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?