News / Walt Disney Studios Park

When you’ve got a big new attraction and a well-received expansion to your subpar second gate, you never have enough ceremonies to celebrate it. So the stage was set in front of Ratatouille: L’Aventure Totalement Toquée de Rémy for the fourth time this past Thursday, 17th July 2014, for the visit of Anne Hidalgo, Maire de Paris, and one thousand Parisian children through the Disney VoluntEARS programme.

Following the Grand Opening with Bob Iger on Saturday 21st June, the second French ceremony on the same day, and the 10th July Opening Day Inauguration ceremony, this event acted as more of an inauguration for La Place de Rémy itself.

After speaking at the ceremony alongside Disneyland Paris president Philippe Gas, the Mayor of Paris unveiled an oversized dedication plaque for the square with the date of the inauguration — also by chance the anniversary of the original Disneyland.

On Ratatouille: The Adventure, Anne Hidalgo said it is “the symbolic attraction to mark the link between Paris and Disney”. She later tweeted that it was the first time a Mayor of Paris has visited Disneyland Paris, and she wishes to strengthen their ties to improve tourism.

Official video — Parisian children experience the world of Ratatouille thanks to Disneyland Paris and Anne Hidalgo

Joining the mayor were 1,000 Parisian children who are members of leisure centres in the capital and aren’t lucky enough to be going away this summer. They got to enjoy a full day the park with 30 Disney VoluntEARS, volunteer Cast Members participating in Disney’s community outreach programme, showing them around.

Hidalgo even stepped onboard a Ratmobile next to Philippe Gas to experience the new attraction for herself — an important symbolic moment for Disneyland Paris, not least given the Parisian theme. In building a true piece of (fictionalised) Paris within its parks, has Disneyland Paris finally cemented itself as a positive force for the region?

It’s open! Today was the day, 10th July 2014, that La Place de Rémy and its key attraction, Ratatouille: L’Aventure Totalement Toquée de Rémy, officially opened to the public following several weeks of previews with a special inauguration ceremony shortly after 10am.

Hosted by the Disneyland Paris Ambassadors, Jonathan and Antonella, the opening ceremony welcomed Fleur Pellerin, Secretary of Commerce, of Tourism Promotion and of the French abroad, to Disneyland Paris.

The resort’s new chief operating officer Daniel Delcourt also took to the stage, while several elements of the earlier Grand Opening ceremonies for the press made a return to Walt Disney Studios Park, including that gingham ribbon, Rémy himself and even a surprise reappearance by the real-life Linguini.

Once opened, lines quickly reached blockbuster levels with guests filling the exterior queue, a roped extension area in front of the Fastpass distribution, and lining the full length of Rue Auguste Gusteau, with the queue beginning somewhere back in Toon Studio. Good thing today was also the first day the park remained open until 9pm, extending its operating day by a whole two hours, a milestone in itself.

A 120 minute wait time was posted on the park’s electronic tips board, which now lists the attraction, simply calling it “Ratatouille”. However, at one point temporary signage advised guests that, from the entrance to La Place de Rémy next to Toy Story Playland, a wait time of 190 minutes was possible.

Wait times for other popular Studios attractions appeared unaffected, particularly Crush’s Coaster which continued to offer up to an 80 minute wait. Of course, as much as Ratatouille could draw guests away from those attractions, it will (hopefully) be bringing more people to the park altogether, unfortunately mitigating any dramatic change.

But here’s the important fact: those lines aren’t due to bad planning, at least with this attraction. Ratatouille actually (just about) has the capacity to cope with its popularity on a normal day. It’s not quite a Pirates of the Caribbean juggernaut, but the packs of Ratmobiles were thankfully specced pretty well in their ability to cycle guests through.

As we concluded on Twitter, Ratatouille is officially a “blockbuster” attraction for Walt Disney Studios Park, and that’s down to quality, not poor capacity.

Seeing guests queueing round the block, clamouring to experience La Place de Rémy for themselves, says a lot about the demand for investments of this scale or, perhaps even more so, the rest of the park which those guests are turning their back on.

Complete video: Ratatouille Opening Day Inauguration Ceremony

Fun facts from today’s opening day press release

• Including the attraction, restaurant and upcoming boutique, the new Ratatouille area has created 200 new and permanent jobs.
• The project required the skills of more than 4000 craftspeople, 80% of which were French. A total of 44 French companies helped to create the attraction, including 34 from Île-de-France and 11 from Seine-et-Marne.
• A special ultrasonic cleaning system was developed for the attraction by Fisa, a company based in Essonne, which allows 22,000 pairs of 3D glasses to be cleaned in five hours.
• With 370 seats, Bistrot Chez Rémy is the largest table-service restaurant at Disneyland Paris. 80% of the produce used is of French origin, and the meat is sourced from within Europe (Scotland or France).
• Disneyland Paris has generated more than 55,000 direct, indirect and induced jobs since its opening. In 2014, the group signed 8000 employment contracts, of which 1000 are permanent. Almost 15,000 people are currently employed at Disneyland Paris.
• Disneyland Paris contributes on average 6.2% of the French tourism industry’s foreign currency revenues and contributes €50 billion in added value for the French economy.
• Disneyland Paris is Europe’s number one tourist destination, with more than 275 million visits since its opening. Within a tourist sector elevated to the ranks of “national priority”, according to François Hollande during the Tourism Forum in June 2014, Disneyland Paris takes pride of place.
• Over the past five years, investments centred on maintaining and developing Disneyland Paris have amounted to €510 million.

Explore all DLP Today’s Ratatouille: The Adventure content and features:

• Complete Grand Opening Day Report – with 80+ photos from the press preview
• Grand Opening LIVE Roundups – 100+ live Twitter photos rounded up day by day
• Video: Ratatouille Full Ridethrough Tour (Onride)
• Video: Ratatouille Walkthrough Tour (No onride)
• Video: Ratatouille Grand Opening Ceremony with Bob Iger
• Video: La Place de Rémy
• Video: Bistrot Chez Rémy
• Minisite: Ratatouille guides and information on DLP Guide
• News: Six years’ worth of news and rumours dating back to 2008

On Saturday 21st June 2014, Ratatouille: L’Aventure Totalement Toquée de Rémy became the latest E ticket entry in 60 years of Disney attraction history as Bob Iger himself, CEO of The Walt Disney Company, officially dedicated the new ride and La Place de Rémy.

DLP Today had the privilege of being there to experience the ceremonies first-hand and now, as Disneyland Paris prepares to open the area to the public this Thursday 10th July, we take you there. In pictures, video and lots of words in between, this is our complete retelling of the grand opening of Ratatouille: The Adventure at Walt Disney Studios Park. Read More…

With the public opening date now just days away, Disneyland Paris is teasing Ratatouille: L’Aventure Totalement Toquée de Rémy in another new “Making Of” video, filled with backstage construction shots and Imagineer soundbites.

Almost every detail of the land, attraction and restaurant may have been revealed during the Grand Opening Preview, but this video gives a deeper look into the work that went into creating it. An impressive list of creators talk about the project: Tom Fitzgerald, Liz Gazzano, Laurent Cayuela, Beth Clapperton, Bjorn Heerwagen and even composer Michael Giacchino.

“There are two main characters of the attraction: there’s Rémy, the rat and the little chef, and there is Paris, the lovely city” — Liz Gazzano, Executive Producer, Theme Parks, Pixar Animation Studios

“All the sets are big, so all of the imperfections one sees when one is very small we exaggerated”  — Beth Clapperton, Art Director, Euro Disneyland Imagineering

“The music is in touch with the story every step of the way, and that’s what’s really fun about the ride – it really is a lot like the film as far as the story goes. You start off really beautiful – and here’s what I’m dreaming, here’s what a I want – then you get dumped into an environment in which, it could give you what you want – but you’re gonna have to fight for it to get it” — Michael Giacchino, Music Composer, Ratatouille film & attraction

It’s still refreshing to see Disneyland Paris letting the creators of a project talk about it like this, something only really begun recently with Disney Dreams!. Even with sanitised soundbites it often provides the best form of promotion.

• Previously — First Ratatouille interior scenes, props, Ratmobiles revealed in new teaser video

In fact, with such a big E-Ticket, they could have been producing separate featurettes covering each aspect of the attraction, such as the musical score, teasing things over weeks and months, rather than this single 2-minute video a few days before opening.

Still, there’s great footage of the Ratmobiles “waltzing” into the unload station, something it seems impossible to get bored of seeing, so let’s not complain too much.

Want to see more? You’re in luck. Much of the construction footage comes from a longer 6 minute package of “b-roll” shared in full on our YouTube. Watch it all here:

Meanwhile for an overview of the whole construction project, they didn’t forget the traditional Disney timelapse. From a camera positioned steadily atop Toy Soldiers Parachute Drop (unlike the many fans trying to get construction photos from the ride below), this footage covers roughly two years from 2012 to 2014.

The original version lasted only 30 seconds, so here it is slowed down to a more leisurely 2 minutes 30, giving a better look at La Place de Rémy taking shape:

• Subscribe to our YouTube channel for more Ratatouille: The Adventure videos

• Visit our Ratatouille: The Adventure pages for more about the new attraction

Concluding the first full day of the Ratatouille Grand Opening press event, DLP Today takes you to the second, afternoon inauguration ceremony, shares more initial impressions of Place de Rémy and invites you along to the evening Summer Party for music and lights in the newest corner of Disneyland Paris.

This update features 29 photos and 3 Vine video clips, originally shared live on Twitter.

Now, you can relive it here…
Read More…

On Saturday 21st June, DLP Today took you live inside Ratatouille: L’Aventure Totalement Toquée de Rémy for the first time. After the morning opening ceremony (covered in Part 1), we were able to share the first impressions of a live ride through the new attraction, before quickly skipping off to meet two important Imagineers behind the project.

Then, it was back to the ride for more updates, revealing the Ratmobiles and their load and unload areas in more detail for the first time.

Keep your hands, arms, feet and legs inside the Ratmobile! Read More…

Onto Day 2 of DLP Today‘s live reports from the Ratatouille: The Adventure Grand Opening event, Saturday 21st June 2014, and this is when the rats really began to run loose. We were privileged to capture the main opening ceremony with Chairman and CEO of The Walt Disney Company, Bob Iger before riding the attraction itself to share the first live insights.

In fact, there was so much to share — an enormous 71 photos! — that it’s going to be rounded up here for posterity in three parts, beginning with the morning’s press welcome and that picture-perfect opening ceremony, a classic Disney production number dedication.

Here we go again! Read More…

DLP Today has returned from the Grand Opening events of Ratatouille: The Adventure! Throughout Saturday and Sunday, I shared live photos and reports from the events and previews direct to the @DLPToday Twitter feed, taking you to Place de Rémy for a first-hand look as if you were there.

Missed the tweets? Don’t follow Twitter? Or maybe just want to see them again? To prevent all those photos and snippets of information disappearing into the never-ending timeline, here they all are gathered together for posterity.

Beginning, in fact, with Friday 20th June and a quick “live” walk around the resort on a glorious sunny evening, before the #Ratatouille bedlam of the following day… Read More…