Today’s the day! Frozen Fun, essentially a themed layover being added to Disney’s Hollywood Studios this summer, debuts today! Check back all day for live updates!
Frozen sign added outside Hollywood Studios.
Take-Along Olaf at Hollywood Studios is like a little fan on a stick. I lovvve it. So much so that I’m holding it without realizing it’s on a Popsicle stick and those give me the willies. It’s the little things in life.
Back of the Take-Along Olaf with Frozen autographs.
There are stacks and stacks of these and they are advertised in the Times Guide with the hashtag #OlafSummerVacation so if you’re coming you’ll be able to get one. They’re free. If you post a photo of Take-Along Olaf with the hashtag you may “make a special appearance in tonight’s Frozen Fireworks Spectacular!” They did this same sort of thing for Star Wars Weekends and it was really neat. My photo was on the big screen on the Sorcerer Hat Stage a few times.
The stage is all decked out in Frozen theme with sparkly trees and ice. At 9:30 am and 10:15 there was a short presentation about all the offerings for Frozen Fun and..
.. Olaf comes on the screen and it snows! The obsession continues.
Then at 11:00 am Anna and Elsa’s Royal Welcome took place down Hollywood Boulevard and on the Sorcerer Hat stage. This little processional was actually more than I thought it would be with ice skaters, skiers and Kristoff on his own float.
Frozen snacks at Hollywood Studios. I wanna stuff some chocolate in my faaaaace.
We made it inside Wandering Oaken’s Frozen Funland! It was an hour wait in the sun but kind of worth it. So far we’ve seen *real* snow, taken super cute photos at a fake snow photo op, watched an ice skating performance to Frozen songs and watched the ice rink open up for guests to play.
My friend Marilyn with a snowy tree at Oaken’s.
In Oaken’s you’ll also find some Frozen themed treats, special photo ops and then empty into a Frozen merchandise store. There are more treats in there too. All the Olaf things!
Olaf Cupcake at Hollywood Studios! If you had to choose between *this* Olaf carrot cake cupcake and the one at Disney Starbucks, I’d choose that one. This one at Hollywood Studios has crunchy snowflake sprinkles that over do it in my opinion.
Hollywood Studios’ resident band is now performing as The Ice Men! You can see them as part of the Coolest Summer Ever Dance Party. I recently wrote about the dance party at Hollywood Studios this summer with the fab five and more and that information still stands mostly true, just with a Frozen twist now.
The evening was finished with a night show that was a combination of stage and fireworks. This was an interesting show to find a seat for. I had only anticipated seeing the fireworks and didn’t sit anywhere near the stage. Though there are screens broadcasting the stage activity, the American Idol exterior screen and down Hollywood Boulevard closer to the entrance, if I’m going to watch something live I don’t like to see it on a screen. If you think about it, there’s really no way to get a good seat for this type of show.. If you’re close enough to the stage to watch the show, then you can’t really see the fireworks because the stage and hat block your view. Basically you have to choose which of them you want to have an unobstructed view of and plan to sit accordingly. Also this night show goes back and forth between stage activity and sky activity so it’s not like you can move after the stage show to see the fireworks. I’m really looking forward to going back and getting the full experience of the stage show because I just love these characters so much. I did enjoy the fireworks and I’m so glad Studios has been having so many fireworks shows in the last year or so. Viewing live fireworks is still a struggle for me after experiencing a burn injury from pyrotechnics at a theme park, especially when the wind is blowing the debris in the direction of the audience. Overall this is a great way to end the night with Anna, Elsa and Kristoff on stage and a screen cameo from Olaf.
We had a sugary ending to the night with treats from Sweet Spells.
I’ll have another post with tips on how to make the most of this event coming later today!