DAK Dinosaur Appreciation Thread

WondersOfLife

WondersOfLife

Blink, blink. Breathe, breathe. Day in, day out.
Original Poster
Just a quick appreciation post for how well maintained Dinosaur currently is (or is today) made me so happy! The only thing not working was the carno not running. But, I am really happy with how Disney is still maintaining this attraction even tho its closing (unlike how they treated Ellens Energy Adventure when it closed).

And, I know this thing gets mixed reviews on here. But I truly believe this is a great ride. What sucks is losing a ride (and IP for that matter) that was truly unique to AK.

Very upset about Indy replacing Dinosaur. Very happy that the ride is getting the love (it should have had for years) during its last year.

Lots of memories for me here. Was my first ride with my ex wife. Another childhood favorite gone soon (3 in one year). Just a lil appreciation for this ride.
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WorldExplorer

WorldExplorer

Well-Known Member
Plug for my general Dinoland appreciation thread.

I will believe until the day I die that Disney didn't give this one a fair shake. It's shoved in the corner, hard to find, behind an area that looks like it's meant for children. Unlike Everest, you can't tell what it is from the outside. It's not advertised. They had something on their resort TV loop at one point going over everything in Animal Kingdom, and they covered everything BUT Dinosaur. And I do mean everything. Fossil Fun Games and TriceraTop Spin got highlighted.

It's such a cool ride and so unique for Disney. I've said before I love that they made a thrill ride where the thrill is largely what you see, rather than the ride being a coaster/having some form of drop. It took me like five ride throughs before I was willing to actually keep my eyes open the whole time; it's funny looking back and remembering there was a time where I would be staring at the grab bar, too scared to look up at the carnotaurus.

I've been on it so many times by now it just feels like riding the bus. I almost zone out. I got to have a super cool experience on Halloween, though; I got a Time Rover to myself. Without other people it goes right back to being scary. I was dressed as Seeker and had a big igaunadon with me, I took him out of the bag for the final carnotaurus and got the best ride photo ever.

I haven't been on since the last day of Chester and Hester's. I was considering just not going in ever again so I didn't have to see half the land shut down and deal with the sadness of knowing when my final ride would be, but ironically I forced my mom to try it back in September and she loved it and wants to go back, so now I'm going tomorrow.

A few small things I want to note:

1. Shout out to Dinosaur's absolutely gigantic bags. Big enough for my purse and three plush toys at once.

2. The little volcanic vent under the sauropod is actually warm but you can only feel it if you're in the one seat right next to it.

3. The preshow video starts with Seeker using a little joystick to control the camera, then gives up and has it just follow him around.
 
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JohnD

JohnD

Well-Known Member
I enjoyed DINOSAUR but let's face it, it's dark. Very dark. I'll experience it one more time in May. The great thing about Indy is that it's the same track as the one in DLR. That one is themed to India. Presumably, this once will be themed to Aztec, I think. There will be more lighting and more effects. I'm looking forward to it.
 
graphite1326

graphite1326

Well-Known Member
I liked the ride and always made a point to go on it. However, I wasn't to crazy about the rest of the land it was in. Maybe the back story should have been a little more prevelant. Ask most people who visited there and they had no idea. The dig area was ok my kids got bored with it real quickly and the other "thrill" ride looked cheap and was not that good. Just over all this land was not planned very well. So for us it was go do the ride and head right back out.
 
Smiley/OCD

Smiley/OCD

Well-Known Member
I will add that Disney never really gave it the props that it deserved…my oldest DD wanted to be a paleontologist so of course this was one of her favorite rides when we first went in 2004/5…I remember waiting an hour + in the standby lines…Phylicia Rashad as Dr. Marsh…the hvac pipes painted yellow, red and white with the chemical symbols of ketchup, mustard and mayonnaise (a plug to Mc Donald’s, who sponsored it) and the GIANT AA’s that were fun AND scary for our 2 Dino lovers…YES, that ride will ALWAYS hold a special place in our family’s hearts and memories…it was a multiple ride on our early visits and will be missed.
 
ParadoxPortals

ParadoxPortals

Active Member
CTX / 'DINOSAUR!' definitely is a great ride. It did a few revolutionary things it doesn't get credit for, like the giant charging carnotaurus, the largest smoke machine in a theme park ride at the time, the complexity of the dino animatronics for its era, ETC. The ride also has a fascinating history of a lot of lost special effects that were planned / implemented but removed, as well as a super interesting development process for the attraction.

The way the film and ride were developed simultaneously and influenced each other is so strange and unique, and CTX literally determined the public's view of what a carnotaurus even looks like! Before the ride, the species wasn't really known about by the wider world, but because the attraction needed a big scary predator dino, the carnotaurus was scaled-up and made more t-rex like to fit this role (even if it wasn't scientifically accurate).

I read somewhere once that the reason the carno has the big legs it does because its animatronic figures required a stronger and more stable support to work. This in turn influenced the movie depiction of the carno (synergy, baby!), and then when Jurassic World Fallen Kingdom and the Evolution videogames released, they just used Disney's depiction of the carno as its what people expected the creature to look like.

Also Dr Seeker is an icon and I love him dearly, and that load station is so beautiful and thematic and vibey, I love it so much. No-one ever talks about how richly-detailed the Time Rovers are either, they may be the most detailed and unique ride vehicle designs I've ever seen. A lot of the buttons and switches on the back off the Rovers can actually be flipped and manipulated and one time in the load station I was messing around with them for a whole minute haha. Good times. A classic ride I'm gonna sorely miss, and I think Animal Kingdom will genuinely be worse off for not having once it's gone.
 
Agent H

Agent H

Well-Known Member
ParadoxPortals said:
CTX / 'DINOSAUR!' definitely is a great ride. It did a few revolutionary things it doesn't get credit for, like the giant charging carnotaurus, the largest smoke machine in a theme park ride at the time, the complexity of the dino animatronics for its era, ETC. The ride also has a fascinating history of a lot of lost special effects that were planned / implemented but removed, as well as a super interesting development process for the attraction.

The way the film and ride were developed simultaneously and influenced each other is so strange and unique, and CTX literally determined the public's view of what a carnotaurus even looks like! Before the ride, the species wasn't really known about by the wider world, but because the attraction needed a big scary predator dino, the carnotaurus was scaled-up and made more t-rex like to fit this role (even if it wasn't scientifically accurate).

I read somewhere once that the reason the carno has the big legs it does because its animatronic figures required a stronger and more stable support to work. This in turn influenced the movie depiction of the carno (synergy, baby!), and then when Jurassic World Fallen Kingdom and the Evolution videogames released, they just used Disney's depiction of the carno as its what people expected the creature to look like.

Also Dr Seeker is an icon and I love him dearly, and that load station is so beautiful and thematic and vibey, I love it so much. No-one ever talks about how richly-detailed the Time Rovers are either, they may be the most detailed and unique ride vehicle designs I've ever seen. A lot of the buttons and switches on the back off the Rovers can actually be flipped and manipulated and one time in the load station I was messing around with them for a whole minute haha. Good times. A classic ride I'm gonna sorely miss, and I think Animal Kingdom will genuinely be worse off for not having once it's gone.
Click to expand...
I think it has better animatronics then universals main dinosaur ride in Florida.
 

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