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 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 sometimes nice to have a break lol. It was also fun to put golf balls around on the roof of the River Adventure building lol. My favorite thing 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 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 an endless layer of dust and decomposing drywall and could stop the boat before it went down the drop and would come on to the PA system to remind people to remain seated and to put items away, etc. It’s a very loud scene and so we wore ear plugs most of the time 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 go instantly go from loud blaring chaos to peaceful silence and would mute all sounds including the roaring T-Rex though his movement never stopped so he would be left just silently flailing lol. Anyway, every now and then on nights when I was super bored and we were about to close as the last boats were coming around the bend I’d push the PA talk button right 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 sounds, synchronizing them to his mouth movements just moments before the boat fell down the 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 when the dinosaur popped out, to totally and utterly confused when the dinosaur started meowing moments before plummeting down the final drop in total darkness lolol. I’m sure some of the reactions 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 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 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 would quickly tell everyone not to worry and that it was just our “automatic duck relocation system” and that they were completely fine… 🦆👍🏻😬🙅🏻♂️
Comments for Terrifying ‘Jurassic Park’ Dinosaur Loses Tongue on Universal Ride
John Hammond
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 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 sometimes nice to have a break lol. It was also fun to put golf balls around on the roof of the River Adventure building lol. My favorite thing 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 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 an endless layer of dust and decomposing drywall and could stop the boat before it went down the drop and would come on to the PA system to remind people to remain seated and to put items away, etc. It’s a very loud scene and so we wore ear plugs most of the time 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 go instantly go from loud blaring chaos to peaceful silence and would mute all sounds including the roaring T-Rex though his movement never stopped so he would be left just silently flailing lol. Anyway, every now and then on nights when I was super bored and we were about to close as the last boats were coming around the bend I’d push the PA talk button right 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 sounds, synchronizing them to his mouth movements just moments before the boat fell down the 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 when the dinosaur popped out, to totally and utterly confused when the dinosaur started meowing moments before plummeting down the final drop in total darkness lolol. I’m sure some of the reactions 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 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 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 would quickly tell everyone not to worry and that it was just our “automatic duck relocation system” and that they were completely fine… 🦆👍🏻😬🙅🏻♂️
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