Universal's VelociCoaster Is Practically Perfect, But I Had No Clue How Insane Building It Was

I’ve been a VelociCoaster stan at Universal since Day 1, and I really mean Day 1, as I was there for the opening of the Jurassic World-themed ride at Universal Orlando’s Islands of Adventure. It’s still my favorite stop anytime I am in the parks, and I was very happy to see the ride earn the title of Best Coaster four years in a row. However, until recently I had no clue how challenging building the coaster in the park was. But it was insane.

In fact, I don't think there's another adjective to really encompass all of the random stuff the engineers and creatives had to work through.

If you’ve been to Islands of Adventure, you’ll know the coaster is a notable feature in the center of the park, bridging the gap between Jurassic Park and Harry Potter’s Hogsmeade. Parts of the ride plummet riders over “a body of water bordering the site,” and the coaster had exactly zero access to backstage areas of the park while it was being built. Which is precisely why it was so troublesome getting all of the pieces in place. Engineers had to make moves and solve problems while parkgoers were literally in the theme park, just on the other side of a flimsy construction wall.

Mario Lopez interviewed a bunch of the creatives and engineers involved with the coaster as it was coming together (and before Access Hollywood got canceled), and spoke with one engineer, Phil, who explained why building it was so much more “difficult” than expected.

As noted though, the water features, including "driving piles into the lagoon," the lack of backstage access and getting the thousands of coaster pieces into place, the fact that visitors could see a lot of what was going on, and the safety component with building in the middle of the theme park led to lots of additional problems to figure out.

At the end of the day, the ride is cool, and not only because of its infamous barrel roll, which plunges you upside down with no shoulder harness over the lagoon water. It also has excellent theming, complete with 22 raptors – and some animatronic ones – strewn throughout the ride and queue. Many coaster fans dream of one day being a part of a rollback on this one. The fandom is real.

Yet, it’s especially awesome because of how the ride went vertical in the middle of an open theme park. Parkgoers essentially got to be a part of the build as it got closer and closer to the sky. There were a lot of logistics this ride faced others have not, simply because the accessibility piece was so much harder. It makes the coaster all the more impressive in retrospect.

Of course, there were lots of jokes about whether or not Universal was building a coaster or a “churro stand” at the time, but the end result was a dominant ride we’re still talking about five years later. Even with the addition of Stardust Racers at Epic and Guardians of the Galaxy: Cosmic Rewind at Epcot, I think the VelociCoaster is the superior ride, and I’m happy the team was able to work through the challenges to bring the JWorld coaster to life. It only came because of some blood, sweat and engineers, though.