lol I’m going to replicate here the comment that I just made on your other River Adventure post because it definitely fits nicely and even better with this article. But oh my god really…? an article because the lights changed color? lol 🙄 Maybe they just ran out of the old light bulbs and had to use a different one that maintenance had on hand, lol. And actually thinking about it now I’m pretty sure it has been changed multiple times over the years because I remember watching some of the original promotional stock footage from that area and looking at some of the original brochures we had in the office collecting dust and I remember the lighting being totally different from how it was at that point. When I was there the lighting was already pretty red / orange. Anyway, here are my comments from my time working at RA that I just shared on the other article which also fit nicely with this article:
Working as a park ranger at River Adventure was my first job at the age of 15 and I worked there seasonally over each summer and sometimes after school (my high school was walking distance across the street and all day long in half of my classes I would hear the Jurassic Park theme song followed by the sound of roaring dinosaurs and then finally the sounds of people screaming in a loop, repeating over and over again lol). I worked there seasonally for several years into college a bit. If I recall I think my starting wage was $5.60/hour. Raises each year where I believe 10¢… 🙄
I have a number of fond memories from working there and enjoyed it overall. One of my favorite times was when a non-english-speaking Catholic nun from Spain wearing her habit and everything climbed over the fence at spashdown and climbed/jumped out onto some rocks in the lagoon and sat there with her rosary beads and begin praying lolol. Definitely led to an E-Stop. Those were always such a pain because the entire length of the ride had to be manually checked and reset, each scene at a time. But on one hand it was also sometimes kind of nice to have a break lol. It was also fun to putt golf balls around on the roof of the River Adventure building lol. My favorite thing to do though was what I would sometimes do at spillway (the area right before the drop/where the T-Rex pops out and then you fall) right when we were about to close for the evening and the last boats were coming by, lol. Our main purpose there was to make sure people remained seated before the final drop/to make sure no cameras, hats, other items were out and potentially about to become projectiles/to watch for any panicking “jumpers” who decided last moment that they would rather jump out of a moving ride vehicle into a dangerous ride scene er… warehouse full of roaring dinosaurs and flashing red lights and heavy-duty high-voltage machinery and animatronics lol. We sat in a nasty, pitch-black little room/booth to the right that was filled with mold spores and stagnant air and an endless layer of dust and decomposing drywall and could press a button to stop the boat there at the final scene before it went down the drop and would come onto the PA system to remind guests to remain seated and to put items away, etc. It’s a very loud scene and so we wore ear plugs to protect our hearing from the blaring siren / alarm / machinery / loud roaring dinosaur sounds and the second we pushed that button to speak on the PA system it would instantly go from loud blaring chaos to peaceful silence as all ride sounds were muted, including the roaring T-Rex. His movement never stopped though so he would be left just silently flailing his little arms and opening his big jaw, lol. Anyway, every now and then on nights when I was super bored and we were about to close right as the last boats were coming around the bend I’d push the PA talk button just as the T-Rex popped out and opened its mouth and would replace his loud, angry dinosaur growling sounds with my imitation of a cat meowing sound, synchronizing my meows to his mouth movements, totally confusing the guests just moments before the boat plunged down the final drop. It was so so so hilarious to watch the facial expressions and reactions of the guests go from from scared and confused given the chaotic scene they were currently traversing through to even more scared and startled when the T-Rex popped out, to totally and utterly confused when the T-Rex didn’t growl but instead meowed moments before the boat plummeting down the final drop in total darkness lolol. I’m sure some of the reactions on the faces of the guests caught on the final ride photo must have been hilarious 🤣🤣. Usually this would be followed a few moments later by a phone call from the person working at the unload station laughing after the guests, confused, asked them why the T-Rex was meowing, lol. Sorry if I ruined anyone’s magical dinosaur River Adventure experience, lol. 🤷🏻♂️
Speaking of ruined ride experiences… I just now reminded myself of something horrible that happened a few times/occasionally at unload… 😬 I remember on at least three occasions working at unload and watching / hearing the guests gasp together in utter horror as an adorably cute family of baby ducklings following behind their mother duck jumped from the lagoon wall into the water and instantly vanished as they swam by the large water intake drain/vent on the left side of the unload area, instantaneously sucked through the grate into the circulation pump… 😬😞. I quickly acted cheery and told everyone not to worry and that it was just our “automatic duck relocation system” and that the little baby ducklings were completely fine… 🦆👍🏻😬🙅🏻♂️
I mean… I’m sure they’re resilient little creatures and I guess it’s possible the pump simply spat them out unharmed somewhere else moments later but there were definitely several occasions where I saw ducks go in and not come out… 😬😕😥
You may want to fact check the opening date of the attraction, considering how Islands of Adventure opened in 1999 and you mention this attraction opened in 1996.
What do I think? I think someone was desperate for a story and not only that, but took this simple ‘who cares’ minor change and wrote a book about it. Stretching it out like a Jr. High kid stretching out a book report.
They should replace it with a T-Rex that actually looks like it could harm a person, not that tiny little guy they’re using now. He’s like a large raptor.
1996 was the year the first iteration of this ride (Jurassic Park: The Ride) opened at Universal Studios Hollywood. So yes, this article is incorrect. Also, the stock photo used for this article of the final scene with the T-Rex is a promotional stock photo from how the scene looked when the ride opened in 1999, with the green lighting. The lighting has been orange/dark red/yellow and not green since at least 2003 when I started working there and was probably like that for some time already by that point. This is definitely a non-news “article” for sure. You’d think if the final scene has indeed been updated with a lighting change so significant it’s deemed newsworthy that they would include an actual photo showing the new lighting and not use an opening-day photo that is 23 years old lol.
Comments for Universal’s ‘Jurassic Park’ Attraction Makes Change to T-Rex Ending
John Hammond
lol I’m going to replicate here the comment that I just made on your other River Adventure post because it definitely fits nicely and even better with this article. But oh my god really…? an article because the lights changed color? lol 🙄 Maybe they just ran out of the old light bulbs and had to use a different one that maintenance had on hand, lol. And actually thinking about it now I’m pretty sure it has been changed multiple times over the years because I remember watching some of the original promotional stock footage from that area and looking at some of the original brochures we had in the office collecting dust and I remember the lighting being totally different from how it was at that point. When I was there the lighting was already pretty red / orange. Anyway, here are my comments from my time working at RA that I just shared on the other article which also fit nicely with this article:
Working as a park ranger at River Adventure was my first job at the age of 15 and I worked there seasonally over each summer and sometimes after school (my high school was walking distance across the street and all day long in half of my classes I would hear the Jurassic Park theme song followed by the sound of roaring dinosaurs and then finally the sounds of people screaming in a loop, repeating over and over again lol). I worked there seasonally for several years into college a bit. If I recall I think my starting wage was $5.60/hour. Raises each year where I believe 10¢… 🙄
I have a number of fond memories from working there and enjoyed it overall. One of my favorite times was when a non-english-speaking Catholic nun from Spain wearing her habit and everything climbed over the fence at spashdown and climbed/jumped out onto some rocks in the lagoon and sat there with her rosary beads and begin praying lolol. Definitely led to an E-Stop. Those were always such a pain because the entire length of the ride had to be manually checked and reset, each scene at a time. But on one hand it was also sometimes kind of nice to have a break lol. It was also fun to putt golf balls around on the roof of the River Adventure building lol. My favorite thing to do though was what I would sometimes do at spillway (the area right before the drop/where the T-Rex pops out and then you fall) right when we were about to close for the evening and the last boats were coming by, lol. Our main purpose there was to make sure people remained seated before the final drop/to make sure no cameras, hats, other items were out and potentially about to become projectiles/to watch for any panicking “jumpers” who decided last moment that they would rather jump out of a moving ride vehicle into a dangerous ride scene er… warehouse full of roaring dinosaurs and flashing red lights and heavy-duty high-voltage machinery and animatronics lol. We sat in a nasty, pitch-black little room/booth to the right that was filled with mold spores and stagnant air and an endless layer of dust and decomposing drywall and could press a button to stop the boat there at the final scene before it went down the drop and would come onto the PA system to remind guests to remain seated and to put items away, etc. It’s a very loud scene and so we wore ear plugs to protect our hearing from the blaring siren / alarm / machinery / loud roaring dinosaur sounds and the second we pushed that button to speak on the PA system it would instantly go from loud blaring chaos to peaceful silence as all ride sounds were muted, including the roaring T-Rex. His movement never stopped though so he would be left just silently flailing his little arms and opening his big jaw, lol. Anyway, every now and then on nights when I was super bored and we were about to close right as the last boats were coming around the bend I’d push the PA talk button just as the T-Rex popped out and opened its mouth and would replace his loud, angry dinosaur growling sounds with my imitation of a cat meowing sound, synchronizing my meows to his mouth movements, totally confusing the guests just moments before the boat plunged down the final drop. It was so so so hilarious to watch the facial expressions and reactions of the guests go from from scared and confused given the chaotic scene they were currently traversing through to even more scared and startled when the T-Rex popped out, to totally and utterly confused when the T-Rex didn’t growl but instead meowed moments before the boat plummeting down the final drop in total darkness lolol. I’m sure some of the reactions on the faces of the guests caught on the final ride photo must have been hilarious 🤣🤣. Usually this would be followed a few moments later by a phone call from the person working at the unload station laughing after the guests, confused, asked them why the T-Rex was meowing, lol. Sorry if I ruined anyone’s magical dinosaur River Adventure experience, lol. 🤷🏻♂️
Speaking of ruined ride experiences… I just now reminded myself of something horrible that happened a few times/occasionally at unload… 😬 I remember on at least three occasions working at unload and watching / hearing the guests gasp together in utter horror as an adorably cute family of baby ducklings following behind their mother duck jumped from the lagoon wall into the water and instantly vanished as they swam by the large water intake drain/vent on the left side of the unload area, instantaneously sucked through the grate into the circulation pump… 😬😞. I quickly acted cheery and told everyone not to worry and that it was just our “automatic duck relocation system” and that the little baby ducklings were completely fine… 🦆👍🏻😬🙅🏻♂️
Poor, poor little ducklings… 😢😞
Brian Wilson
>complains about an article being written about a trivial change
>writes a comment longer than the original article
BunnSaurus
As a veteran UO resident, I can vouch for everything John Hammond said. Thanks for the observation and stories.
Ariel
So did the baby ducklings die then?!😬☹💔🐥🐥🐥
John Hammond
I mean… I’m sure they’re resilient little creatures and I guess it’s possible the pump simply spat them out unharmed somewhere else moments later but there were definitely several occasions where I saw ducks go in and not come out… 😬😕😥
🦆🐤❌🐤🐤
Jon
You may want to fact check the opening date of the attraction, considering how Islands of Adventure opened in 1999 and you mention this attraction opened in 1996.
Steve
What do I think? I think someone was desperate for a story and not only that, but took this simple ‘who cares’ minor change and wrote a book about it. Stretching it out like a Jr. High kid stretching out a book report.
Bobby
They should replace it with a T-Rex that actually looks like it could harm a person, not that tiny little guy they’re using now. He’s like a large raptor.
John Hammond
1996 was the year the first iteration of this ride (Jurassic Park: The Ride) opened at Universal Studios Hollywood. So yes, this article is incorrect. Also, the stock photo used for this article of the final scene with the T-Rex is a promotional stock photo from how the scene looked when the ride opened in 1999, with the green lighting. The lighting has been orange/dark red/yellow and not green since at least 2003 when I started working there and was probably like that for some time already by that point. This is definitely a non-news “article” for sure. You’d think if the final scene has indeed been updated with a lighting change so significant it’s deemed newsworthy that they would include an actual photo showing the new lighting and not use an opening-day photo that is 23 years old lol.
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