It was during my very first line flying (line flying = first flight after cleared training) on my current fleet 4 years ago, and we had a 3 days stay in Paris. I've planned my trip to Disneyland Paris and was practically jumping up and down when at that time, the very first 777 Captain I flew with, was asking me what was my plan in Paris, because it is traditional/customary for new guys like me gets shown around what to do, where to eat and where to go in our new nightstop stations. In the end, he and the second team Captain ended up following my prepared itinerary to Paris! It was sumemrtime in Paris I remembered, and we were running around chasing after rides after rides like little kids, when Space Mountain Mark 2 was our next ride. After 20 minutes or so lining up, we managed to get to the coaster, but was seated on the middle of the coaster car. The ride , if anyone hasn't ridden Space Mountain before is a dark ride inside a mountain-shape enclosed area, with themes like space travel and riding alongside shooting stars, meteoroid, and bursting galaxies. The ride will shoot you up a launch injection before dropping into what seems like the empty vastness of space with stars (hence the name Space Mountain). Unfortunately (or fortunately depending on how you see it ), the ride got stuck on a particular part of the track, and we were not moving anywhere in that darkness. What happened later, I will remember for the rest of my life!

They turned on the lights INSIDE Space Mountain! Very very few people have seen the inside of Space Mountain lighted, this is like seeing some guarded ultra-secret hideout no one was supposed to look at. The tracks, like I said , were tightly woven twists and turns, but , specially for Disneyland Paris version only, Space Mountain Mark 2 has a single loop! You never feel it because of like I said, the darkness makes you guessing which position relative to space around you is.

We were stuck inside the ride for more than 25 minutes. The procedure is, they cannot let go of the emergency brakes holding the coaster cars on the track when "malfunctions" happens. Less than 5 minutes waiting, a REAL LIFe Imagineer (!) (An Imagineer is the very privileged and select elite group of people employed by Disney to design, manage, maintain the rides inside any particular Disneyland) came inside the Mountain, and walked though the service gantry towards our coaster. Looking around, our coaster car was stuck and held in place on an apex of a curved top of the track, with me and my two Captains being in the middle, right at the top of this apex! While our Imagineer introduces himself and explains there's nothing to worry about and make small talk to make everyone at ease (he is so cool, charming and professional!), one question I will always remember was when he asked everyone on the coaster car where they are from. The front group of girls were speaking French and replying in French saying that they are from France, and our Imagineer answered back cordially in French as well. The next group behind the French girls were a group of young teenagers from Germany, so he welcomed them in German, to the approval of these German teenagers. There were a couple of Arab riders as well, and to my amazement, he spoke "Assalamualaikum" which sounded more like "Salaam Aleikum" but the Arabs greeted him back and converse in Arab, and he responded back in the same language. Our turn came, and we proudly say we're from Malaysia, and yup, you guessed it ..."Selamat Datang!" came out of his mouth! We managed to slip in small talk before he moved on to the next group, and he explained that he had spent a significant amount of time in the country of which these languages he spoke, as private consultant for prospective theme park planner. I asked him which theme park he help consulted? Berjaya Times Square and the now known Cosmo's World along with its indoor rollercoaster!

He then moved on to the next group who mostly are French and a group of Americans at the last seats. After 25 minutes we were allowed to climb off the stuck coaster car, but because of that apex curvature I mentioned, only those seated close enough to the middle of the coaster car can climb out to the coaster gantry walkway. The French girls at the front had their seats already on the more steeper part of the track, and had to be helped out of their seats by manly French firefighters who "dukung" them in their arms, to which these French girls were giggling and blushing uncontrollably instead of being terrified of their current situation, hanging on a coaster!! As we were helped out to the exit, our Imagineer personally handed us 5 FREE Fast Pass tickets to use on any ride with no expiration date which allows us to go straight to the front of the line without queueing up, just for our "troubles" in there. If this was the case, I don't really mind getting stuck on coasters!