March 3rd marks the 16th anniversary of the opening of Indiana Jones Adventure at Disneyland park. George Lucas, creator of the blockbuster films starring the infamous archaeologist, helped kick off the opening ceremony in Adventureland. He was joined by several celebrities that day: Arnold Schwarzenegger, Dan Aykroyd, Wayne Gretzky and Dennis Miller, to name a few. You’ll even see a few of them in the historical video attached to this blog post. Enjoy!
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Seems like only yesterday I spent the night sleeping in the back of Indy’s truck as we had an early installation in the Q line with a crane. As I put up a cot back under the canopy and slept a few hours, that gave me the idea to turn the back of the actual movie vehicle into his sleeping quarters as you see now. What a night to remember next to the Jungle Cruise. PD
WOW! 16 years! and “It’s Still the Best!”… We visited D-Land later on July 17th for the 40th Anniversary Celebration which included the placing of the “Time Capsule” at Sleeping Beauty’s Castle. Was a wonderful experience. I was a Disney Store Cast Member back then. One of the most memorable times in my life so far!
What makes Disney Parks the best in the world and the most attended is that they are THEME PARKS and not rollercoaster amusement parks. Indiana Jones and the Temple of the Forbidden Eye must be the most experience immersive attraction and ride that has ever been created. The moment you enter the queue, the ride has begun! The details and entertainments in the queue are wonderful and awesome. You are entertained all the way to your rover, and the elements of the ride itself are amazing no matter how many times you have enjoyed it. It is disappointing that the other Disney parks do not have it too. My recent trip to Disneyland Paris presented a different Indiana Jones adventure, but another rollercoaster is not that interesting to me no matter how well it is done. I liked that their queue for Pirates is like Indy’s.
Can you tell me where I can get another “Interpreter Card” for the writing on the walls? I have misplaced my original ATT sponsored cards from the opening. The Outfitters across from the ride used to have them, but they have told me that they ran out a few months ago and are not expecting them to be restocked any more.
I was one of the tour guides hosting the celebrities that day. It was an absolutely amazing day. Dean Cain introduced me to lots of the celebrities and we rode the attraction over and over again until I though I would be sick. I posted a picture of me with Dean at the party and posted it on my blog last week.
Looks amazing!
But I’ve never been able to ride it, Disney hasn’t brought it to Walt Disney World yet. ;_;
I’m sure everyone already knows the trick the Imagineers used to make the ride vehicle “seem” to go in reverse. The jeep stands still, and the walls move forward, creating the illusion that the rider is traveling backwards! It blew me away to learn of this ingenious bit of magic. Hats off to all those who create these astounding effects!
Wow! Has it really been 16 years? What I love about this ride is that I still haven’t heard all the soundbites.
Yay! This is totally my favorite ride! 😀 The interactive parts in line make waiting so much easier! xD I always get funny looks when I shake the pole in the spike room, but when the ceiling comes down everyone freaks out a bit. The attention to detail not only in the queue, but on the ride as well truly makes it one of a kind. :3
PLEASE!!! Bring it to Walt Disney World!!!! Experienced this amazing attraction when I visited Disneyland in 2005, and I would LOVE to have this on the east coast!!!
This is a great ride!
Happy Anniversary to this great adventure!
I hope that someday the Jungle Cruise can make its way itno the caverns and caves as originally planned to make the Jungle Cruise more expansive as and technogically advance as well!
I can’t believe it’s been sixteen years already! My how time flies!
I love this ride!! 😀 There is actually a guy who is actually trying to set a record of how many times he’s been on this ride…! He’s at over 2,000!!!!
Wow, 16 years ago. Our family was down there a month later, during our Spring break; the same day the UCLA Bruins were honored for there National NCAA basketball title. The line for this ride snaked from the entrance all the way back to the Main St. sidewalk and halfway to the Castle. But, it was well worth it, the kids(then)loved it. Now, these same kids are now bringing there own children and experiencing the same Disney excitement. Double awesome for now the grand parents!
Wow, 16 years ago. Our family was down there a month later, during our Spring break; the same day the UCLA Bruins were honored for there National NCAA basketball title. The line for this ride snaked from the entrance all the way back to the Main St. sidewalk and halfway to the Castle. But, it was well worth it, the kids(then)loved it. Now, these same kids are now bringing there own children and experiencing the same Disney excitement. Double awesome!
I remember waiting for 2+ hours to get on the ride when it first opened…now we have fast pass and can go on it at least 2 times 😉
I was there just a couple of weeks after opening, I think.
There was a dance band in an elevated area of the large room, dressed in khaki and playing some great ’30s and ’40s tunes.
The experience was thrilling.
The three skeletons together on the left of the jeep in the “mummy room” are named after the chief ride engineer’s 3 brothers. 🙂 She put the mouse ears on the skeleton in that room, too!
I was there when it opened, its a amazing ride. You can never get tired of this attraction. My all time favorite.
Happy birthday to our favorite ride!
This is a great ride!
Absolutely love it! Actually did a presentation in a class earlier this week about how the queue operates on this ride. Amazing how efficiently they can get thousands of people each day on and off the most popular attraction in the park.
– “Not bad…for tourists.”
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