Ride’s Extinct Possibilities

I read your article about the new dinosaur water ride, Jurassic Park, at Universal Studios (“Where Dinosaurs Rule,” June 15) and waited in eagerness to ride it. I’ve read the articles and watched the shows and viewed the commercials about what I would see and the millions of dollars that went into the construction. My head reeled with anticipation.

Finally, the day arrived and I made it through the park, down the hill and got into the Jurassic Park line. OK, I’m in my big yellow boat; I’m climbing the hill; the gates open. Ta-da: I see two dinosaurs--one animated and the other . . . wait, the other’s not moving. Perhaps he’s pensive: deep in thought, considering his eminent extinction; I shrug it off.

This next part is great; I’ve read about this too: This is where the boat gets bumped by another dinosaur, and this is where we start the real adventure. Wait a minute, nothing popped up; no monster. Why are we going this way? No explanation.

OK. Next, this is where this car falls down the side of the building, like in the television commercial. Oh, it’s just sitting there; I must have missed it. The supervisor behind me, in our boat, told me it’s broken for now. Nevermind.

The Spitters are cool, surprising; they jump right out at you. The yellow boat tilts back again, and we climb, and this time my back cracks, “Ahh.” The boat levels off, and we are dumped into the dark with a splash. Pandemonium, lights flashing, strobes going off--but where are the dinosaurs?

I keep searching. OK, up ahead I see a T. rex’s head hanging over the boat like a Chinese lantern, and that’s the last I see of any dinosaur before they drop us from the side of the building.

I thought to myself, as I was wringing the water out of my shirt in the gift shop, “I paid 35 bucks, plus 6 bucks to park, for this?”

I think the next time a big event like this is opened, maybe you should send a writer with the paying public; not on the press preview, but a couple weeks after it opens, after it’s ripened to a few thousand guests.

And to Universal Studios, I am reminded of a line from its own movie “Jurassic Park”: “You are intending to have dinosaurs on your dinosaur tour, aren’t you?”

DAVID SCAGLIONE

Garden Grove