The adventures of Indiana Jones continued in an interesting way this week at Disneyland, where the park found an intriguing method of keeping guests invested in the always-popular Indiana Jones Adventure: Temple of the Forbidden Eye attraction while the ride was down for maintenance.
On Wednesday and Thursday, Disneyland offered a walking tour through the front half of the Indiana Jones Adventure queue. The experience included some new Maraglyphs to be deciphered in the exterior area, two fun new photo ops, and some helpful Cast Members willing to give some in-universe background to the temple itself.
Watch Indiana Jones Adventure new photo ops, Maraglyphs, walking tour during refurbishment at Disneyland:
Upon entering the ride’s queue– which was clearly marked with a “This Attraction is Closed Today” sign– guests were handed an Indiana Jones Adventure decoder card similar to the one distributed at a recent Disneyland After Dark event, but without the 90’s Nite logo on the reverse side.
While wandering through the exterior portion of the queue, eagle-eyed visitors could spot a handful of new Maraglyphs to decipher using the decoder card, including posted letters, a book cover, and a stone tablet reading “Beware the Eye of Mara.”
Directly in front of the entrance to the Temple of the Forbidden Eye, guests could pose with a selection of Indiana Jones-inspired props for a unique photo opportunity manned by a Disney PhotoPass Cast Member.
Inside the temple, guests were using the leisurely pace (helped by the fact that the ride was not running) to take their time decoding the many Maraglyphs hidden throughout the queue. It was a nice, eerie, and very different way to breathe in this immersive environment created a quarter century ago by Walt Disney Imagineering.
Finally, about halfway through the queue (before the bat cave area) the line was roped off and guests found themselves at another cool Indiana Jones photo op, this time made up to look like a desk scattered with ancient artifacts, luggage crates, and 1930s-era relics.
Along the way, it was neat to learn more about the Maraglyphs and the specific fictional histories of some of the queue areas from a couple Cast Members stationed inside the temple. I was also impressed with the amount of detail put into these very temporary photo ops.
Indiana Jones Adventure: Temple of the Forbidden Eye reopened Friday morning at Disneyland, which means this queue tour experience is no longer available at the moment, but it would be really nice to see it again in the future whenever the ride is undergoing refurbishment. Anything that adds to the overall guest experience at the Happiest Place On Earth is a welcome change in my book.