Dinosaur Death Trap In Flordia

Anticipation of my trip to Universal Studios next December is murder. Know what else will murder you? Dinosaurs. One of the things I'm looking forward to is spending some time in Jurassic Park. By the time we go, the new ride will be open and there's gonna be some cool new stuff to check out.

Last time we were there, while eating lunch at one of the JP restaurants, this kid randomly yelled "WWE SUPERSTARS!" and slammed down his soda. There we were, an entire theme park restaurant staring at this kid like a freak. 

 

The main focus of the area is the Discovery Center and River Adventure. They manage to recreate the look and feel of the original movie really well. The River Adventure is the second version of the Jurassic Park ride that originally opened at the Hollywood Park in 1996. 

The ride was in works before the movie believe it or not. If you look at the images behind John Hammond during the dinner meeting scene in the original movie, you'll see conceptual art from the ride. It's in the 'future attractions' slide. Pretty cool huh? The version in Florida opened in 1999 and is clearly version 2.0 as there's a few differences. 

There's another version in Japan, which is a little different as well. The Singapore ride follows a similar idea, but is a river rapid style ride instead of a boat ride with a flume drop. Recently they upgraded the Hollywood Park ride into a Jurassic World version with new scenes and upgraded effects. It looks great... but I still think I like the original better. It just has a charm, you know?

 

By The Power of Poseidon's Fury

If you've ever been to Universal's Islands of Adventure, you've probably found yourself marveling at the gorgeous Poseidon's Fury facade. It's truly a sight to be seen, while opinions of the attraction itself may vary, there's no lack of love for the look of the place. It's awesome. Set in the ruins of a temple where a battle of good and evil takes place over a magic weapon... does that sound familiar?

 

Epic Universe

Universal Orlando announced earlier today (yesterday for you) the upcoming new park at their resort called Universal's Epic Universe. This will be the fourth park at the resort and second park since Comcast bought the company. I'm pretty excited even though it's years away from opening. I've been watching the developments of this on theme park blogs as the land was being purchased and various plans were changed and names were thrown around (it was at one point called Fantastic Worlds). While in their press conference, they gave a light description without going into too many details. That's fine, that's to be expected as they're literally still clearing the ground. This is a huge undertaking and in the end will be something amazing.

This preliminary picture of the park gives a general idea of what to expect. The new park will have it's own Citywalk and resorts. It's practically a brand new Universal Studios on it's own. While details are scarce, the underground rumblings that have been right all along are saying details that just seem amazing. Nintendo is going to be here. While originally going in the original park, then planned to be spread across all the Orlando resort parks, now the plan is to be here as a basic clone of the Japanese land. The same scuttlebutt claims there will be also a Fantastic Beast's land (more Harry Potter), a How to Train your Dragon land (probably will be a DreamWorks area in general), and a Universal Monster's land (you know I'm practically pee'ing myself over that). What makes this so great is, if you'll notice how Diagon Alley is and look at the plans for Super Nintendo Land in Japan (coming here), you'll have a good idea how this park is going to work by the above picture. Basically self contained themed lands that are accessible by a central hub that will be full of Universal Studios style total immersion. Universal Studios original slogan was 'ride the movies', and as they've been doing in the recent years with additions, they mean it. You're literally going to walk into the movies world and that is AWESOME. 

Jurassic Park River Adventure

I've been paying a little extra attention to the developments to the Jurassic Park sections of Universal Studios in recent months. It's no secret that the Jurassic Park ride in the California park has been under renovations since around last fall. The ride is old, older than the movie at development (if you look at the screens behind John Hammond when he's talking to Dr. Malcom, Dr. Grant, and Dr. Sattler about the park some of the pics are of the ride). Despite regular refurbishments, it's an older ride in a theme park chain that does a lot of refreshing.

The California ride is getting converted into a Jurassic World ride which by all appearances seems to be an upgrade of the original ride. I have no complaints, it's an modern upgrade and not a replacement. That's good. What I do feel conflicted about is the Orlando Jurassic Park in Islands of Adventure. The ride is under regular refurbishment at the time (it's a water ride, winter is a good time) and the construction walls are up for the construction of the new JP roller coaster, which I also have no problem with (hoping it's a clone of the Japan JP's coaster). Some folks are upset that it will change the visual of the Discovery Center, but that's not that big of a deal to me. I've been following this story on theme park blogs that get inside information and ever since the news broke, I was ok with it. I mean, the visual from across the lagoon at Port of Entry is the center, Mythos, and Hogwarts Castle with the Incredible Hulk coaster to the side. Another roller coaster isn't going to change much and might even look more cool.

My concern is the ongoing rumor that the Jurassic Park Orlando area is going to be converted into Jurassic World as the coaster has the JW symbol on the walls (not to mention Blue in the section already). This seems like a silly thing to be concerned with (and it is), and hypocritical as I didn't care about California (which it is). My beef is that unlike California's JP section, in Orlando it's all part of a themed land and not just a ride. A themed land meant to resemble the park as it's seen in the first movie which is pretty different looking than in JW. The River Adventure is based on a scene from the original novel that's visual is excellently directly themed from the original movie. The Discovery Center is identical to the one in the original movie. The parks look different in the movies, refacing it could clash thematically.

Universal Creative is really good at what they do, and their themed lands are amazingly accurate. So I have no doubt that they'll do a good job. Perhaps they'll even spruce the rest of the land up to match the overall look. It's not much of a stretch as the parks restaurant area visual in Jurassic World is obviously based on City Walk as is. Just the fit and finish needs to be fitted and finished to make a complete package. That's my only and main concern. I don't want hodge podge in what was a really good recreation of the original park. If it is, it is and I'm sure it'll still be amazing.

Kind of want a turkey leg now.

The Amazing Adventures of Spider-Man commercial (1999)

Just spent some mental time today reflecting on this great ride.

Giving the Islands a new Adventure

It's another Rob imagines Universal Studios stuff post

As my readers know, I love me some Universal Studios Orlando. I'm regularly dreaming up fantasy situations for the park and while I've been having a ball doing it, I feel quite bad that I've ignored Islands of Adventure, the other park on the resort that's really awesome in it's own right. Islands has the awesome Hogsmeade from Harry Potter, a great Jurassic Park area, and that extremely rad new Skull Island. While I certainly love the other areas, the subject of how to reinvigorate them comes up often in various circle and I've put my noggin to use figuring out how to work with some of the other Islands. But, keeping with my sense of economy, I tried to figure out how to do it without sacrificing too much of the great stuff that's already there.

Just picture it

Everyone speculates that the Lost Continent is on the chopping block. Personally, I think the area (what's left of it post Harry Potter) is a really pretty landscape that just could use some sprucing up. With the new Super Nintendo Land coming to Universal Studios, it would be a good use of that license to adapt The Legend of Zelda to the land. Some costume changes here, some decoration changes there. Maybe something extra over there, and it pretty much does itself. Poseidon's Fury could get retrofitted with a new show inside with some of the facade redone to sell the show as a temple or dungeon experience. Mythos just could use a few touches. People complain about the Sinbad show, welp, let's do a new Zelda show in the theater. I honestly think just a little fine tuning, a little re-theming, and a little new bits and bobs and this area could be given a new life that would probably be a hit.

They've already got park history

Folks regularly say Toon Lagoon is also on the chopping block. While I dig the Newspaper comic pages characters, I could see where it could be lost on another person. How about Nickelodeon characters? The water rides could be re-themed to Sponge Bob (he already has a store at Studios!) and I could easily see the stores be re-fronted as newer Nickelodeon characters. Maybe work that boat ride into a multi character ride.

This would be awesome

I think Marvel Island is completely awesome. I'm a big fan of the overall 90's comic vibe and think the Spider-Man ride is amazing. That being said, Disney own's Marvel and it's created a weird situation that many wonder will eventually result in Marvel Island getting removed sooner or later. Going with that trail of thought and working with the fact that Marvel Island already kinda bleeds into Toon Lagoon, what if it became a TMNT/Power Rangers section? TMNT is already owned by Nickolodeon and Power Rangers has been airing on the channel for about 7 years now. That great city facade would lend itself into both quite well. I could see Spider-Man's ride system redone as a new TMNT ride. The Hulk repainted into a Power Rangers coaster (the roar could be the Dragonzord). Doctor Doom and Storm Force is a free fall and tea cups ride respectively that also could be realistically re-themed to the characters.

I know I'm just shooting from the hip as an arm chair quarterback. I have no real knowledge of how these things work past a fans general knowledge. But I see opportunities and things I'd think would be really fun. Not to mention, I kinda really like that park.

Don't look at me like that.

Cybertron Land

These are real pictures of the original Universal Studios Transformers attraction.

I'm admittedly excited for the planned trip to Universal Studios Orlando we're hoping to make come next Christmas. I'm literally bubbling with a form of excitement that can best be described as ... there's no definition. My excitement defies definition. Earlier today I was thinking about a post I made  in which I mentally dreamed up a small expansion to the Transformers ride. Then as I was thinking about it, it occurred to me... why not a mini Transformers land?

These are real pictures of the original Universal Studios Transformers attraction.

In the 80's, in the Hollywood park, they had a neato Transformers meet and greet area with costumed actors and photo ops. What I'm concieving isn't very different. After all, you already have the great costumed actors at the Transformers meet and greet. But how about a few dynamic static scenes similar to the Jurassic Park section at Islands of Adventure with a few more Transformers characters? Pepper that in with the ride, supply vault, the meet and greet and my earlier day dreamed game and snack set up and I think you got a pretty neat little area. Heck, set up another store and sell some more cool stuff even!

These are real pictures of the original Universal Studios Transformers attraction.