Universal Reveals Full Details of Texas Theme Park

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Only a few months after launching its third theme park in Orlando, Florida, Universal is already preparing to open another major park – its first one located outside of Florida and California.

Universal Kids Resort, located in Frisco, Texas, near Dallas, is designed with younger children and families in mind. Unlike other Universal parks that feature thrill rides based on properties like Fast & Furious and Harry Potter, this park’s seven themed areas are based on popular kids’ movies and TV shows, including Shrek, Puss in Boots, and SpongeBob SquarePants. Jurassic World is the most exciting area for older kids and teenagers.

Last month, we got a first look at the park’s layout and themed lands. Now, Universal has shared more details about the rides in each area. Below, you’ll find concept art and descriptions of all the attractions.

Universal Kids Resort: Full Details and Concept Art

Universal Kids Resort

Located in Frisco, Texas, the park features seven uniquely themed areas: DreamWorks’ Shrek’s Swamp, Jurassic World Adventure Camp, Nickelodeon’s SpongeBob SquarePants Bikini Bottom, Illumination’s Minions vs. Minions: Bello Bay Club, DreamWorks’ TrollsFest, DreamWorks’ Puss in Boots Del Mar, and the Isle of Curiosity.

DreamWorks’ Puss in Boots Del Mar

DreamWorks’ Puss in Boots Del Mar is hosting a fun event called Swings Over Del Mar, where kids and families can experience exciting aerial fun. Plus, don’t miss Mama Luna’s Adopt a Kitty Day! You can also see Puss in Boots himself in a lively puppet show as he returns to his hometown of Del Mar for a brand new adventure.

TrollsFest

Families and kids can enjoy lots of active fun at TrollsFest! They can dance and play at the King Trollex Techno Dance Party, an interactive indoor event, or watch a Trolls-themed stage show with music and dancing. For a unique way to get around, they can ride Rhonda’s TrollsFest Express, a fun armadillo bus, or take to the skies on Hair in the Clouds, a colorful ride featuring flower-shaped balloons.

Nickelodeon’s SpongeBob SquarePants Bikini Bottom

Jellyfish Fields Jamboree will be a fun, lively area where kids and families can ride their own ‘Jelly Angler’ and bounce around with SpongeBob SquarePants! The Barnacle Bus will give guests a tour of Bikini Bottom and its characters, and Bobbing Barrels will let families have a splashing good time with water cannons as they spin. Plus, Mrs. Puff’s Boating School will offer boating lessons on a special course, completing the Bikini Bottom experience.

Jurassic World Adventure Camp

Families visiting Jurassic World Adventure Camp are invited to help find Bumpy, a playful Ankylosaurus who’s wandered off! Guests will ride the thrilling Jurassic World: Cretaceous Coaster, navigating twists, turns, and hills to search for her. They can also experience Mr. DNA’s Double Helix Spin, a whirling ride, and the Pteranodrop, which offers a stunning aerial view of the park for those who dare!

DreamWorks’ Shrek’s Swamp

Shrek & Fiona’s Happily Ogre After is a family-friendly ride that takes you back to the beginning of Shrek and Fiona’s love story. Designed as a playful creation of Shrek for his triplets, the ride lets guests experience the adventure of rescuing Princess Fiona, with a little help from Donkey!

Isle of Curiosity

The Isle of Curiosity will welcome guests and connect them to all the different areas of Universal Kids Resort. Kids and families can dance along with Gabby from DreamWorks’ Gabby’s Dollhouse at Gabby’s Cat-Tastic Dance Party! For a treat, Cakey’s Cupcakes will offer chocolate, vanilla, and rainbow cupcakes, and the Universal Kids Resort Café will be a bright and cheerful place to grab a quick bite or relax with a meal. The Universal Kids Resort Store will be the perfect place to find souvenirs and gear for the day, including merchandise inspired by Gabby’s Dollhouse to help guests get ready for their adventures.

Universal has shared some details about the food options in the park, which I’m very excited about! In the Shrek-themed area, ‘Swamp Snacks’ will offer treats like the ‘Shrekzel’ – a pretzel shaped like Shrek’s head. It even comes with green cheese sauce designed to look like boogers! Luckily, it’s already a popular item at other Universal parks.

I expected the SpongeBob restaurant at Universal Kids Resort to be the Krusty Krab, but it’s actually Goofy Goober’s! They’ll be serving classic theme park food like chicken sandwiches, salads, hot dogs, and big sundaes. I’m a little surprised they didn’t choose the Krusty Krab – it seems like a missed opportunity to sell Krabby Patties to fans who’ve always wanted to try them. Maybe the fact that other restaurants have started creating their own *SpongeBobthemed menus influenced their decision.

Universal Kids Resort is expected to open in Frisco, Texas in 2026.

Amazing Theme Park Rides Based on Movies That Were Never Built

Indiana Jones and the Lost Expedition

Disneyland features the Indiana Jones Adventure ride, which debuted in 1995. However, Disney’s original plans for an Indiana Jones area were much grander and would have significantly changed Adventureland. They envisioned a building called The Lost Expedition, housing two rides: a roller coaster inspired by the mine-car chase in ‘Temple of Doom,’ and a Jeep-based dark ride revisiting classic Indy scenes. The plan also included integrating the existing Jungle Cruise. Ultimately, the space intended for The Lost Expedition was used to build Splash Mountain instead.

Indiana Jones Ore Car Attraction

The planned Indiana Jones land never came to fruition, but Disney did have designs for a ride called the “Ore Car Simulator” intended for the Lost Expedition complex. Interestingly, Disney already has one Indiana Jones ride: Indiana Jones and the Temple of Peril at Disneyland Paris. This was the first roller coaster at a Disney park to include a loop. (I remember riding it as a teen and getting stuck – it wasn’t a fun experience!)

Indiana Jones Jungle Cruise

The “River Idol” was designed to be a key feature of a revamped Jungle Cruise ride, intended to fit within a larger area themed around Indiana Jones. It strongly resembles a prop from an Indiana Jones film.

The Hauntington Hotel

Long before Orlando’s popular interactive rides like Toy Story Midway Mania and Men in Black Alien Attack, Six Flags planned a Ghostbusters ride called the Hauntington Hotel. Guests would have driven through a haunted building, shooting targets with proton packs mounted on their vehicles. The ride’s designer shared on 2600connection.com that it was fully built and tested, ready to be installed in Texas, when Six Flags was sold. The new owners cancelled the project, a loss the designer dramatically calls a major historical tragedy.

Nostromo

For nearly eight years, Tomorrowland at the Magic Kingdom featured a truly frightening attraction called ExtraTERRORestrial: Alien Encounter. Guests were securely fastened into their seats while a terrifying alien creature appeared in the dark and seemed to touch and breathe on them. Originally, the alien was designed to be the iconic xenomorph from the 1979 film ‘Alien’ – a creature known for being incredibly scary. Surprisingly, Disney considered adding this intense horror element to their family-friendly park! Eventually, they realized it was too much and changed the attraction, removing the ‘Alien’ theme (and its original name, ‘Nostromo,’ after the spaceship in the movie), but keeping the basic idea. After scaring countless kids – including me! – for almost a decade, Alien Encounter closed in 2003. Today, the space is home to a much milder ride featuring Stitch from ‘Lilo & Stitch’.

The James Bond Live-Action Stunt Show

Early plans for Universal Studios Florida featured a spectacular stunt show inspired by James Bond, envisioned with artwork by ‘Star Wars’ artist Ralph McQuarrie and the stylistic influence of Bond production designer Ken Adam. The show would have taken place under a large, opening circular roof, with screens displaying Bond’s iconic villains as they seemingly witnessed his defeat and a nuclear launch. Although this ambitious project was never built, Universal Studios has since hosted successful stunt shows based on popular franchises like ‘Conan the Barbarian,’ ‘The A-Team,’ ‘Miami Vice,’ ‘Spider-Man,’ and ‘Waterworld.’

Mel Brooks’ Hollywood Horror Hotel

The Tower of Terror ride originally wasn’t connected to ‘The Twilight Zone.’ Disney first planned it as a joint project with Mel Brooks, envisioning a combination hotel and attraction called ‘Hotel Mel.’ The idea involved a murder mystery guests could solve by finding clues around the property. However, Brooks left the project to film ‘Life Stinks’ around the same time the Imagineers came up with the concept of haunted, free-falling elevators. While the Tower of Terror is a beloved ride, it’s funny to think we almost got a whole hotel themed around Mel Brooks instead!

Batman Island

Comics101.com recently shared details about the initial design for Universal Studios’ Islands of Adventure. Originally, instead of Marvel Super Hero Island, the park was going to be heavily themed around Batman. Created in the early 1990s during the height of Tim Burton’s Batman films, this area would have included rides like the Batmobile and Bat-jet, as well as a live stunt show with Batman, Robin, and Superman. However, those plans changed, and Marvel characters ultimately took over that section of the park, featuring heroes like Spider-Man and Hulk.

Batwing: Batman vs the Penguin

Batman Island, a planned area for Islands of Adventure, was envisioned to feature a unique roller coaster. Guests would have been able to choose between two different tracks – one themed after Batman and the other after the Penguin – each offering a distinct ride experience with special effects and pyrotechnics. A sign for Shreck’s Department Store, a nod to Christopher Walken’s character in ‘Batman Returns,’ was also part of the original plans. Ultimately, the ride wasn’t built, but the idea of two dueling coasters was later realized with the Dueling Dragons ride (now Dragon Challenge) in the Harry Potter section of the park.

Dick Tracy’s Crime-Stoppers

Before the 1990 release of Warren Beatty’s ‘Dick Tracy’, it was predicted to be a blockbuster, and Disney planned a theme park ride to go along with it. The ride would have put guests in the role of detectives chasing criminals through Chicago in a dark ride setting, complete with tommy guns to shoot at targets. Although ‘Dick Tracy’ didn’t become a long-running series, the ride concept wasn’t scrapped entirely. The vehicles were similar to those later used on Indiana Jones Adventure, and the idea of shooting at targets was later implemented in Buzz Lightyear’s Space Ranger Spin.

‘The Nightmare Before Christmas’ Ride

A ride based on Tim Burton’s 1993 film The Nightmare Before Christmas was planned where guests would ride in flying coffin-shaped vehicles, similar to Peter Pan’s Flight, but with a much darker and creepier atmosphere. While Disney was excited about the idea, Tim Burton, who had creative control over the film’s characters, didn’t approve and cancelled the project. Instead, each year Disney transforms the Haunted Mansion attraction in California with themes and characters from The Nightmare Before Christmas during the holiday season.

Godzilla Bullet Train

As early as the 1970s, Disney considered adding a bullet train ride to the Japan Pavilion in Epcot. The idea was to have guests look at screens showing the Japanese countryside as if they were traveling on a train. An even more exciting version involved Godzilla – he would have emerged from the ocean and attacked the train as it passed through Tokyo Bay. However, the project didn’t go very far; Disney only had initial talks with Toho, the company that owns Godzilla, before deciding that a giant monster didn’t fit the peaceful and natural theme of Epcot.

The Great Muppet Movie Ride

For over 20 years, The Muppets have been a popular attraction at Disney’s Hollywood Studios thanks to their MuppetVision 3D show. Originally, Disney planned an even bigger role for them – a Muppet-themed version of the Great Movie Ride, where Jim Henson’s characters would playfully recreate famous movie scenes. This idea came about when Disney and Henson were discussing a merger, but sadly, the deal ended after Henson passed away in 1990, and the Muppet Movie Ride was canceled. However, Disney did eventually acquire The Muppets in 2004, leaving fans to wonder if an even more spectacular Muppet attraction might still be possible in the future.

Jurassic Park Jeep Safari

Universal’s Islands of Adventure features a Jurassic Park River Adventure ride, a log flume that doesn’t really match the look and feel of the ‘Jurassic Park’ films, aside from the dinosaur animatronics. Originally, however, the park planned for more attractions, including a Jeep Safari designed to closely follow the movie’s storyline. Guests would have experienced a remote-controlled ride through the park, driving under long-necked dinosaurs, escaping the T-Rex, and confronting velociraptors. According to DisneyAndMore.Blogspot.com, the idea was scrapped because it was considered too similar to the existing River Adventure ride.

Jurassic Park Jeep Safari

This is a close-up look at one of the Jeeps used on the Jurassic Park ride. It has a similar feel to the older, eight-person DeLoreans from the ‘Back to the Future’ attraction.

Baby Herman’s Runaway Buggy Ride

While Disney created one ride based on ‘Who Framed Roger Rabbit’ – Roger Rabbit’s Car Toon Spin – they initially envisioned a much larger attraction. One concept, Baby Herman’s Runaway Buggy Ride, would have put guests in the role of stunt doubles for the mischievous baby, riding in baby carriage-shaped vehicles. To enhance the experience (and boost souvenir sales), riders would have even worn baby bonnets! Unfortunately, disagreements between Disney and Steven Spielberg’s Amblin Entertainment regarding the direction of the ‘Roger Rabbit’ franchise ultimately stopped this ride, and others, from being built.

Toontown Trolley

Similar to how disagreements about the Baby Herman ride stalled other projects, plans for a Star Tours-like simulator ride through Toontown – the cartoon world from ‘Who Framed Roger Rabbit’ – were also cancelled. Originally, all these rides were intended for a new section of Disneyland called Hollywoodland, but the area was later redesigned and became Mickey’s Toontown. Unfortunately, that meant Roger Rabbit’s ride never happened.

Toontown Trolley

This is another concept sketch from the Roger Rabbit trolley ride. It has a really psychedelic look! Kids would have been thrilled by it, particularly if they were full of energy from sweets.

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2025-11-18 19:30