The massive new ride includes a plussed version of the King Kong 360/3D experience from Universal Studios Hollywood in a fully-themed environment, including custom trackless ride vehicles and an immersive show building, themed to a Skull Island temple. The climax of the ride is a face to face encounter with a new, massive Kong animatronic.
Here's a first-look bootleg video of the ride. (Universal's on-ride rules prohibit video recording, but if you want to see the new ride, here it is. If you don't want it spoiled, don't watch.)
We haven't seen a walk-through video of the queue yet, but initial reports say that the interaction actors in the queue are easily seen and not doing "jump scares."
Universal hasn't announced an official public opening date for Kong, but the media event for the ride is June 23. Theme Park Insider will be there for the event, with full coverage.
Previously:
Which is pretty good assuming they can get two cars in the show building at the same time. Which I'm not sure of since their media scenes are really close together and the audio might bleed into each other since trackless vehicles usually can't have on board audio. That would cut down the capacity to 1K which would be pretty rough.
Gringotts capacity really sucked the first year though everybody forgets the growing pains of great rides in hindsight.
I was seething with jealousy once I heard this ride was coming to Universal Orlando since I am from CA. Kong is one of my favorite IP's. This video has completely taken away my green eyed "monster."
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JvmMDaDhXyw
I love the look and aesthetics of the old Kong. He had such a primal, menacing, and dangerous look to him. The new Kong just looks like a big gorilla. Man I miss that attraction.
All the hype for Kong 360 east?
I think it looks fine as is. I'm sure it will be great and immersive IRL.
This ride is terrible.
It is just a rehash of the Kong portion at USH. In fact, it looks like they used much of the same footage and tweaked it. I find this very lazy.
You want to know why Universal builds so fast? They appear to take shortcuts!
"Isn't this just the same thing in Universal Studios Hollywood?" Parts are yes. Comparison's to Disney's multiple iterations of POTC, Haunted Mansion, Thunder Mtn, and Splach Mtn are fair.
"I was underwhelmed!" That's also fair imho. With all the neat stuff out of Disneyland Shanghai and the wonder and surprise of Diagon Alley, it makes sense.
"Terrible. Utter Rubbish. This was stupid. Lazy." Noted.
Based on the artwork released, it might be a shortcut too!
I take it that you've been on it then?
More ridiculous lunacy from the Disney cult. It's fine when the most popular ride in Epcot is essentially a screen where you watch people's feet dangling in front of you. It's fine when the most popular ride at DHS is pretty much a glorified video game. It's fine when the most popular ride at AK consists of a shadow cartoon and a broken Disco AA. It's fine when it seemingly takes eons for their beloved company to build an EXACT replica of a cheap Little Mermaid ride at MK. However, when Universal does anything, it's lazy and they're taking shortcuts.
The envy and jealousy displayed by Mickey Mouse maniacs is quite sad. It's their blind, ridiculous loyalty that has allowed suits at Disney to coast by for years with doing barely anything of note while jacking up ticket costs and getting by with asinine, absurdly priced hard ticket events where you get a pathetic cupcake or two.
It could have been awesome, if they had forgotten about the 3D screens and created a ride through Skull Island with AAs and sets. Incredible that this took two years to build.
This could have been THE new ride for 2016. Instead, that honor goes to Shanghai's awesome new Pirates ride.
That right there is a MAJOR problem in and of itself.
"It could have been awesome, if they had forgotten about the 3D screens and created a ride through Skull Island with AAs and sets.
This could have been THE new ride for 2016. Instead, that honor goes to Shanghai's awesome new Pirates ride."
Again, I take it that you've actually been ON either of these rides? If I watched a crappy internet video of Space Mountain, I'd think it is an overrated piece of junk.
It's also quite ironic that you deride Kong for using screens while turning around and espousing the glory of the Shanghai Pirates ride which is about 60% screens itself.
"Universal fans are butt hurt that they can't make a ride without using a screen"
Disney fans are butt hurt... well about pretty much everything. Universal fans are fine. They are getting quality new attractions every year while Disney finally wakes up from a decade long hibernation of nothingness. Oh, by the way, you can thank Universal's aggressive expansion plans for Disney doing ANYTHING of note in the future. Universal parks are seeing year-to-year double digit attendance gains while Disney has begun bleeding guests at three of their WDW parks. The overzealous defense of DisneyWorld's horrible management this century is beyond the pale. I guess nostalgia really does cloud the mind.
Have I been on this ride, clearly not, but the bulk of this ride is the same thing they do on the Backlot Tour. Was not impressed by in Hollywood, not impressed with it here.
At the very least, the Backlot tour was working with some limitations so there wasn't much they could do, but USO could have built ANYTHING and they settled on this screen attraction.
From what I could see in this video, the 360 was nearly identical to what is in Hollywood with a few tweaks.
USO has been getting nasty over the past few years on how they can "build faster than Disney". Guess what? They should have built this one slower.
Don't get me wrong, this looks to be an ok enough ride. The animatronics are very stunning and there should be MORE. I am just disappointed that they just copied what they did at Hollywood.
All I'm advocating for is that you can't properly judge a ride off a Youtube POV. Rides are meant to be seen in person, not behind a monitor. Robert's called Journey to the Center of the Earth the best ride in the world, but when I watch a video, it looks underwhelming. Who knows, maybe everyone who seems unimpressed may like Kong, maybe I'll hate it. We'll never know unless we try and go in with an open mind.
And FWIW, I don't recall Universal ever saying they build faster than Disney.
I'm not going to watch it on my computer, but experience it in person before I make a judgment. I think it looks amazing, by the way.
Many people who post on these boards visit both companies' parks, enjoy both, and criticize both when we feel that either has screwed up. I've blasted Disney for various things in the past, including FP+ and the recent cutbacks.
Sorry, but Universal definitely deserves criticism for their over-reliance on screens. They used to create exciting dark rides like Revenge of the Mummy and Men in Black. Now it's all simulators and 3D/4D. From everything I had read, I was lead to believe that Kong was going to be a break from that kind or repitition. But no, it's really more of the same -- especially if you've experienced Kong 360 3D in Hollywood (which I have, and liked).
I'll try Kong when I go back to Orlando (maybe next year). But this ride could have been so much more than a somewhat plussed version of Kong 360 3D.
The other problem is that we were promised somewhat more. All the hype, all the teasers, all the leaks, suggested that Universal were building something really unique and one-off - a combination of screen and live-action/animatronics that would set a new bar and be totally different to what had gone before. But now we can see the result it clearly isn't. It's basically the same screen ride as at Hollywood with a bizarrely inactive Kong animatronic at the end. And the more I think about it that's the bit that confuses me. It's an impressive animatronic figure for sure but it doesn't do anything. Nothing at all apart from breathe. I recall one of the teasers telling us that we'd come face to face with a huge Kong but would he be our friend or foe? There's absolutely no jeopardy in this figure, so sense of risk, no feeling that he might suddenly turn. That I think is where Universal might come to regret over-promising on this attraction.
I think people are spoiled when they expect every new ride to be ground-breaking. This ride was built in an area that had no ride before. Another attraction was not removed to add this, so you have what you had before plus another new attraction. Does it have screens, yes, did we know it was going to have screens, yes.
For the most part, reactions from people that have been on the ride have been positive. Those people that have a positive reaction are probably people that like to be entertained and don't go into the ride believing they are going to see something ground-breaking, that can enjoy a ride for what it is, entertainment.
Thank you Universal for adding another ride that seems to be enjoyable.
The ride fits the overall theme of Islands of Aventure to its core and it's not jammed in and out of place like Frozen at Epcot and there are no money grabs like forced character meetings or gift shops. This is a people eating attraction with a height requirement of 2 inches less then the kiddie coasters. The ride is good but it's not the greatest like Ali RIP. This ride will drop wait times at IOA which is good for everyone. If Universal did this the Disney way they would had spent two years cheaply refreshing a fan favorite ride like ET and putting most of the budget into the character meet where they greedly ruin your encounter with forced photos. I personally would much rather have a brand new ride even with screens, live characters that roam, no forced photos and no gift shop.
That being said did Mako this morning and it is the best coaster in Orlando and better than original version of Hulk.
Mako is superior addition to the rides in Orlando
I just really was not impressed with the tram version of this ride so this is not really going to "wow" me.
I too believe that screen attractions (no matter where they are) is a large step back. The only one I think is worth its wait is Spiderman, likely the oldest of the "screen ride things".
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