Universal’s Islands of Adventure and Jurassic World Coaster Update – Mid-September 2020

We’ll start with the fact that a lot of the ride’s scenery and landscaping is currently being addressed. Trees and vegetation are starting to show up all around the coaster’s front side.

In addition the first turn into the launch (immediately out of the station) is now enclosed.

While rocks are being unwrapped, painting crews are putting the final touches on painting parts of the infrastructure and walls surrounding the Intamin coaster.

It will only be a matter of a few weeks ’til the majority of scaffolding will be gone, and perhaps we’ll see trains navigating the track while testing sometime later this fall.

In the second half of the ride we see a lot more new progress. The coaster’s high-speed chase around the Discovery Center will see a lot of new infrastructure being added.

Whether that’s a tunnel/scenic dip below ground after the top hat, is still hard to tell.

However something that seems almost certain is that we’ll either see netting or additional theming pieces along the superstructure for “VelociCoaster“. The supports in the second half (mainly) have additional mounts attached to them.

This is not (yet) the case for all supports, however all the supports near the queue for the ride do seem to have these. Which makes us think its for netting so that loose articles do not hit bystanders queueing for this ride.

Perhaps we’ll see even more supports get these mounts added in the next few days/weeks or even netting or theming.

Below this massive infrastructure of the coaster, we’re also seeing a lot of new concrete being poured and walls being created along the waterfront.

These walls blend in perfectly with the aesthetic of the Discovery Center, but will also (very likely) contain the queue for the coaster.

There is not much midway space, or space for a queue, on the front side of the attraction (midway side). However, there is a giant area on the waterfront that seems to be where the majority of the queue will be found for this coaster. It’s sure to have amazing views of the new ride.

Before we wrap up this construction update, we want to take a closer look at the netting mounts. One of the elements in the first half of the ride also has these mounts to prevent items from hitting riders of Pteranodon Flyers or people in Camp Jurassic.

On the 2nd half of the layout the same types of attachments are found. In addition of just shielding off people in the queue, it will also protect pedestrians crossing the bridge to/from the area from getting hit by loose articles.

With all this new development, I am even more excited to see the project move over to infrastructural changes around the coaster such as the queue. As well as testing. At this pace, maybe it will be ready to go by Spring Break 2021.

And with this final shot of the immense amounts of work happening below the ride, and the train being slowly pulled through, we’ll finish the report. ‘Til next time!


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