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"Old School" Universal Orlando

Not from the Studios, but I recently won an IOA grand opening poster:

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Sweet, where did you get it?
 
Look who a couple of Reddit posters found pictures of while digging through there on Universal Studios Florida pics.

*pics snipped*

Yes ladies and gentlemen, that's Wayne Brady as a Ghostbuster.

Not sure if anyone else had pointed it out, but Wayne Brady was one of the original Winston's when the GB attraction opened.
 
Jurassic Park: The Raptor Racer That Never Was



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Let's begin the week with something you've never seen or even heard about before. This is a coaster concept which was envisioned for Jurassic Park ten years ago after Islands of Adventure opening. Jean Marc Toussaint, a good friend of mine who was at that time working for IAA/The Coaster Works, a company who designed the Dania Beach Hurricane in Florida. Jean-Marc is the one who designed this Jurassic Park coaster concept and kindly send me these concept-arts.

Here is how it would have been: the coaster structure itself would have been in wood - a wooden coaster, so - and the shape of the structure would have looked like the one of a dinosaur skeleton, which was indeed an interesting idea. The coaster track was partly inspired by the one of the famous Cyclone Racer in Long Beach and the train wagons themselves were inspired by the look of the jurassic Park jeeps.

The ride would have had a "velociraptor theme" and after a high-speed race to escape the raptors the end of the ride was a kind of mini dark ride in which the train was shaken thanks to a moving/vibrating portion of the track. And when the train was arriving at the station, thanks to a special painting which react to U.V the look of the train wagons would have changed and reveal claws hits from the raptors! You can see on the pictures above and below the before/after effect.

The concept was unfortunately not approved and later the same concept - but not with a Jurassic Park theme - was proposed to Paramount Parks, with a theme inspired by The Italian Job movie (but Paramount finally choose a coaster from Premier Rides) and also for Six Flags with a Road Runner theme (they finally did a junior coaster with Vekoma).

Anyway, this "Jurassic Park wooden racer that never was" was a brilliant idea!


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Source: http://disneyandmore.blogspot.com/2011/10/jurassic-park-wooden-racer-that-never.html


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I'd say wrong thread but I also want to say. I'm not sad one bit this didn't happen. I'm sure it would have been fun and it sounds fun. But it's not on the same scale of everything else at ioa
 
I still think a coaster will one day come to JP but thank god this never happened. I mean someone had to take a bullet a find out what happens when you build a wooden coaster in Florida cough BGT cough. Just glad everyone else learned from there mistake.
 
I still think a coaster will one day come to JP but thank god this never happened. I mean someone had to take a bullet a find out what happens when you build a wooden coaster in Florida cough BGT cough. Just glad everyone else learned from there mistake.

LOL... Let's build a safe and secure firm sponge structure for a steel axle coaster!
 
I don't understand the hating on the wooden roller coasters- when done properly, they can be exhilarating rides with great capacity, and I can see one fitting into the Jurassic Park section beautifully. I wasn't too big a fan of Gwazi when I last rode it in 2007, but I'd love to have a dueling wooden roller coaster similar to Hersheypark's Lightning Racer, or even a stand-alone ride like Dollywood's Thunderhead.

And based off rides like Six Flags Magic Mountain's Terminator or Efteling's Joris en de Draak, wooden roller coasters can exist with themeing- as much themeing as any of Islands' other roller coasters have, anyhow.
 
If we really want to get down to brass tacks, John Hammond would've never allowed a wooden coaster in Jurassic Park. Aside from the lack of educational value, Hammond was all about the latest and greatest. Jurassic Park (and Jurassic Park River Adventure) feature state-of-the-art technology that goes horribly, horribly wrong. It is the defenseless nature of your position that is the scariest thing about Jurassic Park.
 
I don't understand the hating on the wooden roller coasters- when done properly, they can be exhilarating rides with great capacity, and I can see one fitting into the Jurassic Park section beautifully. I wasn't too big a fan of Gwazi when I last rode it in 2007, but I'd love to have a dueling wooden roller coaster similar to Hersheypark's Lightning Racer, or even a stand-alone ride like Dollywood's Thunderhead.

And based off rides like Six Flags Magic Mountain's Terminator or Efteling's Joris en de Draak, wooden roller coasters can exist with themeing- as much themeing as any of Islands' other roller coasters have, anyhow.

Big difference between all those that you listed and a woodie in Orlando: Humidity levels. With the heat and humidity in Orlando, a woodie would be HELL.

If we really want to get down to brass tacks, John Hammond would've never allowed a wooden coaster in Jurassic Park. Aside from the lack of educational value, Hammond was all about the latest and greatest. Jurassic Park (and Jurassic Park River Adventure) feature state-of-the-art technology that goes horribly, horribly wrong. It is the defenseless nature of your position that is the scariest thing about Jurassic Park.

And yea, it really didn't make much sense story-wise either.
 
If we really want to get down to brass tacks, John Hammond would've never allowed a wooden coaster in Jurassic Park. Aside from the lack of educational value, Hammond was all about the latest and greatest. Jurassic Park (and Jurassic Park River Adventure) feature state-of-the-art technology that goes horribly, horribly wrong. It is the defenseless nature of your position that is the scariest thing about Jurassic Park.

Story-wise, a generic wooden roller coaster tossed into the area would not make sense. But if it was given a back-story of sorts and the chaotic twist of track was part of something "going wrong" in the story, I think it could work.

Big difference between all those that you listed and a woodie in Orlando: Humidity levels. With the heat and humidity in Orlando, a woodie would be HELL.

I never considered that. Does Gwazi still run rough with the new trains? And how about Legoland's wooden coaster?
Just an idea, if you wanted to avoid the problems associated with wood track and high humidity, you could have a coaster similar to the New Texas Giant and give it the Rocky Mountain Coaster treatment.

Picture+59.png
 
I never considered that. Does Gwazi still run rough with the new trains? And how about Legoland's wooden coaster?
Just an idea, if you wanted to avoid the problems associated with wood track and high humidity, you could have a coaster similar to the New Texas Giant and give it the Rocky Mountain Coaster treatment.

Picture+59.png

HOLY...! That would scare me more than a straight-down drop! Completely on your side on a wooden coaster!? I know it's a safe structure, but wooden coasters always look so fragile to me, like they could break in half at any moment :p
 
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