Joneses Given the Ride of Way : Common Name, Uncommon Treatment on New Disneyland Thrill

ANAHEIM — Clint Jones, Andrea Jones (no relation) and Larry Jones (still no relation) encountered nothing but trouble trying to keep up with another Jones Saturday.

With Indiana Jones showing the way, the trio and throngs of other Joneses survived a bumpy jeep ride through lava pits, poison darts and snakes--not to mention unscripted mechanical breakdowns--as Disneyland promoted its newest attraction, the Indiana Jones Adventure.

Disney had invited them and about 2,000 others with the same surname to march in a parade and then preview the park’s new 3 1/2-minute ride, which opens to the public March 3. The marketing spectacle follows an elaborate Super Bowl halftime show last weekend and precedes a series of upcoming special media and celebrity events all designed to hype the movie-inspired ride.

“This is our big, big pre-attraction push for the Indiana Jones ride,” said Disneyland spokeswoman Pam Espinosa.

Larry Jones and three other family members won an Indianapolis radio contest to fly to the theme park and break in Adventureland’s newest attraction.

“You better go to the restroom before you get on,” said Larry Jones, 58, after exiting the ride. “It’s awesome.”

The family, who wore T-shirts proclaiming “I’m an Indiana Jones,” led a crowd of Joneses down Main Street, U.S.A. In the parade, all the Joneses and Disneyland President Paul Pressler were held hostage by villains with black turbans but were saved, of course, by a whip-cracking Indiana Jones.

“The whole thing makes me feel like a celebrity,” said Larry Jones, 28, son of the other Indianapolis Larry Jones.

But the promotion left some other Disney visitors feeling left out.

“It was great to see Indiana Jones chase out the bad guys,” said Andre Richardson, 36, of Anaheim. “But I wish I were a Jones.”

The other Joneses were randomly selected from Southern California customers of AT&T;, which co-sponsored the event.

Winners were notified last week.

“We were totally jazzed,” said Andrea Jones, 31, with her husband and two kids. “Disneyland is our favorite place, and to get in for free is great.”

However, a spate of technical breakdowns delayed many of the eager Joneses from boarding the 12-seat vehicles that speed visitors through the Temple of the Forbidden Eye. Though the attraction is built to handle 2,000 passengers per hour, it took nearly double that time because of breakdowns Saturday.

Even so, Disney officials said, the Joneses fared much better than will visitors who line up for the ride’s debut next month.

They estimated that Jones thrill seekers on opening day may have to wait at least four hours for the attraction.

But Saturday’s delay produced an unexpected behind-the-scenes thrill for Clint Jones. The 45-year-old Torrance resident’s jeep had stopped a few minutes in the temple before he realized the delay wasn’t part of the ride.

Moments later, a Disney employee appeared and escorted him and the other passengers out.

“It was like hiking through the jungle,” said Clint Jones, waiting in line a second time for a complete ride.

“It was really fun.”