Off to Camp We Go

Camp Minnie-Mickey was a late addition to the menu at Disney's Animal Kingdom, conceived just six months before the park's April 1998 opening as a solution for where to place the famous Disney characters Guests would be expecting to see. While it may have been a bit last-minute, the area's design received the same sort of attention to detail in its storytelling as the other sections of the park.

Camp Minnie-Mickey is the place where the Disney characters go for summer camp. Here, it's summer all the time! The path to the camp takes us over a river and through the woods, along a babbling brook. It's a gentle glade that seems a million miles away from the hustle and bustle of Harambe (or Downtown Disney, for that matter).

Complementing Animal Kingdom's representations of Africa and Asia, Camp Minnie-Mickey brings a bit of North America to the park. The rockwork and animal motifs have been inspired by the Adirondack Mountains region of upstate New York.

The Adirondacks also provided inspiration for the architecture and ornamentation used throughout Camp Minnie-Mickey. It's a distinctive style unique to that part of the country, using rough-hewn elements such as stone and natural wood in the fabrication of everything from the community well (a cleverly-integrated drinking fountain) to a nearby snack shack.

The benches in particular were crafted in this Adirondack style. Each one is different and a work of art, using the natural curvature of the branches used to make them.

Camp Minnie-Mickey is a lovingly hand-crafted tribute to the Adirondack region and the golden summer camp memories of youth. Even in the more realistic camp details, though, you can find a bit of that hidden Disney. It's the finial atop the flagpole, the opening in the side of a birdhouse and the branching logo on the face of the trash cans. This camp may have its foundation in reality, but it's definitely a place where Mickey and the gang can feel at home.

Pirate Treasures of Every Kind

Leaving the scoundrels of Pirates of the Caribbean behind, we come across this cottage in the back corner of Adventureland at Disneyland Paris. One look at that weathervane, though, and its image of a peg-legged bloke with a spyglass tells us we're still surrounded by a bit of piracy. In this case, it's Le Coffre du Capitaine (The Captain's Chest).

Le Coffre is an establishment run by a former pirate captain. He may have given up pillaging and ransacking, but he's still got the sea in his veins. His establishment is littered with oars, nets, miniature ships... and a whole collection of items gathered from decades at sea.

In a corner of the shop, you may notice the stairs which lead to the loft above. It's not accessible to visitors, but has plenty more to look at... including the captain's pet parrot, people watching from his elevated perch.

Nearby is the Blue Lagoon Restaurant. Similar in many ways to the successful Blue Bayou in New Orleans Square at Disneyland, the Blue Lagoon offers shoreside seating with a view of the early scenes on the Pirates of the Caribbean attraction. Here, though, the setting is that of a series of thatched-roof cabanas on a tropical beach, befitting the island surroundings of this particular Adventureland.

Inside, the Blue Lagoon has all the trappings of a local tavern frequented by buccaneers. There are kegs and casks of rum and ale, and a shelf full of the regular patrons' individual mugs, waiting to be used the next time they stumble in.

For Disney fans, perhaps the most interesting part of the decor is the images framed on the walls. They're reproductions of original art created by Disney Legend Marc Davis for the development of the first Pirates of the Caribbean attraction at Disneyland... pieces of art once seen and reviewed by Walt Disney himself.

Les Pirates des Caraïbes

The fifth and final geographic region represented in Adventureland is the islands of the Caribbean, home of course to a rowdy crew of pirates. While Pirates of the Caribbean at Disneyland Paris is substantially similar to its sister attractions in other Disney Parks, the French version does come with its own unique accents.

The first you notice is the costumes worn by the Cast Members. Like many of the designs seen throughout Disneyland Paris, they are highly detailed and simply spectacular.

Moving beyond the marquee, you approach an old Spanish fortress with an ominous Jolly Roger flying from its highest turret.

Once you find your way in through a "secret" entrance, an exploration of the catacombs of the fortress reveals clues as to what might have happened here. A battle has taken place. The fortress was attacked, and the explosives in the arsenal destroyed parts of the interior and blew a hole in the side of the structure.

Assuming you make it this far, you'll eventually come to the "outside" edge of the fortress, overlooking a quiet lagoon. Here, the battlements still stand at the ready, although helpless to defend against history.

Down at the docks, a crew of buccaneers helps you aboard a longboat for your journey across the lagoon and back in time... to personally witness the attack of the Pirates of the Caribbean.

La Cabane des Robinson

Rising majestically above the southern end of Adventure Isle at Disneyland Paris is a tremendous specimen, Disneyodendron semperflorens grandis. At 70 feet tall, this tree's 300,000 plastic leaves provide shelter for the Swiss Family Robinson Treehouse.

When we stopped by earlier this summer, the Robinsons were apparently off visiting relatives in New Guinea, as the entire treehouse was closed for refurbishment. That doesn't mean there wasn't anything to see, though.

A walk around the island's pathways provides a good look at the family's ingenious arboreal abode, similar in many ways to the Swiss Family Treehouse attractions found in the Magic Kingdom and Tokyo Disneyland (Anaheim and Hong Kong include treehouse attractions based on Tarzan).

What makes the attraction unique in Paris is how the story of the Swiss Family Robinson actually extends beyond the tree. For example, resting in a cove along the western edge of Adventure Isle is a shipwreck, what remains of the Swallow, the vessel which landed the Robinsons on this uncharted island.

A floating barrel bridge has been set up, allowing the family access to the wreckage, from which they've been able to salvage pieces used in the construction of their treetop home. Such resourcefulness can be seen elsewhere on the island, as well. Take a look at this contraption, designed to funnel clean drinking water from a spring straight to these drinking fountains.

Walking around the island, you may also come across this cave, labeled "Le Ventre de la Terre" (literally translated, "the belly of the earth"). At first, it appears to be just another fun cavern to explore... until you discover the Robinson's cellar, stocked with all sorts of food and supplies!

Explore a bit further, and you're soon surrounded by a dense, twisted web of roots, pushing through the earth from above. Ahead, sunlight beams down on you, and you look up to find you're directly beneath the tree itself!

Ye Be Seekin' Adventure & Salty Ol' Pirates, Ay?

At the heart of Adventureland lies Adventure Isle, an oasis of South Seas jungles and caves offering hours of interactive fun for Guests young and old alike. Adventure Isle was created as a unique attraction for Disneyland Paris, fulfilling the role Tom Sawyer Island plays for visitors to the American parks.

We approach the island at Cannonball Cove, where Captain Hook's ship, The Jolly Roger, is moored in the shadow of Skull Rock. It's a fitting sight in this corner of the park, providing a visual link between nearby Pirates of the Caribbean and Peter Pan's Flight in adjacent Fantasyland. The ship would typically be open for boarding, but during my visit it was being prepared for a massive refurbishment (which also explains why the waterways are dry; water would normally cascade through the open jaws of Skull Rock).

On the shore, la Plage des Pirates (Pirates' Beach) offers young buccaneers plenty to keep themselves in shape for the next sailing, with rope-climbs, crawl-throughs and even a wacky photo op or two.

Adventure Isle is roughly divided in two, with a narrow waterway (dry and sandy in the photo below) running between the north and south islands. The northern island is dominated by Spyglass Hill and the Pirate Lookout, beneath which a series of catacombs call to the brave to be explored.

Here in the Pirates Grotto, those able to uncover a path through the Stalagmite Maze may just find Ben Gunn's treasure (from Treasure Island)... or a bottomless pit.

If you survive to pass this way again, you may choose to escape across this suspension bridge, to the friendlier shores of the southern island - home to none other than a family of Swiss named Robinson. Let's pay a visit to them tomorrow, shall we?

Passage to India

So far in Adventureland at Disneyland Paris, we've visited the Middle East and Africa. Further around the bend, a deeply forested path leads into the heart of India, the next geographic region embodied entirely by the attraction Indiana Jones et le Temple du Péril (Indiana Jones and the Temple of Peril).

Opened in 1993 as the largest element of the park's early added capacity program, Indiana Jones et le Temple du Péril became the first roller coaster attraction in a Disney Park to feature a complete inversion. On the ride, Guests board ore cars for a rollicking tour of the archaeological site surrounding a Dravidian-style stone temple, similar to those found near Mahabalipuram in Southern India.

Approaching the site, the queue winds past the base camp, where artifacts from the excavation are being collected, cleaned, catalogued and prepared for shipment to museums in the west.

Look closely into one of the tents in the camp, and apart from the bunk with mosquito netting and the collection of postcards and photographs from around the world, you may also notice a familiar whip and fedora. They're sitting on a crate addressed to none other than Dr. Henry Jones, Jr.

Turn the corner, and the stone steps of the temple rise before you, flanked on either side by enormous carved cobras. That's right... snakes. Why did there have to be snakes?!

The steps carry you up toward the site, where you then descend into a tented area where the ore cars are offloaded. This is our embarkation point for the journey up and around the monument. Hang on, though. It promises to be a wild ride!

A casual start turns frantic, as the temple gods are disturbed, sending our ore cars careening wildly around the temple spires and into a 360° loop. As part of an effort to relaunch interest in the coaster in spring 2000, Disney's Imagineers turned things around... literally. The attraction became Indiana Jones et le Temple du Péril - Backwards!, with the cars covering the entire route in reverse. Everything was put back on the right track, though, in 2004, and the ride continues to thrill Disneyland Paris Guests year after year.