I don’t care if it’s overrated: my favorite ride at EPCOT is closing soon, and even if it’s for a good reason, I’m still bummed.
Frozen Ever After
When this ride closes, it’s going to change your EPCOT strategy, including what you rope drop, use Lightning Lanes for, and how you spend your time, so listen up! You might need to know this before your next EPCOT trip.
Frozen Ever After will be closing for a refurbishment to update the current animatronics. If you’ve been on the ride recently, you might have said, “Oof, I’ve seen better audio-animatronics,” but hey, in 2016, we thought face projection was pretty cool.
Frozen Ever After animatronics
The technology will be updated to match the animatronics on Frozen Ever After in Hong Kong Disneyland, which, by the way, has a whole area dedicated to Frozen. The transformation is set for early next year to make the characters look more “true-to-film.”
Hong Kong Disneyland Animatronics
Currently, we don’t have exact dates, but considering it’s slated for early next year and it’s almost the end of this year, it’s going to come upon us fast. Dates are still currently listed through December 14th, which is as far as the Disney World calendar goes right now, but we’re keeping our eye on it so you can be the first to know when it’s closing.
©Disney
How is this going to affect your EPCOT day? Well, this is one of the most popular rides to rope drop, and even if it’s not your preferred ride to start with, there aren’t that many attractions in EPCOT, so people might be heading towards your favorite attraction.
Frozen Ever After
Rides like Remy’s Ratatouille Adventure, Test Track, and Cosmic Rewind: Guardians of the Galaxy might have heavier lines while Frozen Ever After is down. If you’re planning on hitting those attractions, you might need to line up for rope drop earlier than expected or go for different attractions you might not think about, like Soarin’ Around the World, where you can knock out a few smaller rides in the morning.
Remy’s Ratatouille Adventure rider entrance
Don’t forget about all the EPCOT character meet and greets, too. Who doesn’t want to start their day meeting their favorite princess?
Elsa meet and greet
In terms of Lightning Lanes, when you start booking, you can choose one from the top tier and two, or all three, from the lower group. Frozen Ever After is in the top tier, so you’ll want to reprioritize your Lightning Lanes.
Top-tier attractions:
- Remy’s Ratatouille Adventure
- Test Track
Second-tier attractions:
- Disney and Pixar Short Film Festival
- Journey into Imagination with Figment
- Living with the Land
- Mission: SPACE
- The Seas with Nemo & Friends
- Soarin’ Around the World
- Spaceship Earth
- Turtle Talk with Crush
Cosmic Rewind (February 2025)
This also means that the other top-tier attractions will be harder to get because there’s one less to snag. Be prepared for tougher competition!
I sure am looking forward to this new Frozen Ever After update because such an iconic ride deserves all the love and refurbishments in the world. Make sure you keep following Disney Food Blog for more!
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I think it would be easier for you to report what rides are open rather than the ones closing!
How about a report/video on how accessible rides are at each park. Especially in depth on how accessible, especially for wheelchair users, wheelchair with transfer, ease of transfer, different disabilities. Im an amputee of right leg, no prosthetic and unable to go on rides like Pirates, Frozen or Space Mountain because you have to step down into. Be a great topic.