Skull Island: Reign of Kong - General Discussion

[Clive]

Honestly, my biggest criticism is of Kong is that you can feel the designers had more fun and freedom designing/executing the queue and surrounding area more than they did many of the on-ride sequences (which were effectively locked by mandatory sharing of resources with Hollywood's existing 360 ride film).

 

[Wesker69]

Purge the ride film & replace the screens with ones that line the walls as a backdrop for depth, add physical set details (jungle greenery, rockwork, logs) & animatronics... completely removing the 360 3D gimmick in favor of a traditional dark ride

The queue & lead-up to the gates is well done, but then you're subjected to screenz: the ride (it's no secret, I've hated Hollywood's 360 3D since day 1)

 

[OrlandoGuy]

I feel like the queue has all the right ingredients, but going through it I’ve never been able to shake the feeling I’m just walking through a dressed-up warehouse. Something about how boxy the rooms are maybe. It’s cool, but I don’t think it would stand out AS much if it were attached to a better ride.

 

[Ahmanet]

Highlights of Kong are the queue and outdoor section ... the rest of the ride is fine and at least better than Dom's variant of it

 

[Disneyhead]

Ok, maybe we should recap what the actual problem is.

It's not the doors!

The problem is the chassis the RV are built on was originally designed to be used in the unloading of container ships. Since they were designed to carry heavy loads on a flat concrete surface, they don't have a suspension system (leaf springs, shock absorbers). But Kong, mostly on the outside and particularly the stairs at the doors entering the temple has a lot of bumps and stuff. That is causing torque on the chassis that it wasn't designed for. They have to redesign the road to where it doesn't torque the chassis.

(What does torque the chassis mean? Having, say, the front left tire high and the front right tire low while the back left tire is low while the back right tire is high. Twisting the chassis.)

 

[Mike S]

Ok, maybe we should recap what the actual problem is.

It's not the doors!

The problem is the chassis the RV are built on was originally designed to be used in the unloading of container ships. Since they were designed to carry heavy loads on a flat concrete surface, they don't have a suspension system (leaf springs, shock absorbers). But Kong, mostly on the outside and particularly the stairs at the doors entering the temple has a lot of bumps and stuff. That is causing torque on the chassis that it wasn't designed for. They have to redesign the road to where it doesn't torque the chassis.

(What does torque the chassis mean? Having, say, the front left tire high and the front right tire low while the back left tire is low while the back right tire is high. Twisting the chassis.)

Seems like something someone should’ve been able to catch beforehand.

 

[Mad Dog]

Seems like something someone should’ve been able to catch beforehand.

I remember that beginning, especially with private conversations I had with Teebin. They discovered they were going to have problems in Feb. & March during the final construction before opening, but it was already too late to do anything about it. The wear and tear on the vehicles has been a constant, and expensive, issue since it opened.

 

[GAcoaster]

Whenever you build a first of its kind attraction there will be unexpected issues.

 

[Brian G.]

Seems like something someone should’ve been able to catch beforehand.

They did. And fixed it. Unfortunately - time has caught up now.

 

[Mike S]

They did. And fixed it. Unfortunately - time has caught up now.

I mean when first designing the vehicles pick something that’s already built to handle that kind of torque or custom build it yourself.

Then again I’m just armchair engineering here so maybe it’s not as easy as I’m making it out to be.

 

[Rhian]

I mean when first designing the vehicles pick something that’s already built to handle that kind of torque or custom build it yourself.

Then again I’m just armchair engineering here so maybe it’s not as easy as I’m making it out to be.

On paper it's not a bad idea to source something in another industry which already solved a number of issues you won't have to think about and you can spend more time on designing the experience. Sometimes that approach works out very well, like Star Tours utilizing flight simulator tech. The thing is that you also have to remember all the things you need that vehicle to do.

In this situation the RVs they went with were designed for a very specific use case that wasn't as flexible for full use in Kong because shipping yards don't have large stairs and tight turns on bumpy terrain as Disneyhead described.

(And this is conjecture but I do wonder if Universal inquired about going over bumpier terrain and were assured at the time the vehicles could do it before purchasing them only to find out that wasn't the case once in place.)


It sounds like whenever they do get to addressing the issue it will take the ride down for a while. Theoretically they could redo the outside portion before doors and leave the ride open as long as possible before needing to close it in order to smooth out the stairs and area just past the doors.

Since we're recapping things here's video of the base vehicle themselves for reference from earlier in the thread.

Shout out to this YouTuber who caught great footage of the vehicles moving through the outside scene (1:58 & 4:30). You can see how much rocking the RV does moving through this space.


On a personal note FWIW, I never liked the crab steering on the Kong vehicles since it doesn't feel quite right like it would on a normal bus.

 

[Mad Dog]

If I recall the initial issues correctly, those very expensive tires wear out much quicker then they anticipated.

 

[Jake S]

If I recall the initial issues correctly, those very expensive tires wear out quicker then they anticipated.

Skull Island: Reign of Kong brought to you by Firestone — whatever ill-fitting industrial vehicle you drive, drive a Firestone.

 

[HandsomePete]

At least they learned the lesson and made adjustments to reduce the stress on the Fast & Furious ride vehicles by making the ride so unpopular that the RVs have way less passenger weight to carry.

 

[Mad Dog]

At least they learned the lesson and made adjustments to reduce the stress on the Fast & Furious ride vehicles by making the ride so unpopular that the RVs have way less passenger weight to carry.

Excellent take. I couldn't have said it better.

 

[Scott W.]

Ok, maybe we should recap what the actual problem is.

It's not the doors!

The problem is the chassis the RV are built on was originally designed to be used in the unloading of container ships. Since they were designed to carry heavy loads on a flat concrete surface, they don't have a suspension system (leaf springs, shock absorbers). But Kong, mostly on the outside and particularly the stairs at the doors entering the temple has a lot of bumps and stuff. That is causing torque on the chassis that it wasn't designed for. They have to redesign the road to where it doesn't torque the chassis.

(What does torque the chassis mean? Having, say, the front left tire high and the front right tire low while the back left tire is low while the back right tire is high. Twisting the chassis.)

I remember this was a bit of a debate when the ride started testing if the road was that bumpy or if the vehicle had some kind of motion base built into it.

 

[GA-MBIT]

Queue is cool, but no scareactors anymore is a shame. Big Worm is worth every dollar of my annual pass though!

I don't know if the conversation has been had here or not, but I think it's worth some thought. Whenever I pop into the queue, the Shamaness animatronic always catches my eye by being pretty well-made and cool to watch, but I can never quite shake the feeling that it feels... a bit dated? I know that she's not based on any real culture or group of people, but the animatronic definitely gives me a similar ick to depictions of Indigenous or "Tribal" people like in a lot of media from the early 1900s all the way up to about the late 2000s that you don't see very often today for pretty good reason. She's a crone-like, scary Islander voodoo queen chanting in a foreign language,, It feels a lot closer to something like the Red Man Red set in Peter Pan's Flight or the Shrunken Head scene in Jungle Cruise than anything else currently offered at Universal, and it's weird to me that it got through design and development as recently as 2016. Nothing else in the queue or ride gives me that feeling because it's all just crazy wild animals, or Dinosaurs, or Jungle Cruise-style expedition teams. Has anyone else had a similar response?

 

[Nico]

On paper it's not a bad idea to source something in another industry which already solved a number of issues you won't have to think about and you can spend more time on designing the experience. Sometimes that approach works out very well, like Star Tours utilizing flight simulator tech. The thing is that you also have to remember all the things you need that vehicle to do.

I remember the conversations here back in the day, and there was a lot of talk about the success with Kuka. It was as though this tech was a continuation of the philosophy. I also remember the nightmare of connectivity in the outside portion.

Thanks to Dave for updating us. Makes way more sense why it’s taken this long to fix. Hopefully they can start soon.

 

[Brian G.]

Queue is cool, but no scareactors anymore is a shame. Big Worm is worth every dollar of my annual pass though!

I don't know if the conversation has been had here or not, but I think it's worth some thought. Whenever I pop into the queue, the Shamaness animatronic always catches my eye by being pretty well-made and cool to watch, but I can never quite shake the feeling that it feels... a bit dated? I know that she's not based on any real culture or group of people, but the animatronic definitely gives me a similar ick to depictions of Indigenous or "Tribal" people like in a lot of media from the early 1900s all the way up to about the late 2000s that you don't see very often today for pretty good reason. She's a crone-like, scary Islander voodoo queen chanting in a foreign language,, It feels a lot closer to something like the Red Man Red set in Peter Pan's Flight or the Shrunken Head scene in Jungle Cruise than anything else currently offered at Universal, and it's weird to me that it got through design and development as recently as 2016. Nothing else in the queue or ride gives me that feeling because it's all just crazy wild animals, or Dinosaurs, or Jungle Cruise-style expedition teams. Has anyone else had a similar response?

Nope. Probably because there isn't anything close to a caricature. In this fictional world, it's possible that these indigenous people would worship Kong as a deity and that an elder would be the leader.

 

[BatCom]

Has anyone else had a similar response?

Nope.