Indiana Jones et le Temple du Péril
| Indiana Jones et le Temple du Péril | |
|---|---|
| Park | Disneyland Park (Paris) |
| Land / area | Adventureland |
| Type | Steel roller coaster |
| Opened | July 30, 1993 |
| Designer | Walt Disney Imagineering |
| Height req. | 1.4 m (55 in) minimum rider height |
| Status | Operating |
Indiana Jones et le Temple du Péril (Indiana Jones and the Temple of Peril) is a steel roller coaster in Adventureland at Disneyland Park (Paris) at Disneyland Paris. It opened on July 30, 1993, just over a year after the park itself, and holds a particular place in Disney history: it was the first roller coaster at any Disney park to send riders upside down, through a single vertical loop.[1][2]
History
An Indiana Jones attraction had been discussed for the Paris resort for some years, but the original, more elaborate concepts did not survive the resort's early financial difficulties. What the young park needed quickly, and on a constrained budget, was capacity and a genuine thrill ride: at that stage Big Thunder Mountain Railroad was its only roller coaster, and Space Mountain was still two to three years away.
The answer was a compact, custom looping coaster built by the Swiss manufacturer Intamin, with Giovanola as subcontractor. Its track layout was adapted from the TL-59, the first looping coaster built by the Italian firm Pinfari, re-engineered in Intamin's own track style. Themed as a runaway mine train escaping a lost temple — a direct nod to the mine-car chase in Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom (1984) — the ride gave the park a headline thrill at a fraction of the cost of the indoor Indiana Jones adventures then being developed for California.
For the 2000 season the park reversed the trains, added seats, and relaunched the ride as Indiana Jones et le Temple du Péril: à l'envers! — marketed in English as Backwards. Each two-car train grew from eight riders to twelve, and lighting and props throughout were reversed so the backwards journey read correctly. The backwards version opened on April 1, 2000. It ran until November 27, 2004, when the trains were turned back to face forwards and the original name returned.[3]
A major refurbishment in 2014, from January 7 to May 28, partly rebuilt the temple structure and track in more durable materials, including real stone, and slightly enlarged the loop, while leaving the ride experience itself essentially unchanged.
Experience
Guests approach through an abandoned archaeologists' base camp in the jungle at the far end of Adventureland, past crates, equipment and expedition vehicles, then climb into the temple itself. The premise is simple: a mine railway built to move archaeological finds has been left ready to run, and guests board its cars for a trip that quickly gets out of hand.
After a lift climb, the train races through sharp turns and dips around and through the ruined temple, building to the ride's signature moment — a full 360-degree vertical loop, the only outdoor loop in Disneyland Park (Paris). The whole circuit is short and intense, lasting little over a minute, and the coaster has long had a reputation as the roughest and most demanding in the resort. Its minimum rider height of 1.4 metres (55 inches) has been widely reported as the highest of any Disney attraction worldwide.[4]
Unlike the Indiana Jones attractions in California and Tokyo, which are indoor dark rides, the Paris version is a coaster through and through — the only Disney roller coaster themed to Indiana Jones.
See also
- Indiana Jones Adventure
- Indiana Jones Adventure: Temple of the Crystal Skull
- Disneyland Park (Paris)
- Disneyland Paris
- Big Thunder Mountain Railroad