From the Magic Kingdom to EPCOT and beyond, everyone and their brother has their favorite Disney World ride. However, all Disney attractions have a lifespan, and one hot-ticket experience might be on its last legs as hype rapidly dies down.
While perhaps not as iconic as the Magic Kingdom or as thrilling as Hollywood Studios, EPCOT has more than a few beloved rides and attractions that keep guests coming back for more. Guardians of the Galaxy: Cosmic Rewind, Test Track, Spaceship Earth, and the incredible EPCOT World Showcase are just a few of the delights the Park has to offer, but one popular fixture is losing steam.
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As any seasoned EPCOT veteran knows, the France pavilion at the World Showcase offers way more than wine, baked goods, and a Beauty and the Beast sing-along. Since launching in October 2021, Remy’s Ratatouille Adventure has been a prominent fixture among the park’s selection of rides, but it might be on the downslope as fans call it “overhyped” and “average.”
EPCOT Attractions Loses Its Flavor
Remy’s Ratatouille Adventure is a dark ride that uses 4D projections and environmental factors to transport riders into the rat-sized world of the Pixar film. It takes riders from the France pavilion through Gusteau’s restaurant. It’s a popular ride, but some say it might have overstayed its welcome after only five or six years.
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If you’ve ever been to the attraction, you’ll know that the queue for Remy’s Ratatouille Adventure can get obscenely long and crowded. While 4D experiences aren’t for everyone, the immersive quality of the Disney dark ride is undoubtedly a selling point, especially when sensory factors like smell and temperature get involved.
That’s not an inapt descriptor of the experience, but many fans are removing their Disney goggles and seeing the attraction for what it truly is: a trackless ride with a series of screens. A recent thread on r/WaltDisneyWorld had hundreds of Disney park guests sharing how they were incredibly demystified by one of the Park’s hot-ticket rides.
What Fans Are Saying
u/Grilledpingpong begins the discussion with the following in their post.
“Does anyone else think the Ratatouille ride in the France pavilion is very average compared to its insane queue times? I’ve seen the stand-by queue times go up to 2 hours, and never any Lightning Lanes become available through Genie Plus throughout the day. I’m not saying I dislike the ride, but for how much people obsess over this ride, I was surprised at how short and average the experience was.”
While not the only party that shares that experience, one commenter in particular received a lot of attention for their input. u/dvtfb79 is a user that claims to be a Disney Imagineer attached to the ride, and they answered the question with the following reply.
“As a former Imagineer who worked on this ride, it’s unfortunate that so much of the detail is hidden due to the dark lighting. The craftsmanship, detail, and cool factor is either hidden or you whip by it so fast you can’t appreciate it. It’s also doesn’t help that since this ride was a copy/paste from DLP, most of the focus was on the entry/outdoor theming.”
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Imagineer or not, the user makes a very valid point. The dark lighting, rapid speed, and atmosphere created by the internal portion of the ride take away from the experience.
Further down, u/Carrie_Oakie shares a similar stance when they add,
“This is what I thought when we rode it. We rope-dropped it and walked through the queue so quickly, but it was pretty basic until you got close to the end. Then the line was going so fast we couldn’t appreciate the work. Once on the ride, it went by so quickly that it was hard for me to take it all in. I wish we could’ve done it one last time but the line was too much.”
While still a relatively new fixture, the Ratatouille ride does feel like it might be losing traction with dedicated EPCOT fans. Although fans continue to swarm the entrance and bloat the wait times each day, the attraction might reach its peak sooner than some might think.
Has this EPCOT attraction outlived its hype? Tell us what you think in the comments below!
