Jaws closing for good on Jan 2

[RMulieri]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=05ougZR6I_E
This is what it looked like as of 1/3/12

 

[Billabongi]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=05ougZR6I_E
This is what it looked like as of 1/3/12

Such a bummer, I was hoping they'd at least leave the games open for a little while longer.

 

[GreyStr0ke]

My friend is there now and she sent me these pics. They've put up movie posters on the walls now including a Jaws poster.

 

[damo]

Such a bummer, I was hoping they'd at least leave the games open for a little while longer.

I've heard that the games are moving over to the Simspons.

 

[cheerbaybee]

This is so sad. Jaws was such a great ride. I went on Jan 2nd and the whole park was so busy. My last jaws ride was made very special. My last ride I had skipper Ray. He was so into the whole show. At the end, he made a the usually joke about not telling anyone what happened... but instead of saying he doesnt think we should tell anyone.. he say" we are only open for a couple of hours, so lets keep this one a secret". At the end he started crying. We were he last boat tour of the day(ever). I have to say I would never forget that last tour.

 

[Quartermistress]

I've heard that the games are moving over to the Simspons.

Really? I always disliked those games - IMO, they shouldn't be seen outside of local amusement parks and county fairs. I wish they would be removed entirely from the park, but if they keep some people out of the ride lines, all the better for me

 

[Planogirl]

The construction walls include a poster of the Jaws movie? That just seems mean in a way.

 

[arbolita]

They've moved the walls to behind Bruce so the Jaws photo op is still available:

 

[SanFranciscan]

Really? I always disliked those games - IMO, they shouldn't be seen outside of local amusement parks and county fairs. I wish they would be removed entirely from the park, but if they keep some people out of the ride lines, all the better for me

Another worker (not really a co-worker because I work at Universal Studios but not as their employee) said that those games in the Jaws area did make money. Maybe they did at night, but I only worked over there during the daytime while the game workers were often begging people to come play. It is funny, but this summer I was talking to my husband about how I thought that the carnival area should be replaced with something more up-to-date and was planning to start a thread here to ask people what they would replace Amityvile Fourth of July with when I heard that Jaws was closing.

Attendance was much greater than anticipated on the last day of Jaws though. I was at the front gate before the park opened and thought that the marketing department had missed an opportunity. I think that I would have made the closing of Jaws a week-long event and promoted it with merchandise.

This bring me to my next question since I can't ask whether you think that it should be torn down and replaced with what. What would you have done to announce the closing of Jaws? I suspect that we will get some very interesting responses here because I have noticed that fans on these boards have some great imaginations!

 

[SprExcited]

I don't mean any disrespect at all, nor do I want to come off as a downer at all, but I can really see why this attraction is closing. To say it is past its prime is an understatement. Perhaps more like 5 years in my opinion. We rode it largely because it was closing, just to see what it was like. All I can say is that I am glad we walked on and did not have to wait.

Once again I don't mean to offend, just giving my honest opinon.

 

[AlexandNessa]

Another worker (not really a co-worker because I work at Universal Studios but not as their employee) said that those games in the Jaws area did make money. Maybe they did at night, but I only worked over there during the daytime while the game workers were often begging people to come play. It is funny, but this summer I was talking to my husband about how I thought that the carnival area should be replaced with something more up-to-date and was planning to start a thread here to ask people what they would replace Amityvile Fourth of July with when I heard that Jaws was closing.

Attendance was much greater than anticipated on the last day of Jaws though. I was at the front gate before the park opened and thought that the marketing department had missed an opportunity. I think that I would have made the closing of Jaws a week-long event and promoted it with merchandise.

This bring me to my next question since I can't ask whether you think that it should be torn down and replaced with what. What would you have done to announce the closing of Jaws? I suspect that we will get some very interesting responses here because I have noticed that fans on these boards have some great imaginations!

I agree, they should have done more to promote ride closing. The hotel staff (HRH) told us the last day was 1/1. We thought we missed it. when we went on 1/2 and waited to get into the park, there were no signs or anything. A TM in a quiet part of the park pulled us side to made sure we rode one last time. Otherwise it wasn't obvious.

The games around Jaws? Never saw anyone play either. But over the holiday, we were cracking up at one of the workers who had given up begging people to come play his game, and just started using his mike to sing along with the Christmas music. It was a great little concert!!

 

[DanBoris]

I agree, they should have done more to promote ride closing. The hotel staff (HRH) told us the last day was 1/1. We thought we missed it. when we went on 1/2 and waited to get into the park, there were no signs or anything. A TM in a quiet part of the park pulled us side to made sure we rode one last time. Otherwise it wasn't obvious.

The games around Jaws? Never saw anyone play either. But over the holiday, we were cracking up at one of the workers who had given up begging people to come play his game, and just started using his mike to sing along with the Christmas music. It was a great little concert!!

I think the reason that Universal and especially Disney do not promote ride closings more is that it would be percieved as promoting a negative. Do you really want to be promoting your parks by saying that you are closing a ride? This is especially true in the case of Jaws where they have made no announcement of what is going to be replacing it, so you can't even play you marketing to that angle.

 

[SanFranciscan]

I think the reason that Universal and especially Disney do not promote ride closings more is that it would be percieved as promoting a negative. Do you really want to be promoting your parks by saying that you are closing a ride? This is especially true in the case of Jaws where they have made no announcement of what is going to be replacing it, so you can't even play you marketing to that angle.

I know that Universal would never listen to me because I am nobody to them, even though our pictures taken at the front gate make them $6 million per year,which is their half of the money made from the sale of those pictures. However, I do believe that the closing of Jaws could have been a major money-maker.

The first thing that I would have done is to show the original Jaws movie at the theaters in City Walk. I realize that special effects have gotten much more advanced since that movie was made, but that in itself could give it cult-movie status. Besides, Jaws on an 18-foot screen would be impressive due to the sheer size of the picture during the scenes that originally scared the mess out of audiences.

Another thing that I would have done is to sell raffle tickets for the last ride ever on Jaws. The price would not have been expensive enough to bring complaints from people who had already paid for express passes earlier in the day, and this "last ride" would have been held at closing time on January 2nd so as not to conflict with the express passes anyway.

I can think of a number of merchandise tie-ins as well. Is the author of the book Jaws still alive? I would have considered a book-signing, though I don't think that that would have been as successful as visual merchandise.

The last thing that I would have done in order to encourage the sale of Jaws related merchandise is to play the theme from Jaws at the entrance of Universal Studios. It is such a powerful song that it was used at the Giants games while Barry Bonds was going for the record while I was working as a photographer at the Giants games. People were getting so excited when that tune started signaling that Barry was coming up to bat that those waiting in lines to order food would run off, sometimes without their change for the food that they had ordered and often without the food that they had wanted a minute before. Imagine the affect that that same music would have upon Jaws fans waiting to buy Jaws-themed merchandise.

Oh, well. That sure was a lot of money left on the table if you ask me.

 

[Emma1987]

Not sure if this has been posted. Sorry if it has.

http://www.insidethemagic.net/2012/...studios-orlando-closes-its-iconic-attraction/

The Jaws ride had its share of technical difficulties during its first two years of operation, essentially closing for two years after its debut due to severe challenges with the shark animatronics and show scenes - not unlike the technical issues that plagued the actual production of “Jaws” in the ’70s, when “Bruce” the shark often failed to work properly. But ultimately the ride reopened in 1992, producing 20 years of daily entertainment and memories for the millions of guests who hopped aboard Captain Jake’s Amity Boat Tours.

And throughout those two decades, countless Jaws skippers recited the same spiel, over and over, day after day, but each putting their own unique spin on the character.

Now Universal Orlando turns their attention to the future of the park, moving past Jaws and toward a rumored Wizarding World of Harry Potter expansion that may even include a fully-functional Hogwarts Express train. But for fans of the Jaws ride, not even Harry Potter’s magic can ever fully replace the thrills of “calling off the marines” after besting that famous shark time after time.

 

[Metro West]

Yes...this has been posted.

I will merge this thread into the existing thread.

 

[Cogswel_Cogs]

What is replacing it?

 

[DLB-GOUROCK]

I found this at this link ... themeparkinsider dot com/flume/201112/2824/

There are some photos there too.

This is a cut and paste.

David ......

Written by Robert Niles

Published: December 31, 2011 at 4:03 PM

For our final post of 2011, I leave you with a little holiday present: The plans for the new Harry Potter land in Universal Studios Florida.

A source was kind enough to allow me a look at the plans - and they do appear spectacular. Before I get into the details, though, let me clarify a few points.

First, these are labeled "Concept," and dated last month (November 2011). There's no sign that these plans have been revised, or approved by engineers, so I am assuming that they are initial concept plans. Even though they are quite detailed, they are far from final, and anyone who's been involved in attraction development can tell you that much can change in the development process.

Second, I've seen only detailed plans for the main attraction in the new land, which appears to be set in Gringotts Bank. I've seen rough detail of the rest of the new land, though, and picked out a few details here and there.

Third, every page is stamped "Confidential," so I'm not supposed to be looking at them or telling you about them, and I'm certainly not going to tell you where I got access to them, so don't even bother asking.

So let's get to it, shall we?

The plans occupy the space between the Fear Factor Live theater and the Disaster! show building on the northwest corner of the Universal Studios Florida property - basically all the land now occupied by the Jaws attraction and surrounding Amity carnival games and shops. The northernmost section of the plot - almost half the land within it - is planned for a massive show building, which will house the Gringotts ride.

On the southeastern portion of the plot, a second attraction is designated. I can't tell from the plans what this attraction will be, but its position is consistent with the rumor of a Hogwarts Express ride connecting the two Harry Potter land, as this attraction points into the back-of-house access road that runs straight into the rear of Sindbad theater where the Wizarding World of Harry Potter is expanding into in Islands of Adventure.

For pedestrians in Universal Studios Florida, there appears to be a single point of entry into the new Harry Potter land, one that requires walking around a center obstacle inside what appears to be an enclosed space. This would fit with being a "secret entrance" to Diagon Alley, from the Harry Potter books and films. There also is what appears to be labeled an 8,900-square-foot restaurant building located immediately to the left of the entrance to the land. Could this be the Leaky Cauldron?

From the entry, there is a street that proceeds straight back to the rounded entrance facade of the Gringotts building.

The Gringotts Bank exterior, from the Harry Potter films.

Diagon Alley, looking down toward Gringotts, from Pottermore.

Besides the restaurant to the left, I can't tell from the plans I saw what will occupy the other spaces in the buildings along the sides of this main street, which I presume to be Diagon Alley. There is a small, 500-square-foot "walk-through attraction" listed on a spur street to the left of the Gringotts entry, a spur that leads to the entrance to the second attraction. (Another Ollivander's? Your guess is as good as mine.)

Now let's get to that Gringotts ride.

It looks like we can expect another elaborately themed walk-through queue tour, along the lines of what we got with Hogwarts Castle in the original Wizarding World of Harry Potter. From the "Entry Hall," the queue appears to leave the building into shaded, then covered, areas before re-entering into the large "Bankers Hall." The next room in the queue is "Vault Display," then the "Reading Room." From there it's into what's labelled "Office Hallway" before we reach "Bill Weasley's Office." The next feature is labelled "Elevators," which take us up a level in order to cross over the ride tracks to access the center load island.

There are two load channels for the ride, with loading on the center island, and unloading off to the outsides. The ride vehicles are twin, 12-person, open-air cars, arranged in three rows of four. Each row is placed slightly higher than the row in front of it, in a "stadium seating" effect. The look of the cars is very Victorian, with individual lap bars and six Dolby speakers per seat for on-ride audio.

After the load platform, the two load channels merge to the south, then bearing to the left and entering Scene 1: "Turntable." In this scene, you'll face a brick wall, with two tunnel entrances, to the left and right. But before you proceed, the track below the first of the twin cars will drop from underneath that car. The track will come to rest at a 40-degree angle. Then, the track under the trailing car will begin to rise, matching the 40-degree angle of the leading car.

At that point, the two cars will drop in tandem into a third tunnel, below the tunnel on the right. Basically, we've just ridden a teeter-totter-like vertical track switch, attaching to the roller coaster track for our initial drop.

From there, we drop into Scene 2: "Dark Tunnel," a kinetic ride section with a small bunny hop and a hard right turn before we hit a block brake in preparation for Scene 3: "Ledge."

The Gringotts ride won't be a traditional roller coaster. It appears to be a hybrid roller coaster and motion-base ride, a la Spider-Man and Transformers. There are 3D projection screens throughout the ride, embedded in the rockwork of the tunnel walls, creating an illusion of open space, within which we'll watch battles taking place.

The first is in the Ledge scene, where some concept art shows a battle with wizards and giant-like creatures. The plans detail a shaker table under the track, and there's a waterfall effect at the end of the scene, including a fogscreen and water spritzers.

There's a slight free drop and turn to the left as we proceed through the waterfall, leading us into Scene 4: "Thief's Downfall." There are wind and heat effects in this scene, along with our first look at a dragon. Meanwhile, the ride's making a chicane-type turn to the left, then the right.

That leads us immediately into Scene 5: "Sirius Black's Vault." We hit a fog blast before entering the vault, where we see illuminated treasure ahead. The car makes a turn to the right, where the physical show scenery opens up a bit, with a large vault area with a flat 3D projection screen along the far wall. We then bear to the left, turning into Scene 6: "Ruins."

We're curving to the right through the rubble of what looks like a collapsed tunnel in this scene, which leads us into Scene 7: "Chasm." We're inside a large projection cone for this scene, which appears to involve Harry, Ron, Hermoine and… could it be? Voldemort? (The concept art I saw wasn't clear - it almost never is.) I do see a heat curtain and cold-air blast noted in this scene, though. (Shades of Revenge of the Mummy?)

From there, we launch into another dark tunnel (Scene 8), which banks up and around to the left, taking us into Scene 9: "Passage," our finale, where Harry and company bid us farewell before we return to the load/unload platform.

And yes, we do exit through a retail shop.

That's all I've got from these initial concept plans. They lack any information about the narrative of the ride or the imagery we'll see on those projection scenes. But the plans do detail a unique hybrid ride system that takes us through scenes that set up a potentially ambitious narrative.

 

[mesaboy2]

What is replacing it?

Not announced, but most bets appear to be on WWoHP 2. I can't bring myself to believe that just yet.

 

[DLB-GOUROCK]

Not announced, but most bets appear to be on WWoHP 2. I can't bring myself to believe that just yet.

See my post above yours. The reality is getting closer !

David

 

[damo]

See my post above yours. The reality is getting closer !

David

We've got a thread discussing those plans. Kinda strange that if it is a real leak, no one has asked the writer to remove the info.