Future of Jurassic Park River Adventure

[Andysol]

At some point they will probably get around to giving the ride a massive refurb like USJ did. But whether or not they transition it to another iteration of the JP franchise is more 50-50 to me.

While I see the value of updating Orlandos JP ride to a more modern iteration of the JW franchise, those just aren't as timeless or as well received as the original 90s Jurassic Park era. Plus, considering how the JP franchise is one of those IPs that keeps coming back in some way, rethemeing it to a newer version of JP risks that getting dated if it ever fizzles out like the 2015-2021 JW trilogy.

I’ve said this before- but absolutely no one outside of us theme park geeks care if it’s themed as Jurassic World or Jurassic Park.
All the average guest cares about is it’s Jurassic something and it has dinosaurs.

They’ll still sell Jurassic park shirts no matter what (just like they do at Jurassic world in Beijing).

It truly doesn’t matter which era they theme it to as no characters are in the ride and the merch is still gonna get pushed off the shelves. They just need to take it down for a while and make it impressive again a la mummy and ET.

 

[Lucky Planet]

I’ve said this before- but absolutely no one outside of us theme park geeks care if it’s themed as Jurassic World or Jurassic Park.
All they care about is it’s Jurassic something and it has dinosaurs.

They’ll still sell Jurassic park shirts no matter what (just like they do at Jurassic world in Beijing).

It truly doesn’t matter which era they theme it to as no characters are in the ride and the merch is still gonna get pushed off the shelves.

thats very true, and as long as the ride is still a river adventure boat ride,bits not even connected to anything from any movie story point. its basically an original story
jurassic world has a river scene that lasts 10 seconds, thats all

 

[OrlLover]

They just need to take it down for a while and make it impressive again a la mummy and ET.

At this point that’s the biggest thing that needs to happen.

 

[Lucky Planet]

I’m not sure a tree canopy would have done much, I think the open air feel definitely adds to the grand scale of the entire ride.

If I recall correctly, the opening scene in Hollywood had this. Although poorly executed.

I remember the idea for the canopy was to protect the animatronics. it could have made it look more like a thick forest. the open air makes it look kinda empty.

As much as I do love JPRA at it's best, I honestly 100% agree. Dinosaur just nails the feeling of being chased by a giant carnivorous dino and there's so many cool scenes and effects supporting that concept.

Although, I've never seen a thread get so off-topic so quick haha. We're talking about DAK's Dinosaur in the Rip, Ride, Rockit thread.

yeah I wish it was the t rex instead . the carno is kinda ugly. but dinosaur has the "jeep" experience the entire time and it has like twice more dinosaurs. it's dark like the night scene in Jurassic Park and everything

 

[Mad Dog]

I like Dinosaur at Disney, but I've always enjoyed JPRA much more. I've always considered JPRA to be a far superior, more entertaining, attraction. Dinosaur is often sooo dark you can't see much of anything, and that's even after they turned the lighting up a bit during their last major refurb a few years ago. Plus, the grand finale drop on JPRA is pretty damn major fun and a fitting climax......unless water melts you.

 

[SkiBum]

I like Dinosaur at Disney, but I've always enjoyed JPRA much more. I've always considered JPRA to be a far superior, more entertaining, attraction. Dinosaur is often sooo dark you can't see much of anything, and that's even after they turned the lighting up a bit during their last major refurb a few years ago. Plus, the grand finale drop on JPRA is pretty damn major fun and a fitting climax......unless water melts you.

I despise getting wet. I have been on JPRA four times and one time resulted in a complete soaking. So, I don't ride it anymore. However, I love the ride. If all animatronics worked as intended, that would be wonderful but I love the ride. I just don't like squelching along in wet shoes for the remainder of the day.

 

[Lucky Planet]

I like Dinosaur at Disney, but I've always enjoyed JPRA much more. I've always considered JPRA to be a far superior, more entertaining, attraction. Dinosaur is often sooo dark you can't see much of anything, and that's even after they turned the lighting up a bit during their last major refurb a few years ago. Plus, the grand finale drop on JPRA is pretty damn major fun and a fitting climax......unless water melts you.

its true that it's very dark. that I agree
and the car is very shaky, JPRA is more softer and slower ( in a good way)

to me dinosaur feels like the scene when the t rex escapes from the enclosure in the Jurassic Park movie which is at night and it's raining, so in that sense dinosaur feels exactly like that scene.

the dinos at JPRA are nice but dinosaur has like twice the dinos, they are all over the place, the meat eating dino chases you like the t rex in the movie and everything, that's what feels like the jp to me.

 

[Tyc00n96]

Now that we are only months away from JW: Rebirth, do we think theres a chance for a River Adventure refresh/ update in the near-ish future if the movie does well? It is the start of a triolgy I believe.

The original JW gave rise to many different attractions and theming. Idk just spitballing.

 

[Wesker69]

Don't need to really change the ride itself, just give it a full proper refurbishment & technical upgrade. Especially when the shiny new park opens in a few months

 

[DodgsonHere]

Now that we are only months away from JW: Rebirth, do we think theres a chance for a River Adventure refresh/ update in the near-ish future if the movie does well? It is the start of a triolgy I believe.

The original JW gave rise to many different attractions and theming. Idk just spitballing.

If Jurassic World didn’t already switch it over there’s no way this new movie is.

 

[Jerroddragon]

It would be cool but I'll wait and see how much the movie makes

I would be happy if just JP/JW (in CA) got like a new dinosaur from the film that would be cool even

 

[Tyc00n96]

If Jurassic World didn’t already switch it over there’s no way this new movie is.

To be fair we did get Velocicoaster from JW. I am not 100% sure if that rumor from a while back was our about the budget having to come down to River Adventure or VC but still. I also think Epic's budget may have played a role in keeping the full land from getting a year plus long overhaul.

 

[Parkscope Joe]

To be fair we did get Velocicoaster from JW. I am not 100% sure if that rumor from a while back was our about the budget having to come down to River Adventure or VC but still. I also think Epic's budget may have played a role in keeping the full land from getting a year plus long overhaul.

There were rumors of the walkaround dinos from USJ coming to the park, I figured they were cut during COVID as they didn't know when they'd be able to use them.

 

[biggerboat16]

Now that we are only months away from JW: Rebirth, do we think theres a chance for a River Adventure refresh/ update in the near-ish future if the movie does well? It is the start of a triolgy I believe.

The original JW gave rise to many different attractions and theming. Idk just spitballing.

I think post-Epic something may be likely. They’re going to be looking for reasons to push people towards USF and IOA (although mainly USF), and a retheme/renovation of an existing attraction would be a far more cost-effective way to do that than a new attraction. A JPRA-redo may be a quick and easy draw for IOA immediately after Epic opens to fill the void before the Lost Continent replacement.

As for theme or scope, I think something akin to what was done with Spidey. The same story is retained, but what worked was heavily refurbished and what no longer worked was replaced with modern technology to achieve the same general effect but better (like the 3D screens for Spidey). I think it wouldn’t be unreasonable for the JP theme to remain. I’ve heard that JW Rebirth is going to liken back to the original Jurassic Park in tone as well as story, opting for the grittier, smaller scale of the first three movies rather than the modern, global scale of the JW trilogy.

If the franchise continues to liken back to the original movie, it would make sense for its theme park representation to be the very thing that everything else seems to be drawing from.

If it were up to me, (blue sky incoming) replace the ultrasaur with a film accurate Brachiosaurus, refurbish the Stegosaurs, replace the Hadrosaur with a more reliable animatronic that will actually appear on the ride for more than a week at a time, add a crashed Ford explorer by the raptor cage, move the Dilos to the bottom of the lift hill (there’s a dead spot here almost like in the 2019 version of Hollywood’s redo) replace the raptors with film-accurate models that aren’t put to shame by the Velocicoaster versions, add the Hollywood T-Rex head from the ceiling where the Dilos were (very cool effect), and renovate Rexy to move and look like her Japanese counterpart (Lately our Rexy looks like a statue with a slowly moving head where the Japanese Rexy actually looks like a real Dinosaur).

These changes alongside a new soundtrack and script would be a cost-effective way to market a NEW AND IMPROVED ATTRACTION for IOA before they finally put Lost Continent under the knife. If they won’t replace Lost Continent until 2028-2030, doing this in late 2025 or the first part of 2026 would give the park a quick and easy draw for guests.

 

[Clive]

I think post-Epic something may be likely. They’re going to be looking for reasons to push people towards USF and IOA (although mainly USF), and a retheme/renovation of an existing attraction would be a far more cost-effective way to do that than a new attraction. A JPRA-redo may be a quick and easy draw for IOA immediately after Epic opens to fill the void before the Lost Continent replacement.

As for theme or scope, I think something akin to what was done with Spidey. The same story is retained, but what worked was heavily refurbished and what no longer worked was replaced with modern technology to achieve the same general effect but better (like the 3D screens for Spidey). I think it wouldn’t be unreasonable for the JP theme to remain. I’ve heard that JW Rebirth is going to liken back to the original Jurassic Park in tone as well as story, opting for the grittier, smaller scale of the first three movies rather than the modern, global scale of the JW trilogy.

If the franchise continues to liken back to the original movie, it would make sense for its theme park representation to be the very thing that everything else seems to be drawing from.

If it were up to me, (blue sky incoming) replace the ultrasaur with a film accurate Brachiosaurus, refurbish the Stegosaurs, replace the Hadrosaur with a more reliable animatronic that will actually appear on the ride for more than a week at a time, add a crashed Ford explorer by the raptor cage, move the Dilos to the bottom of the lift hill (there’s a dead spot here almost like in the 2019 version of Hollywood’s redo) replace the raptors with film-accurate models that aren’t put to shame by the Velocicoaster versions, add the Hollywood T-Rex head from the ceiling where the Dilos were (very cool effect), and renovate Rexy to move and look like her Japanese counterpart (Lately our Rexy looks like a statue with a slowly moving head where the Japanese Rexy actually looks like a real Dinosaur).

These changes alongside a new soundtrack and script would be a cost-effective way to market a NEW AND IMPROVED ATTRACTION for IOA before they finally put Lost Continent under the knife. If they won’t replace Lost Continent until 2028-2030, doing this in late 2025 or the first part of 2026 would give the park a quick and easy draw for guests.

The trouble is I'm not sure these changes are significant enough to warrant the "new and improved" marketing. They'd have to add Jurassic World dinos and fully rebrand it... unless they somehow added a bunch of dinos (versus moving some around/adding in some Hollywood/Japan effects), they could maybe try a "more teeth than ever" or something.

 

[biggerboat16]

The trouble is I'm not sure these changes are significant enough to warrant the "new and improved" marketing. They'd have to add Jurassic World dinos and fully rebrand it... unless they somehow added a bunch of dinos (versus moving some around/adding in some Hollywood/Japan effects), they could maybe try a "more teeth than ever" or something.

Very true, there’s a fine line between being cost-effective and actually making significant changes that the GP would notice. While we’d be over the moon if they replaced the ultrasaur, I can see where something like that wouldn’t really push ticket sales. I do like the ‘More Teeth than Ever’ branding though if they went with something more akin to my ideas than a top to bottom overhaul.

 

[Cup_Of_Coffee]

A ScarJo and Johnathan Bailey animatronic with new Dinosaurs and a JW rebrand sounds absolutely like a winner!

 

[Brian G.]

Johnathan Bailey animatronic

But performing Dancing Through Life while a Raptor attacks.

 

[belloq87]

I think post-Epic something may be likely. They’re going to be looking for reasons to push people towards USF and IOA (although mainly USF), and a retheme/renovation of an existing attraction would be a far more cost-effective way to do that than a new attraction. A JPRA-redo may be a quick and easy draw for IOA immediately after Epic opens to fill the void before the Lost Continent replacement.

As for theme or scope, I think something akin to what was done with Spidey. The same story is retained, but what worked was heavily refurbished and what no longer worked was replaced with modern technology to achieve the same general effect but better (like the 3D screens for Spidey). I think it wouldn’t be unreasonable for the JP theme to remain. I’ve heard that JW Rebirth is going to liken back to the original Jurassic Park in tone as well as story, opting for the grittier, smaller scale of the first three movies rather than the modern, global scale of the JW trilogy.

If the franchise continues to liken back to the original movie, it would make sense for its theme park representation to be the very thing that everything else seems to be drawing from.

If it were up to me, (blue sky incoming) replace the ultrasaur with a film accurate Brachiosaurus, refurbish the Stegosaurs, replace the Hadrosaur with a more reliable animatronic that will actually appear on the ride for more than a week at a time, add a crashed Ford explorer by the raptor cage, move the Dilos to the bottom of the lift hill (there’s a dead spot here almost like in the 2019 version of Hollywood’s redo) replace the raptors with film-accurate models that aren’t put to shame by the Velocicoaster versions, add the Hollywood T-Rex head from the ceiling where the Dilos were (very cool effect), and renovate Rexy to move and look like her Japanese counterpart (Lately our Rexy looks like a statue with a slowly moving head where the Japanese Rexy actually looks like a real Dinosaur).

These changes alongside a new soundtrack and script would be a cost-effective way to market a NEW AND IMPROVED ATTRACTION for IOA before they finally put Lost Continent under the knife. If they won’t replace Lost Continent until 2028-2030, doing this in late 2025 or the first part of 2026 would give the park a quick and easy draw for guests.

I like most of this a lot.

unless they somehow added a bunch of dinos (versus moving some around/adding in some Hollywood/Japan effects), they could maybe try a "more teeth than ever" or something.

There's theoretically room for new/additional dinosaurs (perhaps even as just limited-motion figures) along the existing ride path without having to rework a ton of infrastructure. No reason there couldn't be another dino species in the lagoon, another (smaller) species near the stegos, and then something before the lift hill (as @biggerboat16's plan posits).

Now, would Universal feel it's worth the expenditure to add those? Probably not. But they could.

a JW rebrand

 

[Cup_Of_Coffee]

But performing Dancing Through Life while a Raptor attacks.

The Raptor then goes “IT’S MEEEEEEEE”