DINOSAUR

HISTORY:

Visit the Dino Institute, where they research the past as well as some other things. Meet Dr Helen Marsh, who will show you the new Time Rover vehicle, which can take people back in time to the age of the Dinosaurs. It is a blast to the past, but get back before the impending asteroid!

This high speed, heart pounding ride to save the last gentle iguanodon from extinction is one of Animal Kingdom's popular rides taking visitors in time rover vehicles and zipping them back in time 65 million years to the vast and prieval forests filled with unsettled dinosaurs.

Some of the dinosaurs you will meet on this ride are styracosaurus, alioramus, parasaurolophus, raptor, carnotaurus, pterodactyl, saltasaurus, cearadactylus, compsognather, iguanodon.

LOCATION:

In Dinoland USA at Disney Animal Kingdom. From the main entrance to this section the attraction is in the wooded area on the left side.

ATTRACTION EXPERIENCE:

Queueing can start outside, though there is also an extensive area inside where the wait continues through Institute looking rooms with Dinosaur themes. There are fossils and signs all around to examine and look at. A multi media show plays overhead explaining the work of the insitute.

Once through the extensive maze of rooms and waiting areas visitors will have finally arrived in the Breifing or Orientation room, where guests meet Institute Director Dr Helen Marsh (portrayed by actress Phylicia Rashad) via a "live" video conference feed. Dr Marsh explains that the institute has developed the amazing new Time Rover vehicle to transport curious visitors on a tranquil journey back to the Age of the Dinosaurs long before their extinction. Renegade scientist Dr. Seeker (portrayed by actor Wallace Langham) will arrange your transport, but he has a different, more dangerous plan in mind. He plans to send guests on a perilous mission to the end of the Cretaceous period so they can rescue the herbivorous iguanodon just before the fiery asteroid devastates Earth. When you enter this room move all the way to the doors on the other side of the room. That will shorten your waiting as the doors open and you proceed downstairs and onto your time vehicles.

Soon you will be loaded into your time vehicle, which very much resembles a open top truck. Buckle up and then you are off on a bumbled adventure back in time. Bumpy is the word for this ride. You feel thrown all over and the place and most of the ride is in complete darkness with touches of florecent lighting or effects. DINOSAUR is a motion-based simulator on a moving ride vehicle. The ride system is similar to the Indiana Jones and the Temple of the Forbidden Eye attraction at Disneyland Resort in California for those who have been there. Guests will be lurched forward into the time tunnel and rocked side to side with flashes of lights and thick smoke only to emerge 65 million yearsw earlier in a dark forest.

The vehicle careens through the dark surroundings, while Dr Seeker relays instructions to his passengers via a "time-linked" radio. Cretaceous creatures honk and shriek from within the forest, and an angry pteradactyl with a large wingspan swoops over the Time Rover. In the distance an approaching asteroid lights the horizon, as the vehicle continues its quest to find the threatened iguanodon.

Further acceleration into the darkness takes the Rover through twists and turns across rocky terrain. A mammoth carnotaurus, that is a carnivorous, horned dinosaur with steak knife teeth pursues the vehicle through the thick vegetation. The rover bounces and bumps through the darkness, narrowly escaping the angry dinosaur several times. It is an on the edge of your seat adventure.

As the rover's power levels begin to fall, the lightning and meteor showers intensify. Suddenly, a massive meteor destroys the rocky trail. In a final, desperate burst of speed, the Time Rover and its passengers find and snag their iguanodon before going back through time and crashing at The Dino Institute.

The ride is more startling for adults than scary, however for kids it can be very scary. Some of the photos of young children on the ride are quite revealing. You can take a look at the photos of people on the ride through the shop next to the ride. This is also the exit point.