Does IOA need expansion?

[pvcoasterguy]

I highly doubt that Universal's going to go to Intamin, given their current reputation for buying only B&M's (other than the kiddie coasters and Revenge of the Mummy,) Universal has had great luck with B&M. All of Universal's B&M's are amazing, and none of them have had any major issues. They're quality rides, from a quality company. Also, given all of Intamin's problems right now, I doubt they'd get an Intamin.

 

Also, Universal isn't just going to plop down a regular coaster, like Six Flags would. Universal goes toward the "experience" route; where a ride is totally different than everything else. Look at Dueling Dragons, Hulk, Ripsaw Falls, Revenge of the Mummy (Florida version), Spiderman. They are all experiences, something you can't do when you go to a normal theme park. They do stuff different, yet better.

 

I'd really like to see the Jurassic Park jeep ride. It would be amazing. They should have the jeep fall down the wall (like the effect in the River Adventure at Calif.) with you in it. Or, just make a cool ride. Something though, because the JP area seems pretty boring.[/b]

[coasters 4 me]

what about a B&M speed coaster.

It's not Intamin and they would still have good trade with B&M. Really, i dont think a woodie would be a good idea. All the other rides at Universal are steel. And i think it would be better them having all steel. Although woodies are brilliant.

Oh, and about the B&M Hyper, they could theme it on the X-Men or something. There is a person really fast in it, right?

And by conquering the noise issue, they could do what they did on Dueling Dragons. Fill it with sand, but it they want it to be really loud, fill it with nothing.

[JT3000]

There will never be another island at IOA. They have enough land for new rides and small expansions of the current islands, but not enough for entirely new islands, unless you want them to turn out like Toon Town at MK.

 

I don't see a woodie going into JP, but if it did, they could theme it to an amber mine (like at the beginning of the first movie). Most of the ride would be out of view from the rest of the park, and it would help with the noise issue. It certainly shouldn't go out over the water.

 

I'd rather see an indoor jeep ride than anything else. Maybe give it some coaster elements ala Mummy. I don't think this will happen either though because of Dinosaur, which is a shame, because this would more than likely be better.

 

Marvel doesn't need anymore attractions. The only open room in Marvel is behind the building facades. They aren't going to put an outdoor attraction of any kind back there, it would be bad show. The only thing they could do is remove Storm Force to make way for another small dark ride. I personally think they made Marvel way too small. I wouldn't mind seeing them close the ampitheater and extend Marvel's theming up to there. They'd have to move Bill & Ted, but it doesn't belong there anyway. Put the lame midway games in Amity where they belong.

 

There's an open area behind Suess that doesn't seem to be used for anything, except for storing that dumb Mt. Crumpet thing. They could use this area to extend Suess.

 

Lost Continent could really use another ride. For those of us that don't like coasters, there's basically nothing there except Posiedon, which they've completely bastardized. It almost makes you want to cry. The room inbetween JP and LC, behind the Unicorn, should be used for an LC attraction, since JP already has an open area to work with.

 

Then there's Toon, which doesn't really need anything at the moment.

 

Besides expansion, I think two rides that need a serious rehab are JP and Cat in the Hat. Cat has seen better days, and JP's worn out animatronics are well documented. And while it's down, they could possibly improve JP to make it more comparable to the other versions.

[Coasters 4 ever]

^Jurassic Park is an ISLAND, not a ride.

[Mind Eraser]

^ Yeah, but I think most people think of the ride as "Jurassic Park". I know when I first visited IOA, I was in JP and I was looking for the boat ride. I said to an employee "Where's Jurassic Park?". She goes "Right here." I responded "What?" We spoke to each other confused for a second, until we realized what the hell we we both talking about.

 

 

-kip-

[pvcoasterguy]

^ He's referring to the Jurassic Park River Adventure, located in the Jurassic Park Island.

 

^^ When I went to Universal for spring break, The Cat worked a ton better than it has in the past. There was steam coming out of a bunch of places (shower, tea kettle, and the Cat's machine.) And almost everything was on cue. The spinning tunnel worked also. It's a great ride!

 

But, they do need to fix JPRA. Sometimes a couple things don't work, but they're usually little things. (The doors, sparks, among others.) The doors are really cool when they work. It feels like you're going into the real thing with that music, and the total awesomeness of it all.

[Coasters 4 ever]

^ He's referring to the Jurassic Park River Adventure, located in the Jurassic Park Island.

 

^^ When I went to Universal for spring break, The Cat worked a ton better than it has in the past. There was steam coming out of a bunch of places (shower, tea kettle, and the Cat's machine.) And almost everything was on cue. The spinning tunnel worked also. It's a great ride!

 

But, they do need to fix JPRA. Sometimes a couple things don't work, but they're usually little things. (The doors, sparks, among others.) The doors are really cool when they work. It feels like you're going into the real thing with that music, and the total awesomeness of it all.

 

Every once in a while, the dinosaurs get new skins but I don't know anything about the doors and those little things. What do you mean the doors anyway? They always work when I ride it.

[bluemen]

Looking at satellite photos (maps.google.com), it looks like there's at least some room between Lost Continent and JP. If you remove TE, there's certainly enough room for a ride there. I'd really like to see another major attraction in that area--a coaster or a 4D simulator (a la Spiderman, but with dinos & science or wizards & kings depending on which island it belongs to).

 

Also, ideally, I'd see a vekoma motorbike with major themeing replacing Unicorn--maybe even a dueling motorbike with a jousting theme? The ride would have to be small, but perhaps they could retool the DD line and use some of that space. And I agree with everyone-- nothing can go over the lake, although IMO they could clean up the appearance of the shore of toon lagoon.

 

Overall the park is still amazing, but a few more major thrills would significantly improve the experience there.

[JT3000]

^^ When I went to Universal for spring break, The Cat worked a ton better than it has in the past. There was steam coming out of a bunch of places (shower, tea kettle, and the Cat's machine.) And almost everything was on cue. The spinning tunnel worked also. It's a great ride!

 

When I was there on the final day of Mardi Gras, it looked like the entire ride could use a paint job. One of the Things was missing (the one doing cartwheels), the piano didn't fall, and for whatever reason, there were actually visible wires popping out of the left hand of the Cat that's trying to balance a bunch of stuff on his hands. The steam was the only improvement I noticed.

 

What do you mean the doors anyway? They always work when I ride it.

 

The doors have been getting left open periodically for a while now. If you're lucky, they're working on a every-other-boat basis, because there's a reset issue.

 

Oh, and I'm aware of what Jurassic Park is. I probably have one of the highest visit counts to IOA of anyone here. I refer to the Jurassic Park River Adventure as JP because it's easy to type, it's the only major ride on the island so far, the USH version is "Jurassic Park: The Ride", and I simply expect people to know what I'm talking about since I mentioned it in the context of a ride.

[CoasterG]

IoA has a surprising amount of space available for expansion - they just need to get a greenlight.

 

Here's a brief list of expansion areas:

 

Marvel

- waterfront, the area between Cpt America cafe and the store, behind the Marvel Comics "sculpture" - room for a flat ride or similar attraction;

- backstage, between Storm Force and Doom - the temp warehouse building is there that is used during HHN and for other special events;

 

Toon Lagoon

- backstage, between Dudley and the food court, hard to access though

 

Toon Lagoon/Jurassic Park

- between Dudley and Thunder Falls Terrace, huge area for a major attraction, precleared, used for ride part storage;

- Triceritops Encounter, medium sized area for a themed attraction - don't think they'd build something tall here since the Visitor's Center is thematically supposed to be the center of attention on the lake;

- between Jurassic Park RA and Lost Continent, another huge area of land that can be developed - some park services buildings behind Pizza Predoria if I remember correctly

 

Lost Continent

- previously mentioned area between JP and LC

- pretty full back here - it borders on the studio section so I suppose anything is possible but a lot of offices, cafeteria, etc back here

 

Suess

- waterfront area occupied by Sneech track

- Sneech ride refurb/removal, decent amount of space to play with for a new attraction

- area between 1 Fish, 2 Fish and CitH, larger area, big enough for a major attraction

 

My favorite and more probably rumors are the Jeep Attraction, and the B&M flyer. If they are willing to spend the $, the Jeep Adventure had a lot of planning done but it'd be a big ticket item. B&M flyer is cheaper, be a first in the area and I wouldn't be surprised if Universal had a 3 coaster deal with B&M in the first place.

 

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