DLP: Ridiculous new refurb for Indiana Jones

[Stevie]

I've never trusted Disney. Creepy, shifty company.

 

[James]

My cousin worked for DLP ents and says it was a crap place to work at. The fact she preferred working at Butlins over Disney says a lot.

 

[Sam]

Photo update on the refurb insanity from Disney & More!

More pics at the link above.

 

[Ian]

They really seem to be cracking on with it! Already you can see from within the park where parts have been removed, and there seem to be staff working on it pretty much all the time. In City Hall the signs say it'll be reopening in April, so I guess we shouldn't be surprised at the pace they're working at it's a very big task for what doesn't seem a very long time.

 

[Ian]

I managed to catch a couple of photos from near the ride t'other day. Sorry for the poor quality, but they were just hastily snapped on my phone, using digital zoom.

So the whole ride is covered in scaffolding, with several workers with WDI jackets moving around the scaffolding and coming in and out of the site throughout the day.

Although you can't really see here it looked to me like they'd sanded down the crowning piece of the structure and resprayed it. It looked very fresh and new, just without final details on. Peeking through the gaps in the fencing around the area the plaza was full of concrete spraying pumps, like the ones we saw being used on Chiapas.

From what I've heard work has been going rather flat out. Let's just hope it really does have an impact when it's finished.

---

In other news, we were told by a cast member that Captain EO will supposedly close its doors forever tomorrow. Apparently Disney has cut its ties with Kodak, who sponsored the attraction, which has also seen the closure of the photo studio on Main Street. This, I understand, is to be redeveloped into a new souvenir shop.

No great loss really, and I can't say I'll miss it. However, it's still another Parc Disneyland attraction leaving, with no hint of a replacement :/

 

[Rowe]

InsideDLParis posted these updates earlier.

Yep, sure is scaffolding :

 

[Lordy]

Well, they clearly aren't removing the entire temple, and rebuilding it? (which was the last I read on the matter....)

 

[Sam]

From the park's English Twitter:

The big refurbishment for Indiana Jones and the Temple of Peril is nearly concluding. Attraction due to reopen May 29 pic.twitter.com/4T9pcc0v2Y

We have restored the whole show quality to brand new condition, and completely changed the ride control and the loop pic.twitter.com/bTn7KHx6IK

We'll take you behind the scenes of this large project very soon. Stay tuned for more details! #lasttweets pic.twitter.com/WXal8eSzY5

Totally new control system is good news! What does #lasttweets mean?

 

[Scott]

Still looks terrible though

I think they use #lasttweets when they're signing off for the day from that account.

 

[Poisson]

So it's an Intamin designed, Giovanola built Pinfari Clone with Vekoma fettling? When are Gerstlaurer coming to add a vertical lift

 

[Joelio]

It has now reopened as planned, flame effects are working again but no additional feautures

 

[Sam]

For some baffling reason, the Studio Tram Tour has been updated with four new tram vehicles.

Obviously improvements and refurbishments to existing attractions are welcome, but this seems very odd. Surely the long-term plan for this park calls for the removal of this dreadful attraction...? Buying new vehicles for it doesn't seem to suggest so.

It would be fair to say the last thing which needed changing to improve Studio Tram Tour: Behind the Magic from a guest’s point of view was the trams themselves. But here we are, with Disneyland Paris sharing photos of the new driving trucks which recently replaced the former twelve year old-plus vehicles.

Boasting more spacious cab areas, more fuel capacity and new sensors making them easier to manoeuvre, the four new trucks are now pulling the same original six-carriage trams through the attraction’s (almost literally) “backstage” route.

Along the way, guests can still discover action-packed sets including Catastrophe Canyon, Reign of Fire and, er, that’s about it. The (not particularly missed) Costuming workshop loop was removed during the construction of Toy Story Playland and is now occupied by La Place de Rémy, while the tour has had no genuine additions whatsoever since opening in 2002, despite several park masterplans in that time calling for improvement and expansion.

The Studio Backlot Tour at Disney’s Hollywood Studios in Florida is similarly disappointing.

In fact, it might have been sensible to assume Disney would retire the attraction, ending the pretence that Walt Disney Studios Park is in any way a real working studio. The purchase of four new trucks would now seem to disprove that, at least for the foreseeable future.

Starting with the utterly pointless Dinotopia set and ending with Jeremy Irons’ ageing video commentary, come back next week for an article titled “100 Things Any Fan Would Change About Studio Tram Tour Before Replacing the Trucks”…

 

[CoasterCrazyChris]

Obviously improvements and refurbishments to existing attractions are welcome, but this seems very odd. Surely the long-term plan for this park calls for the removal of this dreadful attraction...? Buying new vehicles for it doesn't seem to suggest so.

In fairness, a boring as a lot of the ride is, Calamity Canyon is still massively good fun and it's one of the few "studios" rides at the park (as opposed to general themed rides like Tower of Terror, Toy Story Playland, Ratatouille etc).

Unless they actually came up with a genuinely groundbreaking replacement attraction for the area that the tour takes up, it would be a pretty big loss for the park I think.

Admittedly, I'm secretly glad that new trains signal it will be staying for the foreseeable future.

 

[Scott]

They could get rid of tram tour and nobody would bat an eyelid. The London set looks nice but blink and you miss the fireball. Calamity canyon is a fantastic set piece but that is essentially the whole ride.

You meander through endless swathes of nothingness while a boring commentary tells you boring things about props that are falling to bits.

It's cringey that it even attempts to make you think it's a movie studio and the route has been annexed so much since it first opened that it is just a mess.

Seriously not worth waiting for and the addition of new trucks is definitely not a positive since it cements the rides future and doesn't hint at big changes coming.

 

[thefatone]

It's an awful, boring attraction. Florida's one is quite bad, but then France manages to push it over the edge in "why on earth does this exist" factor.