On Friday, October 9th, 2026 Universal Orlando made a quiet change to its “park hours” page where it also displays current and scheduled ride closures. The reopening of Jurassic Park River Adventure was delay out a month until December 17, 2026. The ride has been down since January 5, 2026 and was originally slated to reopen November 20, 2026. The ride is a “people eater” with a massive capacity of 3,000 riders/hour, so when another major attraction at Universal’s Islands of Adventures goes down (like Hagrid’s or Velocicoaster), there’s not many places to put the overflow. No doubt the park certainly wants this ride back as soon as possible and the renovations must be taking slightly longer than originally anticipated.

Although the refurbishment is lengthy, the ride is anticipated to keep the original Jurassic Park theme and not change to the Jurassic World theme like the one at Universal Studios Hollywood did. It is receiving extensive structural updates, paint, and much-needed care for its animatronics which would be expected after decades of exposure to heat and moisture. It’s great that the ride should keep its identity and not be rethemed like the Universal Hollywood version. It’s a positive when rides in different locations aren’t just carbon copies of each other. Universal Orlando already has a Jurassic World themed ride in Velocicoaster that’s situated in a somewhat secluded area that the split theme works. There’s a lot of construction in the area currently with another set of work walls up for a set of restrooms in the area that strangely enough will take until early 2027 to reopen. The delay on Jurassic Park River Adventure has it missing Thanksgiving, but still should have it open for the busy Christmas season.