Universal Orlando announces new rapturous Jurassic World roller coaster

Universal Orlando announces new rapturous Jurassic World roller coaster

With the pandemic making us all weary (and wary to travel), we could use some good news right about now. To get people excited about returning to its Florida theme park resort, Universal Orlando went back in time – way back to the Jurassic era.

The park announced Monday that Jurassic World VelociCoaster will be coming to its Islands of Adventure in summer 2021.

The surprisingly potent attraction will forego a traditional coaster lift hill (no pokey click-clack-click), instead sending passengers tearing out of the station using a magnetic launch system. According to limited details shared by Universal, VelociCoaster will include two launches, one of which will hit 70 mph in 2.4 seconds. Yowsa.

It is likely that the second launch will catapult the trains up the ride’s 155-foot “top hat” tower (so called because with a very steep rise, a short crest at its apex, and an equally steep drop, it resembles the classic, formal hat) and then send them careening down the other side at a dicey 80-degree angle. (That’s 10 degrees shy of straight down for the geometry-challenged.)

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Universal Orlando announced a new “Jurassic World VelociCoaster” will be coming to its Islands of Adventure park in summer 2021.
Universal Orlando announced a new “Jurassic World VelociCoaster” will be coming to its Islands of Adventure park in summer 2021.

As if those stats didn’t already qualify VelociCoaster as an extreme thrill ride, it will also include two heels-over-head inversions. One will feature a 360-degree barrel roll above the park’s lagoon. Universal is calling the other a “zero-gravity inverted stall.” It will flip passengers upside down and leave them dangling as the train travels along 100 feet of track at a relatively slow speed. The inversion will be especially unnerving since riders will be tethered to their seats with only lap restraints. The resort is also promising 12 seconds of airtime, the giddy, butterflies-in-your-stomach, tushy-lifting feeling caused by negative G-forces.

This isn’t Big Thunder Mountain Railroad, let alone “It’s a Small World.”

Universal has never been shy about incorporating high-impact thrills into its edgy attractions. Coasters such as The Incredible Hulk and Hollywood Rip Ride Rockit have pushed the boundaries of just how much adrenaline visitors might pump on a ride at a destination theme park. But VelociCoaster will be its fastest ride yet. That 70-mph launch should snap passengers to rapt attention in a heartbeat — and possibly cause their hearts to skip a few beats along the way.

The new attraction won’t just be about the thrills, however. Themed to the "Jurassic World" films, Universal is not going to slap a Tyrannosaurus rex skeleton-adorned movie logo on the trains and call it a day. Expect sophisticated effects and elaborate storytelling. Based on a preview video released by the resort, it appears that the trains will launch out of the station at the same time that an antsy pack of Velociraptors will be released from their paddock. That mimics a scene from one of the films. The chase, it would seem, will then be on. The resort says that cast members from the film, including Chris Pratt and Bryce Dallas Howard, will be incorporated into the attraction.

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VelociCoaster will be located in the Jurassic Park land at Islands of Adventure. It will join existing attractions, including Jurassic Park River Adventure. The shoot-the-chutes ride sends boatloads of passengers soaring down an 85-foot drop just as a T. rex threatens to take a chomp out of them. (As I said, this place goes for edgy.) In 2019, sister park Universal Studios Hollywood in California overhauled a similar Jurassic Park flume ride to represent the newer "Jurassic World" franchise.

Universal Orlando opened Hagrid's Magical Creatures Motorbike Adventure in The Wizarding World of Harry Potter – Hogsmeade at Islands of Adventure in 2019. That attraction, which has garnered rave reviews, is also a highly themed, launched coaster. The technically advanced ride has had operational difficulties and has experienced an unusual amount of downtime. According to rcdb, an industry-tracking website, the same manufacturer that built the Hagrid coaster, Intamin Amusement Rides, is building VelociCoaster.

The next film in the series, "Jurassic World: Dominion," is expected to be released next June, around the same time as the debut of the coaster.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Universal Orlando to add Jurassic World roller coaster in summer 2021