“Time… the ever-flowing river… Come with us now to a time before man when the river flowed through a new-born world and giants walked the earth.”
Few franchises can say that they’ve occupied the pinnacle of pop culture, persisting between generations. But for Universal, few owned-or-acquired IPs can beat the box office and merchandising dominance of Jurassic Park. Since Michael Crichton’s 1990 novel and the 1993 Steven Spielberg film it inspired, Jurassic Park has been reborn time and time again, effortlessly extending kids’ built-in fascination with dinosaurs and re-capturing the enthusiasm of adults over and over.
But any theme park fan will tell you beyond the highs and lows of the films, Jurassic Park has lived as a key property within Universal’s theme parks. Today, we’ll take a whirlwind tour of the five theme parks where Universal’s Jurassic franchise has come to life, counting down the top dino-rides from toothless to terrifying.
10. Pteranodon Flyers
Location: Universal Islands of Adventure
When Islands of Adventure opened in 1999, its Jurassic Park land really served as an anchor of the park’s lineup. One of the first ever IP-focused immersive lands, the space was meant to make you feel as if you were visiting John Hammond’s real dinosaur zoo. Even though a family-focused “Camp Jurassic” playground is never seen in the Jurassic Park films, you can imagine that one existed just “off screen.” Camp Jurassic at Islands of Adventure gives kids a chance to run, climb, slide, and dig as they swing across bridges, explore geothermal amber mines, and more.
The only ride in Camp Jurassic is Pteranodon Flyers. It’s technically one of five roller coasters at Islands of Adventure… but you’ve probably never been on it. A swinging, suspended coaster, Pteranodon Flyers lets explorers dangle in bucket seats beneath an artistic interpretation of a pteranodon, gliding gently around the perimeter of Camp Jurassic. Unfortunately, its two-person vehicles give the ride an almost jaw-droppingly low hourly capacity – at best, just 170 riders per hour. As a result, shortly after the park opened, Pteranodon Flyers had its height requirement updated. During the normal operating day, guests over 56″ cannot ride without an accompanying child. It’s a sweet, cute ride, but certainly has the fewest “teeth” of any Jurassic ride.
9. Dino-Soarin’
Location: Universal Studios Singapore
Universal Studios Singapore has a land called The Lost World. It’s mostly themed to Jurassic Park. (It just also happens to contain the park’s Waterworld stunt show.) One of its rides is “Dino-Soarin'” – a fairly standard Dumbo-style spinner, but with guests riding fairly realistic pterodactyls. Even immersive theme parks need these kind of “D-Ticket” flat rides that add to parks’ ride counts, increase their attractiveness to families, and add to park capacities. But Dino-Soarin’ doesn’t feel like a ride that John Hammond’s “real,” boutique theme park for one-percenters would have.
8. Canopy Flyer
Location: Universal Studios Singapore
Even though Pteranodon Flyers wasn’t exactly a brilliant ride to have at one of the world’s top ten most-attended parks, Universal Studios Singapore decided to incorporate a version into its Lost World area, too. The good news is that Canopy Flyer feels lot more sturdy than Florida’s ride. Canopy Flyer actually feels like a roller coaster, with a couple dips and banked turns that are much more thrilling than the placid ride in Florida. It also uses, like, real roller coaster trains – four-seaters, with two guests facing forward and two facing backward.
7. Jurassic Flyers
Location: Universal Studios Beijing
The concept of having an aerial ride glide around a dinosaur theme park really stuck. At least the new Universal Studios Beijing got serious when it comes to capacity and experience and purchased a Mack Inverted Powered Coaster. We’ve seen this ride model used for elaborate attractions, like Europa Park’s Arthur family coaster / dark ride. The Chinese park’s Jurassic Flyers isn’t quite that ambitious, but it does make use of the powered coaster and its controlled rotation to send guests rising, gliding, dipping, twisting, and turning as it navigates indoor and outdoor environments, providing great views accompanied by on-ride audio that gives the ride a distinctly-Jurassic feeling.
6. Jurassic Park Rapids Adventure
Ever since the original Jurassic Park: The Ride opened at Universal Studios Hollywood in 1996, dinosaurs and boat rides have just seemed to go together. Even though it was a Jeep ride that we saw in the movie, it seems fair to imagine that a rustic raft ride through aquatic dinosaur’s habitats could be a part of the park. However, Universal Studios Singapore switched up the formula, swapping slow-moving rafts with a free-spinning rapids ride (like Kali River Rapids, Popeye’s Bilge-Rat Barges, or Grizzly River Run).
That significantly increases the ride’s pacing while also introducing the thrills of rapids segments as the raft rotates. Rather than a a playful dinosaur, it’s a flash flood that sends the rafts spinning into an off-limits area overrun with carnivores. The only means of escape here is a “Hydrovater” that physically lifts the raft… right toward the snapping jaws of the T-rex directly overhead, with a run-off chute as the only path foward. It’s certainly different from the raft rides we know… But the ride’s animatronics are sun-bleached, hokey, and battered by time, leaving this ride from feeling like an E-Ticket. Which brings us to Florida…
5. Jurassic Park River Adventure
Location: Universal’s Islands of Adventure and Universal Studios Japan
The original Lost Legend: Jurassic Park – The Ride opened at Universal Studios Hollywood in 1996. Its immense popularity is what propelled Jurassic Park to skip Universal Studios Florida and instead expand to an entire land at the under-development Islands of Adventure. Of course, the Florida version also gave designers a chance to cut back on some of the more temperamental effects and figures, largely “playing it safe” with a more restrained and less ambitious version of the ride.
Believe it or not, it’s been a quarter century since Islands of Adventure opened, and though Universal initially produced entire Travel Channel specials on how often they reskinned their animatronic dinosaurs as a result of continuous exposure to the Florida sun, there’s just no denying that Jurassic Park River Adventure is in pretty rough shape. Whether it’s a restoration of the classic or a conversion to Jurassic World, the ride needs an 18 month closure where all of its animatronics can be fully replaced and where new flourishes and effects can be integrated. For all that fans laugh at the often dismal state of Disney’s Modern Marvel: DINOSAUR, it’s hard to argue that Universal’s blockbuster dinosaur ride is in any better shape…
4. The Flying Dinosaur
Location: Universal Studios Japan
We haven’t yet visited Universal Studios Japan, which features its own Jurassic Park mini-land in the spot where Floridians would expect to find Fear Factor Live and Men in Black: Alien Attack. The space in Osaka includes its own Discovery Center (there housing a restaurant) and a copy of the Jurassic Park River Adventure (but mirror-imaged). However, the land is practically dominated by The Flying Dinosaur – a B&M flying coaster (like SeaWorld Orlando’s Manta) that soars throughout the land.
The Flying Dinosaur straps riders into “perimeter surveillance vehicles” seemingly “pulled” by a pteranodon ahead of the lead car. Pivoted into “flying” mode (facing down with spines aligned to the track), the coaster roars through the land, diving into massive inversions. It’s a wildly intense ride. So even though John Hammond probably wouldn’t have loved the idea of a massive, bare steel roller coaster screaming through the jungles of his boutique park, The Flying Dinosaur is on the bucket lists of many coaster fans and Jurassic fans.
3. Jurassic World: The Ride
Location: Universal Studios Hollywood
After a decade of inactivity in the wake of sequels that declined in critical and commercial success, Universal’s dinosaur blockbuster returned to pop culture prominence with 2015’s Jurassic World. A direct sequel to the original film (and the start of its own trilogy+), Jurassic World makes the logical leap that even after the disaster we saw unfold in the 1993 film, someone decided it was worth another try. But this time, the brand new Jurassic World built on the other side of Isla Nublar is going for “more teeth.” Forget the boutique, Discovery-Cove-style zoological park of Hammond’s time – Jurassic World is a park for the masses: one with monorails, thrill rides, genetically-modified dino-stars, and arenas that treat mosasauruses the way we treat Shamu.
In 2019, Universal Studios Hollywood’s original Jurassic Park: The Ride made the switch. A massive reimagining, Jurassic World: The Ride is a jaw-dropping E-Ticket. Sure, some of its restagings feel like downgrades compared to the original… but many of its switches are phenomenal. That includes a new opening act (replacing the Ultrasaur Lagoon with a channel through the Mosasaurus tank), a new inciting incident (the escape of the Indominous rex) and a new finale that retains the iconic T. rex, but recasts her as a lucky distraction from the full-scale, best-animatronics-on-Earth-worthy Indominous rex.
Should the “Jurassic World” wrap come to Orlando? That’s a hotly debated question… On one hand, Islands of Adventure is supposed to be a park of timeless stories, not about promoting movies. But given the plusses that Jurassic World brought, it’s certainly worth considering… And besides…
2. Jurassic World VelociCoaster
For two decades, the iconic Discovery Center stood as a sort of “weenie” for Islands of Adventure – a grand, recognizable structure in the keystone position directly across from the park’s entry. That changed with the 2020 opening of the Jurassic World VelociCoaster. In keeping with the “new” park’s promise of offering “more teeth,” the cockamamie coaster sends guests launching through the 21st century park’s velociraptor habitat, “racing” alongside Blue and her sisters, all while Chris Pratt’s Owen Grady shouts about what a stupid, risky idea the whole thing is.
VelociCoaster – produced by coaster manufacturer Intamin at the top of its game – is a stunning ride, twisting, racing, and inverting through a compact, knotted first half wedged into Blue’s zoo habitat, then launching out to the park’s lagoon and up a 155 foot tall top hat. From there, the ride soars through an extended second half that practically brushes up against Hogsmeade’s Three Broomsticks before spiraling over the lagoon in a hangtime “mosasaurus roll.”
Okay, okay, narratively, the lean into the hot, trendy (and now-concluded) Jurassic World trilogy is out of sync with Islands of Adventure’s timeless, literary lineup. Environmentally, it makes zero sense that a black steel roller coaster now dominates the skyline of Jurassic Park. Canonically, a Jurassic World ride wouldn’t co-exist with John Hammond’s original Discovery Center. And technically, it turns the land into a mess of narratives that the yellow-and-red Jurassic Park branding persists on the River Adventure while the blue and silver World decor dominates the coaster and its support facilities. But coaster aficianados aren’t lying when they say that VelociCoaster is easily among the best roller coasters on Earth, period. So maybe it’s worth it.
1. Jurassic World Adventure
Location: Universal Studios Beijing
Universal Studios Beijing is the only one of Universal’s parks to axe the water ride from its anchoring spot in a Jurassic land. Instead, its cinematic area – Jurassic World: Isla Nublar – is anchored by a very different kind of ride. Technically, Jurassic World Adventure uses the “SCOOP” ride system developed for Islands of Adventure’s Modern Marvel: The Amazing Adventures of Spider-Man. But make no mistake: Jurassic World Adventure axes the screens for a very physical ride.
In fact, we won’t ruin its secrets here… suffice it to say that we explored this jaw-dropping ride in its own standalone feature, questioning whether Universal’s new ride might have stolen the crown of the best modern dark ride on Earth. You’ll have to make the jump there to get all the details and a ride-through video. But this much is clear: Universal isn’t slowing down when it comes to the Jurassic franchise, which remains one of their biggest blockbusters… and one of the most spectacular features of its parks.
