written by Katie Penn & Stephen Ashley
Facts at a Glance About Frozen Ever After
| Park: Epcot. Location: World Showcase – Norway. Height Requirement: None. Lightning Lane Multi Pass: No. Lightning Lane Single Pass: No. |
| Quick Notes: A dark boat ride through magical Arendelle with gentle twists, turns and drops, as well as a backwards section. Featuring advanced animatronics, beautiful lighting and music from the movie. |
| Disney Warnings: You may get wet! Small drops, dark. |
| Our Additional Cautions: Mostly slow boat ride which may gently bump the sides of the ‘river’. Slow turns, small drops and a backwards section where the boat moves backward leading to a fairly shallow 28 foot drop. The boat hits the water with some impact, and rides backwards on a level for a period before turning forward again. There are a couple of sections where there is minimal use of a dry ice type cloud to replicate snow clouds. Light effects including fireworks. You may get wet. |
| Length: The ride takes approximately 5 minutes. |
| Special Needs Info: Guests must transfer from their wheelchairs/ECVs to the ride car. Handheld Captioning available. |
Overview of Frozen Ever After
The characters are beautifully done with state-of-the-art animatronics which are worth the ride. This is a very popular attraction and a lot of people make the dash to ride at park opening. Be prepared to wait well over an hour for this experience. This is the only ride in the World Showcase with a bit of a kick to it. Frozen Ever After is a dark boat ride through magical scenes with the music and characters from the film Frozen.
Queue & seating information for Frozen Ever After
Situated in the Norway pavilion, the queue is sensitively themed to fit with the theming of the rest of the pavilion. As you enter the building (the majority of the line is inside) you are welcomed to an evening scene in Arendelle where they will be hosting a summer snow festival. It’s as if you’re walking inside the city.
As you go further into the building, the line takes you out into a courtyard under a dark night sky. Scandinavian buildings border the courtyard, and strings of lanterns crisscross above your head. There are little details to keep you occupied – keep an eye out for the steamy sauna window – you never know who might be in there!
As you reach the front of the line, there are two sections – unloading and loading areas. Boats will pull in, unload and then pull forwards. Your party will be sent to a row for boarding, and you will be directed to stand in front of the gate for that row.
The boats imitate Viking long boats, so they have tall dragon type prows. There are 4 rows per boat and the rows will seat three average adults comfortably, four smaller adults would fit snugly. The maximum occupancy for the boats is listed as 16 people, but this would be a tight fit if all riders were adults. When the gates in front of you open, board the boat, crossing as far as you can before sitting down to allow those behind you to board.
Seats are hard, plastic benches with no arms or dividers. There is no lap bar or any other type of restraints. Small children can sit on the lap of a parent, but must remain seated. If sitting on the seat, children will be sat to the inside of the boat.
Wheelchair/ECV and accessibility info for Frozen Ever After
You must leave your wheelchair or ECV at the dock. You’ll have to walk a short distance with handrails and step over the side of the boat, approximately 20 inches, then down a good-sized step into the boat. You can use the seat as an additional step, and then step down into the boat. Getting out involves stepping up from the foot area of the boat and then over the side of the boat and down to the dock. You must be able to walk up and down two steps to board and disembark the Viking boat.
More details about the experience of Frozen Ever After
From the time you enter the line, you are immersed in the evening feel – the atmosphere is dark, but well-lit with lanterns. As the boat sets sail you will float under a beautiful weeping willow of magical twinkly lights and almost immediately the soundtrack from the movie will start. As you round the corner, you are greeted by Olaf and Sven. They direct you to the snow festival at the castle, and you continue on, rounding the corner to see the trolls.
As you travel on to the castle it is dark with swirling snowflakes lighting the way around you. (This is achieved with high-tech video screens all around) At the castle you pass Olaf, Anna, Kristof and Sven. Make sure you look at the really lovely animatronics as you pass by.
A set of double doors opens to allow the boat deep into the castle, where you meet Elsa. The boat will appear to come to a halt right in front of Elsa, but then the back begins to rotate around onto another track. Just as Elsa says, “Lets it go!” the boat is blown backwards in a snow flurry, and back down an icy channel with a backwards drop. Although Disney doesn’t give any warnings about this, it may still be challenging for people with sensitive back, neck or other pain problems. On the other hand, there are many people with pain issues who find the movements tolerable and enjoy the ride. If you have any doubts or concerns, you may wish to have someone familiar with your condition ride first to help determine if it is suitable for you.
During the drop, you may be splashed as you touch down. Especially in the front and side seats.
The walls and ceiling are screens with bright blue swirling snowflakes and flurries of snow, giving a magical illusion. At the end, there are clouds of snow billowing from the ceiling (like dry ice).
Still riding backwards, the boat comes to a stop by the abominable snowman and his cute little friends. The front of the boat rotates round to bring the front of the boat facing the direction of travel again. At this point, the boat goes down another small drop, and you have your picture taken (the camera is to your left as the boat drops). The snowman breathes out a cloud of snow just as the boat reaches the top of the drop.
At the bottom, you arrive in Arendelle just in time for the snowy ‘fireworks’ which are exploding (silently) around you across the ceiling. Anna, Elsa and Olaf greet you in the town as you round the corner to disembark.
The entire ride is dark, but it’s cleverly done with white/blue/purple lights for the snow effects, so it is still possible to see all the details of everything around you. The music from the movie plays throughout. There are no sudden/loud noises, but the dark may be scary to small children.
View Frozen Ever After in this video.
Check out more rides and attractions in Epcot:
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