Here is a new Disneyland Paris update with some amazing news about DLP Adventureland Temple of Peril as Joe Schott "DLP Directeur General Adjoint" revealed in a meeting with DLP fans that Indiana Jones Temple of Peril will be destroyed and rebuilt entirely all in REAL STONE, and the looping track, too, will be rebuilt!
I know that it's hard to believe and personally i couldn't believe it - just like you, i presume - so i double checked to make sure that it was not an April Fool at the end of September and, yes, this is really what Joe Schott said, they are really going to rebuild the temple in real "stone" like in the good old times when Pharaohs were building the Pyramids!
Works should start next year and last five months. I don't think they will rebuild the coaster structure itself as, as you can see on the great aerial picture below coming from my DLP book, the temple itself has been built around or inside the coaster structure, so they probably can rebuild the temple without touching to the coaster structure. The only thing that remain to be confirmed is if they are really going to rebuild the WHOLE temple or only a part of it? I know that all this sounds insane but no need to say that considering the financial situation of DLP if they decide to rebuild the whole temple it's not for the pleasure to spend money and there is probably a good reason behind all this.
So, i tried to learn a bit more about how the temple was built 20 years ago, in 1993, and although there is certainly a steel framework and concrete substructure to support the whole thing, it seems that a big part of the temple is in fact made of block of foams covered by cement - sculpted cement of course, or eventually sculpted concrete. One of the reasons they did it like this in 1993 seems to be because of the small budget which was available. No need to say that if the temple is really made in foam + cement it's no surprise that they need to rebuilt it twenty years later. May be they realised that the way it was built is not strong enough anymore, becoming potentially dangerous, and may be they don't have any other way to resolve the problem than to rebuild the whole thing... Well, may be they shouldn't have called it "the Temple of Peril"! Bad omen!
[a lot skipped out here by me - Sam]
Don't go away, there is a "one more thing", as Joe Schott also revealed that after the rebuild of the Temple of Peril it will be the turn of Big Thunder Mountain! No kidding. But for this Frontierland favorite the plan is not to rebuild BTM but only to increase the ride capacity. How they will do it is another question that we will talk about later. By the way, some of you might think that all these new announcements from DLP might be done in reaction to the fans petition sent recently to Bob Iger, but in fact i've been told that these projects are part of a long term strategy scheduled since 2009. That said, may be there is a link between the petition and the fact that they communicate about all this now. Anyway, even if i'm sure you would have prefer the announcement of a brand new ride, the fact that one of the park's favorite coaster will receive improvements in a near future is a great news, and of course i will let you know when works will start on the Temple of Peril.
