Future of Jurassic Park River Adventure

[belloq87]

“The general public won’t care” should not be used to justify subpar show quality.

If an attraction was designed to operate in a certain way and with certain elements, that’s how it should operate. And if it can’t (because elements are broken), then it should be fixed. Expeditiously.

 

[Jake S]

Wouldn't really say that was a major refurbishment, just general winter maintenance that happens every year. I doubt they even really touch the animatronics much during that.

They are definitely touching the animatronics during the annual month-long closure.

“The general public won’t care” should not be used to justify subpar show quality.

I also don't know how you could possibly measure this. No one is going to picket Disney's Hollywood Studios because the cannons don't work on Rise of the Resistance. They should still fix them because part of paying a luxury product price means expecting luxury product quality.

Tesla sells vehicles with rattling seats, sun visors that fall off and more plastic than you can shake a stick at. Customers not caring (or, not caring enough to not buy the product) doesn't change the value proposition on offer.

 

[sonoma15]

They are definitely touching the animatronics during the annual month-long closure.


I also don't know how you could possibly measure this. No one is going to picket Disney's Hollywood Studios because the cannons don't work on Rise of the Resistance. They should still fix them because part of paying a luxury product price means expecting luxury product quality.

Tesla sells vehicles with rattling seats, sun visors that fall off and more plastic than you can shake a stick at. Customers not caring (or, not caring enough to not buy the product) doesn't change the value proposition on offer.

Yeah, but they aren't keeping Rise of the Resistance closed because the cannons aren't working. Heck, they'll even keep Rise open without the preshows operating which is a MAJOR part of the storyline for that ride.

 

[Jake S]

Yeah, but they aren't keeping Rise of the Resistance closed because the cannons aren't working. Heck, they'll even keep Rise open without the preshows operating which is a MAJOR part of the storyline for that ride.

yes, both universal and disney are making crummy decisions with the maintenance of their attractions!

 

[Brian G.]

There's a delicate line between what warrants a closure. We've seen Universal close rides ASAP when needed - like Flyers and VelicoCoaster, and we've also seen them let Kong skip the entire outdoor track; so it all depends on what they determine is a justifiable "loss". Crap happens - and sometimes it may need a very extensive fix. In this case - the major gripe is that it just came off its 3rd refurbishment within a year and a key part was still missing.

 

[OrlLover]

yes, both universal and disney are making crummy decisions with the maintenance of their attractions!

We do agree on that.

However a lot of people especially that visit Disney expect all the attractions to be open regardless of their condition.

Some of the responses I saw regarding Big Thunder Mountain potentially closing for a lengthy refurbishment really showed me the GP doesn’t really care about one or two missing show scenes.

 

[sonoma15]

There's a delicate line between what warrants a closure. We've seen Universal close rides ASAP when needed - like Flyers and VelicoCoaster, and we've also seen them let Kong skip the entire outdoor track; so it all depends on what they determine is a justifiable "loss". Crap happens - and sometimes it may need a very extensive fix. In this case - the major gripe is that it just came off its 3rd refurbishment within a year and a key part was still missing.

3rd within a year? Didn't it only close for the annual maintenance? Either way, the 2nd Hadrosaur was working at the end of last year, and even after the refurb (the first was completely gone, nothing in the pit), it was removed a little bit after, within the last 2-3 months. It was stuck in the up position for awhile though before they started refurbishing it which was a bit awkward.

 

[UniversalRBLX]

Some of the responses I saw regarding Big Thunder Mountain potentially closing for a lengthy refurbishment really showed me the GP doesn’t really care about one or two missing show scenes.

Gotta love how people comment about wanting an attraction refurbished, only to then complain its scheduled during their trip

Obviously things happen, but we shouldn't expect missing elements to take way too long to be repaired either. We're now a full year into Kong skipping the outdoor portion unfortunately.

 

[Brian G.]

3rd within a year? Didn't it only close for the annual maintenance? Either way, the 2nd Hadrosaur was working at the end of last year, and even after the refurb (the first was completely gone, nothing in the pit), it was removed a little bit after, within the last 2-3 months. It was stuck in the up position for awhile though before they started refurbishing it which was a bit awkward.

You have the two annual refurbishments bookending the year, with a few random closures here and there as they worked to fix the AAs and ride during overnights.

 

[GA-MBIT]

I wonder if that JW update might just be for the best so that they can really dig at the roots of these maintenence problems with a solid chunk of time and sizable budget? Effect downtime seems to be recurring and consistent with this ride.

 

[Rhian]

We do agree on that.

However a lot of people especially that visit Disney expect all the attractions to be open regardless of their condition.

Some of the responses I saw regarding Big Thunder Mountain potentially closing for a lengthy refurbishment really showed me the GP doesn’t really care about one or two missing show scenes.

If the attraction's open but scenes are broken because of missing effects or AAs, I'd much rather have the ride fixed and presentable than open and miserable. Obviously there's a line and even Disney knew this in the early years with the point system they have/had, and if a ride scored too high it would be closed until it was fixed or the score was below the 'Must Close' threshold. It helped maintain a minimum standard that guests would expect.

That threshold was intended to incentivize the park to get it back open ASAP by maintaining show quality precisely because closure meant more unsatisfied guests but an open ride with a crappy show would also mean unhappy guests too.

There's people who don't care about any of that, but there's also people who would complain about anything for any reason regardless of rationality.

Jake put it very well:

They should still fix them because part of paying a luxury product price means expecting luxury product quality.

 

[OrlLover]

If the attraction's open but scenes are broken because of missing effects or AAs, I'd much rather have the ride fixed and presentable than open and miserable. Obviously there's a line and even Disney knew this in the early years with the point system they have/had, and if a ride scored too high it would be closed until it was fixed or the score was below the 'Must Close' threshold. It helped maintain a minimum standard that guests would expect.

That threshold was intended to incentivize the park to get it back open ASAP by maintaining show quality precisely because closure meant more unsatisfied guests but an open ride with a crappy show would also mean unhappy guests too.

There's people who don't care about any of that, but there's also people who would complain about anything for any reason regardless of rationality.

Jake put it very well:

I will never argue that these rides shouldn’t be fixed in a timely and prompt manner.

However I can understand why they may choose to delay any major fixes.

This attraction is notorious for having broken effects so Uni is constantly having to do minor refurbs to maintain it.

With Japan getting new boats I think it’s only a matter of time for our version to be updated.

 

[sonoma15]

If the attraction's open but scenes are broken because of missing effects or AAs, I'd much rather have the ride fixed and presentable than open and miserable. Obviously there's a line and even Disney knew this in the early years with the point system they have/had, and if a ride scored too high it would be closed until it was fixed or the score was below the 'Must Close' threshold. It helped maintain a minimum standard that guests would expect.

That threshold was intended to incentivize the park to get it back open ASAP by maintaining show quality precisely because closure meant more unsatisfied guests but an open ride with a crappy show would also mean unhappy guests too.

There's people who don't care about any of that, but there's also people who would complain about anything for any reason regardless of rationality.

Jake put it very well:

Yeah, I don't think anyone here is saying that they shouldn't fix broken effects though. I'm just saying closing the ride to do so is unnecessary, and since they remove the animatronics overnight and repair them off-site anyways it probably wouldn't speed anything up to close the ride. I can see wanting to close the ride when it's bad show, like when the Ultrasaur was gone and they had that ugly fence up, but with the Hadrosaur missing I wouldn't really say it's bad show, just nothing there.

 

[IzzyB]

Honestly I doubt most people who ride this even make the connection that the Hadrosaur is the reason your boat gets bumped off course. Also I bet most guests would prefer the ride to be open than to be closed because 2 animatronics are missing, that they don't even know about because they've never ridden the ride and they are hidden underwater. Let's be real, most people are just there for the big drop and t-rex at the end.


Closing the attraction down doesn't accelerate anything, they regularly remove animatronics from rides to be repaired, it will return one night randomly and we'll all forget this discussion even happened.

I have to agree. I rode it with the missing dinos and didn't even know they were missing nor did I realize they were supposed to knock us off track. My family also didn't care. Shutting the entire ride down is not a wise idea for this minor thing.

“The general public won’t care” should not be used to justify subpar show quality.

If an attraction was designed to operate in a certain way and with certain elements, that’s how it should operate. And if it can’t (because elements are broken), then it should be fixed. Expeditiously.

No one is saying it shouldn't be fixed, we are saying it should remain open while it is being fixed if possible.

 

[Jake S]

I can see wanting to close the ride when it's bad show, like when the Ultrasaur was gone and they had that ugly fence up, but with the Hadrosaur missing I wouldn't really say it's bad show, just nothing there.

We're gonna have to agree to disagree on this. The missing hadrosaur is just about as bad as the show can get for this attraction.

 

[belloq87]

I think the ride has always needed a few more dinosaurs as it is, so having any missing feels like a big deal to me when it happens.

 

[OrlLover]

Once this attraction does go down for a full overhaul I wonder would they replace all the animatronics or just rebuild the current ones?

 

[Jake S]

Once this attraction does go down for a full overhaul I wonder would they replace all the animatronics or just rebuild the current ones?

My sense is the latter; I believe that’s what’s been done in Hollywood in the past.

 

[Rhian]

I can see wanting to close the ride when it's bad show, like when the Ultrasaur was gone and they had that ugly fence up, but with the Hadrosaur missing I wouldn't really say it's bad show, just nothing there.

Yeah that was my main point in mentioning the point system. Under something like that, T-rex missing should be a close, but something like the moving bushes wouldn't warrant shutting down the ride. Still, all effects should be kept up and seen running as often as possible; too many small effects missing and that could also trigger a ride closure to get the show back to a minimum acceptance level.

Closing down the ride is obviously a last resort option and the parks should be throwing what they need to to get it back open fast. If they're keeping up with proper, timely maintenance that should rarely happen and guests shouldn't notice a huge dip in quality between visits.

I have to agree. I rode it with the missing dinos and didn't even know they were missing nor did I realize they were supposed to knock us off track. My family also didn't care. Shutting the entire ride down is not a wise idea for this minor thing.

From what I noticed (if it's working) is that the water jets and bubbling still sell the illusion that something is under the water. It's far from perfect but still kinda works if you're not paying close attention.

I wouldn't close the ride for that either but I would add a static figure that looks like it's crouching like a gator does when kayaking over them.

I think the ride has always needed a few more dinosaurs as it is, so having any missing feels like a big deal to me when it happens.

Maybe with the improvements in robotics and materials over the years we'll get something that'll handle the wet and humid environment of the ride better.

 

[Steptwice]

Sheesh, relax everyone. They aren't closing down a ride to fix a few animatronics lol. They just did a refurb and that doesn't just address the animatronics, but more or less the actual ride system. When they actually want to address the animatronics, they will lol, but it's about keeping the ride afloat for the time being. Lets all just be grateful it still going tbh. One of my favorites in Islands. And my gut says it doesn't stick around as JP for much longer. Just my gut. So everyone shush and just enjoy.