Update: Disney will let you wait in line through a break if it’s one of her shorter breaks. Apparently when I was watching, she was about to take an hour long break and the line was cut.
I took 596 pictures today, including a walkthrough of Magic Kingdom, Big Thunder Mountain Railroad construction, a ride on Jungle Cruise, the Sweet and Spicy Waffle Sandwich from Sleepy Hollow Refreshments, an exhaustive look at everything Test Track, and I’m sure a bunch of random garbage that a smarter blogger wouldn’t bore you with. We’ll start with the Rapunzel move and then work through the rest of it. If Disney releases the May operating schedule update along with the November 2012 schedule tomorrow, it will be more of a delayed release.
I’m also planning to head out to Epcot tomorrow to see what’s going on with Test Track. The refurbishment is listed on this week’s Times Guide as beginning Monday, despite DisneyWorld.com still saying it begins on June 1st and continues through July 31st. In the Times Guide, there’s no mention of an a cappella group performing at the attraction and it lists Circle of Life and Living with the Land as closing at 9pm. They may indeed stay open until 10pm. I’ll investigate.
Rapunzel originally began greeting guests at Fairytale Gardens alongside Flynn Rider. The characters would dance with the kids and then the two of them would greet guests together. Wait times were ordinarily over 90 minutes and could easily hit two hours. The capacity was virtually 100 people per hour. As this was untenable, Disney removed Flynn on July 3, 2011 and instead a cast member danced with the kids while Rapunzel took a break. Lines were shorter, but still almost always 45+ minutes in the afternoon and upwards of 60 to 90 minutes when Magic Kingdom was busy. Rapunzel moved from Fairytale Gardens to Tourguide Gardens today to make way for Princess Merida from Brave. Disney Parks Blog originally announced that Flynn would return for the summer. They reversed course a few days later and announced that would come to pass. Merida should begin greeting guests in the middle of May.
This is the meet and greet area in context. It’s just inside the main entrance on the left side. If you’re headed here first thing in the morning, you’ll want to position yourself as close to the front as you can on the left side. If you try to enter on the right side of the railroad station, you’ll have to try to cross through a ton of people and will arrive much later than anyone entering on the left side. This is the first day that Rapunzel greeted here, but I don’t see this meet and greet being any less of a priority than it was before. You want to head here first thing if you want to meet her or be prepared to wait 45+ minutes later in the day. While I was standing there, the cast members were actively turning away everyone that tried to enter the line because they wouldn’t be able to meet during this session. I’ll have to return to see if you can time it so you walk right into the Meet and Greet or whether the line is long enough that you would have to wait through a break. I don’t have her exact meet times at the moment, but will update when they become available.
Rapunzel meets with the same generic background as Winnie the Pooh and other characters that have appeared here. There’s no longer any coloring or dancing involved. It operates like any regular meet and greet.
Even if you’re the first person here, you’ll still looking at a 20 minute wait from the time Magic Kingdom officially opens. The main problem I think we’ll see is that it isn’t going to be as easy to meet her towards the end of the day since people may see her and decide to hop in line as they exit. That wasn’t as big of a deal at Fairytale Gardens because it’s out of the way. Luckily, Town Square Courtyard isn’t particularly obvious and the great majority of people have never heard of it.
Ropes extend out here now to allow for more people to get in line. When it was just Winnie the Pooh and Tigger meeting, the ropes weren’t necessary.
The line only looks this short because they aren’t letting anyone else in line.
The last time I made one of these “Enter Here” arrows, I ended up pointing at a woman’s crotch, so I’m going to be careful not to do that again. The entrance to the queue is on this side. There were about eight suits monitoring the situation while I was there. We may see some changes as to how it operates over the coming weeks. I would love to see a better backdrop and some props of some sort. It’s pretty boring as it stands.
Fairytale Gardens as it sits empty. It’s the nicest of the meet and greet areas as far as I can remember.
For Rapunzel, the new meet and greet area is a definite demotion. The old one was way better and Disney announcing that Flynn would be appearing and then retracting is unfortunate. I think it would be easier to overlook her sparse surroundings if Flynn was also meeting guests. Since Disney has the pocketbook and the talent to add Flynn, it’s a shame that they’ve chosen not to. And he’s appearing in the Parade now. So he’s already there. With that said, Merida is the next big thing and only one princess can meet at Fairytale Gardens. Hopefully New Fantasyland will present some new opportunities for guests to meet the characters in more interesting surroundings. Disney did an excellent job with Tinker Bell’s Nook and Merida’s meet should be even better.
Woody and Jessie continue greeting guests to the left of Splash Mountain. Lines are even longer than they were when they met near Splash Mountain’s exit.
I’d like to join your posse, boys, but first I’m gonna sing a little song.
Draw!
End of line.
Great picture, right? Winnie the Pooh and Tigger continue to greet guests near the exit to Splash Mountain.
Doubling down on bad pictures, this one was taken last week where they meet. You can sort of see Tigger’s ears to the left there.
Pinocchio is reportedly no longer greeting guests in Town Square. I looked for him and didn’t see him, but he does take a lot of breaks.
So there you have it! The latest!
Josh, do you think the Test Track refurb will actually be done by July 31st?
And, thanks for all your information, your site is a daily stop for me!
No, it officially goes through “Fall” which is either going to be near the end of September of November, depending on which rumor you buy into.
Don’t know how accurate this information is, but this is what Mousesavers newsletter had today:
Test Track (Epcot) closed through September 2012 for transformation to the Chevrolet Design Center.
UGH! That Rapunzel meet does look boring but it is a priority for my birthday girl, along with Jessie. I think we’re planning to meet Jessie if the afternoon too. The wait is going to be awful I’m afraid.
The woman in the fourth picture from the bottom, has completely distracted me from your post. Is it a dress, a skirt , a skirt as a dress. There appears to be no bottom and barely a top.
We were at Epcot today and a cast member in the FASTPASS entrance line at Soarin’ told my son that he would “highly recommend that (my son) ride Test Track today” because the ride was “most likely” closing tomorrow (Monday) through “the end of the year” for refurbishment.
@Peaches, it looks like short shorts with a very blousy, long-ish strapless top that makes it look like she is wearing no pants.
I am interested to see what happens with Rapunzel’s popularity and lines once Merida starts her meet and greet. Right now, Rapunzel is still the Hot Ticket, but that might change.
Could one meet her first thing at RD and then head to Tink right after if you make the first greet? Or do you think the line for Tink would get too long after that?
@ Peaches
Holy smokes, I didn’t notice it until you mentioned it. I never should have looked back. It almost looks like a romper, but it does look like a skirt. I would think there’d be more guys around if it were a skirt, though…just sayin’.
I certainly hope they don’t ruin Test Track. Why don’t they update that damn Soarin film!?
Thanks for the update. Eagerly awaiting the other 582 photos!
@ Peaches, Samantha, & Lori
I agree that it is a shirt with some short shorts. I just hope she didn’t ride space mountain without …more support.
OH man – this Rapunzel business is really messing with my plans. We have 8:10 CRT reservations – I was hoping to be out before 9 and ready to head straight to fairytale gardens …
So now that she is at the front of the park … what time do I need to be in line to get there *before* all of the rope drop people? They often do rope drop before 9 even right?
I almost feel like we should switch up the plan altogether but I already told the kids we were doing CRT – and they’ll be wearing their rapunzel dresses for CRT, meeting Rapunzel and then I anticipate them changing shortly after as it will be too hot for long costume dresses.
Plus I am just peevish as I was hoping by 9:20 we woiuld be done with Rapunzel and ready to do fantasyland. Now I am thinking meeting her make take up the whole first hour if I am lucky.
We’ll be there in early May on a recommended day .
@ kristen – you should plan at least 45 minutes. we were there a few weeks back, same as you, recomended day, and high priority for my daughter. this was the first place we headed right at RD. maybe 15 people back in line, and we were there till 9:45, made me nutso that we hadn’t done any rides in 45 minutes! i’d like to think in the town square location we might not have been as far back, since there’d be less ground to cover… Thankfully we did 2 MK days so we could make up it…
what time was it when the CM stopped letting people in the queue for Rapunzel? was it right after RD? do you literally have to be a ninja just to make it to the first meet and greet?
I wonder if Rapunzel will actually be less crowded around 1pm …. late enough that there aren’t that many people arriving and early enough that there aren’t many people leaving…?
As I’m packing for our trip arriving tomorrow, I find myself thinking “but if I end up in a Josh picture, do I want to be caught wearing *this*!” before I put something in the suitcase.
So glad my girls got to meet Rapunzel at FG. It wa by far our longest wait of the trip, but one of the best m&g’s. My girls arent even excited about Brave. I wonder what the consensus is from the masses regarding this new film?
Terrible demotion for Rapunzel. Puzzling since she’s arguably Disney’s most popular character right now, especially with girls.
@Samantha, Lori and E. Reno
The outfit is unique, to me still looks like a skirt she pulled up and then belted. I guess she was going for maximum tanning. It probably is short, shorts or a romper. I would honestly feel naked in that,I have occasional dreams where I leave the house in my robe, and that is horrifying enough for me.
It’s kind of weird that they’ll have the Brave heroine out for meet’n’greets before her movie even opens (as far as I know, it opens some time in early or mid June – but she’ll be out greeting people some time in May). Maybe she’s to help promote the movie? Because people won’t have a clue who she is unless they’ve seen the movie trailer/preview. Maybe it could also be to get the girl(s) playing her to get used to the meet’n’greets before they get more crowded (once people see the movie and know of her). I think this is what happened with Lotso over at DHS, too, when he was out to meet everyone before TS3 came out. And no one in my group wanted to meet or hug that villain bear, lol.
I notice you were also careful to not have your Woody arrow pointing at a man’s crotch. Good job.
Great info, and insight as always, BUT – 596 pictures, and only 14 shared so far. After reading that first sentence, I decided it was time to pour a glass of wine to savor it and your post at the same time. Yes, it’s 11:30am. Dont judge.
WDWmagic said today on their news links that Test Track’s closure is noted as “temporarily closed” on the Times Guide for Epcot, and it’s expected to be closed through November (that part isn’t on the Times Guide). I hope it’s fantastic when it re-opens. Only thing I didn’t like about it before was the pre-show bit being a little too long (after you’ve seen it once or twice).
I think we will be heading right to the Rapunzel line at RD in June. Last year we tried DL instead of WDW (won’t do that again) and Rapunzel didn’t start M&G until 11:00 – there were already about 50 people in line at 9:30AM so we never got to meet her. Not one “literally” today? My daughter says that literally once an hour – I thought I was going to have to drop her off with Josh for a day of our vaca.
I hope when I have kids, they aren’t into the characters. I never was as a child. We never waited to meet any of them on our family vacations. If we got pictures with them it was because no one else was around.
Is Rapunzel really that popular of a movie? I haven’t even seen it.
Jill – yes, apart from the Toy Story(s) its the best Disney film in years. And it has got a strong female lead thank god.
My dc like meeting the characters and the parades much more than the rides which apart from a couple they can take or leave tbh – after all you do rides (literally) anywhere.
I’m another one that is very glad my kids completely dismissed characters and parades. Huge time wasters, IMO.
@Peaches – I’m going to agree with the “romper” option on that lady’s outfit. Hope she has quick reflexes to hold it up if needed.
And am I the only one who thinks Merida seems like a Scottish Mulan?
@Jill
Yes, “Tangled” is pretty good (the Rapunzel movie). Back when we saw it the first time it surpassed my expectations (and I was happy an actor from one of my fave TV shows, “Chuck” (Zach Levi) was voicing Flynn Rider, the male lead).
@zzgator
I agree…without having seen more than just a couple previews, “Brave” does seem like a Scottish “Mulan” story.
@Jill
Tangled is a pretty good movie and Rapunzel with Flynn Rider was one of the few meet and greets that didn’t feel awkward to me. For the most part we avoid the character thing when we can, but they were both great with my 8 year old. I feel kind of bad about her being :”demoted” lol
I sure hope Test Track isn’t closed until November…
And it’s pretty obvious to me that woman in the picture is wearing an old lampshade around her middle. Not sure what possessed her to do so….
@Christine Omg, I totally do that, too! B.J. (Before Josh), my vacation wardrobe had some things in it that I wouldn’t wear in my real life but I deemed “acceptable” on vacation because it’s cool or comfortable or whatever, even if it did show some arm fat. Now, I fear being one of those, “what was she thinking” photos and choose much more carefully. haha
Any idea how long Merida will be in Fairytale Gardens? We actually would like to see her (and the concept drawings for the set look great!) But we’re going to Disneyland this year, so won’t be at WDW until sometime next year……
It’s hard to say how long she’ll be there. I would think at least a year unless the movie really, really, really, really, really bombs.
Thanks! (that was quick!) So, I keep reading your website, and makes me kind of sad we’re not going to WDW this year. I know you are One of a Kind, but is there anyone you can recommend with similar recommendations and insights for Disneyland? (Sort of feel like a fish out of water, and have no idea how to plan for that trip!)
No I don’t know a lot about Disneyland and haven’t visited in about 15 years.
I like Dateline Disney for Park updates and good looking pictures: http://micechat.com/blogs/dateline-disneyland/
And TouringPlans.com is probably your best bet for touring plans and crowd levels.
Thanks (and what is the world coming to – recommending TouringPlans?! Now I’ll have to get used to decimals! Lol!)
Can you still save spots in line? Thinking of sending my DH to stand in line, as our daughter will be doing her princess makeover at 8:15 before the park opens, but not sure how long this will take and dont think he wants to meet Rapunzel if they wont let her join him! 🙂