Theme Park Insider readers' favorite roller coaster is having a tough week. Jurassic World VelociCoaster once again did not open to Universal Orlando guests today.
Sarcastically fitting its theme, VelociCoaster has been a people eater since it opened in 2021: All Hail VelociCoaster, the New Queen of Thrill Rides. The Intamin coaster has enjoyed superb uptime (weather permitting, of course), becoming a reliable favorite for millions of Islands of Adventure visitors.
The coaster has placed number one on our roller coaster rankings since it opened, and remains our readers' top-rated attraction at Islands of Adventure. But fans started reporting minor issues with the coaster last week, and the ride has failed to open for the past couple of days.
Universal has been referring fans to its website and app for updates, and team members on site have been citing "technical issues" for the closure. To be fair, that's a catch-all term that theme park employees are often instructed to give to cover a wide variety of reasons for attraction closures.
Obviously, it's best when parks can plan and publicize major attraction closures in advance, so fans are not caught by surprise. But it's also better for parks to close rides as soon as even minor issues arise, so that they do not become major ones that force long, unplanned downtimes.
Of course, we don't yet have a definitive answer as to what's gone wrong on VelociCoaster, so it's "wait to see" time until then. (And team members in the know, hit that Contact link below. Anonymity guaranteed.)
Update: After testing on Wednesday, the ride reopened to guests on Thursday, February 8.
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All roller coasters have downtimes, usually due to guests throwing off the dispatch timing. That happens daily on popular coasters. It's the days-long downtimes due to mechanical issues that raise questions about a coaster's durability for me. Fortunately, from all I have heard and seen, JWVC has largely avoided those issues until now.
From what I've heard, my guess is this is a case of something hitting a cycle limit before replacement and the park not having the necessary part(s) on hand. Friends in the area have been reporting the ride operating with only two trains with some frequency over the past month, which could be an effort to slow the wear rate in hopes of the replacement arriving before a closure is necessary. I'm sure Universal will get the ride operational again in short order, so I wouldn't worry much about this unless you've got a trip planned in the next week or two.
This is a classic example of how the community of Disney-hating theme park commentators hold WDW to a different standard than Universal Orlando. When EPCOT first debuted the World Celebration displays and some of the lights were out of synch, there was a feeding frenzy by the vloggers. When one of the embedded lights or tree lights weren't working they went after WDW and WDI for being cheap -- or in some cases short-sighted because they claimed lights were damaged when Disney custodial hosts pressure washed the area at night.
But when one of the world's best coasters (and it absolutely IS one of the world's best coasters) has repeated mechanical problems it gets a free pass.
What a crock!
From 'Jaws' at the original park to "Hagrid's Big Long Name Coaster" Universal has had to manage technical problems as much as Disney. That's because they build big, complicated machines -- unique in their design and fabrication. Hell, back when USF opened there were legendary tales about a local kid who would ride his bike to the park. Hit some rides and then register concerns with guest relations about technical problems so they would comp him a ticket for his next vsit.
I forget his name.
(Chuckle)
My point is, too often a portion of the UO fanbase will take every opportunity to pump up the volume when a WDW attraction has technical difficulties or a stalled show element, but will turn a blind eye when the same thing happens to one of the WORLD CLASS attractions at UO.
Is it still considered passive aggressive if you post the same exact thing twice ?
(Chuckle)
No. No it's not. :o)
No. No it's not. :o)
TH, you’re right. Disney and Universal both SUCK!
@James: Point taken! By the way, how's the new Legoland gig goin'?
I don't think many people on here do this. When there's extended downtime for either parks people complain pretty vocally. Does the Mummy ring any bells?
The one were Disney gets grilled a lot more is for how long they take to build things compared to Universal.
Pretty good. If only they paid me for all the cheerleading I’m happy to do.
Back open today .....
TH with a pre-emptive strike... shocker. I think you should change your username to "Deflector".
Back up and running... so much drama over nothing.
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"reliable favorite" .. I certainly wouldn't say that. I go to Universal at least 2 times a week, and there's not many days it doesn't have down time. Usually it's not for long, but it's definitely not an open to close running coaster. Dare I say this, but these days Hagrid's is usually running better.
And yes, VC was down all day today. They even had a sign just inside the front gate informing the visitors.