Comments on: Crazy, Appalling and Dangerous

By: Simon Veness

Simon Veness — Sun, 12 Aug 2007 18:59:04 +0000

When things don’t change year after year, you really do wonder if anyone from management is paying attention. These are key issues that certainly get back to people thinking and planning for their holidays. If enough people think the park’s organisation is off-putting, they will simply go elsewhere.

Has anyone had any different experience at Crush’s Coaster recently to suggest the crowd problems are getting better?

By: David London

David London — Fri, 10 Aug 2007 13:19:31 +0000

We just got back from Disneyland Paris yesterday, we queued for around 80 minutes for the Crush coaster and the queue was very boring, nothing to do or look at. I would not cost much to put up a few big screens showing clips from Finding Nemo, the making of the film or anything is better than nothing.
Our main complaint is the total lack of organisation everywhere, the “fast food ! ” queues take around 30 mins to buy a burger, need more staff in most places, especially Pizza Outpost in Adventureland and the burger place in Studio 1.

The worst was meeting the characters !!!!!! my son got crushed up against the metal fence when trying to meet Buzz, our daughter cried her eyes out when after waiting over 1 hour to meet the princess, she went and was replaced by one she didn’t want to meet. With the exception of Mickey and Minnie all the character meets were like rugby scrums/free for alls, like the first day of the January sales.
We complained when we went in 2003 and were told thing were being improved, we found the character meets worse.
One good theing, the staff are much more helpful and pleasent

By: Xavier

Xavier — Mon, 06 Aug 2007 14:45:31 +0000

The main problem is the very low capacity of the ride : it’s like Peter Pan with more 101 and guests troubles to get inside the vehicule or vomiting in it…
So with FP there wouldn’t be any more ride capacity for stand-by line.
At PhantasiasLand they have the same ride system (with more surprises than in Crush) but they they have 2 tracks to split the demand!!!

The only thing they can do is to extend the riding time (earlier and later openings) to calm down the craze a bit…

As for the ride itself, I love the smooth feeling of this kind of coaster. But the dark ride part is too short and somewhat badly set up IMHO (the jelly fish anyone ?). IE; one problem is Bruce : they have a moving but with a strobing light on it so it seems it hardly move at all…
But the main issue with me is that it doesen’t habe a big finale; just a screen with Nemo reunited with his father of school mates would have done it for me.
The too simple queue line is another problem : Cars have a much better fun and detailled queue aera than crush…

By: caroline

caroline — Fri, 03 Aug 2007 18:44:14 +0000

As much as I love disneyland Paris I feel there is a great lack of organisation from cast members. This occurs greatly when characters come out for photo/autograph opportunites. On several occasions children and adults alike crowd around the poor sole in the costume not giving any chance to meet them and have their photo taken properly! In WDW organisation is key making visitors stand in line to meet their favourite characters in turn giving said person a little personal time to get ample photos/autographs and a little chat. So why isn’t WDW way of thinking shown in Dlp in would make the whole experiance that much more enjoyable.

By: Simon Veness

Simon Veness — Wed, 01 Aug 2007 13:47:39 +0000

Our 14-year-old sat in the back and said he didn’t seem to see as much, but then he never sat in the front, so we can’t really tell! We did think it is definitely likely to be a different ride front and back, and it could well be different each time you ride. The fact that it actually invites repeat rides is another reason why the waiting times are so disappointing.

The theming is OK as far as it goes, but they could have done a lot more with it, I feel. It is only once you get well inside the building that you start to hear some of the characters talking and telling you about the ride, and there is very little outside to keep your attention (and, considering about two thirds of the queuing time is outside, this is also poor). Where are the TV screens to show you a little about the film; where are the characters (apart from a couple of seagulls) to reinforce the theming; and where is the detail to underpin the whole ride (like they have in the wonderful queuing area at The Seas With Nemo and Friends at WDW)??

We still like the ride a lot, and there is nothing quite like it in any theme park that we’ve visited to date. But the queue organisation simply HAS to be better and the wait times either have to be reduced or more theming needs to be added to take people’s attention away from the fact they are standing in line for a LONG time. Disney have done this just recently with their Soarin’ ride at Epcot - this looks to be tailor-made for something similar.

By: Arthur

Arthur — Wed, 01 Aug 2007 06:26:38 +0000

I actually thought that the waiting area of Crush’s Coaster wasn’t so bad. I agree it was a bit simple, but I thought it fit perfectly to the Finding Nemo theme. I rode the ride twice and loved it both times. However, the first time we sat down in the front of the car and we actually didn’t see much more than bubbles and most of the ride was dark. The second time we sat down in the back of the car (starting out facing backwards) and we saw LOTS more — many things we hadn’t seen the first time around. I don’t know if we saw so much more because we were sitting backwards or because we were riding it a second time, but I liked it 10 times more the second time. Has anyone else had the same experience?

By: SusanV

SusanV — Tue, 31 Jul 2007 21:36:19 +0000

The walking barrier was in place at the time we visited. That is not where the problem occured. Once the front of the crowd reached the attraction, the ‘walking barrier’ CMs simply walked off, leaving hordes of people to fight their way into the acutal queue. Some CMs were actually lifting up the ropes to allow more people to flood in, cutting off those who walked in through the proper queue entry. In spite of guest protests, the CMs simply laughed and kept lifting the rope.
It was definitely chaos, and the CMs who were presumably there to keep some sort of order were adding to the problem. We stood there cringing, hoping some small child would not get stampeded in the process. Hopefully it won’t come to that before those with the power to change it take action.

By: Uncle Walt

Uncle Walt — Tue, 31 Jul 2007 21:15:13 +0000

I totally agree with Simon’s comments about the queue problem at crush’s coaster, I was there myself last WE and was completely taken aback by the lack of any order, the sheer chaos and the complete laid-backness (if that is a word) of most cast members around the ride.
Also, to say that the queue area could be more interesting is an understatement. The queue area is completely boring, like most queues at WDS. It seems Disney has abandoned the concept (that put them in a completely different leaguein comparison to other theme parks) of themeing queue areas as a build-up to the ride. So, from that point of view, shame on Disney.
As far as the ride is concerned, I didn’t think it is fabulous. Sure, the “dark-ride”part of it is nice, albeit too short. But the coaster-ride? Nice, yeah, but too much in the dark. The only thing you can see are what I think are supposed to be bubbles. I think a little more effort should have been made to include other interesting elements, maybe more fish or ocean creatures.

By: Simon Veness

Simon Veness — Tue, 31 Jul 2007 14:41:32 +0000

I’m sure they could add a FastPass if necessary, but it looks like they are trying to gauge the necessity for it (although that already seems pretty clear!). The obvious thing if they DID add FP is that the Stand-by queues are going to be astronomically long - at 90-120 minutes at the moment, they could easily go up by another hour if they add FP to such a slow-loading ride. Not a great scenario.

By: Arthur

Arthur — Tue, 31 Jul 2007 14:09:58 +0000

What I don’t understand is why they didn’t build a Fast Pass system for Crush’s Coaster for opening day. When I was there about a month ago I noticed that Fast Pass was being installed for the Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster, but I was very surprised to not even see a hint of Fast Pass being installed at the entrance for Crush’s Coaster. With 90-minute waiting lines it is now obvious that Crush’s Coaster desperately needs Fast Pass (all the other coasters at the Paris parks already have it). Could management not anticipate how popular this ride would be, or was there a deliberate reason not to have Fast Pass for this new attraction?

By: Studio 1

Studio 1 — Tue, 31 Jul 2007 08:37:34 +0000

I am very sorry for your experience shortly after the parks new Toon Studio opened for business Management saw the problem and quickly enacted a walking barrier to slowly guide guests to the new area. Unfortunatly for some reason this did not happen during your visit to the parks i will chase this up on your behalf and tell you if i get any feedback on this matter.