Indiana Jones et le Temple du Péril closed on 7th January for a major refurbishment which Disneyland Paris swiftly announced would last until 28th May 2014. Work on the 20-year old Adventureland roller coaster will see replacement of “ride related components” and include the complete replacement of the entire trademark loop. Most notably, though, the complete “Temple of Peril” itself will be stripped down and reportedly rebuilt using more durable “real” stone materials. Already as of mid-January the temple has been wrapped in scaffolding with intermittent visits from a huge cherry picker crane above the skyline.

Opened 30th July 1993, the Intamin-built coaster was originally intended largely as a capacity-boosting stopgap until the young Euro Disney could properly expand its attractions roster. Grand ideas for an interweaving “Adventure” jeep ride and mine train coaster were quickly abandoned, as were concepts for extra scenes and animatronics along the route of the ride, or even a second temple. What eventually made it into the park, yet with remarkable speed in just one year, was essentially a classic Pinfari TL-59 track layout wrapped around the fake temple structure. Some elements of the track were altered in early 2000, when the ride was turned “Backwards!” to be promoted as a new attraction and its cars were rebuilt to each carry six people, instead of four as originally designed. The trains were returned to their original direction in late 2004.

Early concept art for an Indiana Jones roller coaster

Investment in park maintenance and refurbishments is always welcome, and continues to improve at Disneyland Paris, but you could almost guarantee if the Temple of Peril was in California, it’d re-open not just with a rebuilt loop, but some kind of storyline enhancement or “plussing” too. If an attraction (especially one quite lacking in story elements) has to close for almost six months, why not squeeze just a tiny bit more budget and make its re-opening something for us to look forward to? Basically, we’ll never be happy until we get the tiger.

PHOTOS @InsideDLParis (Twitter)