DINOSAUR

Walt Disney World guests in 12-passenger Time Rover vehicles zip back in time 65 million years to careen through a vast primeval forest filled with moving, lifelike dinosaurs as a fiery asteroid threatens to wipe out life on Earth. Along the way, passengers narrowly avoid the wrath of a gigantic swooping pterodactyl, watch a hungry alioramus swallow its giant-lizard dinner and try to evade the nightmarish horned carnotaurus that pursues their lost-in-Time Rover.

Located in the park’s DinoLand U.S.A., DINOSAUR combines innovative ride technology with special effects and Disney Audio-Animatronics to evoke the realism and excitement of an out-of-control journey on the fast track to prehistoric doom. Air and smoke cannons, large strobes and other special effects ratchet up the thrill level as riders blast into the past for the ultimate dinosaur encounter.

The experience begins in the rotunda of The Dino Institute, a research facility built to serve as a discovery center and laboratory dedicated to uncovering the mysteries of the past. Here, guests view an array of artifacts, including fossils from the prehistoric era. A dramatic multi-media show explains that scientists now believe a fiery asteroid six miles across and traveling 60,000 miles per hour slammed into Earth, creating a “nuclear winter” that devastated plant life and, ultimately, wiped out the dinosaurs.

Moving into the institute’s Orientation Room, guests meet Institute Director Dr. Helen Marsh (portrayed by actress Phylicia Rashad) via a “live” video conference. 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.

But renegade scientist Dr. Seeker (portrayed by actor Wallace Langham) 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.

After boarding the Time Rover, guests lurch forward into the time tunnel, where their vehicle rocks from side to side as lights flash and smoke thickens. The Time Rover emerges 65 million years earlier in a dark prehistoric forest.

As the vehicle careens through the darkened surroundings, 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 wingspan like a bi-plane swoops over the Time Rover. As an approaching asteroid lights the horizon, the vehicle continues its quest to find the threatened iguanodon.

Further accelerating into the darkness, the Rover twists and turns across rocky terrain as a mammoth carnotaurus -- a carnivorous, horned dinosaur with teeth larger than steak knives -- pursues the vehicle through the primeval terrain. The rover bounces and bumps through the darkness, narrowly escaping the angry dinosaur several times.

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 crashing back through time to The Dino Institute.

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