Temporary Attraction Closures at UOR

[Jwhee]

Universal Orlando has announced that they will be closing down the following attractions, temporarily, beginning on August 9th:


Kang and Kodos’ Twirl ‘n’ Hurl

Poseidon’s Fury

Fast & Furious – Supercharged

Storm Force Accelatron

Fear Factor Live

A Day in the Park with Barney

Will this be the final nail in the coffin for some of these attractions? Discuss.

 

[MrBlonde]

Is there an official page on these closures?

PF makes sense given how clustered people are and it's probably expensive for the crowd it can draw under social distancing. With theme park softening, this could be them tightening the belt on ops expenses on things that aren't the most utilized.

 

[Tbad556]

Is there an official page on these closures?

We've been discussing this over here:

Theme Parks & Shopping Districts Reopening General Thread

On an interesting note, at least anecdotally, I’ve heard of more UO TM’s having COVID issues than Disney’s CM’s (still haven’t heard much on SeaWorld or smaller attractions like Island H2O, but I’m assuming they aren’t doing great). To clarify, firstly I’m comparing the estimates from Uni’s...

forums.insideuniversal.net

Also, looks like OI got an official statement:

 

[Mad Dog]

This says so much about F&F. Before it opened to scathing guest criticism, who would have thought the most recent USF D/E ticket 'ride' would be in the first closure group if the parks would cut attractions.

 

[Jerroddragon]

I doubt forever just for now...sure the lines aren't long enough for these rides to be open thats all

 

[GA-MBIT]

I went on Poseidon one of the first weeks of reopening and it took ages for them to social distance everyone between each scene. We waited in line for about 30 minutes and spent 5 minutes walking to each room, and this is with sparce attendance as well. Definitely not designed for these "unprecedented times". Poor Taylor had to adlib like 20 minutes of improv overall. Not at all surprised it's on here.

 

[Clive]

Poseidon Fury's practical effects - all of that pyro and pumping water - cannot be cheap to run, for a paltry number of guests each day. I empathize with the Taylor performers, but this closure makes sense. It's not an attraction that can function well under these conditions.

Barney I also get. Stuck in a forlorn corner, reliant on live performers, not especially popular amongst locals. Glad it made it to its 25th anniversary.

Fear Factor was closed anyway. No big loss there. Hope it stays gone.

Fast & Furious staying closed would be legitimately hilarious under different circumstances... but it's a poorly received attraction that requires a lot of staffing.

I feel like they could at least keep Kang and Kodos open just for the kinetic energy it brings to the west side of the park, but I can't fault them for mothballing Storm.

 

[Magic Feather]

I’m under the impression that the nitty gritty of the attractions that were barely included in the closing vs the attractions that narrowly escaped largely boiled down to office politics. It’s a shame, but it’s how most of these places work these days.

 

[OhHaiInternet95]

Poseidon Fury's practical effects - all of that pyro and pumping water - cannot be cheap to run, for a paltry number of guests each day. I empathize with the Taylor performers, but this closure makes sense. It's not an attraction that can function well under these conditions.

Barney I also get. Stuck in a forlorn corner, reliant on live performers, not especially popular amongst locals. Glad it made it to its 25th anniversary.

Fear Factor was closed anyway. No big loss there. Hope it stays gone.

Fast & Furious staying closed would be legitimately hilarious under different circumstances... but it's a poorly received attraction that requires a lot of staffing.

I feel like they could at least keep Kang and Kodos open just for the kinetic energy it brings to the west side of the park, but I can't fault them for mothballing Storm.

I'm one of the VERY few who loves Poseidon's Fury, so I'm quite sad to see it go. But it's understandable. And so Mythos becomes the last surviving piece of Lost Continent...

I feel sad for those who work the attractions obviously, otherwise I would say that I'm not at all sad to see the others go.

I could unfortunately see Dudley being closed as well--it's a property no one cares about, JPRA does the same basic thing, it's been in pretty poor condition as you said, and all that water off would probably be a big $$$$ saver.

 

[UNIrd]

Of all the closures, the one I feel should have been kept open is Kang & Kodos. The kinetic energy as mentioned above, the only spinner in the park, and an outdoor attraction which should be inherently safer during this time. And I've never seen more than 2 ops manning it max?

 

[sonoma15]

I'm one of the VERY few who loves Poseidon's Fury, so I'm quite sad to see it go. But it's understandable. And so Mythos becomes the last surviving piece of Lost Continent...

I feel sad for those who work the attractions obviously, otherwise I would say that I'm not at all sad to see the others go.

I could unfortunately see Dudley being closed as well--it's a property no one cares about, JPRA does the same basic thing, it's been in pretty poor condition as you said, and all that water off would probably be a big $$$$ saver.

I think Dudley and JPRA are way too popular to be closed, especially in the summer.

 

[Nick]

Of all the closures, the one I feel should have been kept open is Kang & Kodos. The kinetic energy as mentioned above, the only spinner in the park, and an outdoor attraction which should be inherently safer during this time. And I've never seen more than 2 ops manning it max?

If nobody is riding it though, it’s hard to justify keeping open. And then the K&K TMs will probably just be reassigned to one fish, two fish or The Simpsons Ride.

 

[GadgetGuru]

I’m way behind, but is Animal Actors still running?

If not, this means Universal has stopped of all their outdoor stadium shows. None of those shows have been a draw for years though.

 

[tielo]

When you visit the parks I think most people won't notice the difference when these attractions are closed. Also I think most guests are pass holders and it are not the top tier rides at Universal.
I remember is the past in January when it was almost dead in the parks, Universal Studios would open in fases. You had to walk clock wise so hit the rides.
Anyway, smart decision and I expect most of these rides to go back online when things turn back to normal. Positive note we in the Netherlands expect a vaccine at the end of this year or in the first quarter of next year. Universal has had worst so I'm sure they will survive.

 

[Mad Dog]

I like K&K, but when we do our twice a year, each 10-14 days, vacations to Universal, there's rarely more than a handful of people on the ride and usually no line. We go during the slow/medium crowd seasons. So, I'd guess K&K only gets crowds during the busy seasons/days of the year, which will definitely not be the case for a good while.

 

[shiekra38]

Poseidon Fury's practical effects - all of that pyro and pumping water - cannot be cheap to run, for a paltry number of guests each day. I empathize with the Taylor performers, but this closure makes sense. It's not an attraction that can function well under these conditions.

Barney I also get. Stuck in a forlorn corner, reliant on live performers, not especially popular amongst locals. Glad it made it to its 25th anniversary.

Fear Factor was closed anyway. No big loss there. Hope it stays gone.

Fast & Furious staying closed would be legitimately hilarious under different circumstances... but it's a poorly received attraction that requires a lot of staffing.

I feel like they could at least keep Kang and Kodos open just for the kinetic energy it brings to the west side of the park, but I can't fault them for mothballing Storm.

In the past Universal has move performers to other locations...I wonder if this is true for PF

Also, as I know it, the F&F crew are simply normal TM's that have to do an extra speil...

So moving them to another spot would be relatively simple I assume

 

[Nick]

I know most here don't like all the things that are closing, but they do all have one very important thing in common - the entire family can do the attraction. Those 5 attractions closing means 5 less attractions for the whole family, and especially younger kids, which has been a noticeable problem that USF and IOA have had for years already before this. Now with most of the attendance being APs, it doesn't hurt as much for now, but eventually international and Domestic tourism will rebound.

They should really get going on SNW at KZ if that's what they plan on doing so that they will have it ready for when tourism is bouncing back.

 

[GadgetGuru]

I know most here don't like all the things that are closing, but they do all have one very important thing in common - the entire family can do the attraction. Those 5 attractions closing means 5 less attractions for the whole family - and especially younger kids, which has been a noticeable problem that USF and IOA have had for years already before this. Now with most of the attendance being APs, it doesn't hurt as much for now, but eventually international tourism will rebound.

They should really get going on SNW at KZ if that's what they plan on doing so that they will have it ready for when tourism is bouncing back.

Those are really great points! USF is particularly struggling for younger children right now. Seuss Landing is at least fully standing at IoA.

 

[King_K.]

Poseidon Fury's practical effects - all of that pyro and pumping water - cannot be cheap to run, for a paltry number of guests each day. I empathize with the Taylor performers, but this closure makes sense. It's not an attraction that can function well under these conditions.

Poseidon will be back. It might be a while, but whenever social distancing laxes, it'll return.

It's surprisingly not an expensive attraction to run (not much gas use + massive reliance on lighting and water effects), even the ops team is small compared to many other attractions.

 

[Clive]

Poseidon will be back. It might be a while, but whenever social distancing laxes, it'll return.

It's surprisingly not an expensive attraction to run (not much gas use + massive reliance on lighting and water effects), even the ops team is small compared to many other attractions.

Good to know. I guess I'm still sensitive to the "we're going to turn off the water tunnel to save a few bucks" mode of thinking.

Either way, though, the attraction just did not make much sense to run until distancing can lax, as you said.