Kongfrontation Billboard - Adam Martinez/Pinterest

By: Fidel de Sousa Montiel (Grade 4)

Hello and welcome to forgotten rides! This will be the first of many articles I will be doing on theme park’s forgotten rides. Have you ever thought of what happened to “Shrek 3-D”, “Back to The Future” and “Hannah Barbera”?

Have you ever ridden Kongfrontation? Today I will explain the Legend of this ride, one of Universal´s best ever.

Kongfrontation opened on June 7, 1990, at the opening day of Universal Studios Florida theme park. The ride was about us (the riders) escaping King Kong as he destroys the city of New York.

It had two 59 feet tall animatronics made by Totally Fun Company and they were so detailed that they had banana scented breath! The ride was located at the San Francisco part of the park and the queue was made to look like a subway station with graffiti on the walls and all.

But in 2002, Universal started a movement to replace original rides by newer and updated ones. Kongfrontation was #1 in the list and was replaced by the Revenge of the Mummy on September 8, 2002 – a pity for the gorilla fans. However, as King Kong never gets old, after a 13-year absence, Universal Orlando released a new ride in 2016 at Islands of Adventure called Skull Island: Reign of Kong.

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