Dino Land USA

[tidegirl]

Just wondering how others feel about this. I know dinosaurs are major popular especially with boys, but we didn't even set foot in this area last trip. We will not set foot in this area on our upcoming trip.

The theme of this area is good, but the rides are really bad to me. Dinosaur is just too rough. I have ridden every coaster in Orlando (except Hulk, it was torn apart when we last went) and none of them have been as rough on my back as this ride. And I really hated the twirly track thing. We got crammed in with 2 other people and it was quite uncomfortable. The spinning was over the top and really not fun.

I haven't seen people talking about this land, so I was just curious how others like Dino Land.

 

[rteetz]

Dinosaur is one of my favorite attractions. Sure the land could be better but I don't mind it. Joe Rohde has done some in depth posts on instagram about theming this land.

 

[theone74733]

Some people may say the two rides and midway games at Chester and Hester Dinorama area feels very out of place at Disney and more Cedar Fair-esque given the amount of attention to detail with other rides/attractions that WDW is known for. I may be in the minority, but I do like riding Primeval Whirl & Dinosaur so I am okay with the area. However, I wouldn't cry about it if they scrapped it and added different attractions here.

 

[Beetuna]

The land itself has a cool motif, but agreed that not all the rides are great -- except -- Dinosaur is one of my favorite rides in all of WDW. What can I say? I like the dinos, and, I love the blast of cold air conditioner on a hot day at the park!

 

[Jimmy Mouse]

Personally I like Dinosaur (Countdown to Extinction) and my girls and wife Love Primevil Whirl and Triceratop spin so I'm good with the land.

 

[CAS239]

Dinosaur is a must ride everytime we go to AK

 

[JETSDAD]

I could happily skip the entire section. My daughter likes PW so we tend to go over and do that once. If we have time to kill we might do the other rides but really don't care if we ride them or not.

 

[PrincessWithABlaster]

My oldest DD loves PW. She is not a ride kid generally so the fact that she loves to go on it with her dare devil Sissy makes it fun for us. I don't love the theming on the ride (it's pretty lame, honestly) but the ride itself is fun (if you don't have issues with spinning). I'm hoping DS5 will be tall enough to join us on it this year (in part so we can skip the midway games).

 

[disneyvoice]

We pretty much skip all of Dinoland. Even when our son was young we never spent much time there. I don't care for the carnival game environment and we find both Primeval Whirl and Dinosaur way to rough - as in now-I-desperately-need-a-chiropractor rough." Tricera Top Spin was the only ride In Dinoland we used to do when or son was very young. He never had any interest in the Boneyard. They do have restrooms that are almost always empty though so . . . there's that.

 

[EdmondD]

They do have restrooms that are almost always empty though so . . . there's that.

Lol

 

[EdmondD]

My son is 7, so we go. If you've got a little one, this is a great place to spend some time, given the incredible playground and the dig area. He probably would rate it as the #1 playground in all of WDW, and he's been on a lot of them.

My wife really doesn't like Dinosaur but really likes PW. When my son gets older I could see us coming in for just a bit.

Pro tip if you have to go in but don't want to: Trilo-Bites, just outside DinoLand if you're coming from Discovery Island, has the Smokey Bones shake - a chocolate shake with bourbon and candied bacon. With one of these in your hands, everything seems more tolerable.

 

[ELSA711]

Dinosaur is DH’s must do and Primal Whirl is my youngest DD’s must do.
We do seem to spend a lot of time there!! I like it alot but could do without the carnival games. Kids always ask to play!!

 

[Klayfish]

- a chocolate shake with bourbon and candied bacon.

That sounds awful...

As for Dino Land, we love Dinosaur the ride. The kids love PW, DW won't ride it. I agree the carnival seems very out of place in WDW, definitely not in theme with the rest of the parks, but it's quaint. I have no problem with it.

 

[EdmondD]

That sounds awful...

Ha! To each his own and all, but you're wrong. ;-)

 

[AllieBoo]

We love the Dinosaur ride, and my kids love Primeval Whirl. I don't however like the midway and I think that whole area looks a bit cheesy and unDisney like.

 

[rexmism]

It's nice to hear that a lot of people do like Primeval Whirl, because I've always thought it's probably the worst ride in WDW. The roughness of it is pretty hard on adults, and kids, who would probably mind it less, have to be a crazy tall 48" to go on it. Over a foot taller than Barnstormer! 10 inches taller than 7 Dwarfs! It makes no sense to me why you design a ride like that. We might go on it, but only one of our 4 kids can, so no dice. At least hearing that others really like it lessens my hatred of it!
I do think the whole Dinoland could use a revamp though. Dinosaur is enjoyable enough (although the lighting is frustratingly dark to me), but the whole carnival area is an oven with what seems to be hastily conceived attractions. If they'd at least replace PW with a more wild mouse type coaster that shorter kids could go on and didn't bruise you all over... And maybe get some shade around there or some way to cool it down! The most solid attraction is probably the Boneyard, as far as kids go. It's a really cool play area.

 

[loves to dive]

My son can't ride Dinosaur any more, he has nerve damage in his spine so we don't even go back in the area. If I'm solo, every once in a while I'll ride Dinosaur but other than walk through the outside of Dino Land to get to Dinosaur, we never even go near it.

 

[FastPasser.]

I don't think it's out of place at all. A very brief back story of Dinoland.

DinoLand U.S.A. started out as a small highway town in Diggs County. After an amateur fossil-hunter found dinosaur bones in the 40s, he and a bunch of friends and students got together and purchased the site. They formed the Dino Institute and opened the "Fossil Discover Park". Shortly after opening, the Dino Institute needing to make money, discovered how to time travel and started offering time travel tours via the Time Rover, aka Dinosaur. The staff and tourists needed a place to eat so the old fishing lodge on the property was converted into Restaurant...osaurus.

An elderly local couple, Chester and Hester, seeing a money making opportunity converted their route 498 gas station into a souvenir shop. And not to be out done by the Dino Institute's time travel ride, turned their parking lot into a small amusement park called "Dino-Rama" which featured their own version of the time travel "Dinosaur" ride called Primeval Whirl, except it didn't travel though time. They also took a generic amusement park ride, added dinosaurs and called it TriceraTop Spin. And of course what's an old time amusement park without midway games.

If you're ever on Route 498, and you will be if you approach Dino-Rama from the Asia side of AK, just look down, and look for the huge roadside dinosaur Cementosaurus.

This is my abbreviated CM version of the back story, but you can find much more in depth and lengthy versions on the internet.

 

[emgilmartin]

The land itself has a cool motif, but agreed that not all the rides are great -- except -- Dinosaur is one of my favorite rides in all of WDW. What can I say? I like the dinos, and, I love the blast of cold air conditioner on a hot day at the park!

Everything you said and the Boneyard is great especially for small children. The rest they could tear down and rethemed to dinosaurs or maybe something completely different. Wouldn't mind seeing an expansion to a new continent, say Australia, with animals and attractions.

 

[GaSleepingBeautyFan]

I like Dinosaur. And I spent many a time riding Tricertops Spin with my kids when they were little. We also spent quite a bit of time playing the games - especially the squirting water one. Restaurantasauras was the quick service place we ate at alot when the kids were little because of the air conditioning and we usually seemed to be in that area around lunch time.

The kids also loved the Boneyard playground. I was so happy when they got old enough that I could sit down and not have to follow them all over the playground.

My husband and kids have also ridden Primeveil Hurl. I can't do the teacups so I know I wouldn't be able to handle that ride. LOL

And the small walkway with the Dinosaur Statues is fun. I took one of my favorite pictures of my son when we were back there one day and he was peaking at me from the plants. I need to find that picture and display it now that he's an adult.

I like the backstory of the whole area as well. Now that my kids are older I don't spend as much time there but I still head over to ride Dinosaur every trip.