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Islands of Adventure


JoshC.

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IoA are building a thrill coaster themed to Jurassic Park for 2021. It's expected to be a multi-launch Intamin coaster, on a similar scale to Taron and Taiga:

 

 

Launch track has been in place for a whole now, but more supports and track have recently been erected.

 

Certainly one to keep an eye on!

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After Rise of the resistance and Iron Gwazi, this is the development in Florida I can safely I am most looking forward to experiencing whenever I get the chance to return to Florida.

 

Universal apparently have been interested in an Intamin multi launch/blitz coaster since Taron came around and I can see them looking to make this an intense and snappy experience given the use of the Intamin double spined track. The only other question I suppose this will leave is wherever or not the addition of this coaster will open the flood gates to Universal retheming the Jurassic Park island into Jurassic World with the River Adventure getting a similar retheme to the Hollywood version. Personally, I'd rather they have a mix and have rides and experiences themed to both the older Jurassic Parks and the new Jurassic Worlds. I mean, I'm sure if they can get away with King Kong on the island that they can manage that.

 

I MAY be able to forgive them for doing away with the Dueling Dragons now!! ;)

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Can't go wrong with a blitz, probably a top 5 Orlando ride. Though its throughput concerns me..

Maverick is advertised at 1200 rides per hour (not very good figure to begin with), though ElToroRyan (a ex ride operator at Cedar Point and a pretty reputable youtuber) claimed the ride could only chew through 936 riders a hour. The ride is physically incapable of achieving a higher throughput, and that the throughput was inflated by Intamin and incorrect. Even if the ride dispatches as fast as humanly possible, it can only achieve 936. There is a informative video in depth on youtube about it.

I am unsure how Taron and Taiga fare, I am unsure if Intamin have rectified their mistake on Maverick, But even if they have, 1200 is probably not good enough for a park like Universal surely?

 

Unless they find a way to magically up the throughput by a lot. I hope they do, or this thing will have stupid queues.

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2 hours ago, JoshuaA said:

Can't go wrong with a blitz, probably a top 5 Orlando ride. Though its throughput concerns me..

Maverick is advertised at 1200 rides per hour (not very good figure to begin with), though ElToroRyan (a ex ride operator at Cedar Point and a pretty reputable youtuber) claimed the ride could only chew through 936 riders a hour. The ride is physically incapable of achieving a higher throughput, and that the throughput was inflated by Intamin and incorrect. Even if the ride dispatches as fast as humanly possible, it can only achieve 936. There is a informative video in depth on youtube about it.

I am unsure how Taron and Taiga fare, I am unsure if Intamin have rectified their mistake on Maverick, But even if they have, 1200 is probably not good enough for a park like Universal surely?

 

Unless they find a way to magically up the throughput by a lot. I hope they do, or this thing will have stupid queues.

Taiga only runs 2 trains of 16 passengers and dispatches every 90 seconds at the quickest (although in reality it is more likely every 2-2.5 minutes) and therefore hits an absolute maximum capacity of 640pph. (Theoretical capacity is 800pph) However linnanmaki is a much smaller park and therefore the capacity is more than enough for it, compared to a larger park like universal.

 

Taron can run up to 4 trains and dispatches every 40-45 seconds at peak times, and can therefore hit 1280pph-1300pph in peak times at the absolute maximum. Although a lot of the time one train is out of use and therefore can only run 3 trains with 60-70 second dispatches, resulting in a throughput of about 960pph...

 

So yeah the throughputs aren’t great, but taiga and taron are my joint favourite coaster. So if that’s anything to go by, this new coaster should be awesome. 

 

960pph certainly wouldn’t be high enough for a park like universal, so if the coaster has short trains then they are going to need to have quick dispatches and extra trains in the maintenance bays to swap over with if  there is a fault with one of the train. 1300pph would probably just be about OK abut might still struggle with universal crowds.

 

Intamin and universal found a way to up the throughput for Hagrids, so hopefully there can be a way here too. Whether it’s longer trains to seat more riders or a system to facilitate super quick dispatches so the coaster can run more trains, I’m sure they will manage to come up with a system to keep those throughputs high. Because as soon as taron goes down from a 4 train to a 3 train service, the queue moves up at a snails pace (I know because I waited 100 mins for it in the dark on the celebration day in 2017- only on 3 trains as one was in maintenance).

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Intamin have fixed the Maverick problem by never doing something so stupid again.

 

Though Jesus that video in question is extremely geeky, and does worry me that Americans are obsessed with throughputs.

 

This will probably run like Taron on 4 trains. They might try and squeeze a 5th in there somewhere. Once the initial hype dies down it'll probably be ok.

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  • 1 month later...
  • 1 month later...

 

An upgraded unofficial POV.

 

The layout looks to be quite accurate and was made once track work was finished but obviously nobody knows the full details on what the theming will be like aside from the rock work and the Raptor cages that are in place. Given its Universal, I feel we hardly need worry about the quality of theming!!

 

As a layout, this thing looks absolutely incredible!! The main critique I had of Taron (the rare ones I have of it!!) is that the layout is repetitive. This looks to have all the sharp turns of Taron but with inversions and top hats thrown in!!

 

This looks set to blow all other multi launch coasters clean out the water and I can not wait to ride it when it is all good to visit Florida again!!

 

*if this rides break down announcement is not Jeff Goldblum saying "That is one big pile of s**t", I shall be going straight to guest services.

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  • 4 weeks later...
  • 3 months later...

The whole project looks fantastic and genuinely just one of the best complete coasters out there. In some ways, it gives me Taiga-vibes, except with Taron-esque amounts of theming.

 

Intamin's recent track record is much more positive too. So I fully expect this will be one of the most universally praised rides out there, similar to the levels of Taron, Steel Vengeance, Helix and Lightning Rod. Especially since, like the first three of those rides, this will have an extremely high ridership across both European and American enthusiasts.

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  • 1 year later...

Has there really not been a post here for over a year, even with Velocicoaster opening. Wow. 

 

So I managed to get over to Florida after a two year delay and part of the trip was to give Universal a bit more time to enjoy. I usually give the whole resort a day to do everything but this time each park got a day. Which I think is more than enough as with good planning you can get on everything you want really easily. 

 

Whilst everyone rushes to Hagrid's and Velocicoaster, we started with Hulk, Spiderman, the Seuss rides, Forbidden Journey and Jurassic Park before 10:30. Which is the ideal order as it covers over half the major stuff before going into the longer waits. Baring in mind, the last time I went, the Dragons had only just stopped duelling so majority is new.

 

So:-

 

New Hulk- Rides better then the previous version and the soundtrack really adds to the ride. I still maintain that the last third of the ride are a complete waste of time but the first two thirds are so snappy, precisely paced and hit after hit that I am more forgiving than I was in 2012.

 

Spiderman is great, still remains a revolution in dark ride design and is a lot of fun.

 

Seuss land is nice.

 

Forbidden Journey has aged really well. It is a lot of fun and now that it doesn't command an hour queue at a minimum, its so much easier to ride and a lot less is hanging on the ride experience to deliver. My fiancé doesn't understand a thing about Harry Potter but appreciated the effects and ride experience.

 

I'm completely biased in saying River Adventure is one of my favourite rides at the resort. I love dinosaur themed attractions, I love Jurassic Park and I love the variation and story telling of this attraction. It's so much fun and the physical precense of the dinosaurs really adds to make this a 10/10 attraction. So there.

 

So to start..

 

Velocicoaster. So this is one of the best rides in the world. I think we all saw this coming but it further refines the successes that Intamin have had with Maverick, Taron and Taiga and I think adding this in a Universal park, one that commands huge attention  in the theme park industry will bring Intamin a lot of success. We got four rides in various rows and it delivers in every seat. It feels like what would happen if Taron were more refined. Thats not to say that I think its better then Phantasialands ride (The jury is still out on that front) but the two are very similar in terms of sensation and pops or airtime litter both rides. Pacing is important to me and this ride has it in droves. The theming is okay, I think the story itself is a bit forgotten the moment you complete the first launch and it just becomes another rollercoaster albeit this has a beautiful location over the lake.

 

Next Hagrid's motorbike thing. We waited an hour each for both of our rides and this ride is okay. It throws every Intamin trick in the book at you and its frankly a miracle that this works. I don't think its the greatest ride in the world because the Harry Potter implementation is a tad too weak for a Hogsmeade ride and frankly a lot of it is just a bit meandering. I admire the ambition if nothing else.

 

So thats IoA for another decade. A great visit.

26F85C4E-CCD9-4EB2-801F-3CFE4F83D57B.heic

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