Today we set out for Disney’s Hollywood Studios to check out the Frozen Summer Fun offerings and try to craft a plan that minimizes waiting, crowds, and the heat as much as possible.

The Schedule

This is the Times Guide for this week with the expectation that the shows will run on a similar schedule most days in the future:

Frozen Summer Fun currently runs daily from June 17th through September 7th. The various elements are highlighted above with snowflakes and the finest red dashes of any theme park blog. Note that the Frozen Sing-Along Celebration is a semi-permanent installation and will continue after Summer Fun ends. The other elements are likely to end at the end of the event, which may or may not be extended by a couple of weeks this year, like it was last year.

The Importance of an Early Arrival, Rope Drop, and Early Morning Touring

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The first thing to keep in mind is the summer crowds. This is the number of people that were at the entrance at “rope drop,” which is the colloquial term for when the theme park actually opens. I’m hoping the actual opening is moved much closer to 8:30am than 9am in the future. On June 17th, the Park opened at 8:48am, but the opening may have been delayed because Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster was not operational. Cast seemed ready to open closer to 8:30am.

I arrived at 8:20am to a crowd that was already in the hundreds of people.

Being about 15 minutes later than I would have liked, I used my own breakfast tapstile trick, which is to get in line closest to where they’re letting guests in for breakfast. At the Studios, it’s on the far left marked by the highlighted sign.

Within two minutes of my arrival, cast members started moving us over to the left and I went from being about 25 people back in line to closer to 15 people back.

Two minutes after that, another set of tapstiles opened for general guests and I moved over one more time, up to fourth in line, without much effort.

This was the scene behind me at the same time.

If you arrived when the Park was officially scheduled to open, you’d already be behind thousands of people in line at the priority attractions.

You may remember from last year’s report that Disney was holding guests at the stage for about ten minutes for a useless welcome message “featuring” an animated Olaf on a screen.

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This was the scene last year prior to cast letting us through to Toy Story Mania and elsewhere.

Fortunately, there is no welcome message this year and guests are free to head to the attraction of their choice immediately.

As you proceed up Hollywood Boulevard, you’ll want to take a right before arriving at the screen for Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster and Tower of Terror. Proceed forward and to the right of the stage for Toy Story Mania and forward and to the left for Jedi Training Academy signups, which still occur in between ABC Sound Studio (the old Sounds Dangerous building) and Hyperion Theater (the old American Idol Experience building).

I always recommend going straight to Jedi Training signups if you want the kids to participate. Once those spots fill, they’re full, save for the occasional no-show. There are at least a couple other opportunities to ride Toy Story Mania and Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster with short waits during the day, including with FastPass+ and at the very end of the night. But if you go to Toy Story or Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster before heading to Jedi Training, you’re at least going to wait 20+ minutes to sign up the kids and you’ll have fewer show choices, assuming there’s still availability.

Without the wait at the stage, the walk to Toy Story Mania was incredibly easy. The majority of people were headed down Sunset Boulevard to Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster and Tower of Terror.

I arrived at Toy Story at 8:53am and there was not yet a posted wait. Disney usually posts something like 30 minutes first thing, but as long as you are among the first 200 people or so, you will wait less than 15 minutes.

I walked the queue, rode, and was back out front at 9:06am, for a total experience time of 13 minutes, which is almost unheard of. Even FP+ takes 20 to 25 minutes later in the day. Note the sign in front of the attraction that says the ride closes at 8:45pm, which means you can get in line to ride until that time. This area is the fallout zone for the evening fireworks and Disney clears it of guests prior to launch. Great Movie Ride also currently closes at 8:15pm. The Frozen fireworks are scheduled at 9:30pm through August 20th. Beginning August 21st, the fireworks move to 9pm and I would expect Toy Story to close at 8:15pm and Great Movie Ride to close at 7:45pm at that time. Keep it in mind if you’re planning to visit one of those two attractions late in the day over the summer.

Incoming Pixar Place crowds at 9:06am are still relatively light.

A heavier stream back on Sunset Boulevard on the way to Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster.

I was very loosely following the standard 1-day cheat sheet plan with some modifications to fit in the various Frozen elements:

Morning touring at the Studios hasn’t changed much over the years, though FP+ has caused some problems as wait times rise earlier with the high number of FP+ returners in the first hour and tiers making it difficult or impossible to use FP+ at Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster and Toy Story Mania on the same day. That means you’re going to wait a little longer riding Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster in standby if you head to Toy Story first. Touring is considerably easier if you ride Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster and Toy Story Mania one time instead of trying to ride both standby and then picking one to FastPass+ later. Writing a foolproof touring plan that always works may necessitate this approach.

The plan lasted exactly one step until the wheels sort of fell off, though it isn’t necessarily due to any fault in our logic. As I mentioned earlier, Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster was not operational at rope drop and the gate to the ride was still closed when I arrived at 9:11am.

I walked over to use FP+ at Tower of Terror instead as the standby line backed up all the way out near Hollywood Scoops, though the posted wait was still 20 minutes.

I lucked out as the cast member on the phone is being notified that Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster had just opened.

So I bailed on Tower of Terror and headed over to Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster, arriving at 9:14am.

And I was on board about 9:25am. The display above the launch is new, so it’s really not fair to say Disney hasn’t been tirelessly installing new attractions here.

And back out front at 9:28am, for a total wait/ride time of just 14 minutes. Such a short wait is unrealistic if the ride had been operating. And had the downtime lasted one minute longer or if I had arrived at Tower of Terror one minute later, I would have missed out and instead arrived to a find a 60+ minute wait here.

Next up is Tower of Terror with FastPass+. We use FastPass this early for a variety of reasons – one is it’s going to save us 20 to 30 minutes in line already. Another is that it will allow us to schedule a 4th FastPass+ earlier, which results in additional availability for The Great Movie Ride or something else. Another is the attraction often operates with limited capacity due to technological difficulties, which can double or triple what the wait would be otherwise. All things considered on this particular day, it could be a lot worse as standby is “only” backed up out here, which means an actual wait in the vicinity of 25 minutes.

I arrived at 9:32am and was watching the pre-show at 9:37am. Thanks MyMagic+. Only one of the two libraries was operating, which isn’t necessarily the end of the world as it just means fewer people will be waiting after the pre-show in the boiler room.

And dropping to my likely death eight minutes later. It’s not very clear here, but you can get a small glimpse of construction behind Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster on a new flex theater on the lower right.

And I was back out front at 9:48am, for a total experience time of just 16 minutes. The standby line was already stretching back outside the entrance.

Sunset Boulevard at 9:50am. According to the wait times board, Toy Story Mania was up to 90 minutes with Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster at 60, Great Movie Ride at 20, and Star Tours at 10.

My hope was that the 10:30am Royal Welcome Parade would pull enough people away from Great Movie Ride that it would be possible to ride standby in this slot with a short wait. That was not the case as Great Movie Ride was already posting a 35-minute wait with the outdoor extended queue filling before 10am.

So I called an audible and headed down Commissary Lane toward Star Tours.

The posted wait was 10 minutes, but FP+ returners were already clogging up their queue. And with priority boarding, a number of them would arrive after me and board before me, pushing up my standby wait.

I ended up waiting outside in “Endor” for a few minutes before finally boarding my StarSpeeder after an actual wait of 19 minutes. Not terrible, but it’s about 13 minutes longer than I’d like to wait at 10am. My total experience time ended up being 29 minutes.

Frozen Royal Welcome Processional Parade

The Frozen Royal Welcome Parade currently runs twice daily – once at 10:30am and again at 1:30pm. The Parade begins on Hollywood Boulevard near the entrance, takes a left in front of the stage, and continues down past Hyperion Theater before ending at Star Tours. Last year, there was a show element on the Frozen stage where Anna and Elsa would accept a gift. This year, there is no stage element, which is good news because it means there’s no benefit to waiting here on Hollywood Boulevard for an hour or more in order to see it. Above is the scene at 9:52am, which is a full 40 minutes before anybody will see anything and the shaded side of the street is already filling with people. As you look at the entrance, the right side is shaded for the first show only, but having to arrive so early and defend your spot so hard against squatters doesn’t make it worth it, in my estimation.

The route continues in red toward Star Tours.

My favorite spot to see the parade is to the left of Hyperion Theater among the bronze head busts in an area technically called “Academy of Television Arts and Sciences Hall of Fame Plaza.” Here, you have the tan concrete barrier blocking people from sneaking in front of you at the last moment. There is also a parade stop here where the processional stops and offers onlookers an “opportunity” to sing Let It Go for a couple of minutes. So you’ll have a front row spot to see that train wreck, instead of watching from afar. Otherwise, continue further down near the entrance to Indiana Jones and fill in there.

Or as a direct link to the video of the parade in case the above doesn’t embed correctly.

Frozen Royal Welcome lasts about eight minutes from the time it arrives to the time it passes and includes approximately three floats along with Olaf, Kristoff, Anna, Elsa, and some dancers, skaters, and flag twirlers. For those with no interest, it’s probably not worth seeing, but you can fast forward through the provided video yourself and see if it holds any interest. Florida summer is so hot that it’s going to be uncomfortable waiting for the majority of visitors. The good news is that you can fill in closer to Star Tours around 10:20am and still find front row spots in case you do want to see it. None of the Frozen characters offer meet and greets during the day at Hollywood Studios, so this is the one opportunity to see Olaf and friends in one place.

As an aside, my favorite place to pick up a cup of cold water is in front of Hollywood & Vine. It’s true that any quick service with a fountain machine will give you a cup “for free,” but you’ll either need to wait in line or bug a cast member that’s trying to get trays of food to people.H&V offers a large complimentary dispenser that’s easy to access.

Olaf’s Summer Cool Down

Olaf’s Summer Cool Down is scheduled throughout the day – currently at 11:30am, 12:30pm, 2:30pm, 3:30pm, 4:30pm, and 5:30pm at the event stage at the end of Hollywood Boulevard. Thank goodness they tore down that hideous hat to restore the view of the theater, am I right guys?

Here’s a direct link to the video in case it doesn’t embed properly above.

The 10-minute show features an impressively creepy Olaf character, in addition to an MC that probably hoped his career would be a little further along by this point, in addition to four dancers. The writing is as horrific as the crowd participation is meager, but the show is very easy to see, particularly when you position yourself a bit further back from the stage. There’s really no need to be up close. This is easily skippable for those with no interest in Frozen and doesn’t necessarily need to be prioritized for anyone that absolutely has to see it. I easily caught the 11:30am show after the Royal Welcome. I would expect the 5:30pm show to be the busiest with the Coolest Ever Dance Party scheduled right after at 5:45pm. But it would be convenient to see the show and then continue to shake it off immediately after.

Back to Toy Story Mania…

After, I headed off to use my Toy Story Mania FastPass+ at 11:45am with a 70-minute posted wait.

As usual, the standby queue wasn’t even half full. But with so much capacity allotted to FastPass+, you can easily wait an hour with fewer than 250 people in front of you later in the day.

I was back out front at 12:04pm for a total experience time of 19 minutes, which is three or four minutes below average.

Frozen Sing-Along in the New Hyperion Theater

For the First Time in Forever: A Frozen Sing-Along Celebration has moved to Hyperion Theater, which is the old American Idol Experience space.

The standby entrance is off to the right.

FastPass+ is off to the left past the steps.

I toss and turn over whether or not I recommend using one of your two Tier 2 FastPass+ selections here. This is how I currently have FastPass+ priority stacking up:

The Sing-Along held the second slot for a while after the show debuted in Premier Theater closer to Muppet Vision 3D. But sometimes guests using standby were seated before guests that arrived at the same time in the FastPass+ line because of how long it took to scan the MagicBands at the entrance. And guests arriving in from the standby entrance sometimes had an easier time finding prime seats in the middle section because they filtered down from the top and enjoyed a better view of available seats.

As it stands, these are the pros of using FastPass+ at the Frozen Sing-Along, assuming of course that you want to see it:

FastPass+ availability is easily the slimmest of the shows. Day-of FP+ availability is extremely limited or nonexistent and the only way you can get it as a 4th FP+ is if you luck into a cancellation. So if you want a FP+ for it, you’re going to need to use one of your initial Tier 2 selections on it.

It guarantees a seat at the show. As the holding area fills as showtime approaches, standby will be cut off and only those with FP+ will be let in. That means you “only” need to arrive 15 to 20 minutes before showtime to secure good seats.

And the cons:

There is no reserved section for FP+ users and if you can get into the same show arriving 20 or 30 minutes before showtime using standby, then it’s basically a waste of a FP+.

The FastPass+ return window for the Froze Sing-Along is 10 to 25 minutes before show time. So for the 12:30pm show, the FP+ return is 12:05pm to 12:20pm.

We were let into the theater 13 minutes early at 12:17pm. So if you arrived closer to the 12:20pm FP+ return time, everybody that arrived early enough in standby would already be on their way in. On the other hand, you really don’t want to be among the first 25 people in any row because they’re seated all the way on the far left of the theater. To be in the center of a row, you want to let about 40 people go in front of you.

Or a direct link to the full Sing-Along.

I actually really like the Sing-Along, which runs just over 30 minutes. It’s very well done and legitimately funny for kids and adults alike. The new theater brings significantly better effects, projection mapping, and a large digital screen, which all work to enhance the clever writing.

So should you use FastPass+ here? It’s kind of iffy, but I probably wouldn’t. Instead, show up 30 minutes prior to the show you want to see, which is just ten minutes earlier than you’d want to show up with FastPass+ anyway. If reports start coming in that 30 minutes isn’t enough, then I’ll update again. Of course, if you have no interest in Tower of Terror, then Frozen looks like a better choice. And if you don’t want to ride Tower of Terror or Star Tours then Frozen becomes even more of an obvious choice. But it probably isn’t going to save 60+ minutes like Tower of Terror or 30 minutes like Star Tours or Mermaid.

Frozen Fever

Frozen Fever is a seven-minute short that ran before Cinderella in theaters earlier this year. The short will be available for download in HD in August in case you’d like to own it and I’m sure Disney will figure out a way to include it in some sort of Frozen Collectors Edition sometime in the future.

The short should begin every 30 minutes beginning at 10am with the last show beginning 30 minutes before regular Park close. It’s worth seeing if you haven’t seen it before or have an interest in the Frozen universe, if for no other reason than it’s dark, air-conditioned, and the seats are fairly comfortable. There’s a couple minutes of behind-the-scenes footage before the short plays. Arrive six or seven minutes before the half hour to get situated and find decent seats – I have a feeling this will be a little more popular than the various movie previews they’ve been running in the same space.

Lunch, Afternoon Touring, FastPass+ Availability, and Expected Wait Times

Studio Catering Co. is my favorite Studios’ quick service, providing better-than-average food with plenty of seating and typically very short lines to order. While seating is outdoors, it “feels” cooler and more airy than something like Sunset Ranch Market.

Disney changed the menu considerably back in March and the website reviewed all of the new items save for the Vegetable Wrap in this post.

The Vegetable Wrap is available in a “mini” size for $5.99. Like any Kids’ Meal, anybody is welcome to order one. You don’t need to provide a child.

The vegetarian option here was previously a very good Grilled Vegetable Sandwich with grilled zucchini, roasted mushrooms, roasted red pepper, vine-ripened tomato, watercress, provolone, sun-dried pesto, and basil-asiago artisan bread.

The wrap arrives with zucchini, mushrooms, roasted red peppers, tomatoes, watercress, provolone, and garlic herb spread on a spinach tortilla, which are basically the same ingredients as the sandwich. I thoroughly enjoyed this – there’s a couple nice thick slices of cheese that serve as the prominent flavor with the zucchini that adds some crunch along with the other freshly sliced vegetables. I don’t think I picked up much flavor from the garlic herb spread, but I also didn’t taste it without it. It’s definitely one of the better vegetarian options in the theme park and a lot more interesting than most quick service vegetable burgers and cheese pizzas.

I’m not sure if this perspective offers a better look at the size of the mini-wrap, but it made for a nice, sort of light meal with the substituted fries and soft drink. My estimation is this is half of the regular size.

We’ll pretend like I didn’t forget to schedule a 4th FastPass+ before lunch and was instead interested to see what availability would look like at 2pm:

I visited the Toy Story Mania FastPass+ kiosk and found nobody in line. At 2pm, my selection was Great Movie Ride for 2:25pm-3:25pm.

My usual advice is to quickly select something at the kiosk and then use My Disney Experience on your phone to fine tune that selection. Since I wanted Movie Ride, I checked that box, picked the first available time, click “next,” and clicked “done,” which took about 30 seconds. Great Movie Ride had healthy availability:

My Disney Experience app wasn’t working, so I navigated to DisneyWorld.com in a browser window instead. You can use either one interchangeably.

Availability for higher priority rides is going to be much more limited. I discussed how much party size affects availability last month when we went over the Magic Kingdom 1-Day plan in this post. In short, the fewer people you have in your party, the more availability you’ll see. As a party of one, I see a FP+ return time for Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster “just” 3.5 hours in advance. A party of four or more would likely see no times until after 7pm.

By noon, these attractions will have extremely limited or no FP+ availability:

Toy Story Mania

Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster

Tower of Terror

Frozen Sing-Along

That’s why the Cheat Sheet recommends selecting three of these in advance.

Cancellations do happen, but even as a party of 1, there was lit’rally zero availability for Toy Story, Tower of Terror, or Frozen Sing-Along.

Availability for other attractions will be decent, though you don’t often need FP+ for Muppet Vision 3D or the other shows.

At 1:53pm, Toy Story’s FP+ return line stretches back near the Pixar Place arches with a 95-minute posted wait.

I mention not needing FP+ at Muppet Vision 3D, but things are really, really, really rough at the Studios here in the summer. It’s hard to see because the line on the right is for the FastPass+ kiosk, but the line for Muppet Vision stretches outside and around the external queue. The people entering the line on the left are not even going into the building yet and will have to wait for the current show to conclude, then wait for an entire second show in the pre-show area, before finally entering the theater. That’s an actual wait in the neighborhood of 35 minutes. Maximum FastPass+ distribution is the major culprit here. While you and I might laugh about the idea of using FP+ for Muppets, there are thousands of people that don’t know any better. And given very lousy FP+ availability in the afternoon, people are going to use FP+ where it’s still available.

I waited behind zero people for lunch at Studio Catering. The line for Pizza Planet winds around outside before winding around inside. You’d be waiting something like 30 minutes for a $10 frozen individual pizza.

FP+ return for Star Tours extends past Backlot Express at 2:17pm.

Even so, your FP+ wait would be under ten minutes.

After catching Frozen Fever, I returned to use my Great Movie Ride FP+ at 2:45pm to a wait that still read 35 minutes. The standby queue is backed up to the entrance.

Turner Classic Movies finally took over Great Movie Ride earlier this month. They didn’t bring a lot with them, but you’ll run into a few of these digital movie posters that change every few seconds in the queue.

Robert Osborne hosts the pre-show video and I think he does a nice job of actually introducing why the scenes you’re about to “ride” through are important.

Like most people under 100 years old, I don’t know a lot about James Cagney and it was interesting to see him on screen prior to the show.

There’s also some discussion about how these classics set a precedent for future family friendly gangster films like Scarface.

Direct link to the on-ride video featuring the website’s usual shoddy camerawork.

On ride, the main difference is that Robert Osborne, the guy from the pre-show video, narrates about half of the time. It’s a pretty neutral change in my estimation. The live on-board narration was never particularly credible, mostly because the Walt Disney Company is among the cheapest on the planet and refused to pay the couple extra dollars per hour to staff the ride with union performers. And because of that, the performers that do staff the ride receive about as much training as custodial. In my opinion, the gangster/cowboy shtick works even less now as the audience doesn’t really have an opportunity to connect with the live narrator because he or she never really has a chance to endear themselves to their audience. Overall, the changes are far from making or breaking the ride. The experience is pretty much the same.

I otherwise arrived at 2:45pm, boarded around 2:57pm, and was back out front around 3:20pm for a total experience time of about 35 minutes. That’s about average.

I then visited the tip board FP+ kiosk to check on availability and made a Voyage of the Little Mermaid reservation for 3:40pm-3:55pm for the 4pm show.





There were still a healthy amount of available times regardless of party size.

Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster would either be completely unavailable or have a return time 5+ hours in the future depending on party size.

Star Tours is still pretty decent.

Fantasmic is still available for both shows. You might consider acquiring a FP+ for the second show very late in the day if you’re interested in seeing it. It will give you an opportunity to pick out a better seat in one of the center-ish sections.

Otherwise, there’s still no availability for the rides and shows that were previously unavailable.

Frozen Dance Party and Fireworks

Otherwise, the last two pieces of Frozen Summer Fun are the Coolest Summer Ever Dance Party from 5:45pm to 9:30pm in front of the stage. This doesn’t feature any of the popular Frozen characters, but it does give the kids an opportunity to interact with Mickey and friends with a little spontaneity and without the long waits.

Direct Link to fireworks

The last piece is the Frozen Fireworks Spectacular, which includes a stage show that lasts about five minutes followed by the fireworks. My preference is to watch the fireworks from outside the Park across from Crescent Lake, where you can see the same bursts that you would be able to see from inside the Park with the stage continuing to block so much. And you don’t have to deal with the miserable wait. From inside the Park, the easiest place to see the show is behind Echo Lake in front of 50’s Prime Time Cafe or thereabouts. It’s not a direct view and you won’t be able to see the stage elements, but you also don’t have to deal with the crowding and nastiness of Hollywood Boulevard. Otherwise, it’s a battle to secure and maintain a spot on Hollywood Boulevard, and chances are some kid is going up on the shoulders’ in front of you right before showtime anyway.

What Went Well, Wait Times, and Strategy Moving Forward

Overall, my day looks okay on paper. Between 9am and 3:30pm I made it through:

Toy Story Mania 2x Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster Tower of Terror Star Tours Saw the Frozen Royal Welcome Saw Olaf’s Summer Cooldown Saw the Frozen Sing-Along Ate Lunch Saw Frozen Fever Great Movie Ride Acquired a FP+ to see Voyage of the Little Mermaid Took a lot of pictures

That’s all of the rides and all of the Frozen events scheduled that early in the day. But it was a very hot, often rushed day.

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Looking over posted waits over the course of the day on the 17th.

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The 18th with no morning downtime at Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster.

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And the 19th with Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster again down at open, this time for more than a half hour.

Trend wise, it looks like it’s best to avoid Muppet Vision 3D between 12:30pm and 4:30pm unless you want to wait for about 1.5 shows. I’d blame the heat more than anything else – people want to get out of it and that’s one of the best ways. You could pick up a quick FP+ at the kiosk to the right of the entrance with a near-immediate return time.

Looking over wait times at Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster over the last 30 days, it’s been down at rope drop five times. Posted waits drop regularly in the afternoon after a stretch of very long posted waits, but actual waits probably don’t drop enough that it’s worthwhile to try to time a 30 or 40 minute wait. If you have to ride Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster standby and can’t do it very early or very late, then I’d look at getting in line right around 12:45pm to minimize actual waits as much as possible, particularly if the posted wait is still very long and it doesn’t look like a lot of people are in the outdoor queue. It’s one of the easier lines to gauge because the queue is mostly outdoors and visible. Single rider isn’t particularly viable because you don’t know how many people are in line in front of you until after the pre-show, people flock to single rider when the posted wait is long, and the seating arrangement doesn’t lend itself well to single riders. The majority of parties are going to be two or four people, which means few singles riders being placed.

Star Tours is best before 10:30am, after 6pm, or with FastPass+. You should be able to ride as many times as you want with virtually no waits after 8pm.

Great Movie Ride waits are already rough by 9:45am. Acquiring a 4th FP+ for it as early as possible is your best bet.

Capacity problems at Tower of Terror look to be minimal as there are no instances of triple digit waits over the past few days. I’d still use FP+ there early so you can get a 4th FP+ earlier, particularly with how convenient it is to Rock n Roller Coaster. Otherwise, try to ride between 8:45pm – Park close.

Toy Story with a short wait is only viable absolutely first thing, with FP+, or by getting in line around 8:40pm with the 8:45pm closure.

Odds and Ends

Is anybody still with me?

The Great Movie Ride photo-op is finally available, where you can apparently place your hands on yet another surface thousands of other tourists have placed them and get your picture taken.

Disney forgot to plug in the new Elsa float after the previous night’s rehearsal, so it died prior to the first turn and had to be hauled away by this tractor after the Parade passed. You can follow me on Twitter for this and more BREAKING news.

Min & Bill’s Dockside Diner on Echo Lake has changed its menu yet again. Just in case you’d like to sit down outside to a bowl of hot clam chowder in the 100 degree heat. Pricing:







These Olaf souvenir cups are new.

Some changes have arrived and others are coming to the Disney Dining Plan. There was a time when the price of snack credits was generally capped around $4, but now some come in over $8. Dasani water is up a quarter property-wide to $2.75. The price to fill each bottle probably went up a tenth of a cent and you know those price increases are passed on to the consumer.

I think these candy apples are supposed to be added as snack credits.

Other items are now bundled together as one snack credit. Like the Mickey Pretzel comes with the cheese sauce by default for a single credit at a higher cash price.

Disney printed these temporary quick service menus as the Dining Plan details become finalized. Note there are no prices like there usually are.

The back of the menu used to outline what was and wasn’t available on the Dining Plan, but is currently blank.

There are cupcakes available of course, of course.

I was very confused when my Starbucks arrived with a Mickey Head and the mark of the beast (UOR). Even though it actually says VOR for Valencia Orange Refresher.

New headband.

Another new headband.

In case the full dress is too hot to wear in the summer heat, you can pick up just the skirt portion for $34.95.

Anna for those times they are sold out of Elsa.

Inside Out merchandise is available.

Going to the moooooon *sobs*

I don’t know if I just haven’t been paying attention or what, but these misting fans are the new normal at a price of $17.84 each ($19 even with tax).

Villains in Vogue is no more.

At least we’ll always have Darth Duffy.

And this strange snow globe.

I popped over to Epcot around 5pm to pick up a few items for Lisa’s burgeoning theme park merchandise service.

It was nice to see Spaceship Earth with a straight shot in standby.

Pretty chill overall.

Ummmmm… up next is probably the January 2016 crowd calendar and a look at new happenings around Animal Kingdom.