Best opening day Universal attraction poll

What is the best attraction Universal had when it opened in your opinion?

  • Kongfrontation

    Votes: 11 36.7%
  • Earthquake

    Votes: 1 3.3%
  • JAWS

    Votes: 4 13.3%
  • Hanna-Barbera

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • Back to the Future (opened a year later)

    Votes: 4 13.3%
  • Ghostbusters

    Votes: 1 3.3%
  • Nickelodeon Studios

    Votes: 2 6.7%
  • Alfred Hitchcock

    Votes: 1 3.3%
  • Horror Makeup Show

    Votes: 1 3.3%
  • ET Adventure

    Votes: 5 16.7%

  • Total voters
    30

The Grand Inquisitor

Well-Known Member
Original Poster


What is the best attraction Universal had when it opened in your opinion?

This one is truly hard because I have only been on ET and seen Horror Makeup. I went on Jaws once when I was 10. I really don't remember much from the ride. I also kinda experienced Earthquake but it was as Disaster. I wish I could've have experienced Kong, Back to the future and Hanna Barbera.
 

George Lucas on a Bench

Well-Known Member
I went on all of them, including the original more suspenseful version of Jaws with the shark pulling the boat and the bloody explosion in the water.

E.T. was also different than the present day version. Most people probably know about the Spielberg introduction being updated periodically, but originally the music was different on E.T.'s planet and the part where you fly through the space tunnel before getting there was a bit more prolonged with some weird woodwind music.

Ghostbusters, Earthquake, Alfred Hitchcock, Makeup Show and the others were all fantastic. The Makeup show needs a serious update at this point. That werewolf suit has become old hat. The old version had the teleportation sequence from The Fly, which is cooler than anything in the show since.

My favorite one was King Kong. Sure, it broke down like the other rides, but even when it didn't work, it was awesome. The waiting line was ridiculous with all the graffiti and buildings. It felt like you were in the real world that happened to be under siege by King Kong. The ride itself was super cool. Kong really intimidated everyone, especially when you got right up alongside him and he knocked the car.
 

Homemade Imagineering

Well-Known Member
I went on all of them, including the original more suspenseful version of Jaws with the shark pulling the boat and the bloody explosion in the water.

E.T. was also different than the present day version. Most people probably know about the Spielberg introduction being updated periodically, but originally the music was different on E.T.'s planet and the part where you fly through the space tunnel before getting there was a bit more prolonged with some weird woodwind music.

Ghostbusters, Earthquake, Alfred Hitchcock, Makeup Show and the others were all fantastic. The Makeup show needs a serious update at this point. That werewolf suit has become old hat. The old version had the teleportation sequence from The Fly, which is cooler than anything in the show since.

My favorite one was King Kong. Sure, it broke down like the other rides, but even when it didn't work, it was awesome. The waiting line was ridiculous with all the graffiti and buildings. It felt like you were in the real world that happened to be under siege by King Kong. The ride itself was super cool. Kong really intimidated everyone, especially when you got right up alongside him and he knocked the car.
I honestly really like the original E.T. Adventure soundtrack. It had a certain charm to it imo. If they brought it back I would be very happy!

0:58 was the best part about the original soundtrack imo.
 

Disneyhead'71

Well-Known Member
BTW ET was running well but no water last week. Looked to me that all the effects were working.

This poll is hard because you really can't compare things against each other in different time periods.

Back in the 70's I went to Disney as a kid and it was amazing. Realize we didn't have the internet or TV with hundreds of channels. My TV had 4 channels. Also just going to FL was an adventure, blazing hot in March was an experience, for that matter I had never been on an Interstate highway at that point so that was interesting for a little while as well. For the young people the interstate was invented after WW2, it was a new thing. Also I'm sure many think about WW2 vets as 90 years old, when I was a kid there were guys who were 40 who had fought in WW2.

On that note, Back to the Future impressed me for the ride not because I was a fan of BTF. Now a days it's not that impressive but for the time it was. Jaws was kind of cheesy if ask me and I saw the original. When Universal opened I took my girl friend and headed down to Orlando going to MK, Universal and Busch Gardens. I don't think tickets were near as expensive as they are now?
Haha, back in the '70s my tv probably had the same 4 channels. We had ABC, NBC, CBS, and PBS. My family went to WDW Dec. '71 for my 8th birthday. We stayed at the Poly. For a kid from a mountain top in West Virginia, everything about it was jaw dropping. Fast forward 19 years and I am taking my fiance to WDW (tent camping at Fort Wilderness) and the brand new Universal Studios Florida. Jaws, Earthquake, and E.T. were really cool and impressive in their scale. I also really But I thought Kong was the stand out attraction. I was pretty impressed with the park as a whole. And liked it more than Disney-MGM, which we had been to the day before.
 

Queen of the WDW Scene

Well-Known Member
In the Parks
No
So many good options although what I'd probably consider my favorite opening day attraction has failed to make an appearance.
That would be Murder She Wrote Mystery Theater.
So many classic lines from that attraction like No, absolutely not! and The black pearl (fainting sound) lol.

Other than that I'd say its a tie between Kongfrontation, Earthquake, JAWS, and Nickelodeon Studios... that narrows it down right? lol.
 

The_Jobu

Well-Known Member
I have this park map as my desktop

ustudios.jpg


I have no idea the year but it has BTTF as open and Amity as "coming soon", how does that work?
 

lebeau

Well-Known Member
I have this park map as my desktop

View attachment 482653

I have no idea the year but it has BTTF as open and Amity as "coming soon", how does that work?

Universal had a notoriously rocky start. The big attractions had major problems. Jaws had to be closed down and reworked. Back to the future opened in May of 1991. Jaws was closed from August 1990-Spring 1993. So, 1992ish?
 

lebeau

Well-Known Member
Wow, that deserves a youtube video, hadn't heard that before but it's super interesting.

There are several out there. That's where I learned about it. Here's one to get you started:



Universal's theme park history is shorter than Disney's, but it's every bit as interesting. They often overlap. For example, before he became the CEO of Disney, Michael Eisner sat in on a proposal for what would become Universal Orlando. The plans for Disney-MGM Studios are suspiciously similar to the presentation he was shown. Or how Lost Continent was largely recycled from ideas for the never-built Beastly Kingdom at Animal Kingdom.
 
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