The Attic: Long Live Kongfrontation!

Like many others, I was saddened to find out back in 2002 that Kongfrontation would no longer run its skyway trams. Although the ride was replaced with a pretty awesome attraction — Revenge of The Mummy — in 2004, Kongfrontation still holds a special part in the hearts of fans that will never be replaced.

When I was younger, the first thing out of my mouth upon arriving at Universal Studios would be “Mommy, Daddy I wanna go see King Kong!” And of course back then, Universal Express was long to be thought of! So, if we were lucky enough and happened to get to the ride when it was in operation — it was down quite often — we would wait in the grueling lines just to get a ride on an aerial tram and get a glimpse of Mr. Kong.

For me, one distinct memory from Kongfrontation was loving the smell throughout the queue — I’m weird, so what!? I’m sure Kong fans alike would know what I’m talking about It could be described as the smell of  fog, mechanics and artificial train station. For example the ET ride has had a distinct smell in the forest queue as well that I just can’t wait to engulf my nostrils when I get back to Disney!

Unfortunately, Universal never gave a concrete reason for its decision to close Kong, but one can assume that it had to do with high maintenance costs. That poor ride was down several times throughout the day, as I recall.

That said, Kongfrontation — along with Back to the Future — was one of my favorite rides at Universal Studios as a youngin that cease to exist now.

King Kong, I sure will miss your banana breath… literally! You’ll live on in my theme park lovin’ heart forever!

Here’s an on-ride video of Kongfrontation on the last day before Kong tried to destroy his last tram forever. Enjoy!