Islands of Adventure: A Blue Sky, Armchair Imagineered Build-Out of Universal Orlando’s Storied Second Gate

Jurassic Park

Background

A late addition to the lineup of Universal Orlando’s second gate, Jurassic Park was initially meant to take a similar form in Orlando as it had in Hollywood: a standalone (if significant!) ride at the Studio park. But the shift of Cartoon World into Islands of Adventure and the success of Hollywood’s ride signaled that maybe Jurassic Park deserved an upgrade to an entire land. Even more, it’s no accident that Jurassic Park was placed opposite Port of Entry, with the iconic Discovery Center serving as something of a “weenie” from across the lagoon, positioning Jurassic Park as a keystone of the new park.

Universal’s expositional storytelling about the park initially told us that after the failure of the Jurassic Park we saw in the movies, John Hammond decided to basically try again on a new, second island – Isla Aventura – which is the version we see in the park. Luckily, that explanation seems to have faded, which is good, because… who cares? The unique idea of a whole Jurassic Park land means that we’re in the Jurassic Park, and few would bother to care whether it’s before, during, or after the incident we saw on screen because it doesn’t matter and thinking about it kind of takes away the fun.

As part of the idea that this was the real Jurassic Park, the water ride (“Jurassic Park: The Ride” in Hollywood) became “Jurassic Park River Adventure” – an “in-universe” name implying that it’s one of several rides you’ll find in the park. Ditto for a supporting cast of attractions included the Triceratops Encounter animatronic meet-and-greet (staged “in-universe” as a visit to a sedated dino in the park’s veterinary clinic), the Discovery Center (with “in-universe” mini-shows, games, and exhibits), and Camp Jurassic (a sizable family exploration area featuring the Pteranodon Flyers kids’ coasters). Since this is the “real” Jurassic Park, restaurants and even midway games also fit.

We have to remember that if you think too much about the theme park we see in the Jurassic Park film, it really was a “boutique park.” Think of SeaWorld’s Discovery Cove on steroids; an “all-inclusive” experience catering to one-percenters and mega-millionaires. At Jurassic Park, the dinosaurs were the attraction and the rides were merely ways to get close to them. Islands of Adventure’s River Adventure, Triceratops Encounter, and Discovery Center capture that feeling of being on a beautiful tropical island that just so happens to be a dinosaur zoo. Even the former two experiences – though not seen in the film – feel like things that could exist in the movie’s version of Jurassic Park, just off camera, right? It’s a nice extension of the world we see.

Jurassic Park also opened with two of the park’s largest expansion pads adjacent to it. Both have since been filled. Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey took the first (which is why Hogwarts’ Greenhouse queue is quite literally in Jurassic Park) and Skull Island: Reign of Kong took the second (which, spoiler alert, I hope you’re not too attached to because it doesn’t survive in my version of the park). Since Jurassic Park ended up not benefitting from either of its built-in expansion pads, it didn’t really change much for the park’s first two decades… And when change did come, it certainly wasn’t in the form many expected…

Diversion: The Jurassic World Conundrum

Given the opportunity – no, the responsibility! – to evolve and improve Islands of Adventure, the elephant in the room that we can’t ignore is what happened when the franchise found its inevitable reboot in 2015’s $1.6 billion-earning Jurassic World. “In-universe,” Jurassic World is meant to be a new enterprise built on the abandoned remains of Jurassic Park some 22 years after the events of the 1993 film and the park’s ensuing closure.

In a clever satire of commercialism, Jurassic World abandons the boutique experiences of its predecessor and is quite literally an on-the-nose, Disney World-esque enterprise. This isn’t a park with quiet trails and support facilities out of sight of guests; it’s a mass-marketed, gargantuan, high capacity, global destination of hotels, monorails, thrill rides, stadiums, even a CityWalk-style shopping complex complete with Starbucks.

The premise of Jurassic World is that in this relaunched attempt at a dinosaur park, the modern guest wants “more teeth” for their buck, up to and including ethically compromising hybrid dinosaurs and boundary-pushing rides that get ever-closer to the teeth in question. The landscape of Jurassic World would be one filled with roller coasters…

And indeed, in 2021, the Jurassic World VelociCoaster opened at Islands of Adventure. The first half of the ride launches through a velociraptor enclosure, dodging past the four raptor characters introduced in Jurassic World and remaining pretty much concealed from outside of the land. The second half, though, speeds out to the lagoon, racing up a 155-foot-tall top hat and then diving and spiraling around the Discovery Center that – technically – it would never coexist with “in-universe.” In short, the VelociCoaster is a ride that the “real” Jurassic Park would never have in spirit or in timeline.

Now, putting myself in the position to reimagine this area of the park, I guess I have to contend with the million thoughts in my head around this, and I’ll challenge you to do the same…

DO YOU KEEP VELOCICOASTER? On one hand, VelociCoaster is quite literally one of the best coasters on Earth. It also works “in-universe” if that universe is the Jurassic World one. Of course, even if it works in its own mythology in isolation, nothing at Islands of Adventure happens in a vacuum, and VelociCoaster does mean that a very tall, black roller coaster becomes an unmissable visual icon from every other land, meaning all the work we put into an immersive, grounded Hogsmeade or Hyrule is – in some way – undercut by being like, “Oh yeah, we’re in a theme park.” Of course, I myself started this feature by saying that I like how the islands “clash” and impose on one another, so what do I know?!

WHAT WOULD YOU USE THE VELOCICOASTER SPACE FOR IF NOT VELOCICOASTER? In terms of opportunity cost, the only thing VelociCoaster “replaced” was the Triceratops Encounter (which closed for the last time in 2010 anyway, but that always felt like such a strong “world-building” attraction that fans liked knowing it was there behind the brush). It also turned the formerly quiet, contemplative, and remote front side of the Discovery Center (see image at the top of this page) into a very busy plaza that a roller coaster tears through, but I similar turned both Marvel Harbor and Seuss Landing’s quiet coasts into busy areas in this very redesign, so how can I complain?

The only other “cost” I can think of that might factor into your and my decision on whether or not to keep it in a reimagined Islands of Adventure is that for many years, the former Triceratops Encounter “plot” was floated as the perfect place for a showbuilding to house a Discovery Center dark ride. Often imagined as a nothing-goes-horribly-wrong Omnimover-type experience through labs and a Hatchery narrated by Mr. DNA, such a ride would be a major plus for the park.

DO YOU JUST GIVE IN AND MAKE JURASSIC PARK INTO JURASSIC WORLD? Assuming you keep the VelociCoaster, at least one of the “issues” with it could be solved by just nominally changing Jurassic Park to Jurassic World altogether. That’s especially true since the River Adventure is in rough shape anyway and could really use the same scene swaps that Hollywood’s ride gained in 2019 when it became Jurassic World: The Ride… and at that point, if 2 of the land’s 2 major attractions are World-themed, than maybe the whole land ought to be… even though though traces of Park (like the Discovery Center) are realistically likely to remain. The rest of the land would simply need upgraded from wood to steel, and from yellow and red to blue and silver, and voila. You’ve got a Jurassic World.

So now, given the chance to reshape the Jurassic area of Islands of Adventure, what would you do? Keep VelociCoaster, or pretend it never happened and use that space for something else? Change the land to Jurassic World, or allow the inconsistencies to remain… and potentially grow? Wedge in a Discovery Center dark ride? How? Where?

If you care about my vote (the consequences of which you’ll see in my Build-Out plan below), I think it should stay Jurassic Park in name. After all, Islands of Adventure should feature the timeless, literary, base story of Jurassic Park and not the hot blockbuster trilogy franchise because (insert claps between words) that’s not what this park is for or about, remember? (And besides, with the Jurassic World trilogy itself having now concluded, it would seem very silly to arbitrarily shift this land’s name from the proven, timeless “root” IP to the six-year-long, now-ended trilogy that falls under the umbrella brand.)

If you really wanted to excuse the inconsistencies with some overwrought explanation, maybe you could imagine that we’re visiting Jurassic Park while the park is being revived in anticipation of becoming Jurassic World. But as I’ve said before – who cares except you and I?! Basically the “too long, didn’t read”:

With all that said, I’m sure you’re absolutely dying to see what I did to solve the inconsistencies of Jurassic Park and Jurassic World while building out this area, embracing updates, but maintaining the park’s avoidance of flavor-of-the-week film tie-ins.

Build-Out

Spoiler… it’s not possible! So instead, I decided to just have fun.

As you’d expect from knowing my stance on Islands of Adventure as a whole, I did decide to keep the space named Jurassic Park, even though dinosaurs from Jurassic World abound. (I considered just calling it “Jurassic Island” or “Jurassic Universe,” but my unwritten rule of renaming is that the new name has to be at least as simple and at least as strong as the name it’s replacing, and I think Jurassic Park is too simple and strong to beat.) I do think you could call it Park on the map, but be fairly noncommittal in the land, with just the iconic T. rex insignia on the entry arches and using whichever name you need to serve the story in any given ride or attraction and frankly, people don’t care.

You can see that I decided to keep VELOCICOASTER because ultimately, it’s greatness as an experience overcomes the arbitrary purity test of my own design that I wouldn’t feel right imposing on others. Basically, if the ride had never happened, I probably wouldn’t think to add a roller coaster here; but it is here, and it’s great, and far be it from me to take it away now for the sake of keeping the skyline coaster-free. It’s actually an easy decision in my mind to keep it, even though I do wish very badly that I could’ve fit that tranquil Omnimover ride through the labs and Hatchery of the Discovery Center with Mr. DNA as the host – the coulda-woulda-shoulda of armchair Imagineering, I guess.

The one change I did make was to add a huge Mosasaurus in the quiet inlet of water that flows between Jurassic Park and Hogsmeade (above). The massive dinosaur is designed so that its head rears up and jaws snap as the train dips out of the helix just before the “mosasaurus roll.” I realize this visual would work better for onlookers than riders, but I think it’s a compelling one nonetheless. Plus, the creatures body winding under the bridge is a neat feature, and its tail lightly swishing in the water could maybe be imaginatively re-contextualized as a magical creature from the waterside patio of the Three Broomsticks.

(I also heavily re-jungled and added a proper Jurassic Arch entry to the land here, as you can see in my home-spun concept art, above.)

Just because I can’t take no for an answer, I wedged a tiny – but accurately scaled – version of the Triceratops Encounter along the same waterway. Even though the former experience was cool in theory, its downfall was that the animatronics never really sold the illusion, leaving guests with the somewhat silly feeling that they were gathered around a dinosaur no more real that the ones you’ll find on the River Adventure ride, watching a grown adult act like it wasn’t a ’90s robot as even kids looked on, incredulous. The cool thing is that we’ve come a long way in that regard, and one need only visit Jurassic World: The Exhibition to be a believer that these figures can hold up – even under close scrutiny – with modern technology.

I named the new experience JURASSIC ENCOUNTERS: GENTLE GIANTS, connecting to the petting zoo scene in the Jurassic World franchise while calling out the experience as a meet-and-greet. I was thinking that I’d like if the three huts contained three different dinosaurs under veterinary care: say, a triceratops with a head cold, a pregnant parasaurolophus, and a stegosaurus recovering from a tail bite. That, I think, would draw bigger emotional connections while increasing repeatability. Three separate shows also allow the attraction to scale to attendance, or run multi-lingual offerings.

Continuing further on into the land, we should stop at a brand new addition: Raptor Encounter. Yes, there’s already a very clever meet-and-greet with a member of Jurassic World’s Raptor Pack here, I think it’s genuinely such a great experience and so perfectly done. It’s a real show of Universal’s strength to have a “scary” meet-and-greet that’s also really fun and funny, with a “Raptor Trainer” narrating each interaction and turning it into a mini-show for queuing guests..

However, if you’ve read one of the old entries in my “What if…?” mini-series, you may know what I’d propose for this spot.

My RAPTOR ENCOUNTER attraction basically makes the current meet-and-greet an optional pre-show experience for a larger attraction. Either after meeting the “Raptor Pack” raptor or bypassing it altogether, guests would be routed down a backstage veterinary pathway between enclosures for the once-in-a-lifetime opportunity: to watch a real, live velociraptor egg hatch. Routed deeper and deeper between increasingly-narrowing electric fences, guests would hear the terrible sound of a frenzied, shrieking raptor in a backstage, off-display pen, scratching terribly against steel and unrelentingly shocking itself against the electric fence.

Admitted through the back door of a nondescript room, they’d find themselves in a VIP lounge overlooking the first turn of the River Adventure. Here, a VIP Sponsor Tour Guide would gather the group, announcing that they’d lucked into the opportunity to watch a hatching. And don’t worry – mother velociraptor has been safely removed from her egg. (Hmmm… mother… Could that be those sounds we heard outside?)

The Raptor Encounter concept I’m suggesting is actually a rebirth of Disney’s Lost Legend: Alien Encounter. Strapped into tiered rings of seats around a nest, guests would indeed see a single raptor egg crack and open… But the cries of the newborn would soon see the doors to the Observation Chamber we just entered through torn away to reveal a hissing, enraged mother velociraptor… just as the power cuts out. What follows would be a multi-sensory attraction with all the horrors of Alien Encounter – growing in your ears, drool on your neck, pounding footsteps, and maybe the ill-fated blood splatter of a maintenance worker in the catwalks overhead.

This silly, outright copied idea began as a “What if…?” prompt, but I couldn’t help but include it here even though – yes – it’s a blatant ripoff. But it’s kind of a cool idea, and it fits perfectly, routing guests behind Pizza Predattoria to a new double-theater adjacent to the Forbidden Journey showbuilding. Basically, nothing needs to be removed for it, and it’s a high-thrill experience that I think Jurassic fans would love.

Moving onward, you can see that I renamed the water ride to the JURASSIC RIVER ADVENTURE, casually not committing to either Park or World even though I would for sure replace the ultrasaur lagoon with the Mosasaurus tank and no doubt add Indominus rex. No Chris Pratt, though.

Camp Jurassic is actually such a hidden gem at Islands of Adventure. In the genre of “run wild family play areas,” it’s right up there with California Adventure’s Redwood Creek Challenge Trail, with tons nooks and crannies, interactive experiences, dig pits, climbing nets, rope bridges, slides, and geyser-formed caverns that are practically a walkthrough in their own right. I went ahead and ‘upgraded’ it to CAMP CRETACEOUS, to at least nominally connect to the popular animated series based on the Jurassic franchise.

As part of the swap, I added GEYSER BURST – a Moser Junior Drop Tower. At just 35-feet tall, this cute little drop ride would burst riders out of an amber mine for a quick peek over the cave and out across Camp Cretaceous, hopping up and down as if riding on a geothermal geyser. (I took this idea from Busch Gardens Tampa’s Wild Surge, above. It’s a whole lot of fun despite its size, and seems like a perfect fit for Jurassic Park, which frankly, needs the family capacity and can pull off a ride-as-a-ride if you know what I mean.)

Then there’s the infamous Pteranodon Flyers, a “forbidden coaster credit” in that adults can’t ride it without a child due to its very, very low capacity… Each “train” holds just two riders, suspended in bucket seats from beneath a crafted, kite-like pteranodon.

When Universal Studios Singapore opened in 2010, its Jurassic Park area came with a similar coaster from the same manufacturer, but with vehicles that at least hold 4 riders (two facing forward and two backward), and a whole different track arrangement, meaning it’s not as easy as just swapping vehicles.

Thankfully, when Universal Studios Beijing opened in 2021, Universal smartly tagged in the Mack Inverted Powered Coaster, which is a very smart idea indeed in that the 12-person, 3 -rowed vehicles are continuously-loading, have on-board audio, and are capable of controlled rotation, making it a legitimate family attraction and not a kiddie ride.

To be fair, the Mack coaster is much more conspicuous with thicker track and more prominent supports. I also already added an all-ages powered coaster to the park in Seuss Landing… But still, I think my CRETACEOUS CANOPY FLYERS is a reasonable way to add a useful, mid-capacity, attractive ride to the park versus the very limited Pteranodon Flyers.

Stylized as a perimeter surveillance vehicle, this attraction would task guests with soaring over the island, checking in at key outposts along the way: the Perimeter Gates, the Pteranodon Dome, the Jungle Safari Outpost, the Amber Mines, and then back to Camp Cretaceous. With its controlled, show-ready rotation and its ability to adjust speed for show moments, I think this would be awesome, zippy, winding trip over the jungle, providing unique views into other attractions.

Speaking of which, while still loading from Camp Cretaceous, this winding, twisting, zippier powered coaster would quickly hop the path beyond the Jurassic Arch and skim above another ride…

Yes, Skull Island is dead. Here’s the thing: I get it. King Kong is a legend for Universal. Literally. At Universal Studios Florida, the Lost Legend: Kongfrontation set the great ape down in New York where we could be caught in his destruction. It’s even a clever reversal to suggest that in a new Kong ride, rather than bringing Kong to our world, we’d be dropped in his – the otherworldly, mythic Skull Island that aesthetically fits Islands of Adventure’s fantasy ethos well.

But even if Universal did a better job with Kong than they did Fast & Furious in expanding a single projection tunnel developed for Hollywood’s Studio Tour into a full, standalone ride, and even if it has some impressive physical sets and a nice finale animatronic, let’s be honest: Reign of Kong is not great by any means.

I’d argue that Universal Creative just kind of fundamentally chose the wrong aspect of King Kong to emphasize by making a “horror” ride of it. Yeah, the ride ends with a very good animatronic, but not in the context we like to see Kong (raging, wild, and absurd). Beyond that, Reign of Kong was a last straw for many when it comes to Universal’s screen-based rides that basically amount to “Spider-Man, again.”

And of course, from my perspective, Kong fails to fit in with the rest of the park’s literary stories. I hate that “Skull Island: Reign of Kong” is both the name of an island (the only one that doesn’t touch the lagoon) and the name of the ride inside it. I also hate that Skull Island lazily appropriated the existing horticulture of Jurassic Park, setting two “rainforest” lands right next to each other with no differentiation or boundaries between them and the Pteranodon Flyers soaring over both. (Of course, the alternative would’ve been creating one mega-land called The Lost World that contained a Jurassic Park section and Skull Island section, and I probably would’ve hated that even more.)

Basically, I’d call Skull Island: Reign of Kong a valiant swing and a miss. At the end of the day, I think nearly all of us would agree that Jurassic Park’s single remaining expansion pad would’ve been better served with… well… a Jurassic Park ride. So that’s what I did!

Perhaps unsurprisingly, a Jurassic Jeep Safari was actually on the shortlist of ideas before Hollywood’s River Adventure. As the story goes, it was decided that since you couldn’t beat the Jeep Safari seen in the film, why try? The “River Adventure” was selected instead, and a Jeep Safari was sidelined for the expansion pad. In my built-out Islands of Adventure, we finally activate on it with JURASSIC JUNGLE EXPEDITION.

One idea I loved was that – just as in Kong, we approach the huge wooden gates of an ancient stone wall – in our Jurassic Jungle Expedition, we’d enter through the towering metal gates and into the park’s jungle habitat.

On the outside of this perimeter wall would be a massive, full-sized, standing Titanosaur and its nearby child, being fed leaves from one of the watchtowers built into the fence. Not only would this give riders the very cool moment of passing under the dinosaur (which, just for fun, might “pee” on every 50th Jeep or something) but would finally, at long last, bring dinosaurs out of the rides and make them visible from the paths. It wouldn’t take much animation to make this dinosaur feel real, but I think it would be a significant landmark for the area.

I also made what may be a bold and disastrous idea when it comes to my version of the Jungle Expedition: I don’t want anything to go wrong. As much as possible, I wanted this to be a really fun, slightly-thrilling sightseeing ride a la Kilimanjaro Safaris.

Surely by now – and surely when it comes to Jurassic Park in particular – we have to be tired of “something goes horribly wrong” plots. How many times can a dinosaur attack you in one day? Between the River Adventure and my Raptor Encounter, I just feel like the land could benefit from a ride that’s a little bit physically thrilling, but not overtly scary.

I included a number of small showbuildings along the ride’s course, including a visit to the Pteranodon Dome (with the Canopy Flyer zipping by overhead among pteranodon shadows in the foliage and an animatronic or two), a cave with a nest, and a finale visit to the legendary Amber Mines from which the original amber-encased mosquito that powers the park was discovered.

Even if this isn’t necessarily a thrill ride or a “something goes wrong” ride, I drew up the track layout in such a way that Jeeps would need to back out (based on concept art, above, of the Jeep Safari concept in which the Jeeps slid backwards down a hill after a dinosaur encounter). So I suppose it could be a “cave-in,” basically destroying the remaining DNA and ensuring Jurassic Park is the last of its kind. But maybe you also just back out because it’s fun and unusual and it’s a tight cave system. What are your thoughts?!

Finally, placemaking-wise: I’d be sure to bring to life a long-percolating dream to stamp the side of the Forbidden Journey showbuilding with the “InGen” logo. In any other park reaching for immersiveness, the Potter ride’s massive, gargantuan showbuilding would be a disaster. It just so happens that in Islands of Adventure, that warehouse actually does blend in well enough with Jurassic Park that acknowledging it and pretending its an InGen lab facility seems like a no brainer. (I realize that some agreement with Warner Bros. may prevent this, but it’s such an easy fix to dream of.)

While we’re tidying up placemaking, I also want to address the “Jurassic Park Arch” situation. Somehow, despite it being probably one of the most iconic structures in the franchise, one of the three entrances into Islands of Adventure’s Jurassic Park has the arch, and it’s the one that you really wish didn’t. So I went ahead and fixed that situation in my build-out.

1. At the entry from Hogsmeade, I re-angled the entry trajectory into the land and pivoted the Arch. That’s because – in the real world – this is the only Jurassic Park arch remaining, and even though I don’t mind the islands butting up against one another, the way it perfectly frames Hogwarts pretty much ruins it as a photo op and removes its gravitas;
   
2. At the entry from Toon Lagoon, the arch was removed when its former patch of jungle became Skull Island, which is doubly dumb because without it, the two jungle lands bled right into each other, so now it’s easy enough to add that back.

3. At the entry from Hyrule (the VelociCoaster bridge), you saw what I did with the arch by embedding it in the jungled hillside, angled as to highlight the domes of the Discovery Center.

Now, we finally approach the final chunk of Islands of Adventure and contend at last with what to do about Toon Lagoon…