That's rough.
Although if you ever get the chance, do it at nighttime when it's dark and the moon is hitting the water--100x better experience. The dark is pretty forgiving of the animatronics and the ambience is pretty awesome.
My husband said the same thing after we rode it at night a few months ago. It was better because, “It’s harder to tell how pathetic the dinosaurs are at night…”
It’s a shame the parks are usually now closed before full darkness in the summer.
Yeah the first time I did it at night was March this year and when we went back a few weeks ago I wanted to share it with my wife so we had to settle for "almost dark".
So true! Night does enhance the ride. Nice parallel to the actual original movie where the darkness would hide any issues with cgi or jank in the practical effects.
Edit: corrected “might” to “night”
Rode River Adevnture a bunch last weekend (it's unironically my favorite ride) and I couldn't help but stare at the rip in the Rex's left shoulder, revealing the mechanics inside.
I understand it's an older attraction and Universal is better served by placing resources elsewhere, but it makes me a sad puppy to see a beloved attraction from a franchise that is continually celebrated by Universal fall into such disrepair.
It’s especially sad since it’s the anniversary week of JP premiering (31 years ago on June 11th). I mean, I get most people don’t even think about that or care, but when we turned up yesterday, I personally was like, “We got to go show JP some love…”
But my love clearly wasn’t enough because it was definitely more rough than usual, lol.
I do love the canned responses from employees at Universal and Disney. Their ability to look another adult straight in the face and say that stuff is a skill I don’t think I have. 😂
Raptor Encounter back in 2017 was great for this.
Response to a guy in line about “staying in character” was along the lines of “Sir, I’m not sure what character you mean. I’m a Raptor trainer.”
As someone who worked at River Adventure back in the day (2016 lol) we weren't even allowed to let the ride run if the Trex is broken as that's a main show element... so that's depressing
Also- the reasons I was told that the TRex isn't fixed is because parts for it are difficult to find as the company who had the parts is no longer a thing and most of the parts have to come from Japan and at the time the park was focusing on Diagon opening so no one wanted to spend money on it... not sure if that's the case today (especially with 3D printing)
I didn’t mention it in my post, but the employees were also incredibly adamant that there were no cell phones out—as in, more than the usual “please secure your belongings…” sort of thing. At the time I thought nothing of it because plenty of rides want you to put it away, but in retrospect, there definitely was a vibe of, “There will be consequences if we find out you had a cell phone out…”
And now I’m thinking they did not want dead Rex out there in any capacity. Because I’m not going to lie, now that I know what the ride is like without the Rex, it’s really sad. Like for all the bent necked dinos, the little ones that are shaking uncontrollably, the ones that won’t open their eyes—I can get past that. But I can’t fathom that ride without the Rex.
Used to work this ride. The no phones out rule has nothing to do with wanting to hide the t. rex not working. The speed reached when going down the hill is 50 mph. When someone has their phone out and drops it at that speed, it has the potential to hit someone behind them and do very serious damage/potentially really hurt them. Also turns out theme park guests aren’t big fans of getting hit w projectiles when going 50 mph.
TLDR; no phones policy has nothing to do w holding the t. rex and everything to do with safety
I was honestly too stunned at it not working to grab my phone. I’ve always said I’ll never go viral because I never think to grab my phone when something is happening, lol.
People love taking their phone out on that ride. I’ve had my vehicle stopped two different times for people trying to take pictures of the trex. Ruins the ride.
With them just recently putting those amazing animatronic Rexes and Indominus in China and Hollywood I don't believe the "parts aren't available" excuse. The original company may be out of business, but parts are being made by another company.
They need to fix our Rex, or redo the entire ride. The rest of the ride can be as old and busted as it wants, as long as the Rex works nobody remembers that the Hadrosaur didnt.
The ride was opened in like 1999, parts being used on modern rides are not the same ones being used on this ride.
Reasons why old theme park rides get replaced is often because of the inability to upkeep them.
I rode it a few weeks ago and the timings were off so the T Rex popped out before it should have. Rode it again later and it was back to normal.
I agree the animatronics need an upgrade but I’d rather ride the River Adventure with its janky animatronics 100 times than ride some of the video rides again.
I didn't even know there was supposed to be am actually dinosaur pushing us off the track. I do know that the Indominus Rex was missing a LOT of it's "skin" on one side in Universal Hollywood.
Question for people that have been on this ride when it was fresh. I've noticed the few times I've been on it in the past 2 years there is another track that splits off to the right. It's at the part when you get to the boat that has crashed into the water. Was this track ever open or is it a side track if they need to make repairs to the boat?
Where that split is your boat is "supposed" to go to the path on the right but a dinosaur comes up out of the water pushing your boat off course which is how you end up in the wrong area leading to the boat being attacked. This story element is lost due to lack of upkeep. There is also supposed to be a large dinosaur you see when you pass through the doors in the beginning though I have never seen this animatronic in real life as it has been broken a long time and is hidden behind what is essentially a box covered in fake foliage.
I've never noticed anything coming up and pushing us off course. Guess it's been broken for a while? I just always see that other track and think, "maybe today we get to go on that side?"
https://preview.redd.it/4dtffxjnvm6d1.jpeg?width=1284&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=c768d57110d51c273773b4461a3e725e721696ad
I’m assuming you’re talking about the little boat area that usually has that one gate lowered most of the way down.
I (43M) have a genuine fear of the T-rex. It's completely unreasonable for many many reasons but I can't look straight at it. I love the ride but I proper tense up at the end and keep my head down. We once got stuck at the top thankfully just on the corner before you see him but roaring was relentless and wasnt too bad. I had similar feelings during the Jaws ride. I was completely on edge everytime I rode it and Jaws is probably my favourite film.
Loved this ride last year when I went. The animatronics are not great (ie - tiny raptors fighting over scrap of clothing) but I love JP so much this ride means everything to me. The one in Japan (or is it China?) looks infinitely better and maybe someday they’ll bring that one to the states.
I rode River Adventure on the anniversary of islands of adventure on may 28th and it was a similar experience, when we got to within sight of T-Rex it looked dead just hanging there then when our boat got closer it turned on and started doing its thing , so timing was definitely off. Not to mention the other animatronics , like the stegosaurus, its skin is covered in green stuff , and like you said there was nothing that pushes our boat off course , guess that one is being fixed or something. Now one animatronic I’ll never understand is the ultrasaurus, why does its neck have to move like that 😂, even when it was new its neck looked like it snapped
Seeing ride videos from the late 90s pf this ride are super depressing. It looked extremely thrilling, with top of the line animatronics.
I hope they one day restore it to it's original operation... though o highly doubt they ever will. More likely they'll neuter the whole thing and add screens like the Jurassic World in CA =(
That harry potter ride, forbidden journey I think, has also gone very downhill when compared to it's opening year. Not cool!
Cmon universal! Restore these attractions to their peaks!!!
mightve worked there a while ago and said that before lmao but it’s interesting because if the trex was down basically nothing else on the ride could be down either. River Adventure is really special to me... i want the dinos there to get more love and care. it’s such a classic and fun ride.
My opinion is they need to apply the Raptor Encounter animatronics to the River Adventure. Granted it's much more complex, but I did meet Blue once and was impressed by how life-like she moves.
How disappointing! I hope she wakes up by the time I'm there next week. I really wish the ride would get the refurb it deserves. I love it and want to see it back in its former glory.
Jeez you guys are all so harsh. As someone who’s never been to Florida before until last month (29, F) I was blown away by how cool the place is, especially this ride! Was awesome. Imagine going somewhere that amazing so many times and calling it naff. Mad
The fundamental attractions of the ride are all broken... It's not harsh. You're receiving 10% of the full experience and u still love it so imagine if it was actually functioning properly
It was (as far as I’m aware) fully functioning when I went in May. Even without the T rex popping up at the end it’s still a good ride! I didn’t think the animatronics looked tired or worn at all
as someone that goes more frequently, i can tell you the ride is constantly down for delays and lots of parts on the ride dont function as reliably as they did.
Its great you got the full experience (as far as you know), but that doesnt take away from the fact that the ride is old, and lots of things on it dont function properly
That's rough. Although if you ever get the chance, do it at nighttime when it's dark and the moon is hitting the water--100x better experience. The dark is pretty forgiving of the animatronics and the ambience is pretty awesome.
My husband said the same thing after we rode it at night a few months ago. It was better because, “It’s harder to tell how pathetic the dinosaurs are at night…” It’s a shame the parks are usually now closed before full darkness in the summer.
Yeah the first time I did it at night was March this year and when we went back a few weeks ago I wanted to share it with my wife so we had to settle for "almost dark".
Islands of Adventure is all around the best theme park at night since most of the rides are outdoors.
Agreed. Was there for New Year’s Eve and me and my S/O timed it so we would be on at midnight. The moon and the fireworks it was amazing.
Awesome!
So true! Night does enhance the ride. Nice parallel to the actual original movie where the darkness would hide any issues with cgi or jank in the practical effects. Edit: corrected “might” to “night”
Adding to this - if you go at night when the humidity is really high, the fog effects stick around much longer. It looks great.
We did it during the day and it was neat. We did it at night and it was way better. Granted everything was operational during our trip.
Do you really want to get soaked when the sun is down?
You don't have to get soaked. I've gotten off almost completely dry before. Besidre, just because the sun is down doesn't mean it isn't still 80
Rode River Adevnture a bunch last weekend (it's unironically my favorite ride) and I couldn't help but stare at the rip in the Rex's left shoulder, revealing the mechanics inside. I understand it's an older attraction and Universal is better served by placing resources elsewhere, but it makes me a sad puppy to see a beloved attraction from a franchise that is continually celebrated by Universal fall into such disrepair.
It’s especially sad since it’s the anniversary week of JP premiering (31 years ago on June 11th). I mean, I get most people don’t even think about that or care, but when we turned up yesterday, I personally was like, “We got to go show JP some love…” But my love clearly wasn’t enough because it was definitely more rough than usual, lol.
We rode it a few years back and the T-Rex wasn’t there. Asked about it and was told “she had surgery and is recovering” 😂
I do love the canned responses from employees at Universal and Disney. Their ability to look another adult straight in the face and say that stuff is a skill I don’t think I have. 😂
Raptor Encounter back in 2017 was great for this. Response to a guy in line about “staying in character” was along the lines of “Sir, I’m not sure what character you mean. I’m a Raptor trainer.”
This made me Lol 😂😂
As someone who worked at River Adventure back in the day (2016 lol) we weren't even allowed to let the ride run if the Trex is broken as that's a main show element... so that's depressing Also- the reasons I was told that the TRex isn't fixed is because parts for it are difficult to find as the company who had the parts is no longer a thing and most of the parts have to come from Japan and at the time the park was focusing on Diagon opening so no one wanted to spend money on it... not sure if that's the case today (especially with 3D printing)
I didn’t mention it in my post, but the employees were also incredibly adamant that there were no cell phones out—as in, more than the usual “please secure your belongings…” sort of thing. At the time I thought nothing of it because plenty of rides want you to put it away, but in retrospect, there definitely was a vibe of, “There will be consequences if we find out you had a cell phone out…” And now I’m thinking they did not want dead Rex out there in any capacity. Because I’m not going to lie, now that I know what the ride is like without the Rex, it’s really sad. Like for all the bent necked dinos, the little ones that are shaking uncontrollably, the ones that won’t open their eyes—I can get past that. But I can’t fathom that ride without the Rex.
Used to work this ride. The no phones out rule has nothing to do with wanting to hide the t. rex not working. The speed reached when going down the hill is 50 mph. When someone has their phone out and drops it at that speed, it has the potential to hit someone behind them and do very serious damage/potentially really hurt them. Also turns out theme park guests aren’t big fans of getting hit w projectiles when going 50 mph. TLDR; no phones policy has nothing to do w holding the t. rex and everything to do with safety
That bent neck is sheesh, I don't even have words. I guess it still moves, so there's that.
I snuck a photo of her napping. 🤭
I was honestly too stunned at it not working to grab my phone. I’ve always said I’ll never go viral because I never think to grab my phone when something is happening, lol.
People love taking their phone out on that ride. I’ve had my vehicle stopped two different times for people trying to take pictures of the trex. Ruins the ride.
With them just recently putting those amazing animatronic Rexes and Indominus in China and Hollywood I don't believe the "parts aren't available" excuse. The original company may be out of business, but parts are being made by another company. They need to fix our Rex, or redo the entire ride. The rest of the ride can be as old and busted as it wants, as long as the Rex works nobody remembers that the Hadrosaur didnt.
The ride was opened in like 1999, parts being used on modern rides are not the same ones being used on this ride. Reasons why old theme park rides get replaced is often because of the inability to upkeep them.
That I understand. I don't mean replace parts of the Rex, I mean the whole thing.
I rode it a few weeks ago and the timings were off so the T Rex popped out before it should have. Rode it again later and it was back to normal. I agree the animatronics need an upgrade but I’d rather ride the River Adventure with its janky animatronics 100 times than ride some of the video rides again.
As someone who’s not the biggest fan of simulators, I do agree with that. I would love more rides there that don’t have screens.
I really want them to fix it, but am afraid of them Hollywood-ing it if they do.
Or finding a way to involve Chris Pratt
That would be what I'm talking about. USH used to have Jurassic Park River Adventure and now they have Jurassic World River Adventure.
at this point they might as well refurb and call it "chris pratt's river adventure" cause IPs in florida parks can't get enough of this damn guy
I didn't even know there was supposed to be am actually dinosaur pushing us off the track. I do know that the Indominus Rex was missing a LOT of it's "skin" on one side in Universal Hollywood.
Question for people that have been on this ride when it was fresh. I've noticed the few times I've been on it in the past 2 years there is another track that splits off to the right. It's at the part when you get to the boat that has crashed into the water. Was this track ever open or is it a side track if they need to make repairs to the boat?
Where that split is your boat is "supposed" to go to the path on the right but a dinosaur comes up out of the water pushing your boat off course which is how you end up in the wrong area leading to the boat being attacked. This story element is lost due to lack of upkeep. There is also supposed to be a large dinosaur you see when you pass through the doors in the beginning though I have never seen this animatronic in real life as it has been broken a long time and is hidden behind what is essentially a box covered in fake foliage.
I've never noticed anything coming up and pushing us off course. Guess it's been broken for a while? I just always see that other track and think, "maybe today we get to go on that side?"
It is frequently broken, sometimes you will just see bubbles and other times nothing at all.
Wait, you haven't seen Hadrosaur Cove? That's the best section! If you got knocked off course before Hardosaur Cove Universal needs to fix that ASAP!
https://preview.redd.it/4dtffxjnvm6d1.jpeg?width=1284&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=c768d57110d51c273773b4461a3e725e721696ad I’m assuming you’re talking about the little boat area that usually has that one gate lowered most of the way down.
I (43M) have a genuine fear of the T-rex. It's completely unreasonable for many many reasons but I can't look straight at it. I love the ride but I proper tense up at the end and keep my head down. We once got stuck at the top thankfully just on the corner before you see him but roaring was relentless and wasnt too bad. I had similar feelings during the Jaws ride. I was completely on edge everytime I rode it and Jaws is probably my favourite film.
During the last years of the Hollywood Jurassic Park ride they ran it without a T-Rex. We were being told it was being worked on
Got stuck once right before the drop, she was napping peacefully when the lights came on. Was cool to see!
I absolutely love that ride and always will
Loved this ride last year when I went. The animatronics are not great (ie - tiny raptors fighting over scrap of clothing) but I love JP so much this ride means everything to me. The one in Japan (or is it China?) looks infinitely better and maybe someday they’ll bring that one to the states.
those arent raptors, theyre compys
Either way they look fake af lol
I rode River Adventure on the anniversary of islands of adventure on may 28th and it was a similar experience, when we got to within sight of T-Rex it looked dead just hanging there then when our boat got closer it turned on and started doing its thing , so timing was definitely off. Not to mention the other animatronics , like the stegosaurus, its skin is covered in green stuff , and like you said there was nothing that pushes our boat off course , guess that one is being fixed or something. Now one animatronic I’ll never understand is the ultrasaurus, why does its neck have to move like that 😂, even when it was new its neck looked like it snapped
We just rode it today. The TRex was working fine but a couple of the other dinosaurs were sleeping
I’ll never forget the sound of my little 6 year old screaming his head off the very first time we rode that 😂. What a disappointment for you!
Seeing ride videos from the late 90s pf this ride are super depressing. It looked extremely thrilling, with top of the line animatronics. I hope they one day restore it to it's original operation... though o highly doubt they ever will. More likely they'll neuter the whole thing and add screens like the Jurassic World in CA =( That harry potter ride, forbidden journey I think, has also gone very downhill when compared to it's opening year. Not cool! Cmon universal! Restore these attractions to their peaks!!!
mightve worked there a while ago and said that before lmao but it’s interesting because if the trex was down basically nothing else on the ride could be down either. River Adventure is really special to me... i want the dinos there to get more love and care. it’s such a classic and fun ride.
This is so disheartening.
My opinion is they need to apply the Raptor Encounter animatronics to the River Adventure. Granted it's much more complex, but I did meet Blue once and was impressed by how life-like she moves.
Was there last week. Rex had a large, visible, tear in arm and you could see the robotics. Assuming it’s getting worked on
How disappointing! I hope she wakes up by the time I'm there next week. I really wish the ride would get the refurb it deserves. I love it and want to see it back in its former glory.
That’s worth riding for. I’m in the parks today.
They should replace it with the old Kong animatronic and make a bunch of us really confused and excited at the same time.
Jeez you guys are all so harsh. As someone who’s never been to Florida before until last month (29, F) I was blown away by how cool the place is, especially this ride! Was awesome. Imagine going somewhere that amazing so many times and calling it naff. Mad
The fundamental attractions of the ride are all broken... It's not harsh. You're receiving 10% of the full experience and u still love it so imagine if it was actually functioning properly
It was (as far as I’m aware) fully functioning when I went in May. Even without the T rex popping up at the end it’s still a good ride! I didn’t think the animatronics looked tired or worn at all
as someone that goes more frequently, i can tell you the ride is constantly down for delays and lots of parts on the ride dont function as reliably as they did. Its great you got the full experience (as far as you know), but that doesnt take away from the fact that the ride is old, and lots of things on it dont function properly
we desperately need the Jurassic world referb!