Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
people ahead of you
3 minutes.
Assumes
Full-capacity operation with 18-second dispatch in-
terval.
Loading speed
Fast.
DESCRIPTION AND COMMENTS
This is a combination track ride and motion simulator.
You ride a military troop-transport vehicle; in addition to moving along its path, the
vehicle bucks and pitches (the simulator part) in sync with the visuals and special effects.
Though the plot is complicated and not altogether clear, the bottom line is that if you look
into the Forbidden Eye, you're in big trouble. The Forbidden Eye, of course, stands out
like Rush Limbaugh in a diaper, and
everybody
stares at it. The rest of the ride consists of
a mad race to escape the temple as it collapses around you. In the process, you encounter
snakes, spiders, lava pits, rats, swinging bridges, and the house-size granite bowling ball
that everyone remembers from
Raiders of the Lost Ark.
The Indiana Jones ride is a Disney masterpiece—nonstop action from beginning
to end with brilliant visual effects. Elaborate even by Disney standards, the attraction
provides a level of detail and variety of action that make use of the entire Imagineering ar-
senal of high-tech gimmickry. Combining a setting as rich as Pirates of the Caribbean with
a ride that rivals Star Tours, Indiana Jones is a powerhouse. Recently, the ride received a
long overdue top-to-bottom refurbishment, which improved the dramatic lighting and re-
stored some disabled effects (though the long-lost “crumbling ceiling” remains missing in
action).
Sophisticated in its electronic and computer applications, Indiana Jones purports to
offer a different experience on each ride. According to the designers, there are veritable
menus of special effects that the computer can mix and match. In practice, however, we
could not see much difference from ride to ride. There are, no doubt, subtle variations, but
the ride is so wild and frenetic that it's hard to apprehend subtlety. Between explosions
and falling rocks, your poor fried brain simply does not register nuance.
The adventure begins in the queue, which sometimes extends out the entrance of the
attraction and over the bridge leading to Adventureland! When you ultimately work your
way into the attraction area, you find yourself at the site of an archaeology expedition with
the Temple of the Forbidden Eye entrance beckoning only 50 feet away. After crossing a
wooden bridge, you finally step into the temple. The good news is that you are out of the
California sun. The bad news is that you have just entered Indiana Jones's indoor queuing
area, a system of tunnels and passageways extending to within 50 yards of the Santa Mon-
ica Pier.
Fortunately,the queuing area is interesting. Youwind through caves, downthe interi-
or corridors of the temple, and into subterranean rotundas where the archaeologists have
been hard at work. Along the way there are various surprises (be sure to disregard any
DO
NOT TOUCH
signs you see on supporting poles or safety ropes), as well as a succession of
homilies etched in an “ancient” language onthe temple walls. Youwill eventually stumble
