This is a set of photographs taken during July 2008 of the Back lot tour ride at Disneyland Paris.

The ride is similar to the one at Orlando but the tour doesnt start on foot, each tour is done on the trams which you stay on until you return back to the loading bay.

Each trip lasts about 15 minutes and you have plenty of time for taking pictures during this trip.

I actually preferred this ride to the one we had done previously in Orlando back in Febraury, apart from been allot newer than the Orlando Back lot tour the duration was just right and didnt involve the pre show antics which are featured in Florida.

The Backlot tour ride opened in Walt Disney Studios, Disneyland Paris in March 2002 when the studios part of Disneyland Paris area was opened.

One of the shuttles from Armegeddon, obviously the one that didnt get blown up on entering the asteroid.

Various film items along the full stretch of the back lot tour, half of which I have no idea where they came from.

More props.

Items from 102 Dalmations.

Dinosaur.

Catastrophe Canyon.

Around the back of the above stunt, its suprising how big this set really is and the amount of water that’s required.

Some of the pumps for the above set.

I think these are from Pearl Harbour

Costume department, Below the clothes from Narnia.

Loads of cars from the movies. too many to mention.

This is a London Street from reign of fire.

Crushed Volvo.

More cars from 101 Dalmations.

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This article isnt going to be a ride spoiler as such, more an in depth looking behind the scenes of one of the parks most spectacular dark rides.

Hex is a Vekoma Haunted Swing ride, it has operated at the park since 2000. Its located in the towers and well you cant really miss a big great tower.

The control room for Hex is around the back of the towers. Here’s a couple of shots of the main ride operators console.

In the shot below you can see a screen just where the operators elbow is. This controls the full attraction from start to finish the music/effects everything. Its all perfectly timed for the audience. Just behind the green wall is the final queue line to get into the ride chamber itself.

And a close up of the panel (for the guy in Canada who said it wasnt made by Vekoma.!

The rotating room.

*SPOILER*

As you have probably guessed the attraction sits inside a huge drum similar to a washing machine with a center pivot for the seats. the room rotates in huge pit and its quite difficult to get a decent picture, but heres my effort anyway.

This is a picture taken from the side of the attraction looking up, the big white steel bar is the pivot point for the seats.

This is taken from the first operators console looking back at the queue line.

A couple of similar views at different angles.

Turning around now looking at the operators console.

Ever wondered what those numbers are whilst your queuing for Hex. Basically it tells the operator how many people have passed through the entry turnstile. Hex has a capacity of 78 people every few minutes, once they hit 78 the pre show starts.

Once through the turn style this is where you wait for the rest of the customers.

Once enough people are in the queue the doors in front are open and you enter the video room.

Inside the video room.

Im not going to spoil this for anyone, if you want to see the show theres a copy on youtube.

After the show which lasts a few minutes the doors open and your led into the next room.

Again I wont spoil this for anyone who hasn’t been through Hex, so heres a few photographs.

The lighting rig in the center of the room, this is dropped to the floor during winter for maintenance.

The theming in Hex is fantastic.

After a short time you are lead through to the ride.

Seats.

And finally the fallen branch. – Don’t know what this means then take a trip through Hex next time your at Alton Towers.

Thats the end of the tour, thanks to Alton towers and Club pleasure beach for arranging this tour, we also viewed a few more attractions at Alton towers this day, to see a complete list of behind the scenes tours on ridemad click Behind the scenes

If you want to use any photographs on this blog please get in touch paul@ridemad.com im quite happy to share and have high resolution copies of everything used, to see the complete gallery visit the Ridemad Gallery

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