I'm conflicted on the redo overall. Mosy is definitely cool, but the pacing of the ride is completely thrown out of the window. I also can't get over how cheesy and kind of boring the prelift area is now. The truck fall was such a great splash moment, and I wish they'd replaced it with a gyrosphere. Really hoping we'll get a further plussed version if this comes to Orlando. The ride was so perfect in its original form in Hollywood (vine swinging Trex aside) that it's hard not to feel like they didn't ruin it a bit.
What's frustrating - for me personally, at least - is that it wouldn't take a whole lot to lift this refurb up from being good to something great. I'm really, really hoping that Universal has been taking the criticism to heart and is considering a sort of "phase 2" when it comes to this ride rather than leaving it as is once the full-bodied Indominus is in place. (And for the record, I actually do enjoy the ride and am glad we got a refurb.)
Some simple ambiance changes I'd love to see implemented would include things like:
- Darkening the aquarium. I know it's not easy with the other end of the tunnel being open and there's no world in which they ditch the waterfall and extend the aquarium to the rock work, but a change in the roofing might help. This whole sequence is so much better at night because it's dark, and I'd like to see this addressed during the daytime.
- This is a little nitpicky and partially fueled by nostalgia, but I'd actually love to see the two compies back in their old spot for the sake of livening up the herbivore area more to compensate for Predator Cove being a dead zone. I always liked their placement in the old ride as an indicator that things aren't as perfect as they seem and chaos is (literally) right around the corner, and I think that notion fits just as well here. Or even just throw a few of them in around the crates in Predator Cove over a carcass or something watching us as we pass by.
- Maybe even as we round the corner/approach Predator Cove, we could hear the sound of the Indominus roaring/escaping. I know we've got the buzzer and the red lights showing the containment failures, but even just being able to hear the actual escape happening considering how close we're supposed to be to it would be interesting.
- And in that stretch of tunnel right before the lift hill where the Dilos used to be and is now just T-rex material on the sides, I'd pump a bit of mist/fog in there to make the impending lift a bit more ominous, especially since - yet again - we pass through Predator Cove expecting something and getting... nothing.
- And again, more nostalgia here, but I'd be happy seeing the raptor on the left of the lift back, too, if just because - by that point - it feels like forever since we last saw a dinosaur on our dinosaur tour.
I actually
really dig the changes made to the ride after the lift hill. I'll always miss the countdown, the fog, and dropping under the rex as she emerged, but they took a big swing here and I think they knocked it out of the park. So long as we get the full Indominus rex, those final few seconds alone will easily swing from "That's it?" to "That's awesome!"
Honestly, as everyone's pointed out for weeks, the thing really holding the ride back is Predator Cove. Those plastic Pteranodons
need to go. I said in a past comment that I'd love to see some actual Pteranodon animatronics perched around the area, perhaps, but honestly, if it's a choice between no Pteranodons at all and what we've got now, I'd choose the former, because it looks disastrously cheap as is.
They really shot themselves in the foot, too, by having the Indominus rex doors and those bent bars on the right side of the boat. As the Indominus has already escaped, what can you really do there now? Nothing. You can't have an animatronic Indominus attacking the bars from the inside because it wouldn't make sense. But now it's all taken up visual real estate that could've been given to something else. For instance, imagine if the Predator Cove logo was moved to the right, near the raptor enclosure, and the Indominus doors and gate put on the left. She's already escaped, fine, but on the right - where her enclosure is now - there's, say, a Carnotaurus or Metriacanthosaurus enclosure... that's in the process of opening up! And as we pass by, an animatronic lunges at us from the gates.
As it is now, there's nothing that can really be done on the right side of Predator Cove, which leaves the left side... The repeated gyrosphere recommendations make sense because they're such an important aspect of
Jurassic World, but story-wise would one really make sense just... being in Predator Cove? You can't even have one being dropped over a ledge, because then you're blocking either the Predator Cove logo or screens on the left due to the fact you can't have it being dropped in on the right with the Indominus enclosure right there.
I know this is sacrilege, too, and I'd hate to see it go, but even the raptor enclosure is taking up real estate. In the old ride, that enclosure made sense because it wasn't part of the tour we were on, and therefore it's not as though we were looking into a raptor exhibit designed for a boat tour... But here? In Predator Cove, we're passing by the raptor enclosure as though it's
part of our tour, yet how are we expected to even see Velociraptors from a boat the way it's set up if things all went to plan and the tour played out like normal? If it meant getting rid of it and replacing it with an animatronic for - to repeat myself - a Carnotaur or Metriacanthosaur, with covering above it for the sake of protecting it from the elements, I'd take it in a heart beat.
Hell, throw in a Jurassic World boat with the old dilophosaurus in it in front of that empty Predator Cove sign space if you have to. Something.
Anything.
Anyway, my TL;DR: Hopefully the full Indominus isn't the end of Universal's modifications to this ride. I've already had a few friends come out and visit through the summer who used to love the old ride and were excited to see this only to get off it completely disappointed and without any desire to go on it again until either the Indominus gets here or something radically changes in the middle third of the ride. For me, I'm glad we got the refurb, I just would love to see it punched up in the ambiance department and see Predator Cove addressed in some way to make it more dynamic.