Universal Studios Florida will open its new DreamWorks Land this summer. Universal Orlando confirmed that opening season today, as it revealed the full line-up of attractions in the land.
DreamWorks Land is a rethemed version of the former Woody Woodpecker's KidZone at Universal Studios Florida. As part of the changes, the former Woody Woodpecker's Nuthouse Coaster is being transformed into Trolls Trollercoaster.
Guests will ride on the Caterbus while avoiding evil spiders on this Vekoma Junior Coaster. Other locations in the Trolls Village section of the land will include Poppy's Playground, a shaded toddler play area under a 20-foot mushroom, Trolls Treats, an ice cream stand serving pink lemonade-flavored "Poppy-licious Pink" and huckleberry-flavored "BroZone Berry," and High Five Hideaway, a retail store.
The former Curious George play area becomes Po's Kung Fu Training Camp in DreamWorks Land.
This play area will offer wet and dry elements, including water cannons, dump buckets, giggling baby pandas, and oversized merry-go-round noodle bowls. The land's Kung Fu Panda section also will offer Po Live!, a digital, interactive meet and greet experience.
But the first thing that guests will see when they enter the land will be Shrek's swamp, which already is rising over the construction walls.
After the Villain-Con evicted the ogre from his 4D theater home near the park's entrance, Shrek has returned his swamp, which somehow everyone has seemed to miss at Universal Studios Florida until now. Go figure. At Shrek's Swamp Meet, guests can meet Shrek, Princess Fiona and Donkey. There will be a Shrek’s Swamp for Little Ogres play area with four slides, a splash pad and Shrek's outhouse to explore. King Harold's Swamp Symphony will be a collection of lily pads that guests can stomp on to trigger a frog choir. Finally, at Mama Luna Feline Fiesta guests can "play with Mama Luna’s many cats on vivid interactive screens activated by buttons, bells, maracas and levers," according to Universal.
The Shrek area also will feature a food location, Swamp Snacks, which will serve "Far Far A Waffle," "Frozen Ogre," and the soon-to-appear-on-your-Instagram-feed "Shrekzel."
I have questions.
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I don't hate it and it does look better then what we had before but overall its still a bit of a let down. I wish they had spent more money and picked 1 IP to make a proper land. If they had picked Shrek they could have made it more like the Shrek land at Universal Singapore with the Far Far away village and swamp. Even better would have been to use Kung Fu panda for the whole thing and built the ride from Beijing!
Nice to see the old outdated theme being modernized, but a bit underwhelmed with the result. Most of the new attractions are either something to get kids soaked or something that's little more than a fancy screen, which feel a bit basic for a destination theme park in this day and age. I suppose it makes sense as this was most likely a low budget project, but it's still likely to remain something seen as filler by a majority of the resort's visitors.
My grandson will be thrilled to know he can soon go back to the area, and get absolutely soaked in the water playground. Gotta' love kids ... :)
From what I heard this was a very low budget project. (By Universal standards, of course.) After years of ignoring this land, that old IP finally became too much for Universal to overlook. So we get a relative quick swap before Epic opens.
I do wonder how this land fits with or complements whatever Universal Creative is developing for Universal Kids Park in Texas.
I don’t know what Mama Luna Feline Fiesta is. Will that take up residence in the Day in the park with Barney theater/interactive post show?
The local kids will love it. Simpsons, animal actors, and posideon are on the clock.
I love me a good playground. Honey I Shrunk The Kids was a core memory for me.
Given the turnaround time for this project, I didn't expect much more than a quick retheming. Rest in peace, Fievel water slide. On the positive side, this adds a ton of meet and greets for one space (by Universal standards).
I’ll pour one out for the Honey I Shrunk the Kids playground. Really for that whole underdeveloped area of the park. It was a nice place for a quiet lunch and there was a great walk up bar next to the counter service restaurant. Loved having a margarita by the fountain from Splash.
As for this area at Universal, it has served its purpose well for quite some time I suppose. Anybody else here remember when that was the access point for the original Hard Rock Cafe? Ahhh memories…
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So, as expected, a pretty minimal retheme of attractions that were already there along with some additional/updated interactive attractions and spaces. I don't think anyone was expecting a massive new land, and simply replacing the outdated/antiquated IPs (Curious George, Woody Woodpecker, and Fivel) with new IPs (fully under the Universal umbrella), will significantly increase the appeal of this area.
However, I think we were all hoping that Universal would come up with something (anything) new or unique for this refreshed land. This does not move the needle in a year when Universal is going to struggle to attract guests with Epic Universe on the horizon.