A Review of Our July 6, 2014 Hollywood Studios Frozen Experience Package - PassPorter - A Community of Walt Disney World, Disneyland, Disney Cruise Line, and General Travel Forums
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A Review of Our July 6, 2014 Hollywood Studios Frozen Experience Package
Hi everyone! My husband and I booked the Frozen Experience Premium package while visiting Disney World for the 4th of July. I picked up so many helpful tips from all of you on the forums while we were planning that I wanted to share our experiences with this package. I hope this is the correct board to add this type of post!
A little background, it was just the hubby and I as we don't have children, and I do love Frozen, but am not what I consider to be a "super fan" - though I do listen to the soundtrack all the time as I'm writing my Ph.D. dissertation.
Shortly after arriving to Disney on Thursday, July 3rd, we heard about this new Frozen package from this Disney website. The price was $59 for adults and $34 for children and stated that it included:
refreshments and reserved viewing for Anna & Elsa’s Royal Welcome procession at 11:00 a.m
reserved seating at one showing of For the First Time In Forever: A Frozen Sing-Along Celebration, which takes place between 12:30-7 p.m.
an exclusive dessert party in a reserved area for viewing of the nighttime Frozen fireworks spectacular from 8:30 – 10PM
It was already booked for Saturday so we decided to go Sunday. You were asked to arrive to Min and Bill's Dockside Diner starting at 10:30 a.m to check in for the parade. We got there just before that and found that the viewing area was a pretty nice sized roped off area to the left of the stage. It was under a shaded area which was nice because it was super sunny and mid to high 90s that day. Here's a picture of the check in sign and my view from where we ended up waiting.
After entering we received a card to wear on a lanyard that indicated we had the package. We also had the opportunity to pick what time we wanted to go to the sing along. We chose 6 p.m.
While we were waiting we enjoyed some of the included refreshments which were sodas, waters, frozen lemonades and Mickey Pops. They weren't restricting people to how much they could have of what, so we had a few waters each to keep ourselves hydrated and enjoyed a frozen lemonade. These were from a cart inside our roped off viewing area. This was standing only but most people, me included, sat down for at least a while.
Shortly after arriving to the park, we were handed our "Olaf" (just like Flat Stanley if you are familiar with that) and we had fun posing with him while we waiting. You could post your pictures on social media with the hashtag #olafsummervacation to have the chance to have your Olaf pic featured in a slideshow at the end of the day at the fireworks show.
The parade began shortly after 11 and we found we were in a great spot for pictures. It was quite nicely done, with interesting features that made you think the cast members were ice skating by using rollar blades - pretty cool!
Later in the day, we went to the singalong which was held in the Premiere Theater near the Muppets/Mama Mia area. There was a separate entrance for pass holders but the line area for the non-packae guests wasn't very long (though they had long lines roped off on what of the backlot "city" streets set up but they weren't using due to the rain storms that kept happening).
Inside, we were seated in the first three center rows. There were not many package participants, maybe only half of one row, which was surprising to us. In traditional, sitting in a event Disney style, you were asked to move all the way down the row. This was a little annoying as there were so few of us, we thought we could all sit in the middle, but weren't permitted to do so. Our view was very good anyway though.
The singalong was a lot of fun. Two "royal historians" served as narrators for the event, telling the story of Frozen, combined with clips from the movie and songs to singalong with.
And of course, in-person visits from Anna and Elsa, along with Kristoff
Later that evening, we showed up again by Min and Bill's Dockside Diner for the Dessert Party and Fireworks show. This is the 2nd time we've attended a dessert party, the first was on a previous trip at Magic Kingdom.
The wait in line was very short and the music was already bumping courtesy of the DJ.
Note, the picture above with the drinks was costs for drinks to people not attending the dessert party. At first I thought that was for us, but all desserts/drinks were included in the package.
The dessert party area was in basically the same place as the viewing area for the parade earlier in the day, just a bigger roped off area with tall and short round tables. A pretty sunset was happening as the party was starting. We were super grateful for this as it stormed heavily off and on all day.
Desserts....There were all kinds of desserts. I wish I could go into more detail here, but long story short, the husband and I both got pretty sick with bad colds while visiting Disney. I was heavily dayquiled up the day we visited and kind of miserable. So...that being said, we weren't that interested in desserts which I know sounds funny given that we were at a dessert party. But we ended up feeling much worse past the cancellation time of the event so we decided to power through and go anyway. We ended up munching on a few things, but our appetites were just off. I did get a few pics though!
During the party, the music was mixed by a DJ for about an hour, and 30 minutes or so of a live band that was very good, playing covers of 80s and current music. There were also appearances of Anna, Elsa, and Kristoff, along with Olaf on the digital screen during the fireworks with Frozen music playing of course!
Final Thoughts
We had a good time with the Frozen Experience package, but would only recommend it if you go into it with the knowledge that your essentially just paying for the dessert party and a few morning snacks during the parade. We observed that it would have been fairly easy to get seats for the other two events in equally good viewing areas, if not better without having to line up super early.
The desserts were tasty, however, despite being sick, we thought it would be rather unlikely that we'd eat that much or drink that much to make it worth that much each. We aren't disappointed about our experience at all, we had a good time, and probably liked the music the best of all, but personally think the price is a bit steep especially if paying for children and adults, given the actual experience. Not too sure how much fun the kids were having given that the music was VERY loud - think rock concert loud, no chairs, and just lots of sugar for the kids so IMHO it seemed like a bad combination for families.
One final note...Disney misjudged the fireworks fall out zone and wind conditions quite a bit and a fair amount of ash was coming down during the show which made us a bit nervous at the end. I know those things can be difficult to predict with wind, but many fireworks were literally exploding right above us, which shouldn't have been happening.
Hope this information is helpful! I'd be happy to answer any questions you might have!
Thanks so much for your review. I wonder if the crowds will be building as more and more people know about the event. I certainly agree it isn't really worth paying extra for if you could easily get good viewing without it. I'm glad you added about the loud music. That's one of my pet peeves with Disney shows. WHY do they amp it so loud? It hurts my ears and I can only imagine what it does to babies.
What do you recommend for the people that don't get the package as far as spots and when to get to that spot for the parade and fireworks? I purchased the pkg and then after thinking about it, cancelled it because of the cost.
I read a review from Mousesteps as well as yours and I'm still glad I got the package. I wonder though if the reason your show was so uncrowded was due to the time? I've noticed in the past, most things for kids (families are probably the majority of the crowd here but I'm not saying Frozen is just for kids - my mother likes the movie and music) end by about 6 at DHS so maybe earlier shows were much harder to get into (I've seen a couple of videos where the theater seems packed). Plus too, they just announced these packages on the 2nd so to me at least, it's not overly surprising that not a lot of people were there 4 days later.
The one thing you mentioned that I really, really appreciate hearing about is the music. Abby sometimes has problems with really loud things so I'll just have to make sure I have her headphones at the ready when we do the dessert party (unless it's held inside Disney Junior like it was in another review online).
Thanks for the review and great pictures! I've read a few other reviews also and for us, I'm very glad we got the package! Thanks also for the heads-up about the loud music. My DD doesn't like loud noises so I can be prepared with her headphones also!!
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"Any wish is possible. All it takes is a little courage to set it free." -Jiminy Cricket
Darlene..... Did you see what the refreshments are?!! Knowing the regular costs of those kinds of things, I'd say they are pretty nice "refreshments"!!!
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"Any wish is possible. All it takes is a little courage to set it free." -Jiminy Cricket
I really appreciate your review-not sure it's worth the price 6 adult priced tickets !
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Sue
Darlene..... Did you see what the refreshments are?!! Knowing the regular costs of those kinds of things, I'd say they are pretty nice "refreshments"!!!
I totally agree. We tried Mickey bars one other time and we didn't like them. I think we're going to try them again this year. We may not like them but at least at the dessert party, there's far options to choose from (and I know what my dinner is going to be )
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