

I've heard of waits of 60-90 for fp+ on days when there's 4-5 hr standby lines... Clearly there's more demand than princesses.

Rather than more m+g, a frozen stage show by the castle would be cool to feed a larger audience demand... While I'm sure some will always be "meet or bust", having a way to help the less fervent fans see Anna and Elsa seems in order.

Why would anyone wait in line 4-5 hours to meet two princesses? That is insane.....

 

[cw1982]

Why would anyone wait in line 4-5 hours to meet two princesses? That is insane.....

I agree, it's completely insane, but people are doing it all day long over there. The standby wait was 120 minutes after Wishes when I was there last week, and that's with the park closing at midnight.

 

[LAKid53]

I agree, it's completely insane, but people are doing it all day long over there. The standby wait was 120 minutes after Wishes when I was there last week, and that's with the park closing at midnight.

There's fanatic, and then there's Frozenatic.....