DINOSAUR Ride Review at Disney’s Animal Kingdom
Dinosaur is a thrill ride at Disney’s Animal Kingdom Park in Walt Disney World. Specifically, it is located in Dinoland, U.S.A. This Dinosaur (DINOSAUR) ride guide discusses the attraction in detail. We’ll examine height requirements, the best times to ride, and whether or not it is scary.
Here are a few quick references for Dinosaur:
| DINOSAUR | Disney’s Animal Kingdom |
|---|---|
Location: | Dinoland U.S.A. |
Height Requirement: | 40″ |
Lightning Lane: | Yes, with Lightning Lane Multi Pass |
Ride Type: | Moderate Thrills, Dark Ride |
Seates Per Vehicle: | Up to 6 guests per row in the Time Rover |
Rider Switch: | Yes |
Early Theme Park Entry: | Yes |
Extended Evening Hours: | Yes |
Good For: | Tweens, Teens, Adults |
Scare Factor: | Medium: The dinosaurs can be scary. |
Must Do List: | High Priority (Before it goes extinct!) |
Perfect For: | Dino Lovers |
Special Mention: | This ride has an on-ride photo opportunity. |
Accessibility: Guests must transfer from a wheelchair or ECV to the ride vehicle. Video captioning and assistive listening are available. Service animals are not permitted.
Make sure to check our one-stop Lightning Lane Guide to plan your attractions.
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DINOSAUR Ride at Disney World
Dinosaur is a dark ride that most will want to experience during their Walt Disney World vacation. It’s the kind of attraction that tends to make guests laugh by the end of the ride. This attraction is a little off the beaten path. When you enter Dinoland from Discovery Island, stay to the far right instead of entering the carnival area. Eventually, you’ll run into two columns that flank the entrance to the attraction.
An Iguanadon sits in a small pond outside the queue’s entrance.
Signage near the entrance includes a few warnings for the ride. While Dinosaur has no inversions or steep drops, it is an exceptionally bumpy ride. Make sure to heed any warnings before making the decision to ride.
The sign says:
This experience includes: Dark Places and Scary Dinosaurs
This prehistoric tour is a high speed turbulent ride adventure that includes sharp turns and sudden drops. Warning! For safety, you should be in good health and free from high blood pressure, heart, back, or neck problems, motion sickness, and other conditions that could be aggravated by the adventure. Expectant mothers should not ride. Supervise children at all times. Persons who do not meet the minimum height requirement may not ride. Guests in wheelchairs must transfer.
Those using a Lightning Lane for this attraction will need to scan their band on the left-hand side of the queue. Regular guests will enter the stand-by line on the right side.
Inside the stand-by portion of the queue, you’ll encounter a mini-museum with information about dinosaurs.
Like most of the queues at Disney, there are some interesting things to take in while you wait.
The majority of the Dinosaur queue is inside. If you visit the attraction and find a long line spilling outside of the interior queue, it could be a long wait. Wait times are usually posted above the entrance. It isn’t uncommon for Dinosaurs to have a 45-50 minute wait during peak periods.
Before entering the pre-show, you’ll come into this room with the dinosaur skeleton on display.
Once you enter the pre-show area, you’ll stand in a large room and watch a video. About this time, Dr. Seeker, a paleontologist, comes on the screen as a tour guide. When he thinks no one is paying attention, he lets you in on a little secret. You’re about to board a time rover and embark on a mission in search of an Iguanadon right before a meteorite destroys it.
Sounds dangerous, doesn’t it? Well, that’s because it is. Dr. Seeker is willing to put your safety and everyone else’s at risk to bring an Iguanadon back from the land before time. He leaves you with a line like, “Now, go get that dino!”
After the pre-show ends, a door opens, and you join a smaller waiting area that leads to the ride vehicle. Thankfully, this part of the queue moves swiftly. You’ll take a staircase down to the ride’s loading area. A cast member will be in this area to assist anyone who needs to use an elevator.
When you exit the pre-show area, I recommend taking your time. Many guests express frustration here because they aren’t expecting an additional line. Usually, two pre-show theaters are in session simultaneously. They often let out close to the same time, so it looks like a lot of traffic in a small area. However, the process moves quickly since so many guests can board a ride vehicle.
As you set off down an unseeable track, everything gets dark. Our time rover is traveling back to the early prehistoric era, after all. Before you know it, your mission to find an Iguanodon has turned into a bit of a wild dinosaur chase.
Between every twist and turn, dinosaurs are popping up all around you. Some are a little too close for comfort. And these fairly medium surprise factors might be enough to scare the kids. There is also an on-ride photo opportunity right about the time T-Rex opens his mouth wide to scoop you up! However, this photo opportunity is a bit of a hoot!
It’s always fun to see the variety of expressions on everyone’s faces as they look up at the towering dino. Make sure to have a pose in mind. Even I’ll admit, I’m usually holding on for dear life while thinking, “That’s not our dino.”
Lucky for you, the time rover pivots in enough time to not only avoid the dinosaur encounter but miss the incoming meteor shower as well. But did you complete your mission and get the right dino? I’ll let you figure that one out. At the end of Dinosaur, you’ll exit into a gift shop for the attraction. These shops are commonly referred to as dump shops because the ride dumps you into the shop.
Best Time to Ride DINOSAUR
Dinosaur often has long wait times during the day. Therefore, you might consider using Lightning Lane for this attraction. If you don’t purchase Lightning Lane Multi Pass, you might consider riding Dinosaur after 4:00 p.m. unless you are over this way earlier in the morning. However, most guests head straight to Flight of Passage and then to Kilimanjaro Safaris.
The Resorts Gal Spin on DINOSAUR
We give Dinosaur the red light! If waits are longer than 45 minutes, we would probably skip this one and return later in the day. However, it is a little out of the way. So you might check the wait times in the My Disney Experience app before heading over this way!
Resorts Gal Traffic Signals
Green Light
We give an attraction the green light if we consider it a must-do, regardless of the posted wait. We also give the green light for attractions we deem suitable to experience anytime. For example, some attractions have high capacities. Therefore, the lines continuously move and you shouldn’t have a long wait unless the attraction experiences downtime.
Red Light
We recommend checking the posted wait times for red light attractions. Then, make a quick judgment call on whether to wait, skip it, or return later. We also red light some attractions that we feel might not be suitable based on our experience.
Final Thoughts
Hopefully, this article helped you get a good idea of whether Dinosaur was right for you or everyone in your group. If you’ve visited Disneyland, Indiana Jones Adventures uses the same ride system. It will have a similar feel but a completely different theme.
Are you planning a Walt Disney World vacation? You might enjoy some of our favorite Disney World Hotel Reviews:
- Disney’s Animal Kingdom Lodge Review
- Disney’s Beach Club Review
- Disney’s Polynesian Resort Review
- Disney’s Wilderness Lodge Review
In the Comments:
Do you plan to ride a dinosaur on your next vacation? What do you think about this type of attraction?
