Ratatouille Queue at Rope Drop

[magicbob]

I recently returned from a wonderful trip to DLRP and I wanted to share this to help others avoid confusion. Things could change but this is how they were operating on August 30th.

We arrived well in advance of the front gate opening (we were probably about 10th in line). They opened the gates about 30 minutes early and allowed people to start queuing.

If you are planning to ride Ratatouille first thing (recommended), do NOT go to the right and take the path past Crush's Coaster to get to Toy Story Playland and Ratatouille area. That walkway was barracaded past Crush's Coaster (later in the day, this path was opened, but not at RD).

To get in the queue for Ratatouille, we had to go straight toward the backlot tour. Half of the walkway leading from the backlot tour to the Ratatouille area was reserved for the queue (the other side lf of the walkway still allowed access to Toy Story Playland).

I wanted to get a FP for later and then get in the standby line to ride early. I assumed that the FP machines near the ride would be the place to get my FP. Turns out, they distribute FPs manually from a cart positioned right in front of the Backlot Tour entrance. Fortunately, I asked a CM some questions and found this out by accident before waiting and getting all the way to the ride at opening time. I got out of the queue and went to stand in the FP queue. I would have been about 3rd in line had I known to stop there. Even though I was much farther back in the queue, it moved quickly once they started distributing FPs and I was able to get FPs for around noon.

I spoke with several people around me in the FP line and they had similar experiences. They got in the queue for Ratatouille expecting to peel off at the FP machine for a FP, only to find out they needed to be in a different line altogether to get a FP. The procedure itself made a lot of sense logistically, but there wasn't adequate signage to inform guests of these procedures, which led to a lot of confused guests wandering back and forth trying to figure out where they needed to go.

We were still able to ride standby without too bad of a wait. And we got to ride a second time with our FPs, so everything turned out ok. But I was afraid that the confusion over where the queues were located could have resulted in FPs running out before I got one and then being stuck in a 2+ hour line even though we were one of the first ones in the park.

My advice is to arrive before the park opens and ask CMs questions while you're waiting to get in so you know the right place to go for the Ratatouille queue and/or getting a Ratatouille FP.

 

[DLPdaft]

thank you - thats really helpful advice .

What time did the CMs start handing out the FP for the ride?

 

[magicbob]

The park officially opened at 1000 and they began giving out the FPs then. Between 0930 and 1000, people were let into the park to queue up, but the lines didn't move until 1000. I noticed that there were still a fair number of guests pre-queuing for Crush's Coaster, but most were in the holding area (a wide "queue" of people packed in tightly across the sidewalk) for Ratatouille or in the FP queue, which was, for the most part, a single file line so it appeared to be a lot longer, but moved very efficiently once they started distributing the FPs.

I received my FPs within about 5 minutes and they were for noon. At that rate (and estimating the length of the line behind me) I speculate that FPs for the entire day were probably gone by around 1030 or so.

The standby wait at noon when we returned to use our FPs was 130 minutes. 2+ hours is a long wait, but I expected to see 3+ for this brand new attraction. Overall crowds were not bad at all though, so that was almost certainly a factor.

 

[cdsmiler81]

This is all really useful, thanks. I'm hoping it will calm down a bit now the holidays are over, but it's great for planning our mid week term time October trip!

C x

 

[SleepingX3Beauty]

We've booked a Golden Forest room for October. Can we just use our One a day for each person hotel fastpass that we'll receive for Ratatouille or do we have to get a ticket with an hour on it too?

I know with other attractions like BTM it just works normal with going to the fastpass queue with just your hotel fastpass but was wondering how they'd do this with Ratatouille being new and all?

 

[Cruzinmaniac]

This is very interesting. Thanks for the detailed explanation! I wonder if they will have the machines working by mid October, when we are planning to visit the Studios, or if they'll be doing this weird thing. I guess we'll find out!

I must ask, what did you think of the ride, and was it worth riding twice (once with fastpasses, once without)?

 

[Danauk]

Another thing we found useful was to be at the front of the lines to get in to the park so that we were at the front of the line for Ratatouille. When we arrived at the Studios most people line up at the entrance gates on the right. However, all the gates open for entry including the gates on the far left marked exit. If people were already forming a line at the gates marked entry we waited at the ones marked exit and got into the park ahead of people who had arrived before us.

 

[magicbob]

We've booked a Golden Forest room for October. Can we just use our One a day for each person hotel fastpass that we'll receive for Ratatouille or do we have to get a ticket with an hour on it too?

I know with other attractions like BTM it just works normal with going to the fastpass queue with just your hotel fastpass but was wondering how they'd do this with Ratatouille being new and all?

Sorry, but I don't know the answer to this. We stayed off-site and used standard FPs only.

This is very interesting. Thanks for the detailed explanation! I wonder if they will have the machines working by mid October, when we are planning to visit the Studios, or if they'll be doing this weird thing. I guess we'll find out!

I think the FP machines "work" but they just aren't using them in the morning. The CM said that the FP machines would be on "later" but I can't imagine that there were any FPs left to distribute later in the day.

I think they are trying to keep the Ratatouille area from being a madhouse in the morning by diverting those wanting a FP and "escorting" the standby line to the ride at opening.

I must ask, what did you think of the ride, and was it worth riding twice (once with fastpasses, once without)?

We thought the Ratatouille ride was very well done and worth riding twice (once with FP). Even my teenage son liked it and was eager to ride it again. I found that I was able to notice a lot more details on the second ride.

 

[kizzabel]

We've booked a Golden Forest room for October. Can we just use our One a day for each person hotel fastpass that we'll receive for Ratatouille or do we have to get a ticket with an hour on it too?

I know with other attractions like BTM it just works normal with going to the fastpass queue with just your hotel fastpass but was wondering how they'd do this with Ratatouille being new and all?

Yes you can use your extra, one use FP on any ride that uses FP except during the hours of 1 pm to 4 pm I think.

 

[Gertie100]

Yes, you can use the hotel FP, but don't queue with everyone else, try to enter via the tunnel by RC Racer, it will be blocked but you can show your FP and they will let you queue there. Then you walk straight on.
Also if you have an easy access pass you can enter this way.

 

[addverbaan]

I was there 26th - 29th august and the fast past machines were open every afternoon after about 1pm.

If going at a busy time and if you can (no very small children etc) best to do the single rider line. If you go into the area after 11am when they open it all up, you can ride via the single rider line with only a very short wait. When we were there we had a vip fast pass but still used the single rider line more often that not as this was mostly the shortest line. several of the times we did these we even ended up in the same car

If you are going to ride via the normal queue I would say best to go later in the day. In the morning the line was quickly getting upto 2 or 3 hours, but by late afternoon/early evening it was dropping to "just" around an hour.

 

[Suzanne1979]

I agree with addverbaan: single rider queue Ratatouille is great.
The carts are 2 times 3 seats (3 front, 3 back). Many people are a party of 2 or 4, hence: plenty of room for single riders. We went last week and I waited less than 5 minutes (!!) on the single rider queue, this was around 3pm.

We also got fastpasses handed out to us bij a CM (I practically had to pry them out of his hands since he was just standing there with the fp's, not saying/doing anything.... but anyways). Another CM had told me they handed out the tickets in front of Studio 1, but this turned out not to be true: we got them in the new Plaza in front of the attraction.

I thought it was a great ride, my boyfriend found it nothing special . Maybe it depends on having seen the movie???

p.s. The rope drop queue was ridiculous; almost went up to Studio 1. I would never do that, no matter how great the ride.

 

[Lisa_C]

**Double post**

 

[Lisa_C]

I think your experience depends on which rat, which direction you go and if you are in the front or back. We rode three different time. One apart (DD and I in the disabled access line which is annoyingly the fp lane) and Pirate went single rider. We came out and loved it, Pirate thought it was awful....and we know the film well and he even worked in Paris :-/
Second time, all on fp, we sat in the back of the rat and went a different way. We came off feeling flat and deflated!
Third time, we asked to sit in the front and we went off in a different direction, got far more effects and decided that ride couldn't be topped. We ALL enjoyed it and felt we didn't need to ride again for a long time.
My advice is, if you get a good experience, savour it. If not, ride it again. I've actually no desire to ride again as I feel there is nothing to actually pull me in. The restaurant is on our list for December and DD will probably go single rider (she's only 10 but the queue can be as little as 10 mins) if she wants to ride again.

 

[ILOVEDLP]

I've read that there are 50 different combinations to this ride so you will get a different experience every time you ride it.
Soo looking forward to this thanks for all the tips