Jurassic Park River Adventure

I've been paying a little extra attention to the developments to the Jurassic Park sections of Universal Studios in recent months. It's no secret that the Jurassic Park ride in the California park has been under renovations since around last fall. The ride is old, older than the movie at development (if you look at the screens behind John Hammond when he's talking to Dr. Malcom, Dr. Grant, and Dr. Sattler about the park some of the pics are of the ride). Despite regular refurbishments, it's an older ride in a theme park chain that does a lot of refreshing.

The California ride is getting converted into a Jurassic World ride which by all appearances seems to be an upgrade of the original ride. I have no complaints, it's an modern upgrade and not a replacement. That's good. What I do feel conflicted about is the Orlando Jurassic Park in Islands of Adventure. The ride is under regular refurbishment at the time (it's a water ride, winter is a good time) and the construction walls are up for the construction of the new JP roller coaster, which I also have no problem with (hoping it's a clone of the Japan JP's coaster). Some folks are upset that it will change the visual of the Discovery Center, but that's not that big of a deal to me. I've been following this story on theme park blogs that get inside information and ever since the news broke, I was ok with it. I mean, the visual from across the lagoon at Port of Entry is the center, Mythos, and Hogwarts Castle with the Incredible Hulk coaster to the side. Another roller coaster isn't going to change much and might even look more cool.

My concern is the ongoing rumor that the Jurassic Park Orlando area is going to be converted into Jurassic World as the coaster has the JW symbol on the walls (not to mention Blue in the section already). This seems like a silly thing to be concerned with (and it is), and hypocritical as I didn't care about California (which it is). My beef is that unlike California's JP section, in Orlando it's all part of a themed land and not just a ride. A themed land meant to resemble the park as it's seen in the first movie which is pretty different looking than in JW. The River Adventure is based on a scene from the original novel that's visual is excellently directly themed from the original movie. The Discovery Center is identical to the one in the original movie. The parks look different in the movies, refacing it could clash thematically.

Universal Creative is really good at what they do, and their themed lands are amazingly accurate. So I have no doubt that they'll do a good job. Perhaps they'll even spruce the rest of the land up to match the overall look. It's not much of a stretch as the parks restaurant area visual in Jurassic World is obviously based on City Walk as is. Just the fit and finish needs to be fitted and finished to make a complete package. That's my only and main concern. I don't want hodge podge in what was a really good recreation of the original park. If it is, it is and I'm sure it'll still be amazing.

Kind of want a turkey leg now.