Dinosaur Island Attractions and Visitors: Filling Your Park

Visitors are the only way to score points during the game, and the Park Phase is the only time they come. Every round, each patron who survives at an attraction or exhibit is 1 VP. Over a full game, those points can add up to a large share of a winning total. This lesson is about making sure each visitor you draw actually scores.

The capacity equation

Count your park’s capacity like this:

• Each exhibit holds one visitor per dinosaur in its paddock.
• Each attraction holds the visitors shown on its tile.

Compare that with your excitement, the number of visitors you will draw. Three cases:

• Capacity below excitement: the extra visitors wait in line. Patrons in line still pay $1 at the gate but score nothing.
• Capacity equal to excitement: everyone has a place. Hooligans take some of those places, so patrons may still wait.
• Capacity above excitement: empty spaces, but room to grow.

A good target is capacity at or a little above excitement. Hooligans always go in first and fill spaces without scoring, so a little extra room protects your patrons.

What attractions add

Attractions are bought in the Market Phase for their printed price plus the row price, and each fills one zone in your park. They do three jobs:

1. Visitor spaces every round, without adding threat.
2. End-game VPs, the number printed on the tile.
3. Special effects on some tiles, such as food attractions.

Because attractions add spaces without dinosaurs, they are the safe way to raise capacity. A dinosaur adds a space and excitement, but also threat.

Food attractions: VP or money

For each patron at a food attraction, you choose: score 1 VP, or collect $2. That turns a food stand into a small bank. Early in the game, when money builds your engine, $2 is often worth more than 1 VP. Late in the game, when leftover money is worth only 1 VP per $5, the VP is better.

The Chef specialist adds to this: once a round, you may place one patron at a food attraction even when it is full, to score 1 VP.

Hooligans

The bag starts with 70 patrons and 10 hooligans, so about 1 visitor in 8 is a hooligan. They pay nothing, score nothing, take spaces first, and are eaten last.

Two specialists from the rulebook deal with them:

• Security Guard: return up to 3 hooligans to the bag each round and draw that many new visitors.
• PR Guy: draw 3 extra visitors each round, then return any 2 to the bag. You can send hooligans back.

Both are worth more as your excitement grows, because you draw more hooligans. The visitor odds lesson at Level 3 puts numbers on this.

Timing attraction purchases

Attractions slide toward the $2 row each round they are not bought, getting $1 cheaper each time. Since an attraction scores its printed VPs at the end no matter when you buy it, timing matters:

• Buy early when you need the spaces now, or when a rival is likely to take it.
• Wait when your park still has spare capacity and nobody else seems interested. It may come to you cheaper.

Remember that the attraction’s own printed price never drops. Only the row price does.

Excitement caps at 20

Excitement can never exceed 20, so you never draw more than 20 visitors a round. A park that reaches 20 excitement does not need more excitement. It needs capacity, security, and exhibit VPs. Once you are close to the cap, shift your spending.

Where the money comes from

Every patron you draw pays $1, whether or not they get in. That makes excitement a money engine too. A park drawing 12 visitors earns about $10 or $11 a round at the gate, depending on hooligans. Our explainer on engine building describes this pattern: early income that funds later points.

A park checklist

1. Is my capacity at least my excitement?
2. Do I need money more than VPs this round, for food attractions?
3. Is there an attraction a rival wants that I should buy first?