JTA went through a good number of redesigns before they put in the San Diego version. I was lucky enough to see several of the early ideas, one of which actually even had a more X-Files style theme for some strange reason, alluding that there was an alien force under the water behind the chaos. It just sounded odd... I'm glad that idea died. I think it came up as a quick idea of how to explain the elevator lift... like an Alien Abduction or something.
The early designs had more interior sections and featured two traditional lift hills instead of the one lift and one elevator lift that was used in the end. As I recall, one of the designs even featured the two lift hills going up side by side... matterhorn style. Except that there was supposed to be some kind of wall or barrier in between the two so that they would never see each other.
In the end I believe the design changes to JTA came about due to two main factors. I'm sure the bitching by "Frye and her Fuglies" had a hand in the park trying to cut back on the size of the building. But the other side of an early move to cut back on the amount of dark ride elements actually came from Busch's displeasure with the Orlando version.
The story they intended to tell in the Orlando version was always unclear. The audio system was just not designed well and you couldn't understand much of what was being said to you during the ride. They spent a lot of money building these big sets and effects for the Orlando ride, but had to turn a good number of them off over the years because they either got the riders too wet, screwed with the ride's numerous sensors or just malfunctioned way too often and were too expensive to maintain. So in the end it was decided that since the story couldn't be clearly told... they would just not try to tell a true story at all in San Diego. We can see where this design concept led in the next step to the creation of the Texas ride which is entirely outdoors.
There is one important thing to remember about the Busch theme parks that many outsides don't know. While the Busch theme parks are all about quality and they'll spend lots of Capital $$$$ money up front to buy the best equipment in most cases (or what they had believed to be the best at the time...). This is why they generally buy only B&M coasters. They pay more for them, but they deliver a quality product, open on time and have the best maintenance record going. From time to time they experiment with other companies when they need to try something new (GCI for Gwazi, Vekoma for Rhino Rally) but if they feel the product was not up to their standards, then don't look for them to work with that company again.
While this all sound good so far... the dark side of this story hits the parks later. Once the final checklists have been finished and the keys have been handed over to the parks... it was now up to the park's to maintain these attractions from their own maintenance budgets, which are always never big enough.
Again... take a look at the first Journey To Atlantis in Orlando as a prime example, as this was the very first dark ride attempt by the Busch parks. There was no set people already in place who knew how to handle all the various equipment, effects and technology in that kind of dark ride and up to that point the only "rides" the park had ever had before were the Skytower and Arctic simulators. Very quickly the various departments were over their heads... and without the proper budgets to do things right.
At least Williamsburg had a huge ride maintenance department with years of experience dealing with the Pompeii ride behind them when they got DarKastle. However SeaWorld San Diego soon found themselves in the same spot at their Orlando counterparts with their version of JTA.
Just a glimpse into the inner workings of your typical BEC theme park. Lets hope they take what they've learned from JTA in San Diego and put it to use on this 2010 ride. Oh... and no inversions. They'll want to keep this sucker low to the ground and given it's location in the back of the park in an area that is pretty an empty hole right now, you probably wont even be able to see this ride from outside the park.