What changed during the closure
Disneyland's Indiana Jones Adventure officially reopens Friday following a six-week refurbishment, according to the Los Angeles Times. The newspaper's theme park columnist, who toured the attraction Thursday, wrote that the ride looks as fresh as it has in years.
Some of the changes are easy to spot. More large spiders and other creepy critters were added to one foreboding tunnel. Others are mostly hidden from riders but are intended to make the attraction more dependable and able to move more people.
Electric doors replace hydraulics
The work that kept the ride closed this fall focused on the doors guests pass through to reach Mara, the deity inside the Temple of the Forbidden Eye. Before the refurbishment, hydraulic actuators controlled those doors. They are now fully electric.
Nicholas DiBernardo, an area manager for Attractions Engineering Services and an eight-year resort veteran, told the Times the doors are easier to maintain, carry no risk of a hydraulic spill, and should open and close far more reliably. He described the change as something of a wishlist item.
The old system had a clear drawback. "In the past, when the old actuators would fail, the doors would have to remain open, ruining the guest's show experience," DiBernardo said. According to the Times, that also slowed the ride, because fewer vehicles could be dispatched so riders would not see the car ahead of them.
More riders per hour
Behind-the-scenes engineering changes over the past year have raised the ride's capacity by about 125 people per hour, DiBernardo said. That adds up to about 1,000 more guests per day.
Part of the gain came from improving loading and unloading. DiBernardo said vehicles previously did not always stop in their exact loading and unloading positions. Because attractions must operate with precision for safety, operators had to send vehicles through the temple without guests to reset them. A mix of hardware and software changes fixed the problem, and that work was completed in May, he said.
DiBernardo said the ride typically gets a refurbishment every year because of its size and the work needed to maintain it. He said timing depends on the needs of show quality and maintenance reliability.
Guest belongings and show details
DiBernardo said the top cause of downtime is guest items. Large water bottles or backpacks that are not stored in each vehicle's pouch can fly out on the ride's many twists and turns, forcing a stoppage. Each vehicle now has a new, bigger pouch, and the resort is working with operations staff to remind guests to stow their things.
The refurbishment also included cosmetic work. The Times reported that figures were dusted, blacklight paint was reapplied, the Indiana Jones audio-animatronics were disassembled and rebuilt, and lights around the skull above the lava pit were refreshed. DiBernardo pointed out that the figures are moving with full mobility.
The ride opened in 1995, and the Times noted that some opening-day effects, such as the shifting doors at the start and visions of tumbling rubble, are long gone. A projection effect that shatters the temple was added in 2023. DiBernardo said, "The sky is the limit on what we can also add to this attraction."
