Frozen Ever After

Frozen Ever After
Anna, Elsa and Olaf in Frozen After Ever.
Epcot
Land	World Showcase
Attraction type	Boat Ride
Opening date	June 21, 2016
Vehicle names	Boat
Ride duration	5:00 minutes
Based On	Disney's Frozen
FastPass +	Yes (Group 1)
Replaced	Maelstrom

Frozen Ever After is a dark ride attraction located in the Norway pavilion at Epcot.

Attraction History

Frozen Ever After was initally announced on September 12, 2014, as a replacement for the Norway pavilion's Maelstrom attraction. Maelstrom was a boat ride attraction that took guests through the history of Norway, beginning in the country's folklore and ending in Modern times. A part of Norway since the pavilion opened, Maelstrom closed to guests on October 5, 2014.

Although Disney decided to use most of Maelstrom's existing structure for Frozen Ever After, there were a few changes made to the original attraction's layout. First, during the renovations, Maelstrom's queue and load area were removed. This allowed Imagineers to extend the attraction's track through this area. Likewise, the original unload and postshow area (which housed the Spirit of Norway film) were taken out to facilitate the creation of a new indoor queue and load area. Unlike Maelstrom, Frozen Ever After would have its load and unload at the same station. In addition to these track changes, Maelstrom's exterior waterfall, which allowed guests outside the attraction to see into it, was covered in order to facilitate Frozen Ever After's new "Let it Go" scene.

Unlike Maelstrom, which had firmly been set in Norway, Frozen Ever After takes place in the fictional Kingdom of Arendelle, where Queen Elsa, Princess Anna, and other characters from the Frozen franchise are celebrating a "Summer Snow Day". Since much of Arendelle was based on Norway, Imagineers wanted to continue to tie the attraction into Norway's culture. When discussing the relationship between Frozen Ever After and Norway, Imagineer Wyatt Winter noted:

“The original animated film was heavily influenced by Norwegian culture and the filmmakers conducted extensive research in Norway. Our team began our process in the same manner, visiting places in Norway that heavily influenced our work. While there’s clearly a Frozen twist to our story, honoring the culture and traditions of Norway was always among our guiding principles.”

Although Frozen Ever After used much of Maelstrom's infrastructure, the attraction also featured new cutting edge technology. Frozen Ever After was the first attraction to use all-electric Audio Animatronics which allowed the characters to have increased fluidity and more lifelike motion. Furthermore, like the Seven Dwarfs Mine Train, the Audio Animatronics in Frozen Ever After feature projection faces, giving them a wider range of emotions. When creating these Audio Animatronics, Imagineers worked closely with the animators of Frozen to ensure that their emotions and movements were natural. When discussing the Animatronics Winter noted:

"We really wanted guests to connect with the characters and feel like they went to Elsa’s ice palace or the frozen willow forest. It’s little things like the way Elsa crosses her arms so they are always brought together to the same place every time. This could not have been done with hydraulics."

After nearly 20 month of construction, Frozen Ever After finally opened on June 21, 2016 . Since opening the attraction has not seen any major changes.

Attraction Plot

Sven and Anna in Frozen Ever After. Photo by Theme Park Tourist

Guests begin their journey on Frozen Ever After by boarding their boats and by passing by Sven and Olaf. In this scene, Olaf sings an altered version of “Do You Want to Build a Snowman”, where he explains that guests are on their way to Elsa's Snow Palace, and that the queen wants to give everyone a "snowy" summer day. After Olaf tells guests that he will see them there, the boats continue on to Troll Valley where the Grandpappy Troll is retelling the story of Frozen to the little trolls. Moving on, guests ascend to the Ice Palace as “Frozen Heart” plays. Entering the palace, guests see Olaf skating by and singing. Up ahead, Kristoff, Elsa and Sven (whose tongue is stuck to an icicle) sing a version of "For the First Time in Forever" as they welcome guests to the palace.

Entering the palace, guests finally see Elsa, who shows off her powers as she sings “Let it Go”. At this point, the boats begin to travel backwards as guests exit the palace. Descending down, guests pass by Marshmallow the giant snowman and the Snowgies. After passing the snow monster, guests go down a drop before sailing in to Arendelle for the “Summer Snow Day” celebration. Once inside the village, guests pass by Elsa, Anna and Olaf who are singing “In Summer”. After hearing the trio sing, guests reach the unloading area and disembark.

Cast

Elsa-Idina Menzel

Anna- Kristen Bell

Olaf-Josh Gad

Kristoff-Jonathan Groff

Fun Facts and Trivia

• As guests sail back into Arendelle, they may notice a group of puffins looking on. These puffins were originally found in Maelstrom .

• Following the Troll Valley scene, guests experience the same ride layout that they did on Maelstrom .

• Frozen songwriters Bobby Lopez and Kristen Anderson wrote new lyrics for the songs featured in Frozen Ever After .