\n\t\t\t\t\t\tUniversal Orlando Resort is in the midst of major construction projects this summer, including a new “Fast & Furious” roller coaster at Universal Studios, the transformation of the Lost Continent at Islands of Adventure, updates to nearby Jurassic Park, and more.One of the most prominent projects is the Fast & Furious: Hollywood Drift roller coaster, going up in the spot formerly occupied by Hollywood Rip Ride Rockit. “Universal Orlando does not mess around,” Alicia Stella from Orlando ParkStop told WESH 2 News. “When they start a project, they aim to finish it fast, and Fast & Furious: Hollywood Drift has gone up faster than probably any of us thought it would.” Tharin White with EYNTK.info also remarked on the budding “Fast & Furious” roller coaster.”It’s kind of funny how many fans have been looking and saying, ‘Oh, this is definitely going to be a flip, or that’s going to be a drop,’ and outside of the vertical spike that Universal themselves confirmed, people are consistently wrong,” White said. “It looks like they took a bunch of track and they just kind of dropped it like spaghetti on top of a plate and I love that.” In the Lost Continent area, crews are demolishing the former Poseidon’s Fury attraction, which closed in 2023, and the Sindbad stunt show area has already been removed. Once a space that transported guests into a world of ancient myths and legends, the future of the area remains uncertain. “It really is anyone’s guess,” Stella said. “Fans of theme parks have been guessing that maybe this could be a new ‘Pok\u00e9mon’ land. It could be a land based on ‘The Legend of Zelda.'” While Universal has announced a global partnership with Pok\u00e9mon, no official plans have been confirmed. “I think that we’re going to have a very very big reveal coming up soon,” White said of the Lost Continent area.At Jurassic Park, also in Islands of Adventure, the quick-service restaurant Thunder Falls Terrace closed on Sunday and will be replaced by a new full-service restaurant that’s expected to open in 2027.The Jurassic Park River Adventure boat ride is currently closed for an extended refurbishment and is scheduled to reopen in November.Universal\u2019s newest theme park, Epic Universe, is also seeing developments.”There are a ton of permits for an expansion for a new ride over at Dark Universe \u2014 that’s the Universal Monsters themed area \u2014 and also a big expansion coming to the Harry Potter area in that park,” Stella said. “These are, kind of, mystery projects, and the Dark Universe one actually specifically says it will have a ride maintenance part of it, which tells me it’s an actual ride.” “We call it ‘the theme park wars,’ and it really is. The theme park wars never end,” White said. “Kind of the only time we’ve ever had a lull in the past, like, 15 years is literally because COVID forced them to stop.” The award-winning restaurant Mythos in the Lost Continent will remain open through January of next year before closing as part of the area\u2019s transformation.\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t\t\tORLANDO, Fla. \u2014 \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
Universal Orlando Resort is in the midst of major construction projects this summer, including a new “Fast & Furious” roller coaster at Universal Studios, the transformation of the Lost Continent at Islands of Adventure, updates to nearby Jurassic Park, and more.<\/p>\n
One of the most prominent projects is the Fast & Furious: Hollywood Drift roller coaster, going up in the spot formerly occupied by Hollywood Rip Ride Rockit. <\/p>\n
“Universal Orlando does not mess around,” Alicia Stella from Orlando ParkStop told WESH 2 News. “When they start a project, they aim to finish it fast, and Fast & Furious: Hollywood Drift has gone up faster than probably any of us thought it would.” <\/p>\n
Tharin White with EYNTK.info also remarked on the budding “Fast & Furious” roller coaster.<\/p>\n
“It’s kind of funny how many fans have been looking and saying, ‘Oh, this is definitely going to be a flip, or that’s going to be a drop,’ and outside of the vertical spike that Universal themselves confirmed, people are consistently wrong,” White said. “It looks like they took a bunch of track and they just kind of dropped it like spaghetti on top of a plate and I love that.” <\/p>\n
In the Lost Continent area, crews are demolishing the former Poseidon’s Fury attraction, which closed in 2023, and the Sindbad stunt show area has already been removed. Once a space that transported guests into a world of ancient myths and legends, the future of the area remains uncertain. <\/p>\n
“It really is anyone’s guess,” Stella said. “Fans of theme parks have been guessing that maybe this could be a new ‘Pok\u00e9mon’ land. It could be a land based on ‘The Legend of Zelda.'” <\/p>\n
While Universal has announced a global partnership with Pok\u00e9mon, no official plans have been confirmed. <\/p>\n
“I think that we’re going to have a very very big reveal coming up soon,” White said of the Lost Continent area.<\/p>\n
At Jurassic Park, also in Islands of Adventure, the quick-service restaurant Thunder Falls Terrace closed on Sunday and will be replaced by a new full-service restaurant that’s expected to open in 2027.<\/p>\n
The Jurassic Park River Adventure boat ride is currently closed for an extended refurbishment and is scheduled to reopen in November.<\/p>\n
Universal\u2019s newest theme park, Epic Universe, is also seeing developments.<\/p>\n
“There are a ton of permits for an expansion for a new ride over at Dark Universe \u2014 that’s the Universal Monsters themed area \u2014 and also a big expansion coming to the Harry Potter area in that park,” Stella said. “These are, kind of, mystery projects, and the Dark Universe one actually specifically says it will have a ride maintenance part of it, which tells me it’s an actual ride.” <\/p>\n
“We call it ‘the theme park wars,’ and it really is. The theme park wars never end,” White said. “Kind of the only time we’ve ever had a lull in the past, like, 15 years is literally because COVID forced them to stop.” <\/p>\n
The award-winning restaurant Mythos in the Lost Continent will remain open through January of next year before closing as part of the area\u2019s transformation. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Universal Orlando Resort is in the midst of major construction projects this summer, including a new “Fast &…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":347907,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[19576,30545,2954,14819,62426,62978,42260,24896,5207,142373,139,141,140,44871,113832,12058,3435,2749],"class_list":["post-347906","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-orlando","tag-adventure","tag-alicia-stella","tag-area","tag-fast","tag-furious","tag-islands","tag-jurassic-park","tag-legend","tag-lost-continent","tag-major-orlando-project","tag-orlando","tag-orlando-headlines","tag-orlando-news","tag-pokemon","tag-tharin-white","tag-theme-park","tag-universal","tag-universal-orlando-resort"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/347906","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=347906"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/347906\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/347907"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=347906"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=347906"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=347906"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}