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Since Dueling Dragons was an opening day attraction, its story
is very closely connected with the park itself. So, in order to tell that story
let's take a trip back to the early 90's or, in other words, back when Universal
was in the earliest planning stages for Islands of Adventure, their newest park.
Since the beginning, they had a pretty good idea of what kind of attractions
they wanted the park to host. One of the first ideas they came up with was a set
of two different rollercoasters that would both be part of the same overall
attraction and in that attraction, the two different coasters would essentially
race with one another. Now, that idea of a racing coaster wasn't exactly new at
the time. The earliest examples of a dual-tracked rollercoaster can be traced
all the way back to the mid-1930's when the Grand National first opened since
then that same concept had only been further improved upon and by the late
90's are already a few hundred more rides based off that same concept that were
scattered all around the world. But the main difference between those rides and
Universal's new concept, was that they wanted to give each track its own unique layout.
So now, instead of having the two tracks essentially being mirrors of one another
they would instead split up and meet back at different points all throughout
the ride. Unlike any other racing or dual track roller coaster that had come before it.
Mark Woodbury: "And then we had this idea for a coaster, unlike any coaster around and
the thought was to combine two state-of-the-art coasters and unlike
conventional wisdom would say you know, avoid all objects, we intentionally
set these two things out on a collision course to create near misses at really
incredible, incredibly high speeds." Now that was the basic idea that had been
floating around Universal Creative for a while during the parks development but
they never really went anywhere with the concept until very late into the
planning process for the park's "Lost Continent" section, and as a result of that
most of the attractions theming was very dependent and based off what its
surroundings already were. So, since the Lost Continent already hosted shows like
"The 8th Voyage of Sinbad" and "Poseidon's Fury" it would make sense that the roller
coaster in that same section would also have its theming based on a kind-of
mythical or a legendary story. And, that's where the idea for the 'Dragons' aspect of the ride came from.
"So, the idea behind that was driven out of a notion of
taking two dragons, you know, and having this sort of dogfight
or dragon fight in the air." Once they had a general idea of what the ride's
storyline would be it was time to start designing the ride itself that
task was ultimately given to Werner Stengel who designed a majority of both tracks.
Once he was finished with the bulk of the design, B&M took over and
put some of the finishing touches on the coaster's layout and began to manufacture it.
While they were doing that, the Universal Creative team further
developed the attractions backstory and how that would be presented throughout
the rides queue. After they have wrapped up on that, all of the various props and
theming elements were put together and shipped out from Hollywood to Florida
where they were installed in the queue.
All throughout the construction process for dueling dragons so right ended up getting a lot of attention
from most theme park fans and new sources.
Not too much was actually known about the set of
rollercoasters besides the fact that they'd be something completely new when
it came to dual-tracked coasters, a few of the bigger rumors indicated that it
would be the first of its kind to feature a full inversion on both tracks
but, none of that was really official until Universal unveiled a model of the park
in November of 1997.
Steve S: "I walked into the model room, the first day. And I saw "Dragons"...
And it was, at that point, just a paper track and some wood posts, but
I saw the a-frame supports for the lift
and I said 'oh my god they have racing inverted B&M's.'"
Out of all the attractions that could be seen from that model, Dueling Dragons got
the most attention, mainly because of its size and use of new technology. Over the
next couple of years certain elements of the attractions queue and backstory ended up
getting slightly tweaked or cut altogether
for example, the ride underwent a name change in 1998 from the original:
"Merlin's Dueling Dragons" to the more simplified "Dueling Dragons" along with
that, budgetary restrictions also caused this scene from the rides queue to be cut
as well. As seen in its concept art, guests were at some point supposed to
pass by the castle's treasure room and in that room, they'd see a projection of the
dragons fighting on one of its walls but, eventually that scene ended up getting cut
altogether a few years later. After everything else in the queue was
finalized and construction on the ride itself was finished, the attraction was
finally ready to be opened. Alongside the rest of Universal's in newest theme park.
News Anchor: "The grand opening for the new, Islands of Adventure theme park is now set for May
28th. And this week, visitors and media from all over the world are getting a sneak preview."
On May 28th of 1999 Universal's Islands of Adventure theme park officially opened.
Steven Spielberg: "We are proud to unveil, Universal Studios' Islands of Adventure."
Announcer: "From the far corners of the world, come fantastic journey's yet to be.
As Universal Studios' Islands of Adventure comes to life, before your eyes!"
Opening day for the park was huge, it only took a few hours for each of its
islands to fill up with guests and for the wait time to start racking up.
Dueling Dragons actually sported the second-longest wait time on the parks
opening day. Second only to "The Amazing Adventures of Spider-Man" even for a few
weeks after the parks grand opening, Dueling Dragon consistently had a long
wait time, even with both tracks running at maximum capacity. A real testament to
just how popular the attraction was. Most of its riders were not only enticed by
its unique theming and intense thrill element, but also by it's re-rideability.
Since both the fire & the ice track had their own different layouts, it
encouraged guests to try both and that, in turn, kept the right interesting as well
as offered some slight variation. For about eight years after the attraction first
debuted it managed to operate consistently with little to no issues
whatsoever, and actually going so far as to rank within "The Golden Tickets" top
50 best steel roller coasters, every year since its grand opening. But,
despite its increasing popularity and continued success even after nearly a
decade of operation, a new and upcoming addition to Islands of Adventure was about to
redefine the park and it's theming forever.
In May of 2007 Universal officially announced its newest expansion:
The Wizarding World of Harry Potter
A new area in Islands of Adventure based off the Harry Potter book series
more specifically, the new section would included various for recreations of
different locations from the movies. Along with that info, a few pieces of
concept art were also released and from that, we could tell the previous
attractions like "The Flying Unicorn" and "Dueling Dragons" were both still standing
but, nobody was sure whether or not they'd end up getting rethemed or
removed later on down the road. And with Universal really giving no official
statement on the future status of those rides, everyone was just left speculating.
Shortly after that in 2008, Universal announced that the set of roller coasters
would indeed be rethemed and renamed to go along with the new Harry Potter theme.
Switching from the original "Dueling Dragons" into the new "Dragon Challenge".
A few months later in 2009, the original entrance to the ride was closed off and
what used to be the rides exit, became its new entrance. After that, the original
queue was dismantled and all of the new theming elements for Dragon Challenge
were installed in its place but, we'll talk specifics on that a minute. The
actual ride itself managed to operate for a few months afterwards up until it
officially closed on February 27th of 2010. Over the next four months, Universal
further rethemed the attractions queue as well as repainted the coasters tracks
and train cars but, once they were finished with all that,
the somewhat-new Dragon Challenge was finally ready to be reopened.
on June 18th of 2010,
Dueling Dragons reopened as Dragon Challenge in the all-new
"Wizarding World of Harry Potter" the attraction, for the most part, very
closely resembled its previous incarnation with a few slight
differences here and there, the most noteworthy being the rides new queue. In
the original version of the ride the queue served a pretty big role in
telling the story behind the attraction. A few different effects like Merlin's
spell book and the stained glass window explained how these two dragons have
been fighting over the town of Merlinwood for years, only stopping to kill the
occasional knight who attempted to slay them. The only man left in town after all
this time is an old wizard by the name of Merlin, who warns us to turn back
unless we want to meet the same fate as the aforementioned Knights. As we
progress further into the queue, we begin to see the remains of the dragon's
victims, either burned or frozen depending on whether it was the fire or
ice dragon that killed them. Beyond that, and as we go deeper into the castle, we
enter the catacombs where we see thousands, and I do mean thousands of
human skeletons littered throughout the walls, all victims are the same dragons
that we're about to face. As far as a queue goes, Dueling Dragons did a really good
job creating a very sinister and creepy atmosphere for the attraction. I'd even
go so far as to say it's a better low-light queue than the mummy over at
Studios. When the ride was converted into Dragon Challenge, just about all of the
original queue elements were either changed or removed. For example, the ride's
entrance, one of the most iconic things about it, was changed completely.
Originally you were greeted by two giant dragons, frozen in what was essentially
an eternal battle and if that's not cool enough, if you stood in the right spot
you can actually see all the different points where the coasters would nearly
miss one another, all lined up perfectly with the two dragon statues. Compared to
that, the new entrance is a much more lackluster stone portal with the words
"Dragon Challenge" written on it. Beyond that, the forest, which previously served
as the extended queue still exists almost exactly as it did before. Just now with the
addition of a few new Triwizard flags and the Weasleys flying car from "Chamber
of Secrets" along with that the old castle facade still stands as well, just
now a lot more vegetation on it than before. As for what all was inside it the
first room, with the stained glass window, became a giant tent like the one seen in
"Goblet of Fire" along with that, Merlin's spell book also ended up
getting replaced with the Triwizard Enchanted cup, also seen in "The Goblet of
Fire". Other things like the dead Knights and
the skeletons in the catacombs were also taken out and replaced with more
simplistic scenes like the hallway of endless candles in place of the Knights
and just a bunch of cave-like rock walls
instead of the catacombs. Lastly the notorious "choose thy fate" sign was also
removed and replaced by a set of two different signs that show the names of
each dragon. But besides the changes made to its theming, the ride was still
pretty much exactly the same as it had been before the retheme. The coasters
were still dispatched at the same time, they still met in all the same spots and
each track still had its own special maneuvers, really nothing ride-wise was
actually changed. It wasn't until a year later in October of 2011 that Universal
stopped dispatching both coasters at the same time after a few incidents occurred
that involved people getting hit by objects from other riders. From that
point on, both cars were dispatched on a kind of back-and-forth basis. Eliminating
what was, arguably the most thrilling element of the ride. Another huge blow was
delt a year later when Universal instituted it's mandatory locker use
policy for the ride, that basically meant that any and all loose items had to be
put in a locker before getting on the ride. Once again, this was in an attempt to
kind of minimize the risk of items flying out of people's pockets and
hitting other riders, in reality all it really did was make even less people want
to ride it than before since now they'd not only have to wait in line for the
ride itself, but also for a locker on top of that. For the next six years the ride
managed to operate on a mostly consistent basis with no reported issues.
That was, until July of 2017, when Universal announced they'd be
closing Dragon Challenge permanently to make way for a brand new Harry Potter attraction.
News Anchor: "All happening today, go ahead, get out there, it's your last chance if you want to ride the "Dragon Challenge" rollercoaster at
Universals Islands of Adventure but if
you're looking for a thrill you don't have to worry there's a cool new
attraction taking its place at the Wizarding World of Harry Potter and of
course, there's all kind of stuff to do there today, anyway." About a month later
and, following a very sudden spike in rider attendance. Dragon Challenge closed
forever on September 4th of 2017. In the following days, the attractions signage
was removed and construction walls went up around its entrance, along with that
the park's maps were also changed to no longer include the coasters as they
began to deconstruct them. Details were, and still are, very scarce as to what
exactly will be taking over for the ride and we likely won't know anything else
for a few more years, seeing as how the new attraction isn't set to open until 2019.
Dueling Dragons was one of the most
impressive ride experiences that Universal has ever pulled off, everything
from its detailed theming into the queue to it's extremely fun track design, made it one
of the most memorable attractions that Islands of Adventure ever had to offer. The
2010 refurb did change up the ride theming and overall
experience quite a bit but it at least left the coasters intact, something
that most fans of the ride did appreciate. It is very unfortunate to see
that one of the best attractions in the park is now gone but, I do hope whatever
replaces it is actually on-par with the other Wizarding World attractions and
isn't just a clever retheme of an older ride like Dragon Challenge was.
Like I said, it'll still be a good bit before any of us will really know
anything about a new attraction for sure but, in the meantime, I think we can all
look back comfortably and say that Dueling Dragons was not only one of
Universals best rides but also one of the best dual-track roller coasters ever made.
Until next time, remember the old saying:
"You can lead a horse to water but you
can't take it to the prom."
bye-bye now. ( ͡ ͜ ʖ ͡ )
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