Will it break or won't it ?

shack69 · 14 Aug 16, 06:13 PM

This was our first visit to DLP for about 5 years and as it was August I was expecting it to be several days of long queues.
This time we were staying off site for the first time and booked into the Novotel at Torcy. I have to say this was a good decision. The travel time was only 15 minutes from the hotel to the park. The hotel had good facilities with an outdoor pool childrens play area, putting golf and a few games in side like table football and a xbox tennis game, plus a couple of Mac's for web access. The hotel offers free wifi which we took advantage of for youtube and UK tv.
The hotel is a mile or so outside Torcy, within Torcy there are several restaurants to suit all tastes. Plus a shopping mall with a supermarket, so good for provisions.
Our first full day in the parks was in disneyland and the first stop was to get our annual pass. This took less then 30minutes and we headed off for our first ride. We soon found out that we could not get fast passes as they had not triggered the passes as been in the park , so back we went to get that sorted. But this was fine as the CM had given us manual FP's for Buzz. I think the longest Q today was 30 minutes, that is apart from the train which seemed to take for ever (45 mins). I was a little disappointed that star tours and Thunder were down for refurb (but i know this in advance). The fact they had the full area around Thunder and pirate island closed made that end of the park a bit of a dead end. But on the plus side both Haunted mansion and pirates were 5 minute lines.
Our 2nd day was in the studio. First stop Ratatouille, FP was 5:40 so we bagged them and headed into toystory land. RC was down but slingy was only 10mins, then off to parachutes. We used the single rider and cut wait from advertised 50mins to 15min. Next stop was the tram tour but that was down, so we decided to tower of terror which was a 10 minute Q, then off for Mickey the magician as we had seen the Q was massive earlier ,but this time we got in Q 15mins before and had a seat no problem. Next up was food, i would say Fast food but the food court service was terrible that staff on the tills could not take orders as the kitchen staff could not keep up, we eventually got served but a good 30min wait. We had planned to do stitch and turned up at the time we were told, only to be advised sorry you have to be here at least 5 minutes before. We then did the stunt show and after back to the backlot, it was running by now. Then it was time for ratatouille, FP in hand we entered the Q and the line was going slowly and kept stopping, 30 minutes later we were ready board and a bell rang. with that they started to move people out and evacuated the ride. We were given FP's to try again later. Apparently it had already broken down at least twice that day, so we did'nt hold out much hope. We decided to go and see cinemagique, which is a well done move montage. On leaving we checked the boards and Ratatouille was showing "closed for the day". Not one to believe what i read I spotted two men not in disney uniform but with radio's so i guessed they were management. I asked them if the sign was true and was told its UP and they would correct the sign. So we hot footed it over and this time we got to ride. Its an interesting ride and the track free movement allows the rats to trade places to ensure all riders get to lead at some point. When we came off the single rider was showing 5 mins so it would of been rude not to ride again.
Day 3 we planned to go into paris and this was a breeze. We drove to Torcy station and parked in the large free car park. Tickets into Paris were just over 5 euro each and we were in the centre of paris in 30 minutes. We spent the day wandering and eating. found a great place for a snack, ( panini , drink and a crepe) for 4.50E.
Day 4 our son had decided he wanted to ride Ratatouille, but as we passed Crush's coasted single rider was showing 30mins so I went for that whilst wife and son headed to Ratatouille. It took me 15 mins to ride Crush which completed my list of rides in the studios. On exiting my son met me saying that Ratatouille was broken (again) and so they had ridden the cars ride. They couldn't even get FP's. I said well let go look see if its open again and it looked like they had just reopened it. The FP was showing just after 12 so i started to Q whilst son and wife did Single rider. By the time i got to the front the Fp was 2pm. I waited for them to come out and watched the normal Q go from 20 minutes to 25 then 60 and finally 90 minutes. And by the time we left the area the FP's we for gone 6pm. As we left via toy story land we spotted people moving quckly into the line for RC and turns out that had broken and was just back up, so i managed a 5 minute q on that. The rest of the day was spent doing a couple of things we had missed including Stitch and animation. In animation someone left a backpack and they moved everyone back and we had to wait for a sniffer dog to clear the area before we were allowed to do the drawings. Finally back to Ratatouille and the Q was still 90 minutes and the FP line we back to the door, but we joined anyway. Took about 20 minutes to on and it became clear why the lines were still long, instead of 3 vehicles at a time there were doing only 2 and people around were saying it had broken down on them before as well. So Ratatouille is clearly having issues.
Overall it was good trip and the mid august madness i had expected did not appear.

**BevS97** · 15 Aug 16, 04:38 AM

How frustrating with all the breakdowns, we did ratatouille ok but waited ages for a tram tour and eventually gave up as it was broken.

Gawain · 17 Aug 16, 12:18 AM

Ratatouille seems to have real issues. Looking at historic ride data on the MagiPark App, it has gone down almost every day this month, with some days seeing it go down 4 or 5 times.

This is one I'm really looking forward to trying next week when we visit, and I'm not sure if I'd be as patient as you were with all the tech issues. Fortunately we have a FP+ each day from DLH, so I expect we'll be using that to ride it.

Did you drive to DLP from Torcy each day?

**dismamx2** · 18 Aug 16, 08:33 PM

Nice report, you got to do a lot even with the Ratatouille glitches

clochette · 18 Aug 16, 09:12 PM

Glad you had a good time even with all the technical issues. We only managed one ride on Ratatouille when we went in February so I am looking forward to trying again when we go in October. I hope its not too glitchy.

14 Aug 16, 06:13 PM	#1
	14 Aug 16, 06:13 PM shack69 Imagineer
shack69 Imagineer Join Date: Sep 11	Will it break or won't it ? This was our first visit to DLP for about 5 years and as it was August I was expecting it to be several days of long queues. This time we were staying off site for the first time and booked into the Novotel at Torcy. I have to say this was a good decision. The travel time was only 15 minutes from the hotel to the park. The hotel had good facilities with an outdoor pool childrens play area, putting golf and a few games in side like table football and a xbox tennis game, plus a couple of Mac's for web access. The hotel offers free wifi which we took advantage of for youtube and UK tv. The hotel is a mile or so outside Torcy, within Torcy there are several restaurants to suit all tastes. Plus a shopping mall with a supermarket, so good for provisions. Our first full day in the parks was in disneyland and the first stop was to get our annual pass. This took less then 30minutes and we headed off for our first ride. We soon found out that we could not get fast passes as they had not triggered the passes as been in the park , so back we went to get that sorted. But this was fine as the CM had given us manual FP's for Buzz. I think the longest Q today was 30 minutes, that is apart from the train which seemed to take for ever (45 mins). I was a little disappointed that star tours and Thunder were down for refurb (but i know this in advance). The fact they had the full area around Thunder and pirate island closed made that end of the park a bit of a dead end. But on the plus side both Haunted mansion and pirates were 5 minute lines. Our 2nd day was in the studio. First stop Ratatouille, FP was 5:40 so we bagged them and headed into toystory land. RC was down but slingy was only 10mins, then off to parachutes. We used the single rider and cut wait from advertised 50mins to 15min. Next stop was the tram tour but that was down, so we decided to tower of terror which was a 10 minute Q, then off for Mickey the magician as we had seen the Q was massive earlier ,but this time we got in Q 15mins before and had a seat no problem. Next up was food, i would say Fast food but the food court service was terrible that staff on the tills could not take orders as the kitchen staff could not keep up, we eventually got served but a good 30min wait. We had planned to do stitch and turned up at the time we were told, only to be advised sorry you have to be here at least 5 minutes before. We then did the stunt show and after back to the backlot, it was running by now. Then it was time for ratatouille, FP in hand we entered the Q and the line was going slowly and kept stopping, 30 minutes later we were ready board and a bell rang. with that they started to move people out and evacuated the ride. We were given FP's to try again later. Apparently it had already broken down at least twice that day, so we did'nt hold out much hope. We decided to go and see cinemagique, which is a well done move montage. On leaving we checked the boards and Ratatouille was showing "closed for the day". Not one to believe what i read I spotted two men not in disney uniform but with radio's so i guessed they were management. I asked them if the sign was true and was told its UP and they would correct the sign. So we hot footed it over and this time we got to ride. Its an interesting ride and the track free movement allows the rats to trade places to ensure all riders get to lead at some point. When we came off the single rider was showing 5 mins so it would of been rude not to ride again. Day 3 we planned to go into paris and this was a breeze. We drove to Torcy station and parked in the large free car park. Tickets into Paris were just over 5 euro each and we were in the centre of paris in 30 minutes. We spent the day wandering and eating. found a great place for a snack, ( panini , drink and a crepe) for 4.50E. Day 4 our son had decided he wanted to ride Ratatouille, but as we passed Crush's coasted single rider was showing 30mins so I went for that whilst wife and son headed to Ratatouille. It took me 15 mins to ride Crush which completed my list of rides in the studios. On exiting my son met me saying that Ratatouille was broken (again) and so they had ridden the cars ride. They couldn't even get FP's. I said well let go look see if its open again and it looked like they had just reopened it. The FP was showing just after 12 so i started to Q whilst son and wife did Single rider. By the time i got to the front the Fp was 2pm. I waited for them to come out and watched the normal Q go from 20 minutes to 25 then 60 and finally 90 minutes. And by the time we left the area the FP's we for gone 6pm. As we left via toy story land we spotted people moving quckly into the line for RC and turns out that had broken and was just back up, so i managed a 5 minute q on that. The rest of the day was spent doing a couple of things we had missed including Stitch and animation. In animation someone left a backpack and they moved everyone back and we had to wait for a sniffer dog to clear the area before we were allowed to do the drawings. Finally back to Ratatouille and the Q was still 90 minutes and the FP line we back to the door, but we joined anyway. Took about 20 minutes to on and it became clear why the lines were still long, instead of 3 vehicles at a time there were doing only 2 and people around were saying it had broken down on them before as well. So Ratatouille is clearly having issues. Overall it was good trip and the mid august madness i had expected did not appear.