Though DINOSAUR at Disney’s Animal Kingdom permanently closed earlier this year, one of its most famous bits of hidden humor was found recreated at Jurassic Park in Universal Islands of Adventure.
Universal’s Homage to Disney’s DINOSAUR
kevinHeimbach13/X
During a visit to Universal Islands of Adventure, X user kevinHeimbach13 spotted what appears to be a new, subtle reference to Disney’s DINOSAUR, the defunct dino-themed attraction at Disney’s Animal Kingdom.
Over in the Jurassic Park area, tucked against a back wall of the Jurassic Outfitters shop, guests can find a large, decorative electrical cabinet covered in various switches, buttons, and danger signs. Upon closer inspection, three familiar-looking pipes have been positioned on top of the cabinet (though they are technically not connected to anything above; they appear to be vertically-oriented tubes affixed to the cabinet).
The red, yellow, and white pipes are labeled with various chemical formulas and binomial names. While this may look like inconspicuous theming to the untrained eye, DINOSAUR fans will recognize these pipes and these formulas as corresponding to the color and ingredients that comprise ketchup, mustard, and mayonnaise.
This exact arrangement of pipes and chemical compounds calls back to an Easter egg placed in the queue of Animal Kingdom’s DINOSAUR ride, where the pipes originally harkened to McDonald’s, the sponsor of the ride’s earliest incarnation as “Countdown to Extinction”.
Disney later rethemed and renamed the ride to DINOSAUR, but the condiment-pipe joke remained as a quiet nod to that original sponsorship. It was essentially an Imagineering in-joke: something that looked like serious research infrastructure in the queue, but was actually a branded reference hidden in plain sight.
Fans often cite it as one of the best-known queue details from the attraction because it blended a simple, comedic, and historic element of the attraction neatly into the lab aesthetic – unless you happened to be educated enough to notice the out-of-place condiment mixtures.
Here are the condiment pipes as they appeared in the original DINOSAUR queue:
The thematic connection between DINOSAUR and Jurassic Park goes without saying, so we’ll consider this a friendly homage from one Florida theme park to another. Other locations throughout Orlando have paid respects to the popular attraction in the wake of its closure, including Orlando International Airport.
Do you have any other favorite Easter eggs or fun facts to share from DINOSAUR? Let us know on social media!
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