Failed Universal Orlando Rides That Were Removed

The Universal Orlando that we know today is very different from what it was in the 90’s and early 2000’s. There was an ambitious desire to create experiences that allowed Guests to “ride the movies”. The attractions that were created for Universal Studios Florida, and later on for Universal Islands of Adventure, did just that.

However, even though extremely impressive rides and attractions were built, they didn’t come without a number of problems. Many of these rides experienced technical difficulties, while others had maintenance issues, and some simply didn’t hold Guests’ interest. The rides in this article are ones that essentially failed at Universal Orlando. However, that isn’t to say that they aren’t missed. Many Guests consider the early days of Universal Studios Florida to be some of the best, and would love to see the return of many of these classics.

READ MORE – Rides Disney Almost Built But Didn’t (And Why They Never Happened)

Kongfrontation

When Universal Studios Florida opened on June 7th, 1990, there was a King Kong attraction that was very different from the one we know today. Kongfrontation was based on Universal’s 1976 film King Kong. The idea for the ride, as well as many other Universal Studios Florida rides, came from the success of a Studio Tour scene at Universal Studios Hollywood.

The Studio Tour included a segment called King Kong Encounter, which featured a giant King Kong animatronic and put riders in the path of his rampage throughout New York City. This portion of the tour was so popular, and impressive, that it was decided that an entire attraction would be dedicated to the monstrous gorilla in Universal Studios Florida.

Again, on Kongfrontation, King Kong was wreaking havoc on New York City. The attraction was intended to give riders the experience of being evacuated from the city in order to avoid Kong’s destruction. They were loaded onto an aerial tram vehicle and began their journey from Manhattan Island to Roosevelt Island. 

Throughout the attraction, Guests would witness the chaos and terror that was brought on by Kong and even came face to face with him on two separate occasions. Of course, just like the one at Universal Studios Hollywood, both of these animatronics were extremely impressive. They both stood about 40 feet tall, had arm spans of over 50 feet, and were able to perform over 60 functions. They also both had devices in them that gave them banana-scented breath!

The Fall of Kongfrontation

Kongfrontation was by no means a failure during its time at the park. It was a crowd-pleasing attraction and brought in a lot of business for Universal. Nonetheless, Konfrontation closed in September of 2002. While no official reason was given for the closure, it’s believed that the maintenance costs as well as necessary staffing played a big part in it. Even though Kongfrontation didn’t have as many issues as other rides, such as Jaws, it did have its fair share.

Two years after its closure, Revenge of the Mummy took the place of Kongfrontation and has been there ever since.

The Funtastic World of Hanna-Barbara

The Funtastic World of Hanna-Barbera opened on June 7th, 1990, just one month after Universal Studios Florida’s opening day. This was the first motion simulator ride to ever open up at Universal Orlando.

During the pre-show of the attraction, Guests witnessed Dick Dastardly and Muttley kidnap Elroy Jetson, after finding out that The Jetsons were going to be the focus of Hanna-Barbera’s next project instead of them. Yogi Bear and Boo Boo quickly jumped to action.

They, along with the Guests (who were then moved into the main theater), jumped inside a spaceship to chase after Dastardly and save Elroy. The attraction took Guests on a fun and silly adventure as they pursued the villains during the rescue mission.

The Funtastic World of Hanna-Barbera closed in October of 2002. While many Guests enjoyed the ride, interest did eventually start to fade, which led to a re-theme. The early to mid-2000’s was a time that Universal heavily focused on bringing current and popular IPs (intellectual properties) into the park. With the popularity of Nickelodeon at the time, and Nickelodeon Studios being right on property, it made sense to give the attraction a Nickelodeon spin. The ride reopened as Jimmy Neutron’s Nicktoon Blast on April 11th, 2003.

This new version of the ride had a similar experience as The Funtastic World of Hanna-Barbera. It was popular for some time, but closed to make way for an even more popular theme. Jimmy Neutron’s Nicktoon Blast closed in 2011 and was replaced by Despicable Me: Minion Mayhem.

Despicable Me: Minion Mayhem opened up in 2013 and has since been joined by an entire Minion Land at Universal Studios Florida.

Back to the Future – The Ride

Ironically, Back to the Future – The Ride, was first spoken into existence by none other than Steven Spielberg. After visiting Disneyland with George Lucas and riding Star Tours, Lucas quipped to Spielberg that Universal “could never do a Star Tours”.  Even though Disney was producing extremely impressive attractions, Spielberg was convinced that Universal could make attractions that were equally as impressive. After seeing the King Kong Encounter on the Studio Tour at Universal Studios Hollywood, he made the suggestion that Universal create an attraction based on Back to the Future. Plans were then made for a Back to the Future ride at Universal’s new Florida park.

While Back to the Future – The Ride was initially intended to be an opening day attraction of Universal Studios Florida, construction issues caused a delay. It officially opened up less than one year later on May 2nd, 1991. The motion simulator ride took Guests on a “volunteer” mission for Doc, where they would take a ride on his latest invention. The invention that needed to be tested was an eight-passenger DeLorean time machine. Guests not only experienced traveling through time, they also had a run in with Biff Tannen.

Back to the Future Was Put in the Past

Unfortunately, it wasn’t long before there were plans to replace the ride. With a dwindling interest in Back to the Future and the attraction, Universal planned to keep the same ride system in place, but re-theme the attraction with a more popular IP. Two IPs that were considered for the re-theme were Fast & Furious and The Simpsons.

Back to the Future – The Ride closed on March 30th, 2007. The following year, the ride reopened with its new theme. The Simpsons Ride opened on May 15th, 2008 and is still in operation today. However, while no closing has officially been announced, The Simpsons Ride may have a limited amount of time left at Universal Studios. Universal’s licensing agreement with Disney, which allows them to use The Simpsons in their theme parks, is set to expire in 2028.

Earthquake: The Big One

Just like Kongfrontation and Jaws, Earthquake: The Big One originated from Universal Studios Hollywood’s Studio Tour. During this portion of the tour, Guests experienced what it would be like to be on a subway when an earthquake struck. The attraction simulated an 8.3-magnitude earthquake and included power surges, the overhead road falling in, a gas truck sliding towards the tram, a runaway subway, fire, and a flood.

The earthquake scene on the Studio Tour was inspired by the 1974 film Earthquake. With the success of the film, as well as the popularity of the tram stop, it was turned into a standalone attraction that opened up with Universal Studios Florida on June 7th, 1990.

During the experience, the Guests were informed that they were cast as extras for the earthquake scene. This gave the attraction more of a production feel as opposed to feeling like disaster was actually striking. The pre-show gave insight about the making of the film through behind-the-scenes footage, display props, and demonstrations. After the pre-show was over, Guests would load into the subway cars, ready for their earthquake experience.

What Happened to Earthquake: The Big One

While Earthquake: The Big One shared the same start as Kongfrontation and Jaws, it also had similar difficulties. The ride was frequently down and needed a number of repairs done. It also experienced a decline in interest as fewer and fewer Guests were familiar with, or interested in, the Earthquake movie. Universal attempted to tweak the pre-show, giving the attraction an original storyline. However, this change was not well received.

Earthquake: The Big One closed in 2007. In 2008, the attraction reopened as Disaster!:A Major Motion Picture Ride Starring… YOU. This was essentially the same ride, except the pre-show had a more comical spin to it.

Disaster! stayed open until September 2015. Prior to its closing, it was announced that a Fast & Furious ride would be taking its place. Fast & Furious: Supercharged opened in 2018 and is still open today.

Jaws

Jaws was another ride that was originally a portion of the Studio Tour at Universal Studios Hollywood, before becoming a stand alone attraction at Universal Studios Florida. Jaws Lake was added to the Studio Tour in 1976, just one year after Steven Spielberg’s movie Jaws took the world by storm.

While many of the rides on this list aren’t necessarily “fails”, the Jaws ride actually was a complicated mess. In its 22 years at the park, it faced many technical and mechanical difficulties, was re-done, needed a lot of maintenance, and was the subject of  multiple lawsuits. Even so, it still outlasted other opening day attractions such as Kongfrontation and Earthquake: The Big One.

The version of the ride that most of us remember (or don’t, because we were too busy closing our eyes out of fear) opened up in 1993. Many don’t realize that the version that opened in 1990 was actually different. One thing to note is that originally, the boats weren’t connected to the track. While there was a concrete pit underwater that slightly guided them, they were essentially free-floating and maneuvered by the skippers.

Both versions started off in a similar manner – first seeing a sinking boat, then spotting the shark fin, and then heading into the dark boathouse where the first terrifying encounter with the shark took place. However, after the boathouse scene, things differed between the two versions.

Problems on Amity Island

In the more memorable version, after the boathouse, Guests saw the shark come out of the water and then witnessed a gas dock explosion. In the original version, the shark came out of the water, latched onto the boat, and drug it backwards while shaking it. During this portion of the ride, the skippers were tasked with the job of aligning the boat up perfectly with the shark. Of course, this didn’t always happen. Sometimes the boats got too close and ended up knocking the shark’s teeth out. Because of this, the teeth were eventually replaced with real shark teeth. However, this sometimes led to the boats being punctured and ripped. While there were issues with both the shark and boats being damaged in this scene, there were also times when the shark wouldn’t emerge at all, which led to an awkwardly quiet moment during the ride.

The first lawsuit that the Jaws ride saw came directly from this scene. After the safety bar broke on the boat, a Guest fell into the lagoon. The area that this scene took place in was both the deepest, at 30-40 feet deep, and housed the turntable machinery that was necessary for the effect of the shark swimming backwards. The Guest filed a lawsuit against Universal for 1 million dollars. Over time, news of the case became scarce, leading to the assumption that it was settled outside of court.

What Was Done to Fix Jaws

After experiencing such a headache with the original version of this ride, Universal filed a lawsuit against Ride & Show Engineering Inc. for the entire cost of the ride. It was argued that Universal rushed the project, didn’t allow enough time for testing, and took control over the project with their own people. This lawsuit was eventually settled outside of court, but the details of the settlement were undisclosed.

Universal had originally hoped that they could simply fix the existing issues with the Jaws ride, but it was ultimately decided that it would need to be almost completely redone. Some elements stayed the same, but the sharks, boats, mechanics, and more were replaced. Additionally, new elements were added such as underwater tracks for the boats.

This new version, which opened up in 1993, remained open until 2012. Even though the newer version had fewer problems, it did still experience technical difficulties and was extremely expensive to maintain. After closing, the location of the Jaws ride was transformed into Diagon Alley, the second Harry Potter-themed land at Universal Orlando.

Dueling Dragons

Dueling Dragons was an opening day attraction for Universal Islands of Adventure in 1999. This challenge coaster featured two intertwining tracks – one blue and one red. Both tracks featured multiple inversions and reached speeds off 55 and 60 miles per hour. When Dueling Dragons first opened, the two coasters would launch at the same time, which created a thrilling race experience that had multiple “near miss” moments.

In 2010, Dueling Dragons became part of the Wizarding World of Harry Potter and was renamed Dragon Challenge. Shortly after, in 2011, a number of incidents took place. There were multiple Guests who suffered injuries on the ride as a result of being hit by loose objects. Because of this, the two coasters were no longer launched at the same time. Instead, the coasters were launched at separate times in an effort to avoid close interactions between the Guests on the separate trains.

A few years later, the coaster was removed to make way for Hagrid’s Magical Creatures Motorbike Adventure.

READ MORE – These 10 Disney Rides Have Changed Dramatically Since Their Opening

I’ve seen changes come and go, and like many seasoned Disney park goers, I’ve become familiar with the resulting emotional rollercoaster. It can be sad when the company decides to overhaul or even remove a beloved attraction. On the other hand, there are times when it’s easy to embrace a much-needed update. Here are ten Disney attractions that have transformed substantially since opening day, for better or worse.

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