Future of Jurassic Park River Adventure

[OrlLover]

IOA is having a rough time all over - it’s not just JP. Next door, the outdoor portion of Kong hasn’t been running for many months, and employees are being told it’s because necessary maintenance isn’t part of the budget. Maintenance seems to be something of an issue parkwide - as I write this, Popeye, Hulk, and Kong are down.

While regular maintenance is both desirable and understandable, at the moment large portions of Marvel, Toon, and Seuss are behind construction walls. For Seuss, this means Trolley is only running one track. This is all on top of LC being, essentially, completely closed. It leaves only Port of Entry, Potter, and JP without huge stretches of walls (and JP has its own issues). And let’s not forget the three huge performance spaces sitting vacant.

We all know Uni is getting ready to open EU, ride downtime happens, and regular upkeep is a good thing. But guests are still entitled to a good show. Uni is not only charging full price for tickets but, in fact, recently raised some ticket prices dramatically. It’s fair to say the state of IOA is an issue.

I guess I’m a little confused isn’t this a good thing if they are trying to refresh these areas ???

Yes it might a little inconvenient for guests but it’s not like they aren’t working on sprucing things up.

 

[Casper Gutman]

I guess I’m a little confused isn’t this a good thing if they are trying to refresh these areas ???

Yes it might a little inconvenient for guests but it’s not like they aren’t working on sprucing things up.

As I said, upkeep is good, but it has to be balanced against the demands of the paying guest - it should be as staggered and as unobtrusive as possible. This is particularly true when Universal has decided to just close one of the park’s four lands. Having four of seven lands largely behind walls at the same time indicates that recent maintenance has been insufficient, something the state of Kong and JP supports.

PS: Oh, and Dudley is down for its regular seasonal maintenance too, which is absolutely fine - the only problem is that makes all the other ride downtimes more impactful.

 

[HandsomePete]

Unless I'm misremembering which is totally possible: Disney has (or had?) a system for determining if a ride was show-ready for guests and if key things were down the ride didn't open until it was fixed. Did Universal ever have something similar?

This is correct - some attractions are required to go down if certain effects aren’t working. I don’t know for certain if this example is one, but think something like the Elsa at the start of the backward section of Frozen Ever After.

Over time, I suspect the list of effects that would dictate a given ride going down has gotten shorter (aka, more tolerance for things being broken), and also B Modes get designed into things now (as we all know ROTR leans on basically all the time now).

 

[Rhian]

Glad I remembered something right. You're right about quality tolerance and how B-modes have blurred that line somewhat. At this point it's safe to say the threshold for closing a ride seems nonexistent nowadays.

I'm not aware of anything actually set in stone for either company. I've always thought it was an unwritten Disney rule that there is a certain point beyond which an attraction is not show-ready.

They both should have a system like that.

When I posted that I was remembering a story about Disney of Yore and how they would replace light bulbs on a schedule before they burnt out. It was important for guests to get that high-quality experience. The sad thing about that is when I read that story it was from someone writing about their memory of that system, and how they were told it wasn't use anymore. This was well over ten years ago at least so it's been quite a while. I'm sure someone could nail down more specifics with that information.

Point is and as an example - under the old system the main showpiece in the Na'vi River Journey would have to be fixed before the ride was opened, not reduced to a simple projection. The goal was to incentivize Disney to stay on top of maintenance and quality-control so the illusion was never broken (except in extreme cases); Disco Yeti would probably not be a thing or at least for as many years as it has.

I don't know if Universal has ever had such an extensive quality control system in its history. Given its current state I want to say this ride's even been open without the t-rex at the end (or at least there but not moving) and that shouldn't be happening.

 

[DodgsonHere]

The only thing that makes me more on the side of a JW retheme is the convaluted theming between velocicoaster which is clearly set in JW and RA which is clearly set in JP.

I think there was great care taken to make sure Velocicoaster still looked visually in place in a Jurassic Park land, especially when placed next to the most movie-inspired building in the land, the Discovery Center.

There’s also no reason for Sweet Haven to be right next to Rip Saw Falls, or for Bruce Banner’s lab to be right next to The Daily Bugle, or for any sections of TLC to be right next to each other. Pretty much every Island in IoA has its own mini areas. I don’t understand why people see a Jurassic World attraction being next to Jurassic Park as a huge problem that requires a land wide retheme to fix.

 

[OrlandoGuy]

I don't know if Universal has ever had such an extensive quality control system in its history. Given its current state I want to say this ride's even been open without the t-rex at the end (or at least there but not moving) and that shouldn't be happening.

Universal bases show quality on a point scale. So it isn’t (wasn’t?) as cut-and-dry as “the T-Rex is down so we can’t open.” It was, “We can’t open if we’ve lost anything more than 15 points.” The T-Rex would be 10 points for example, so in more cases than not that would close the ride down, because odds are there are several smaller things on any given day that’ll get you to those five extra points. But occasionally, the T-Rex will be the only thing not working and it’s not enough to shut the whole ride down.

Not sure what the exact standard was then and definitely don’t know what it is now, but it does seem a little more lax. I’d think the missing dinosaurs in the front part would be enough to shut the attraction down…on the other hand, if there’s literally nothing you can do to immediately fix a 10-pointer, I’d rather have the ride open than have nothing at all.

 

[Casper Gutman]

put it this way - JP seems to move a lot more merchandise then JW, and I’m willing to bet we won’t see any anniversary celebrations for JW in a few decades. If River Adventure needs an overhaul right now, as it seems to, JP is the way to go. Otherwise, it can wait a year or two (it won’t be long) until Uni decides what direction they’re going to take the Jurassic franchise.

 

[Disneyhead]

put it this way - JP seems to move a lot more merchandise then JW, and I’m willing to bet we won’t see any anniversary celebrations for JW in a few decades. If River Adventure needs an overhaul right now, as it seems to, JP is the way to go. Otherwise, it can wait a year or two (it won’t be long) until Uni decides what direction they’re going to take the Jurassic franchise.

I do not anticipate a JW retheme to river adventure. I would love to see Thunder Falls rethemed to Hammond's Steakhouse full service restaurant with prime steaks and, of course, Chilean Sea Bass.

 

[Rhian]

Universal bases show quality on a point scale. So it isn’t (wasn’t?) as cut-and-dry as “the T-Rex is down so we can’t open.” It was, “We can’t open if we’ve lost anything more than 15 points.” The T-Rex would be 10 points for example, so in more cases than not that would close the ride down, because odds are there are several smaller things on any given day that’ll get you to those five extra points. But occasionally, the T-Rex will be the only thing not working and it’s not enough to shut the whole ride down.

Not sure what the exact standard was then and definitely don’t know what it is now, but it does seem a little more lax. I’d think the missing dinosaurs in the front part would be enough to shut the attraction down…on the other hand, if there’s literally nothing you can do to immediately fix a 10-pointer, I’d rather have the ride open than have nothing at all.

That sounds familiar, thanks for writing that! I couldn't recall exactly what Universal had I just knew they weren't as persnickety as Disney was when at one point. I think there could be an argument made about the grande finale not working from a show quality perspective but since the ending is thrilling either way it sort of gets a pass. I mean the t-rex isn't comparable to the Shaman but still.

I think we're all in agreement the overall quality of JP needs to be kicked up a few notches as is though. Keep the doors!

 

[SpatulaShack]

Kong is still not travelling outside? And it isn't because they're working on it it's because they don't have budget? Yikes.

 

[TheCodeMan95]

As mentioned earlier, the success of the Tribute Store SHOULD give them the green light to continue on with Jurassic Park.

We were the week of 9/8, MONTHS after the store had been open, and there were a lot of people in there everytime we went in.

 

[Cup_Of_Coffee]

I kinda just want this to be Jurassic World, because honestly post Zelda, I can see Kong being the next project at IOA. It seems to expensive to run, and a more popular, and reliable Jurassic World dark ride would be better. Bring over the Mountains even from Beijing.

 

[DodgsonHere]

I kinda just want this to be Jurassic World, because honestly post Zelda, I can see Kong being the next project at IOA. It seems to expensive to run, and a more popular, and reliable Jurassic World dark ride would be better. Bring over the Mountains even from Beijing.

No way Kong is going anywhere anytime soon

 

[Cup_Of_Coffee]

No way Kong is going anywhere anytime soon

I don’t want it to, I worry one day it’s just so expensive they axe it.

 

[sonoma15]

Hearing that the Ultrasaurus is back, and I forgot to report this but as of my last ride the 2nd hadrosaur is working again and looking good, the first was still MIA though.

 

[Cup_Of_Coffee]

I hope they’re taking an ET like approach to a refurb here.

 

[belloq87]

Perhaps Universal was just waiting for my rants about this to reach a fever pitch!

Excellent news if it's true. Hope for confirmation soon!

 

[Cup_Of_Coffee]

Perhaps Universal was just waiting for my rants about this to reach a fever pitch!

Excellent news if it's true. Hope for confirmation soon!

We all thank you!

 

[biggerboat16]

Any ultrasaur updates?? I’m hoping it’s not too good to be true

 

[Tbad556]

Hearing that the Ultrasaurus is back, and I forgot to report this but as of my last ride the 2nd hadrosaur is working again and looking good, the first was still MIA though.

I’ve now seen multiple instances (including with proof) on the UOAP FB group that it’s back and active.