UniversalParksBlog News for January 1st, 2023
The LA Times just provided the first look inside Super Nintendo World at Universal Studios Hollywood.
Meanwhile, Universal Orlando Resort announced some refurbishments and policy changes at its parks.
I’ll explain what’s happening in UniversalParksBlog News.
Super Nintendo World First Look
On December 29th, an LA Times writer posted pictures and described details from America’s first Super Nintendo World.
As a reminder, Universal’s Epic Universe will open the largest one ever in 2025 or possibly even 2024.
However, California residents and West Coast tourists will start their theme park gaming experience much sooner.
Super Nintendo World opens at Universal Studios Hollywood on February 17th.
Universal officials provided the LA Times with a sneak preview of the new themed land. We also learned the story that drives exploration here, too.
Some dastardly villain has stolen Princess Peach’s Golden Mushroom. Guests will enter the legendary green Warp Pipes and enter Super Nintendo World.
There, they will assist Mario as he attempts to uncover the location of the stolen item and the identity of the thief.
Almost all the interactive games available in this themed land will assist guests in their quest to recover the Golden Mushroom.
Along the way, you can perform all the usual staples of Mario games, like connecting coins and power-ups from item boxes.
Even the sole ride at Super Nintendo World, Mario Kart: Bowser’s Challenge, includes scoring elements.
Riders will live out an augmented reality version of a Mario Kart game on theme park tracks.
In this way, the Mario Kart ride combines classic theme park attraction design with revolutionary new immersive elements.
Universal has gamified Bowser’s Challenge and the totality of Super Nintendo World to an unprecedented degree.
The author described this place as the “most participatory theme park universe ever envisioned.”
A video game designer adds, “This is a place where you’re going to go to be in a video game.”
Obviously, Super Nintendo World will remain the biggest Universal Studios story throughout 2023. So, stay tuned for additional updates!
Jurassic Park River Adventure Refurb
The rest of this week’s updates involve park changes, closures, and planned refurbishments.
However, one of these repairs towers above the rest in significance since it’s long overdue.
You may recall that Jurassic Park River Adventure suffered massive damage to the ride building’s exterior during Hurricane Ian.
Photos of damage to the Jurassic Park River Adventure show building at Universal's Islands of Adventure. https://t.co/Un5efcfAuB
— Scott Gustin (@ScottGustin) September 29, 2022
At the time, the ride closed for a brief period but returned MUCH sooner than anybody anticipated.
In short, Universal Studios officials performed the necessary tasks to keep the attraction up and running until the winter.
That strategy worked well, as Universal regularly takes down its wet rides for repairs during the first quarter of the year.
During the winter, fewer guests want to ride anything outdoors, especially if it’s water-related.
So, Universal officials tried to hold on during the massively crowded November/December season and then perform repairs in January.
Sure enough, that’s what has happened. Jurassic Park River Adventure will close for refurbishment on January 9th.
Presuming that everything goes according to plan, it’ll reopen on February 4th. However, even if it doesn’t make that deadline, Universal is fine.
Park officials can slot in other wet rides as replacements until such a time as workers have repaired this ride’s entire structure.
Then, Universal can cycle out the other wet rides for their annual refurbishments.
Since Universal takes this approach annually, its timeline fits well with the overdue need for Jurassic Park River Adventure repairs.
Had Universal kept this ride down indefinitely after Hurricane Ian, Halloween Horror Nights-related crowds would have required longer waits on other attractions.
Similarly, Thanksgiving and December holiday guests would have struggled more as well.
As long as all safety standards were maintained, the methodical “limp into January” strategy proved correct.
Park Miscellany
Speaking of seasonal park closures and refurbishments, we’ll likely cover several of these over the next few updates.
The first one won’t surprise anybody. Volcano Bay struggled mightily during that brutal cold spell last week.
No sane person was visiting a water park during some of the coldest recent weather in Florida.
So, Universal chose to close Volcano Bay for several days last week rather than force guests to take the Polar Bear Challenge almost accidentally.
On the plus side, technical rehearsals have officially ended at Revenge of the Mummy.
We know this because the attraction is FINALLY accepting Universal Express Passes again for the first time since it initially closed on January 7th, 2022.
Yes, guests couldn’t skip the line for all but two weeks of the past year! Of course, it wasn’t open for more than half that time anyway.
By the way, we have the inverse of Jurassic Park River Adventure to discuss as well. Dudley Do-Right’s Ripsaw Falls reopened after nearly three months offline.
Historically, this ride has closed for refurbishment in either January or February. I wonder whether this will be necessary, given the recent prolonged downtime.
Similarly, a three-week mystery has ended as Pteranodon Flyers is back up and running at the park.
Frankly, Universal Orlando Resort caught some bad breaks in the weeks leading up to Christmas.
So, everyone did a great job in getting these attractions open again.
By the way, if you like getting your picture taken with Spider-Man, this setting employs a new metropolitan skyline background now! Your next batch of pictures will look different.
Happy New Year, everyone!
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Feature Photo: Universal