By David Eckstein-Schoemann and Ava Eckstein-Schoemann

Being Florida residents, Walt Disney World will always be our home and there is soooo much to do and see here. Still, there are some great, unique rides and even more magic you can find only at Disneyland, CA. We wish we could take some of it home with us. “Indiana Jones Adventure: Temple of the Forbidden Eye” is one of those rides. (We have an entertaining stunt show in Orlando, but the ride was a blast.) While this is one of our all-time favorite Disney rides, there is a LOT to prepare for sensory wise!

The Queue

The queue for this ride is extremely immersive. With that being said, there are a few sensory concerns that could get in the way of getting to the ride itself. 

First off, on top of it being very dim, the lights in the line flicker the entire time. It’s obviously meant to make the Temple setting authentically creepy. The flicker is at a slow pace, so it’s not going to cause a headache, but after a few minutes it can get annoying. 

The second concern with the queue is the narrowness. For those with claustrophobia, you know you have to prepare yourself for the crowds of Disney. The beginning of this line is on a narrow bridge where there is little to no slack given in terms of space. However, this part of the line does not last long. Once you are inside, there is plenty of space…until you get to the end of the line. The end of the line is a narrow staircase that can also get tight. This part is also very short, however.

Due to the narrowness of the line in the beginning, there is a separate entrance for wheelchair users. If there is someone in your party in a wheelchair, go to the cast members at the standby entrance. They will direct you to enter through the exit. This way of entering can feel like it will never end (it’s just long), but once you get inside they will redirect you into the regular line. Previously mentioned, there are stairs. For guests who are unable to go up/down stairs or have a wheelchair, they do have accommodations! Once you get to the stairs, they will have you enter an elevator that will bring you up. Then you go about 50 feet and take another elevator down to the vehicles (yes, you have to go up to go back down). After you get in the vehicle, a cast member will take the wheelchair from you and it will be waiting for you at the exit.

The Ride

Now we are going to discuss the impact of the ride on four senses: sight, sound, smell, and touch. Each of these senses are stimulated on “Indiana Jones Adventure: Temple of the Forbidden Eye”, but at varying levels. In each section, we will explain what happens to impact that specific sense, and rank it based on how much it impacted that sense out of 5 (1 being low impact and 5 being high impact).

Sight: 5/5

If you’ve seen any of the Indiana Jones movies, you know how intense they can get. This ride does not shy away from that! When it comes to sight, various technologies are used on this ride. For light, the ride incorporates projections, lasers, and fire. The projections and lasers are to a minimum, but the fire is more common throughout the ride. 

Moving onto the imagery, there are some images that could be considered frightening. This includes piles of skeletons (also in the queue), bugs crawling on the walls, giant snakes, and, of course, a giant boulder that almost crushes the vehicle at the end. 

Sound: 5/5

The sound on this ride is what makes you truly feel like you are on the adventure of a lifetime! There are speakers on the vehicles that provide commentary from Indiana Jones. His voice is not loud and never comes out of nowhere.

Other sounds on the ride come from the traps, snakes, and ghosts we are dodging. The sound of snakes hissing and ghosts screaming out of nowhere can be a bit overwhelming. This is why we recommend ear plugs for those who are sensitive to noise (or noise canceling headphones, if you are confident they won’t fall off, as the ride is very bumpy, see more below).

Smell: 0/5

This one will be short. While we slightly detected a musky smell when we entered the building itself, there was nothing in particular we smelled on the ride. 

Touch: 4/5

When it comes to touch, there are two major parts of the ride to mention. The first is the fire. Disney has a way of recreating fire in a safe, but really real way. This means when the fire flares up, you can feel the heat. Nothing close to being burned (other than from the sun outside), but there are sudden flashes of warmth. 

The second part to mention is towards the end of the ride. At this point, we are going down a booby trapped hallway.  The ride gives the sensation that arrows are shooting at us from both sides. Obviously, Disney isn’t going to shoot us with real arrows, so instead quick bursts of air shoot out of the walls. The bursts of air go back and forth from either side of the wall, giving the feeling you are dodging arrows as you go down the hallway.

While it doesn’t inherently relate to touch, this ride is quite bumpy! Be ready to hold on and be bumped around!

Final Recommendations

• Ear plugs (or noise canceling headphones, if you are confident they won’t fall off, as the ride is very bumpy)

This all leads to a climax where Indy is hanging from the ceiling as a giant boulder rushes towards us. Narrowly missing the boulder (by going down a small drop), the adventure ends with us barely escaping the temple in time as Indy congratulates us on our success. Go to our instagram (@sensethemagic) to see our reactions on the ride, and let us know what rides we should sensory rank next!