Kongfrontation we will miss you

Kongfrontation was a ride at the Universal Studios Florida theme park, in Orlando, Florida, the main attraction in the park's New York section. It opened as one of the original attractions at the park in 1990 and was closed in 2002. Revenge of the Mummy opened in its place in 2004. It was based on a scene from the long running Studio Tour at Universal Studios Hollywood. A King Kong themed roller coaster will open at Universal Studios Dubailand in 2010.
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Ride

Queue

Guests entered a recreation of Pennsylvania Station in Manhattan, New York City. The queue line was themed to a New York City Subway station and city block on the Lower East Side of Manhattan, intricately detailed right down to the graffiti covering the walls and the stocked storefronts. Television monitors overhead covered a special news report: "Kong On The Loose". The giant ape King Kong had escaped and was wreaking havoc on the streets of New York City. Kong had destroyed two elevated trains and was rapidly approaching the East River with authorities seemingly powerless to stop him. Guests then walked up a ramp to the Manhattan station of the Roosevelt Island Tramway.

[edit] Ride

The ride consisted of a cable car ride under the pretense of an evacuation of the city during Kong's attack. Traveling through elaborate street sets, the tram had repeated encounters with Kong, first at the Queensboro Bridge, where debris and overturned squad cars were seen, and once more as the beast cut the tram off upon arrival at Roosevelt Island. Choppers fired on Kong as he lifted the tram up and subsequently dropped it. Narrowly escaping the enraged beast, the tram's passengers would then see themselves on a breaking news report as they arrived safely at Roosevelt Island station. Kong was never defeated. The ride was based on the 1976 remake of King Kong.

[edit] Photograph

Guests exited the attraction into a King Kong themed gift shop called Safari Outfitters Ltd. There was a Kodak photo opportunity where guests could pose with King Kong appearing to grip them in front of a New York City bridge backdrop.

[edit] Construction and design

Two King Kong animatronic figures were built for this ride and were scaled to be 39 feet (12 m) tall with an arm span of 54 feet (16 m). The one used for the "street sequence" weighed approximately 13,000 pounds, while a lighter figure, that weighed approximately 8,000 pounds, was used for the "bridge sequence" of the ride.

The Kongs were built to be both analog and digital, giving them the ability to perform sixty two separate functions. A smeltzer device was constructed to give the Kong figures "Banana Breath," which was emitted during roars at the riders.

The show building was built to be 35,000 square feet (3,300 m2) wide, and the slabs used to build the exterior walls are the largest of its kind ever used for construction. To make the city setting appear as realistic as possible, fifty facades were modeled after Manhattan's Lower East Side circa 1976. News reports from the TV station WWOR-TV were integrated into the ride because MCA/Universal owned the station at the time the ride was built. The helicopters that were used in the ride were molded from actual helicopters and were true to size, which is why they looked as realistic as they did.

[edit] History

Originally a scene for the Universal Studios Hollywood Studio Tram Tour, Kongfrontation has been credited as being the catalyst for the Universal Studios Florida project (which has since evolved into the Universal Orlando Resort).[1] Universal originally envisioned the attraction as the crown jewel of the Florida park. While the attraction drew substantial crowds, it had an unreliable track record due to the complex special effects involved.[2] Universal engineers attempted several times to improve reliability, which ultimately required removing functionality of Kong by limiting his movements and some of the background effects.

Kongfrontation was a signature piece of Universal Studios Florida, more than any of the attractions that remain there today, and the idea to close such an attraction struck many visitors as being 'unreal'. Despite many protests and complaints from fans, Kongfrontation officially closed on September 8th 2002. There has never been a solid reason given by Universal for closure, although it is speculated that maintenance issues and the costs of repairs are the main reasons. The attraction joined a list of original and popular Universal Studios Florida attractions that have since been retired and replaced, including Ghostbusters Spooktacular, The Funtastic World of Hanna-Barbera, Back to the Future: The Ride and Earthquake: The Big One.

[edit] Other uses

During Halloween Horror Nights II at the park, the attraction was turned into a "horrified attraction" titled Tramway of Doom where it was themed that Darkman was on the loose in New York, and after riding Kongfrontation, guests had to exit the tram and walk on the ground of the ride, where a haunted maze awaited. Guests were also permitted to walk on the ground during Halloween Horror Nights XI, in a show titled The Oozone Fright Club, where guests entered an employees only area of the queue line for the show, and then had to exit to the ground where another haunted maze awaited.

[edit] Universal Studios Hollywood version
Main article: King Kong Encounter

The Kongfrontation attraction at Universal Studios Florida had originated from the King Kong Encounter at Universal Studios Hollywood. The scene, formerly part of the Studio Tour in the Upper Lot area of the theme park, was destroyed by a massive fire in 2008, and will be replaced by a future King Kong attraction.

The attraction featured a brief encounter with an animatronic King Kong, who would shake the tram and attempt to destroy a chopper which was supposed to rescue tour guests. A TV monitor in a New York building facade displayed fake breaking news updates. Eventually, Kong is defeated and the tour guests survive.

[edit] Employee mythology

Many employees who have worked on Kongfrontation reported that the ride was haunted by the spirit of a maintenance worker named Whitaker who supposedly fell to his death near the part of the ride where the video was filmed. While these rumors are unsubstantiated, several ride operators have claimed to have refused to take empty trams through the ride, as the "ghost" would appear on the video when no guests were on the ride. During construction on Revenge of the Mummy, an electrical fire was mysteriously ignited delaying the opening of the ride. Some have speculated that this is related to the ghost. Subsequently; Several Revenge of the Mummy Ride and Show attendants working at the ride between its opening in 2004 and 2006 claim to have seen the ghost riding in their ride vehicles near the ride's unload station and in various locations of the queue. They also attributed a random recurrence of Kong's banana smell to the same ghost.