Skull Island Reign of Kong

I used to take my son to the King Kong (Kongfrontation) attraction at Universal Studios Orlando when he was a little kid. We remember vividly the size and intensity of the King Kong animatronic and being suspended in a cable car over New York City. The attraction had us evading the roaring Kong, catching only glimpses of the monster, and hearing the thumping of his walking. Finally he captures the cable car in his huge arms, shaking it and it's screaming passengers. I don't know how many times we rode that attraction until it closed in 2002. It was one of our favorites though.

Jump ahead fourteen years and my grown son, his family and I are waiting for the opening of the new attraction, "Skull Island Reign of Kong. As luck would have it, Universal was doing random soft openings, and after a lengthy wait in the heat  a couple weeks ago we were able to ride the attraction before it's grand opening.

Skull Island Reign of Kong

I think Skull Island is one of the more fun queue lines of the attractions at Universal Orlando. There were a lot of details and of course skulls. They also have scare-actors that pop out although I didn't get to see them myself. I did hear the screams of the people in front of us and later behind us. I suspect the intensity would have been a bit much for My 6 year old Grandson anyways. He did pretty well.. until we reached the room with the flaming skulls and the Shaman. After that, he'd had enough of the queue line! He put on his brave face for the ride attraction itself though.

I took a few photos with my iPhone but it was pretty dark so the quality isn't so good.

Mountain facade in the background looks real. Gives it great depth.

Skull Island has lots of... 'er skulls

Queue line entry

The ride itself seemed a little short to us, but it was some of the best 3D I've seen. Patrons ride through Skull Kingdom in what appears to be the back of an old military truck. Tip, don't sit too close to the cab of the truck if you can help it. There are events occurring on the left and the right and it's hard to see both sides if you sit up next to the cab. The attraction ends with an up close and personal view of the King Kong animatronic. I was thinking it may have been the animatronic from the original attraction but either way, Disney has nothing on Universal when it comes to animatronics.

Creepy stuff in the queue line

Flaming skull room

Shaman animatronic