eh.... no. That would never fly... guests ride a dinosaur themed ride to, you know... SEE the dinosaurs. If you had the big dumb aquatic dino just bumping the boat, that'd be very underwhelming... also very confusing without having seen said aquatic dino prior to said boat bumping...
I've said it before, I'll say it again. They should've just built a brand new ride based on JW, then fully restored the current ride to its former glory by this company that can conveniently provide them with all new upgraded dinos. They could've even added enhancements. Then we'd have TWO Jurassic themed rides resulting in a new land on the lower lot. JP/JW is a timeless franchise that both terrifies & enchants people of all ages. Universal should be capitalizing on it a lot more rather than just having a newly revamped ride & photo-op area.
Interesting take. I would rally behind on that. I totally agree that they should have restored JP to it's former glory with new state of the art AAs and more foliage.
This isn't a major refurb of the ride that already existed though. This is a complete re-theme and re-imagining. I did NOT want them to just replace the mostly non functional animatronics with the same thing, just new. So many people here get so heated/annoyed/upset when things change but this needed changing and not just replacing. I have nostalgia as well, but I don't let my nostalgia ruin anything and everything new just because they replace something. Anyone saying that that first scene was completely immersive and incredible is kidding themselves at least partially. It was broken animatronics and insanely obstructed views, and was a mostly boring scene because of that. All I ever saw was the parking structure/super silly fun land. That would be like me being upset that they removed the falling jeep that literally never functioned anymore just because it was there originally.
that argument is kind of invalid to me. Disney parks are the gold standard for theme parks and they keep their classics even if they could use the space to replace them with new attractions. Yes, over the years they have completely replaced rides for new ones, refurbed some others, but at it's core, Disney keeps and tweaks a bit its classic rides. I mean, there are 62 year old rides at Disneyland running almost as they opened, the difference is that Disneyland actually upkept those rides. They have updated some, but in a very subtle classy way. Peter Pan's Flight looks better than ever and they just added some updates here and there. It's not hating change, is that Uni doesn't seem to have an identity of its own and a park that is blamed for not having a lot to do, takes its loved, classic rides and refurbishes them when no one asked them to do that. We still miss greatly Back to The Future and ET because they got replaced with subpar offerings (well, I like Revenge of The Mummy a lot, but if they could have kept ET we would all be very happy). More to the point is the recent wave of refurbs that Uni has undertaken that really have left a bad taste. The Jimmy Fallon ride is just an uninspired idea, the debacle of the Fast and Furious and King Kong "rides" in Orlando, Dreamworks Theater make me cautious. Heck, even Gringotts got some hate because to many it was a step back from the truly groundbreaking Forbidden Journey. So, in summary, it's not that I am afraid of change, but that Uni is so inconsistent with said changes. For every Forbidden Journey we get so many half cooked rides. So yes I am very afraid of what's coming for JW. And no one can say my fears are unfounded. Again, we won't know for sure until the ride opens, but screens are not loved, more so when you had an open space with AAs that could have been easily upgraded to make it work better. Time will tell if Uni got it wrong
While I've never been to USF or IOA I'm gonna have to disagree with Dreamworks Theater being a letdown. In my opinion I thought it had the best use of projection mapping I've seen in a while, both in the preshow and in the final scenes of the attraction. If they could do something like that, then I'm certain they could enhance the scenes inside the final building with projection mapping.
Also, as great as the opening scene of the original was, the sightlines of the upper lot stuck out like a sore thumb, so I think the coverage of that sight line via a show building was for the better. Besides, I think the rest of the ride is still gonna be good, since I don't think Universal would want to give away the good bits of the ride before it even opens.
I agree with the fact that Dreamworks Theater is a huge upgrade from Shrek, but the fact that it is still a theater with a 3D movie that's not even as technologically advanced as a 4DX Theater I have 15 min away from where I live is a bit of a letdown. Yeah proyections are kind of cool, but still, a 3D movie. The 4DX theater I have close from home totally lifts the chairs up so your feet are not touching the ground, has scents, fans, strobe lights, effects on the back of the chairs, water effects, mist, and so many other things that I am amazed Universal didn't go that route. I was fortunate enough to watch Jurassic Park 3D at that theater close home, and I can tell you it was a total blast. Dreamworks Theater is gorgeous though. They truly made an amazing building