New Disney Rides!

The crowds are back in Disney! And there is a new ride at Epcot called Ratatouille. Like "Rise of the Resistance" over at Hollywood, it offers virtual queue for annual pass-holders (just for a few weeks, then the queue opens to everyone). Requests for the queue open up at 7 am and early bird Randy was able to get us into the 1pm - perfect! 

They anticipate long lines to get in, so they've filled the waiting area with some fun visuals.    

The ride is in buggy shaped like a big mouse, which moves through a big set that makes you feel as small as a rat. The visuals are 3-D and are lots of fun, (even though they don't photograph well). 

The next week we went to Hollywood and confirmed that the crowds are back there, too, so likely we won't be doing back-to-back on rides like Pandora for a while. And "Genie" is now active, where guest pay for a seat on the big rides. So for all the big rides, the non-Genie wait time is at least an hour. Oh well, it was fun while it lasted! 

On the bright side, the parades are coming back. Hollywood had a parade with just one float but several characters including the Army guys from Toy Story. I wonder how long it took for them to learn to walk nicely with those big flat shoes?

We walked through the Star Wars section, where I noticed a lovely, full-scale TIE Eschelon - cool!

I was thinking that it was big enough to be a stage when, sure enough, out walked Kylo Ren and a couple of Stormtroopers. Kylo used to interact with guests but that doesn't happen any more (thanks, Covid). So he paced around the stage, rasping out vague threats and holding still for photos. 

This area is a bit short on rides but long on atmosphere. It's like walking around a big movie set, with my own handsome leading man!