The NEW Ride Warning We’re Issuing for EPCOT in 2026

If you’re planning to head to EPCOT in 2026, we have a bit of a warning for you. Two of the park’s most popular attractions are going to be even busier than usual… for very good reasons.

Since Frozen Ever After and Remy’s Ratatouille Adventure opened in 2016 and 2021 respectively, the two rides have drawn large crowds and long waits to the World Showcase’s Norway and France pavilions. They are two of the most popular EPCOT rides I’ve seen in my 30+ years visiting the park. However, fans had some complaints about both attractions, neither of which was rectified…until now.

Let’s begin in France with Remy’s Ratatouille Adventure. This trackless dark ride debuted at the Walt Disney Studios theme park at the Disneyland Paris Resort back in 2014, and was long-rumored to come to EPCOT before finally arriving at Walt Disney World 7 years later.

The attraction combines massive set pieces and pops with screens to immerse riders in the world of the Pixar film, shrinking them down to the size of a rat. While the ride was widely acclaimed by many, a subset of fans had a complaint: Namely, the 3D graphics.

Some claimed the projections made them nauseous, while others said the type of glasses used on the attraction hurt both their eyes and their head. For years, it seemed that Disney was simply going to ignore these claims. However, that changed in 2025. Disney announced that both the Paris and Disney World versions would be converted from 3D to 2D animation, which would no longer require glasses.

While the new version will debut in Paris in 2026 (as the conversion is part of a larger refurbishment project), the Disney World refurbishment was completed during a quick 3-day refurb in the fall of 2025. The new version of the ride, while still essentially the same experience, seemingly eliminated the ride’s motion sickness issues in our experience, meaning that the ride is available to a whole group of riders who had previously avoided it.

Moving across the World Showcase to France, we have Frozen Ever After. The ride, based on the 2013 Disney film, has been one of EPCOT’s most in-demand attractions since it replaced Maelstrom over a decade ago.

When the attraction first debuted, the ride was received relatively warmly, with the animatronic figures of Elsa, Anna, and Kristoff featured on the attraction specifically being hailed as revolutionary. At the time, they were the first Disney animatronics to be completely run on electric motors, and the first to be manufactured using 3D printing techniques. However, there was one thing about their design that some took issue with: their faces.

Instead of using traditional sculpting for their heads, the characters’ faces were projected using animation. While some liked this look, seeing it as true to the original animation, others felt the approach was very uncanny valley, giving them a “creepy” bulb-headed look.

The … unique heads only became more pronounced over the last decade as more advanced animatronics like those on Tiana’s Bayou Adventure…

…and especially the Hong Kong and Tokyo Frozen rides have combined the smooth, electronic movements of the Frozen animatronics with remarkable sculpted faces that better capture the characters in three dimensions.

In 2025, Disney announced that the Anna, Elsa, and Kristoff animatronics at EPCOT’s Frozen Ever After would be receiving upgrades similar to the highly regarded figures from the Hong Kong version, scheduled to be installed in 2026. Once these upgrades are up and running, the ride will likely see a spike in attendance as riders who’ve been skipping over the somewhat stagnant attraction and its out-of-date animatronics will want to see the upgraded versions of the characters.

Both Remy’s Ratatouille Adventure and Frozen Ever After are changing in major ways at EPCOT, and both rides are going to be even busier as a result!
Stay tuned to AllEars for more on Disney World in 2026.

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Are you looking forward to these EPCOT changes? Let us know in the comments below.

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