In Jurassic Park, Velociraptors were intimidating, kinda scary, and definitely fascinating in the way they interacted and hunted as a pack (that kitchen scene, am I right?). Fast forward to Jurassic World, where we then got to see Velociraptors in a different way, sharing pack mentality with humans. And now, with the new Jurassic World VelociCoaster in Universal’s Islands of Adventure, we get to be up close to these social predators and experience first-hand their cunning intelligence like never before.

There haven’t been many interviews over the course of my career that I needed to acquire steel-toed shoes, a hard hat, and safety goggles for. Then again there also haven’t been many that I walked the construction site of a brand-new, 1,556 meters, 70 mph roller coaster inspired by a global blockbuster phenomenon from my youth.