Harry Potter: Diagon Alley may still be a few months away but Universal Orlando is not resting on its laurels when it comes to future projects.
Rumors have been flying for over a year now that the infamous hairy beast KONG would be making an appearance soon at the Florida property, given the popularity of the attraction at Universal Hollywood. Now those rumors look to be true and are moving from drawing board to reality. I am very excited about this prospect since Kongfrontation was my first attraction job at Universal Studios back in the day!!
The opening of the new Harry Potter expansion means that Universal will be looking to increase crowd flow to Islands of Adventure in the near future so IOA is about to get what is rumored to be two new attractions: Skull Island (home of Kong), and a possible new flight coaster themed to the aviary area as seen in the Jurassic Park movie.
Skull Island is the first project on the board and should be rising from the storage area located behind Thunder Falls Terrace in Jurassic Park. Look for an amazing Potterish expansion that will be an indoor/outdoor attraction with a highly detailed queue taking you through an ancient temple to the loading area where you will start your journey to meet the worlds most famous ape.
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| Skull Island and Kong as seen in King Kong |
The flight coaster, to be located in the old Triceratops Encounter area, will be heavily themed and is rumored to contain some amazing animatronic effects that will simulate an aerial battle with Pterodactyls. Rumors at this stage point to a large aviary structure that may be a hybrid indoor/outdoor attraction. I should note that I am also hearing just as many rumors about a Jurrasic Park Jeep ride (which was one of the original projects for the park but was scrapped) but i just do not think that the size of the area would allow for a project of such magnitude.
Here is a view of the two new project areas:
Neither one of these announcements have been made official, and probably will not be until Diagon Alley opens, but here is what we have heard so far:
- Two weeks ago an internal memo was sent out at Universal Orlando requiring all items located in the storage lot behind Thunder Falls Terrace to be removed immediately so the area could be prepared for future use.
- Trees in both areas have been marked for removal to allow for future construction. Orlando Theme Park News has some great photos of this.
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| White ribbons are trees to be saved |
- Creative Team members have been seen in the area numerous times in the past two months.
- Balloon Markers have been seen in the area marking the different areas of elevation.
Once again these are just rumors, well Skull Island is more than rumor at this stage, and nothing is cast in stone until the powers that be at Universal make the announcement. Feel free to send us comments and let us know what you think about these two new rumored projects.
Enjoy!!
#kingkong #universalorlando #ioa
