Wildest Ride In The Wilderness

As promised, today we're going to take a brief break from our tour along the Rivers of the West and pop on a different kind of transportation - the Railroad! Yes, we're going to jump on board the Big Thunder Mountain Railroad, and experience the rivers from a different point of view.

The one thing that makes Big Thunder Mountain different to its counterparts across the world, is that the main part of the attraction takes place on an island. The only way to get to this island, is through an underground tunnel in the attraction.

But, wait a minute, let's look inside the way-back-machine and read an excerpt from the Berlitz Pocket Guide to EuroDisney (and don't forget to hold onto all chapeaux, verres and petits enfant!).

[Big Thunder Mountain] starts off downhill into a gloomy mine well under the Rivers of the West, rising again past scores of bats' eyes glowing in the dark phosphorescent whirlpools, stalactites and stalagmites. At the top of the rise a waterfall nearly drenches the passengers.

Now you're on the Big Thunder Mountain itself and the ride begins in earnest, plunging through tunnels and swerving around corners at dizzying speeds. At Foreboding Gorge, the train picks up speed past cactus plants and twisted trees into a dense pine forest where a family of opossum is swinging from the branches. Then it splashes past Mill Landing where an ore wagon from a busted branch line dangles perilously over the raging waters of Mill Creek. At Mill Camp a goat is trying to tug a prospector's overalls from a clothes line, watched by a laughing pack of mules.

Mind your head in Coyote Canyon. Two howling coyotes, flashing danger lights and an overturned ore wagon warn passengers to duck as they pass into Head-Knocker Tunnel. Amid rumbles at the approach to Big Thunder Mine, the train begins to shake. Sticks of dynamite litter the track and a miner shouts: "Fire in the hole!" Suddenly an explosion shakes the cave walls, timber shafts crash down and fire flashes light up veins of gold in the rock face while gold dust sprinkles down. Again the train narrowly escapes as the mine shaft collapses behind you.

Just when you think you're out of danger, the train plunges once more - into a cave full of bats. The wagons are about to sink into the flood, but everyone is pulled to safety, back at the Big Thunder Mining Co headquarters, for disembarkation.

[Berlitz, EuroDisney Pocket Guide, p46-48]

Phew! I hope you all survived that wild, wild ride! Now, how about we go, grab a fastpass, and come back on the ride later?