Jurassic Park scope

Hello!

I’m 1000% a newbie to the Universal board but would consider myself a regular on the WDW boards. I did a little searching and recognize some faces so that is great!

We have had a number of snow days recently and I have been sick for a number of weeks as well so my dinosaur obsessed DS2 has had (way too much) a lot of time snuggled with me watching videos on my phone. He recently stumbled upon a father/son web series where they run a pretend Jurassic Park. His favorite episode has them visiting Jurassic Park at Universal Studios.

I did some quick web searching and it looks like this is really only one Jurassic Park ride at Universal? The video makes it look like an entire park/land with a store, discovery center, a couple of rides and a playground. Is the video outdated? I am just curious for the scope of Jurassic Park stuff. We are planning to return to WDW next year and I’m wondering if I need to start researching Universal Studios too! (I had looked briefly in the past and it didn’t seem super toddler friendly.)

Thanks for any input! I’m mainly just curious and have some time to kill on another snow day.

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Welcome to Universal planning! I just went on my Universal app and sorted by “super land”. Four attractions /areas are listed: Camp Jurassic, Jurassic Park Discovery Center, Jurassic Park River Adventure ( fun but you can get wet), and Pteranodon Flyers (I think there are restrictions on this?)

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There are only two rides. The boat ride (River Adventure, and the Pteranadon FLyers. The Flyers are only for young kids, and the line is horrendously long. Even with the virtual line, we’ve never done it.

But Jurassic Park is one of the “Islands” at Universal that also includes the new Kong ride. Since that ride also includes Dinosaurs, I supposed you can pretend it is part of the Jurassic Park world.

The area is actually one of the prettiest in Islands of Adventure, and you can have a “meet and greet” with some Velociraptors if you want, etc.

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Welcome!!!

The Jurassic Park area includes several things. The highlight is undoubtedly the water ride, complete with animatronic dinosaurs. There is also a ride called Pteranodon Flyers, which is primarily for smaller children and one adult. You climb into a “Pteranodon” and glide down a track. In addition to this, there is a raptor meet and greet, a children’s play area, the Discovery Center, where you can see dinos hatching and various other dinosaur displays, a gift shop, a couple restaurants and eateries and the iconic Jurassic Park entrance with the music playing as you walk through. I would say you could easily spend several hours there, and would be worth checking out if you’re going to be in Orlando anyway.

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BTW, it should be noted that I expect the rides are going to be far too mature for your son. Kong, for example…definitely not for kids. And, actually, in some cases, not for adults! :slight_smile: (My wife wouldn’t go on it.) I loved it, but the experience is intense.

The River Adventure is possibly also too mature for that age. I’m not sure what changes they are adding at the moment related to the Jurassic World movie, but it was closed in February for renovations.

If Dinosaurs are your son’s thing, I really wouldn’t go to Universal Studios just for that, IMO. Other than the Seuss Land, it is primarily a park for older kids and adults.

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Thanks everyone! It sounds like it will be a no-go for 2019. I think the land sounds pretty neat and he would probably really like it, but I don’t think there’s enough for his age to warrant a whole trip. Hopefully he will be into Harry Potter as well when he gets older and then we can do a whole couple of days at Universal.

Side note: after reading through some of the UO posts, it is so crazy the hotel/Express Pass pricing situation. Very interesting business model!

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I hope he does end up liking Harry Potter as well! Universal really is fun and the detailing is great, but like others have said, he may be too young to experience a lot there right now.

Just curious, what’s the web series called?

The videos are called ToyLabTV. It’s a pretty cute father/son Dino keepers and they go to different places and happen to run into (fairly terrible) CGI dinosaurs. Whatever keeps a 2 year old’s attention for 7 minutes works for me!

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Lol, so true! I’m checking it out, lol.

We took my son to UO this past January (he just turned 3 in December) and like your DS, he LOVES dinosaurs. Although he could not ride the Jurassic Park River Adventure, he was able to do the Pteranodon Flyers" and explore the play area and Discovery Center, he would have spent all day there if we let him! He actually had a great time at both US and IOA. It is true that he was too short to ride a majority of the rides but between the play areas and the rides he was able to do, he loved both days we visited! He is already asking to go back because he thinks he superhero land was so cool!

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