Skull Island: Reign of Kong - Reviews, Photos, and Videos

[Mad Dog]

Hi. Yesterday I rode Kong at around 2pm. The regular line was about 90 minutes and I saw it went around to the extended queue so my cousin and I decided to go in the single riders queue.


Single Riders Queue: Nothing special. You can catch a short glimpse of the witch's room on your way there. Basically where you may have to wait a long time is the main cave hall. It's just this long hall and it gets smaller as you get closer to the loading area.
Luckily, me and my cousin sat together. We were on the 11th row on the far left.

Ride: The side doors came down and the journey began. I got Kalana (if thats how you spell her name :blank The trucks really do move smoothly. Then a little bit more narration and you come to the front of the big temple door. Natives chanting "KONG KONG KONG KONG" really gave me some goosebumps and then the doors opened.

Everything worked great. The Kong skeleton, the bats, the first scene, and the 2nd scene. Then we got to the 360 scene. The motion base WORKED great. Everything did! Everyone was screaming and enjoying the ride.

Then we got to the piece de resistance. The big Kong AA. I was on the left so I really couldn't see it well but I could definitely hear it. Then we came back to the unload station and then that was that.

A big con for me is the seating angles as it can affect your ride.


All and all, I give it a 9/10 as your ride seat really does limit your ride.

Thanks for the excellent review. Glad everything worked well for you. :thumbsup:

 

[JungleSkip]

Rode twice on Sunday, and holy crap this is way better than even I was expecting.

The queue is awesome, though they desperately need some fans in the outdoor portions. I really love the radio broadcasts in the outside area. A very IJA/JC vibe to them in the best possible ways. The witch room is great, and a lot of people were chanting "Kong" right along with the natives. I wish there were more musion natives along the way, though, which would be my only complaint for the interior queue.

I was surprised how good the AA drivers were. I was expecting them to be pretty lame, but for what they do they're pretty convincing. I had Will on both rides, which was slightly disappointing but nothing I can do about that.

The outside portion was DOA on Sunday, so I didn't get to experience that.

But the interior. Wowza. Easily the best usage of screens since Spider-Man, and the use of Universal's infamous water effects have never, ever been better. I was laughing out loud at the splashes of bug guts and dinosaur slobber. This was my first experience with a 360 scene, and man is it cool. The Kong AA is the icing on the cake. He's spectacular.

Overall, I'd rank Kong in the top 3 at UOR behind Spider-Man, my number 1, and either before or after Gringotts. This is a special ride, and I'm so glad we got it.

 

[Mad Dog]

Rode twice on Sunday, and holy crap this is way better than even I was expecting.

The queue is awesome, though they desperately need some fans in the outdoor portions. I really love the radio broadcasts in the outside area. A very IJA/JC vibe to them in the best possible ways. The witch room is great, and a lot of people were chanting "Kong" right along with the natives. I wish there were more musion natives along the way, though, which would be my only complaint for the interior queue.

I was surprised how good the AA drivers were. I was expecting them to be pretty lame, but for what they do they're pretty convincing. I had Will on both rides, which was slightly disappointing but nothing I can do about that.

The outside portion was DOA on Sunday, so I didn't get to experience that.

But the interior. Wowza. Easily the best usage of screens since Spider-Man, and the use of Universal's infamous water effects have never, ever been better. I was laughing out loud at the splashes of bug guts and dinosaur slobber. This was my first experience with a 360 scene, and man is it cool. The Kong AA is the icing on the cake. He's spectacular.

Overall, I'd rank Kong in the top 3 at UOR behind Spider-Man, my number 1, and either before or after Gringotts. This is a special ride, and I'm so glad we got it.

Nice review. Must be excellent since you rank it as good as Gringotts, which you have high regard for. The fact that you ranked it that high, without experiencing the outside grand entrance through the gates is telling. Imagine how good it is with that included. :thumbsup:

 

[Macfr3ak]

This ride... where do i begin.. MAYBE, at AMAZING. the undisputed BEST attraction on property.. yes i said it. Not to take anything away from other attractions (FJ, Gringotts, Spidey) but this thing is NEXT level tech. The immersion you are placed IN the scenes. You guys can go on ALL you want about the screenz use... but man if they use screens in this fashion to my opinion they can use as much of it as they want. My party and I waited a total of 3 hours... yes, 3 hours. 2 hours of queue the next hour would be a total messed up test to our patience when we got ON the vehicle as the swinging door was coming down I heard a loud noise it was the swinging door running into door post by the ride operator. The attendants just kept trying to close the door therefor continuing to slam the swinging door on the post, we were told to get off and the extra long wait began. A few engineers, a vehicle swap and about an hour later we got back on and rode this ride.. My purpose to this detailed post is that even with all the negativity building up prior to our ride my entire party got off this ride with nothing but smiles and praise. Bravo UniCreative.. BRAVO!

 

[Mad Dog]

This ride... where do i begin.. MAYBE, at AMAZING. the undisputed BEST attraction on property.. yes i said it. Not to take anything away from other attractions (FJ, Gringotts, Spidey) but this thing is NEXT level tech. The immersion you are placed IN the scenes. You guys can go on ALL you want about the screenz use... but man if they use screens in this fashion to my opinion they can use as much of it as they want. My party and I waited a total of 3 hours... yes, 3 hours. 2 hours of queue the next hour would be a total messed up test to our patience when we got ON the vehicle as the swinging door was coming down I heard a loud noise it was the swinging door running into door post by the ride operator. The attendants just kept trying to close the door therefor continuing to slam the swinging door on the post, we were told to get off and the extra long wait began. A few engineers, a vehicle swap and about an hour later we got back on and rode this ride.. My purpose to this detailed post is that even with all the negativity building up prior to our ride my entire party got off this ride with nothing but smiles and praise. Bravo UniCreative.. BRAVO!

Wow, I love the enthusiasm of your review, especially after such a long wait. Bravo to you for your unbridled excitement. :thumbsup:

 

[Macfr3ak]

Wow, I love the enthusiasm of your review, especially after such a long wait. Bravo to you for your unbridled excitement. :thumbsup:

Thank you!

 

[Teebin]

I am shocked that even computers cannot park the vehicles correctly with doors slamming into things. The question remains, how did the open to begin with if they couldn't be closed? Heeesh.

 

[Thisguynamedlee]

Every time I look at the new skull island trailer I get a lil disappointed I mean I know the movie and the ride have nothing to do with eachother but dang they really could have did somthing even better , don't get me wrong it's not a bad ride but if you seen the trailer u would understand where I'm coming from

 

[Mike S]

My review from my thread on Magic:

Review time

Let me just say that the whole thing is great from stepping under the Kong head arch to meeting Kong himself. The radio broadcasts in the exterior queue are a great touch and remind me of Jungle Cruise but seem much clearer and easier to hear than JC. I love watching the trucks pass by and the driver AAs are surprisingly pretty convincing.

The interior queue is perfectly dark and foreboding. The room with the witch is a huge highlight with the AA being one of Uni's best human figures though still not close to Disney's best in that field. After that comes the scary natives though none came out at me. Only the people before and after me After that we get to the second queue AA which is the worm. Very creepy.

The outside path after boarding your truck is a great setup. Some lines from the driver and then we hear native chanting as the gates open and the flames roar. The bat AAs are a nice touch to this first room with the skeleton but are pretty basic. I like how all the torches go out to more chanting in here too. After this we have our first screen and meetup with Kate. The smaller bats that fly out here seem to fly right through the truck through some great 3D. The insect pit is no different with one worm getting a little too close for comfort. The water effects here are pretty disturbing, lol. The 360 scene is amazing if you have the right seat. My best experience was in row 6 towards the middle-right. There's so much going on around you it's impossible to see it all in one ride which is a great way to encourage repeat rides. I've been on twice and still feel like I haven't seen it all. Now the pièce de résistance: the audio animatronic King Kong.

He is nothing short of spectacular. I've never seen an AA with such realistic facial movement though I wouldn't expect anything less from Creature Technology Company. Almost makes me wish that they made the bats at the beginning too. I love that you get to spend plenty of time with him and it's not just some quick encounter. Best AA in Orlando by FAR and it makes me excited to see what Avatar has to show next year since there's supposed to be some pretty advanced Na'vi.

Overall I love the ride but it does have a few faults like Kate not really being important to the story. Setting the ride up more like how Jaws was could've helped here. Another one is that on my second ride I was on the far left and could easily see the top edge of the 360 screen. I have the same pet peeve when I'm on Soarin'.

If I had to rank it among my favorites I'd put it like this:

Forbidden Journey
Spider-Man
The Mummy
Kong
Transformers
Gringotts

All subject to change of course

 

[Mad Dog]

My review from my thread on Magic:

Nice detailed review. :thumbsup: I'm going to have to slum it over at Magic to see what the response was like.

 

[Macfr3ak]

My review from my thread on Magic:

Love the review! but man! that list of fevorites in rder is crazy! i was blown away by this attraction. Mummy comes over it?! :bolt:

 

[Mike S]

Love the review! but man! that list of fevorites in rder is crazy! i was blown away by this attraction. Mummy comes over it?! :bolt:

Like I said, it's subject to change. I've only ridden Kong twice so far and feel like I need more.

 

[Mad Dog]

Like I said, it's subject to change. I've only ridden Kong twice so far and feel like I need more.

I was like that with Gringotts. There was so much going on, so much to see, and the ride experience vastly different depending on where you were seated, that the first couple of times I rode it I rated the ride itself a 7 (not including the fabulous queue whereby I was rating the entire attraction a 8 or 9). By the fifth ride I was rating the ride a 10 and the entire attraction a 10. Right now my favorite repeat ride attractions are Gringotts & Spider Man. I'll ride each more than a dozen times each vacation. But I still consider Forbidden Journey the best ride/attraction. But due to it's intensity I'll only ride it 4 or 5 times a vacation.

 

[Teebin]

But I still consider Forbidden Journey the best ride/attraction.

I will never understand this... but since you are not alone in your thinking, I will just sigh... *s i g h*

 

[sjago13]

Besides the KUKA tech and whatever control system they use to virtually tethering 50 or so ride vehicles together and syncing that all to the effects, the rest shows the result of pinching pennies with regards to being able to see a lot of unthemed backend parts of the ride. I get more enjoyment at watching the ride vehicle next to me than watching whats going on most of the time. Still a great ride but I don't get this pedestal it is put up upon with it being the barometer for what a ride should be. It's a great barometer for value engineering but give creative a Comcast budget for a KUKA ride now and then watch your panties be blown away. I'll gladly debate FJ's merits over in its thread.

And to keep it back on topic. KONG 10/10 will ride again.

 

[Mad Dog]

I will never understand this... but since you are not alone in your thinking, I will just sigh... *s i g h*

Remember, my personal rating system combines queue, pre shows & ride. The Total Experience. Spider-Mans queue isn't in the same category as FJ, thus the attraction ranking behind FJ.... Maybe Kong will replace FJ on my personal pantheon. We'll find out in 60 plus days. Stay tuned. Same bat time. same bat channel.

 

[Blaw923]

Remember, my personal rating system combines queue, pre shows & ride. The Total Experience. Spider-Mans queue isn't in the same category as FJ, thus the attraction ranking behind FJ.... Maybe Kong will replace FJ on my personal pantheon. We'll find out in 60 plus days. Stay tuned. Same bat time. same bat channel.

I have to wait till November =(

 

[Macfr3ak]

I am shocked that even computers cannot park the vehicles correctly with doors slamming into things. The question remains, how did the open to begin with if they couldn't be closed? Heeesh.

To be honest.. i was observing the attendant as the vehicle was approaching i saw him touching something at the post where the buttons reside and saw the vehicle kept inching up i think it was the operators fault but you i believe would know more than me on this topic. is there a way for the operator to over ride and control these?

The engineers that showed up popped the back open where there appeared to be some computer system. it was a pretty neat experience

also last note.. Are we allowed to record video as these vehicles are being swapped into the garage? when recording the attendants kept trying to get in the way waving their hands at the camera.. found that a bit strange.

 

[Teebin]

think it was the operators fault but you i believe would know more than me on this topic. is there a way for the operator to over ride and control these?

I would think the TMs have control over the boarding gates and the dispatch and estop buttons and that is about it. I will have to ask.

The engineers that showed up popped the back open where there appeared to be some computer system. it was a pretty neat experience

Very cool!

when recording the attendants kept trying to get in the way waving their hands at the camera.. found that a bit strange.

I wonder if the were merely trying to "preserve the illusion"? Those areas are very sterile and airplane hangar in appearance.

 

[Macfr3ak]

I would think the TMs have control over the boarding gates and the dispatch and estop buttons and that is about it. I will have to ask.



Very cool!



I wonder if the were merely trying to "preserve the illusion"? Those areas are very sterile and airplane hangar in appearance.

In all a wait of 3 hours can make anyone restless but truly i was just in awe over how great the experience was even as seeing the ride get worked on while waiting to board the vehicle. People got incredibly obnoxious and rude with team members but i just whipped out my phone and marveled at this probably very rare moment i was spectating. I'm also surprised by how close those swinging doors get to the person waiting to board. If a child for any reason is to lean forward or stretch their arms out over the doors its not completely out of the possibility of getting smacked by the door!

Oh and nerd moment.. love how the doors are securely fastened by what seems to be electrical magnets!