Frozen Ever After Animatronics Getting Major Update at EPCOT in 2026

Chester&Hester Enthusiast28 days ago

Off topic, but this is me, and it genuinely is rough. I’ve spent my entire life at these parks. My family even celebrated my first birthday there in ’88. I also worked there for many years and have a deep (often unhealthy) emotional attachment to the place, as cynical as I can be sometimes. But the prices have gotten so outrageous that I honestly don’t know if I’ll ever be able to go back. It’s been a decade now, and that genuinely hurts. I’m also scared that by the time I do return, everything I love will be gone. Just in the past several years, I’ve already lost a handful of my favorite things and had no chance to say goodbye to them. Tom Sawyer Island, in particular, has been a tough one for me to process, for a lot of personal reasons.

"El Gran Magnifico"30 days ago

Bocabear30 days ago

It is all a plus... Updates increasing the quality of an attraction can only be seen as good...as long as getting the new animatronics doesn't impact the rest of the park's budget...like prevent Imagination from getting it's long overdue overhaul or pull the budget from Spaceship Earth's update and refresh, I am very pleased we are getting this update.

mergatroid30 days ago

Ditto, you're doing the same as me. Or we could just be having a discussion and having different views on things, does that mean that discussion forums aren't for the pair of us?

Chester&Hester Enthusiast30 days ago

You have to realize that you guys have made more posts whining about one tongue-in-cheek, mildly cynical comment than there were actual negative posts to begin with. I refuse to believe you don’t see that. Some of you seem to have an entire personality here of storming the castle anytime anybody doesn't immediately lavish praise upon every decision TDO makes. Maybe discussion boards aren't for you?

MickeyLuv'r30 days ago

I dunno. I see a lot of likes to the opening post of this thread. Tone is hard to convey in writing, especially casual writing. This forum certainly has a good deal of posts with wry humor. I think some of what you might be reading as negative might be meant more as wry humor. At this point, since we are both regular forum members, we know the personalities of all the forum regulars. So hopefully you know which members trend negative and positive, take their posts with a grain of salt. I try to read for the middle-ground, so to speak. To me, I thought it was helpful when people explained that the current FEA faces were an attempt by WDW to try something different/new, maybe save a little $, but over time the faces have ended up costing more to maintain. I would hope WDW does that. (try new tech, keep what works, improve/scrap what doesn't, eventually create products that look great and cost less money to run.) I also can't help but notice that this this thread is next to one titled, "October Price increases." A number of forum members have previously shared with us that they have been priced out of visiting WDW at all. That's rough. I hope we all feel compassion for people who have fond memories of WDW, but can no longer afford to visit. Every price hike has to hurt. They read this forum in the hope of returning. Others fear they will soon be priced out. Not to get cheesy, but negativity begets negativity. Calling people out for being too negative is not the way to foster more positivity. If you want people to see the new FEA as something good, then explain why they should see it the way you do. Remind them why they enjoy WDW. This post is already too long, but working in classrooms I learned that students act out because they want attention. Getting punished is almost as much fun as praise to them, and acting out is often much easier way to get attention. If you want students to behave, then you must ignore trolling. Instead give all your attention to the people who make a positive contribution. In turn, we will all be rewarded with a better discussion, and a more enjoyable forum. So what's great about FEA getting an update?

mergatroid31 days ago

Maybe we do see things differently. I specifically said in the post that you quoted "I'm just pointing out at least one who has quite a different way of looking at this change whilst framing it in a negative way." Perhaps the 'at least one' comes into the 5% negative category that you've admitted? I included that line as I'm not implying the thread is mainly negative and also explained that they have every right to any opinion that they want. It was just a comment from myself that sometimes people want to continue seemingly complaining about things even when Disney appear to be trying to rectify them. I thought rather than single an individual out by naming them that I'd just mention that 'there's at least one' as it felt a bit nicer and those who see it like I do will spot who it might be and those who don't see it won't and it won't bother them. I suppose in the fairness of evening things up you could argue that I'm complaining (or pointing out) that somebody else is complaining (or pointing something out) about something else, so we're no different to one another and you would be right.

MickeyLuv'rOct 13, 2025

We must be reading different threads. Of the 20 posts on 1st page of the thread I'm reading: 7 posts say this is a great change, 1 says WDW's FEA is finally catching up to newer versions of FEA (=good change, IMO) = 40% positive 1 is the announcement itself, 5 discuss why WDW chose the projection-style AA's (a helpful discussion, somewhere between positive and neutral) =30%neutral/positive 1 is off-topic about price raises, = 5% off-topic 1 is cynical = 5% negative and there are 3more back-and forth posts where the negative person was called too negative by one other poster = 15% negative/off-topic criticizing the person who is negative for being too negative The thread I read was majority positive/neutral on page 1. If I include all the likes, the % jumps considerably higher towards forum members praising this as a positive change.

Biff215Oct 13, 2025

Welcome to a discussion forum. I’m not big on the constant negativity either but also realize it has a place here. Disney, like any company, isn’t perfect. FEA was controversial from the start and that sentiment hasn’t gone away even after ten years. No one is saying this isn’t a welcome change, but it will bring up other related/unrelated shortcomings. It’s the nature of the beast.

mergatroidOct 13, 2025

Well look at the first page and look at the posts that concentrate nearly all on the negative aspects. The ones that are quoted by others way before me. After seemingly being angry for ages over a decision made, now it's being rectified they still choose to concentrate on the negative aspects over anything that is positive. It's their right to do that of course, I'm just pointing out at least one who has quite a different way of looking at this change whilst framing it in a negative way. They may feel that they're just countering those who are too positive but it just reads as being almost miserable about the fact that something is being done to better things that they've previously used to criticise the company with.

"El Gran Magnifico"Oct 12, 2025

I’m not surprised.

Biff215Oct 12, 2025

Who are you talking to? Not trying to be rude but I honestly haven’t noticed much negativity in this thread. 🤷‍♂️

MerlinTheGoatOct 12, 2025

I'd imagine they'll have to significantly rework the lighting on some of these scenes. At Epcot, many of the scenes make heavy use of black lights to illuminate characters and the environment. Whereas these same scenes at Hong Kong use normal non-UV lighting fixtures. So I have to wonder if they're going to repaint any of the sets with non-UV paint as well. On this matter, it should be noted that this swap-out won't magically make this a good version of the ride. Epcot's is still going to be the worst one out of all of them. Aside from the superior AA's and lighting changes, HK benefits from having generally much more spacious and detailed sets. There are a number of places that showcase this. The lift hill (and the lengthier bit leading up to it) is a good example. Epcot's lift is extremely narrow with the walls very close to the boats. Much of this area was left dark and unthemed as a result, with only projections of snow effects being used. The ice palace up top is a tiny flat looking model. HK's lift was given a far wider space, they used this to add significant amounts of physical rockwork on the sides in front of the otherwise flat walls. The ice palace model is also much larger and more detailed, much more 3-dimensional. The scene with Anna, Kristoff and Sven on the upper level is another major improvement. Aside from the aforementioned differences in lighting, HK's set is much larger. Epcot's is extremely narrow and flat, with no illusion of depth whatsoever. Just figures in a mostly empty looking room standing right up against against a flat wall with little detail. Especially glaring because you approach this scene from an angle instead of head-on. The ice railing behind them is also embedded into the wall backdrop and isn't spaced out as its own layer. And the AA's are so close to the background that they actually cast shadows on the sky portion and cause it to appear even flatter as a result. The sky itself is just a blank void with snowflake projections added on top. At Hong Kong, there is a significant amount of extra space. The AA's aren't as close to the flume, and they added additional props in front of them to improve the depth and help frame them. Helps disguise the flat emptiness of the floor they're standing on too (the lighting fixtures for the AA's are probably hidden inside these props btw). They're also spaced further from the background. There was enough room to make the ice railing a completely separate layered element from the sky, you can even see the sky through the spaces of the railing. It makes a big differences (especially in motion) and looks like a genuine balcony looking out onto the outside. The sky itself is also much more detailed, having painted mountains instead of just being a blank void of nothing. This entire scene now looks like a properly layered set with convincing 3-dimensional depth, the sky actually looks like it's far away and not just a flat wall shoved right up against the characters. Someone also had the sense to place some crate props behind Kristoff so it catches his shadow better and prevents it from casting onto the background and throwing off the illusion. Incidentally, while the above comparison doesn't show this, the left side wall of the flume was actually themed a little at HK. It was left completely unthemed at Epcot. Your eyes are drawn to the right of course, but you're still going to see it in your peripheral vision at least, especially when you shift to looking forward. It's nothing impressive, but at least a little bit of extra effort was made to decorate that side to make it less distractingly ugly. There's little they could do about some of the above issues. You can't add extra space where there isn't any. At most they could potentially paint more detail on the walls and fill out the left side better. But that would only go so far. In the end, Epcot's is always going to be the worst version of this ride no matter how many small improvements they might make to it.

mergatroidOct 12, 2025

What surprises me the most is that some who've spent years complaining about a problem are now complaining about what Disney are doing to try to rectify those complaints. I certainly don't expect thanks from them as they feel it shouldn't have needing 'upgrading' in the first place. I also don't expect praise either as they feel with the prices Disney charge that this should be the norm and not needing of praise. However the tiny minority who've just used this to be further negative about something that's been complained about so much already it just feels a bit unnecessary, like you're actually playing into the hands of those who say that you're too negative already. Out of the blue it's announced that Disney are doing something that you've been complaining needs doing and well, you choose to post in another negative way about that and then double down on it. I mean you can post whatever you like and have whatever opinion and view you like but to try to seemingly make out that you're not complaining by commenting about the negative aspect of this seems a bit strange. Again every person has the right to respond to anything how they want as long as they're not breaking forum rules and I've not seen any of that going on. It just seems like if Disney does something that you don't like that you complain about it. That's fair enough as I guess you're complaining that you don't like what they've done therefore the logical solution is that Disney do it the way you wanted instead? Well if and when Disney do that then you should see that as something that is somewhat a positive and better late than never? But instead some make numerous posts all negative as though there is no positive outcome and as though the changes for the better aren't even a factor and everything is still bad?