Disneyland has just rolled out changes at one of the top rides at the resort in an effort to reduce unplanned closures from guest items dropped, increase capacity, and improve the show quality of the ride. The changes come after we previously heard from Disneyland executives about their focus on improving ride maintenance with a goal of allowing more guests to experience more of their favorite attractions.
The change that was rolled out today adds to a previous change that was not reported at the ride. This comes after another flagship ride received a major change earlier this year. We have details on both these changes and the specific special effects improvements that were added during this closure. Mickey Visit brings you the latest Disney news and planning resources, including Michelin guide awards for three Disney restaurants and growing bad guest behavior issues.
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Indiana Jones Adventure Ride Improvements
Earlier this year we sat with the Director of Attractions Engineering Services, Natalie Katzka, at a media briefing to learn more about their goals to increase the ride reliability at Disneyland. She pointed to specific work during refurbishments to increase the capacity of top rides at the park. She spoke to interesting specific buckets of work they are focused on including reducing closure times for holiday overlays, changes to maintenance processes, reducing guest behavior-related closures, and increasing existing attraction throughput with changes to dispatch.
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At the time she touched on that last point, she gave the example of improving the dispatch throughput at Space Mountain. That change was live at the time and they were actively working on a change for Indiana Jones Adventure. The goal for both changes was to reduce existing operational patterns that create backups at the boarding and dispatch stations.
Now, Disney has reopened Indiana Jones Adventure after a six-week closure and these changes to improve ride efficiency and changes to improve the show with some new special effects have been implemented.
Over the past year, the behind-the-scenes engineering modifications at the ride have boosted the attraction’s reliability and allowed Disney to increase capacity. About 125 more people experience the ride every hour. Nicholas DiBernardo, an area manager for Attractions Engineering Services, told Todd Martens at the LA Times in a new report that this has led to 1,000 more guests per day experiencing the ride.
DiBernardo told the LA Times that Indiana Jones Adventure requires a yearly refurbishment because it is one of Disneyland’s most complex. They need the time each year to ensure that “it continues to meet the theatrical and safety standards required”. The ride typically “has a refurbishment every year just because of the size of the attraction and the amount of work that goes into keeping this attraction up. It all depends on the needs for improving show quality or maintenance reliability.”
There were two key operations changes made to the ride during 2026 in addition to freshening up effects.
They changed the machinery that drives the first major show scene in the ride when guests face three doors before entering the room where they are told not to look into the eyes of Mara. Previously, the doors opening was controlled by hydraulic actuators. Now, after the refurbishment, they are fully electric. The doors will now be easier to maintain and will not risk a hydraulic fluid spill. They should be more dependable, DiBernardo says.
Previously, if the actuators opening the doors failed, the doors would have to remain open and ruin the guest show experience. It also slowed down the ride because fewer cars would be dispatched during that period to prevent riders from seeing the car in front of them.
When the ride first opened, this entire show scene actually rotated so that it appeared that guests went through a different one of the three doors each time. The track is now set to drive into the middle of the three doors. That has not changed with this refurbishment.
They also have made changes to improve loading and unloading of the attraction. This change is invisible to guests, but it results in the improved capacity. The ride vehicles now park more accurately.
Earlier this year, DiBernardo told the LA Times, that they made an adjustment that was a mix of a hardware and software solution. Previously cars would not line up with their precise loading and unloading position. When this happened they would have to send the vehicles through the attraction without any guests riding to reset the vehicles. Now, they don’t have this problem. “That was a major win for us,” DiBernardo said.
They also made a change to reduce the guest-caused incidents that we discussed earlier this year with Katzka. At the time she shared that in fiscal year 2025, 13% of ride shutdowns were caused by guest behavior, an increase from the 10% average. As part of the Indiana Jones Adventure changes, they rolled out new, bigger pouches in the ride vehicles for guests to store their belongings.
DiBernardo told the LA Times that this is the biggest downtime driver for the ride. They have to stop the ride when articles drop out of vehicles from guests.
They are also working with their operations partners to notify guests to store their items while on the ride. We previously saw an increase in signage at Tiana’s Bayou Adventure notifying riders to stay in their seats after issues earlier this year.
The bigger pouches and operational focus to reduce guests from dropping items should help to reduce unplanned closures throughout the day.
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Special Effects Improvements at Indiana Jones Adventure
Storytelling aspects of the ride have been improved throughout the attraction and in the queue.
The bamboo pole for guests to push in the queue and cause a sound effect in the scene with the spikes in the roof is again working in the queue. This effect was previously broken.
In the ride, figures have been dusted, blacklight paint has been freshened up, and the Indiana Jones Audio-Animatronics figures have been disassembled and completely rebuilt.
Figures now move with full mobility. We see Indiana Jones three times in the ride: first as he is attempting to shut a door and send you on the right path, next he’s hanging in front of the finale scene rolling boulder, and finally in front of the massive boulder near the end of the ride.
Todd Martens, The LA Times reporter, walked the track with DiBernardo and pointed out details including the subtle shift of the Indiana Jones figure’s legs and hips, more spiders and other critters added to one of the ride’s tunnels, steps painted on to the track as the vehicle heads into the temple scene, and refreshed lights in the lava pit scene.
Previously in 2023, Disney made more show-forward additions to the attraction with a completely new temple scene toward the end of the attraction. No huge new special effects were added during this refurbishment, but everything was refreshed and improved.
Indiana Jones Adventure has changed quite a bit over the years as we have documented, but they have always aimed to keep the ride running smoothly and at full show quality.
I personally look forward to getting on the ride again soon based on the report from Martens. We are also very excited about the new version of the Indiana Jones Adventure ride that they are building at Walt Disney World. See the latest details and reveals on that ride here.
Disney also recently made a substantial addition to the Pirates of the Caribbean ride next door when they added a new projection face pirate in the skeletons scene. We are actively tracking all of the changes in the rides across the parks. We also recently reported on an operations test at Walt Disney World to reduce groups meeting a member of their party in line.
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