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Magic Meets Adventure is where Disney meets Universal! This is your one stop shop for all things Disney and Universal Theme Parks. As park enthusiasts, Tim and Ayren share their ideas, rankings, travel tips, history, and more to help create an everyday escape into the incredible worlds of magic and adventure!
History of Poseidon's Fury
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Tim: [00:00:00] So we're in the tower. We are ready for takeoff. Do I consider you a lot more than having got a cup of coffee? Please stand clear of the door. Looks like you've lost power. It's the wildest ride in the wilderness! To all who come to this happy place, God bless.
Ayren: Hello and welcome back to another episode of Magic Meets Adventure.
I'm Tim and I bring the magic. And I'm Aaron and I bring the adventure. And today we're gonna do something new, brand new to the show, something we've talked about for a while that I'm really excited about, we haven't gotten around to. One of the things that we want to cover here is the history of the universes that we like to talk about, whether that be Disney, whether that be Universal.
And so over the course of the podcast we're gonna cover different things. Sometimes we'll talk about the history of maybe resorts or certain movies or different attractions like we're going to today,
Tim: yes, we're going to be diving into the [00:01:00] history of a recent closure at Universal, which is Poseidon's Fury.
I am
Ayren: so sad that this attraction doesn't exist anymore.
Tim: I am glad I got the chance to do it before it closed, cause I am a little bummed, just as you are. But, this history, like I did a little bit of research and then last night I did a lot of research it's actually a really exciting start to the history Portion of this podcast that we're going to be talking about.
So i'm really excited This is a great episode to kick this off
Ayren: with yeah, i'm really looking forward to it. Bold choice I think for us to start with something that doesn't exist anymore, but the closure was fairly recent ride's been around for a long time. Yeah, I think this is saying something about Universal, you know, we talk a lot about how Disney kind of has the clinch on, , nostalgia, but now as we start to see Universal kind of step into their new era and we see , some rides starting to close and stuff like that.
This is one of those rides where it's like, man, this is, this is like the universal nostalgia. Of course we have, you know, old [00:02:00] classic attractions like Jaws, Back to the Future and stuff like that, but, , I think this is a nostalgia for a new generation.
Tim: With that being said we want to hear from you guys We want to hear you whether it's following us on instagram at magic meets adventure on tik tok Which is at magic meets adventure pod still as well as also our YouTube channel We're gonna be having a few things on there at magic meets adventure There as well.
We'll have some different kind of content, , including a upcoming Wilderness Lodge resort tour, which I am very excited about. , I can't wait to take you guys along with that. But without further ado, let's dive into this, man.
Ayren: You did a lot of the heavy lifting here. You've done a lot of the research and stuff, so why don't you go ahead and kick us away, and I'm sure I'll be, , flabbergasted at some point or
Tim: another.
Yeah, for sure. I want to take a quick moment just to shout out ThemeParkTourist, I just want to shout them out because a lot of my research came from their Extensive history of this attraction, like seriously, they did a fantastic job.
But this is a show that existed at Universal [00:03:00] Orlando's Islands of Adventure. Located at the Lost Continent, which , if you go past Seuss Landing, as if you're heading towards, Hogwarts and Hogsmeade. , this is the land just before, You reach the harry potter stuff and it's a pretty cool area I mean, it's changed a lot over the years though since the park opened
Ayren: Yeah, so for me my experience in this portion of the park, , the only attraction i've seen There in person is poseidon's fury.
I was there after dueling dragons shut down and all that sort of stuff , so Yeah, I mean for me that when I think about lost continent, this is the only aspect of that land that I really think about , but even now even with the attraction closed like just walking through it It's still like a really well themed land really well themed space.
I mean they still have restaurants and stuff like that there, but You know, it is what it is. Yeah,
Tim: it does have mythos over there and that's like one of the greatest
Ayren: mythos is so flipping good,
Tim: man Yeah, it's delicious yet to try it. So I don't know the goodness that exists from there But i've heard a lot of great things about it.
It's [00:04:00] delicious that being said though If you don't know what the lost continent is, essentially, it's a bunch of just kind of ruins of difference, Myths, a lot of it, I would say, leans more into the Greek mythology side with, of course, the show Poseidon's Fury taking place, naturally, in Poseidon's temple.
It has a lot of great mythology. Just great theming as you said But we're gonna journey back all the way back to even as early as 1992 okay, so as Universal was planning Islands of Adventure which at the time if I read correctly was initially gonna be called something along the lines of cartoon world
Ayren: Oh, well, they Lucked out
Tim: on that one.
They really did and the history of how they did that we're gonna talk about here as well It ties into this attraction. Okay, which is insane. And so one of the earliest things that they had designed was this Attraction this show called journey to Atlantis, which is the predecessor to Poseidon's [00:05:00] Fury did this attraction ever open or no?
No So this is like the working title for this for this ride And so the thought was to take guests journeying through, , different myths and legends, , in through that sort of land in the park. One of the things that would be interesting to see is that it would essentially be a show. It's been a show since the start of it.
It's not like, Oh, this was a dark ride or this. And yeah, no, from what I read, it is. Specifically meant to be a show. As, , they were continuing to think through, they kind of redeveloped it with the emergence of water screens, because of Fantasmic over at Disneyland, which opened in 1992.
Yeah, I could
Ayren: see if you're let's say if you're you know an engineer designing a Show themed around water and then you go down the street you say phantasmic and you see the water screens you're like Well, we got to do that now Yeah,
Tim: feels like it just makes sense And so with that [00:06:00] being such new technology for theme parks because again Phantasmic was brand new at that point and this hasn't been done before , they asked a French entertainment company, ECA2, uh to help them with some of the project, right?
To help them with creating cinema sized projections through water, right? This was early, early days of that. And so, with this new technology Universal would go from, hey, let's just throw a bunch of IPs together, let's throw our cartoons together, to a different sort of caption, which would be the world's most technologically advanced theme park.
Ayren: So the idea of IPs together and cartoons, that was originally going to be the whole of Islands of Adventure, right? Correct. Before they changed,
Tim: okay. Yeah, they were going to pull like DC and Looney Tunes and a few others. That fell through because Six Flags currently owns them, [00:07:00] which may be merging with Cedar Fair later on this year.
If that does happen, we will talk about it, but to get back on track, , essentially that would be the, the talking point, right? Is that it would be the most technologically advanced theme park, , think of Epcot, how it was trying to be cutting edge. That's what they were trying to do, is get a step above that.
Part of that was from. The interactive animatronics and triceratops encounter the new technology with the spider man attraction that they were working on Dueling dragons was also a part of that as well. And so it was kind of trying to make this 21st century esque
Ayren: And I feel like in hindsight, I feel like they did a pretty good job.
I mean, the park as a whole, obviously it's seen, seen changes since it's opening, but I feel like for the time, man, like when this park opened, the parks aged really well, in my opinion, I'd say that even a lot of the unchanged aspects of it have, have held up
Tim: really well. Yeah, I definitely would agree with that as well.
And so what they would do for a journey. to Atlantis, [00:08:00] is they would take kind of the tried and true, stuff Universal's known for with special effects, and they combine it with a lot of new technology, i. e. water screens, and they got, Technifex, which was a industry effects leader, to help develop something pretty, pretty big, which is the headliner for this attraction.
A portal formed entirely of water blasted through inside a ring and yes, and this is how the vortex as it would be called was, was formed. And so that was kind of the, the iconic centerpiece technologically advanced part of the show was the tunnel.
Ayren: If you have never done this attraction before. And you're like, let me go on YouTube and watch a video of this to see what these guys are talking about.
When you see that water vortex, you're gonna get FOMO. I feel like walking through that water vortex is like just one of those things that people will remember. Forever like when you talk about [00:09:00] that nostalgia thing again I think that's going to be a big centerpiece of that for sure
Tim: in case you were wondering the vortex water would be blasted at 100 miles an hour to form The effect and you could like go out and touch it and reach it.
Your hand will like bounce away. I was
Ayren: about to say, I always felt like if I tried to touch it, it'd be like trying to touch a pressure washer. Like if it wanted to rip my finger off, I felt like it could. Yeah.
Tim: You may lose your fingerprint there, and that might not be helpful. And so with these sorts of things in mind, we go to the summer of 1995, which was a great summer, by the way. , not that I would know anything about it, journey to Atlantis had been firmly reimagined as a sort of walking tour blended with special effects and a little dark ride nighttime spectacular ask stuff and here was kind of the beginning of a new journey.
Early early script for this attraction So the story goes is that guests would have been guided through The temple by kind of this weird Cookie sort of [00:10:00] old, man by the name of the Keeper. And he would kind of set up the story with just kind of his ramblings and his comedic timing.
The premise was that the ancient temple which the guests stood was said to hold the key to the fate of Atlantis. And so with the help of some audience members, the Keeper would usher guests through a secret passage into a new chamber overseen by the ancient oracle.
This, , oracle would deem the crowd worthy to be, quote unquote, the chosen and bestow upon them the strength to journey to Atlantis. Part of it would open, , into the, ocean depths, which would lead you to, da da da, the vortex. This is where that scene would come in, where you would, find an ambassador of Atlantis. A person would kind of take over, leading guests into a quote unquote Atlantean submarine. A brief simulator experience would appear to carry guests deeper into the sea. And they would [00:11:00] eventually dock , in the submerging Atlantis and disembarking to the Temple of Poseidon.
The finale of the show would take place with different effects, an atmospheric, artistic, and almost abstract showing of Poseidon's rage. The god was brought to life, as a massive, kind of disembodied, watery face projected on water screens. There's where they're going.
Mhm. And would awaken many serpents made of water, orchestrating kind of a dangerous, yet kind of cool, show of Bursting steam, flames, fountains, the whole nine yards. Kind of like Twister, Ride It Out is kind of the comparison that was. Portrayed here. Yeah, and ultimately Poseidon's fury Not the actual attraction name just his rage would crack the temple columns and send Ancient Atlantean domes flying towards standing guests.
All this would culminate with one [00:12:00] of the most Interesting showings of technology yet with Poseidon's face projected on a massive water screen the God would laugh Content that we mere mortals Knew of his power knew of his strength, so we won't talk to him again and he would Kind of with an opening of his mouth, release a fog that would blast through and essentially, encase the audience of just a bunch of fog for a matter of minutes, only for some sparkling lights in the dark to open up and ta da!
We're You know, magically transport ported back to the oracles chamber to the other side of the vortex.
Ayren: Could you imagine just being one of the people that sits in a room and just brainstorms this, like to think of that idea and then not only to think of it, but like, let's think of an idea that we can actually pull off and the fact that they had that, I believe that they had that sort of technology in the early to mid nineties, like that's.
Amazing man, that's incredible to me.
Tim: So this was the early version and they were set going with it but things would [00:13:00] change not necessarily to the attraction just yet. So is
Ayren: this still i'm sorry Is this still all pre opening or is this? Yes. Okay. I got you So this never never actually that version of the ride never came to life.
Somewhat. Okay. We'll get to that in a second. , as things progressed, not just with, this attraction in particular, but with the entire park in general, it'd go from renaming from Cartoon World, , thank God, where you stepped into Cartoon Stories to Islands of Adventure. That is what the new name of the theme park would be, and it seemed all fine and dandy until Bush Entertainment, who happens to own SeaWorld and Bush Gardens, well, who did own SeaWorld, and of course owns Bush Gardens, didn't like that at all.
Tim: They didn't like the name choice? They didn't like the name choice. The reason for that is because they owned Adventure Isle. Ah.
Ayren: I could see how that would be problematic.
Tim: And they [00:14:00] thought it sounded similar. Those
Ayren: are, what, you're, you're, the name of your thing only has two words and ours has three, so obviously it's different.
They
Tim: thought mainstream people, not like theme park enthusiasts like you and I and those listening, would know the difference and so they're like Which, to
Ayren: be fair, let's just talk about like, when we talk to people , who aren't like actively in the theme park Enthusiast community like how many times have you and I had conversation with people and they're like man I want to go to Disney so I could check out the new Harry Potter stuff.
Like people just aren't that as you know Aware, I think of some of that stuff. So I totally get that. I facepalm every time. I know man, but no I get that I mean, that's that's fair for them to have that assumption. Yeah, but how many people would accidentally walk into Adventure Island? Thinking they were at Universal and then you know,
Tim: that's true. Anyway, so it was a it was a somewhat valid thought Another issue that rose up is SeaWorld was developing a Atlantis themed attraction as well I don't [00:15:00] see
Ayren: Nope an immiscible your honor
Tim: And guess what name they liked. What was that? Journey to Atlantis? Mmm, so now we're in a bit of a pickle where I don't see an issue Blish Entertainment, who owned SeaWorld at the time,
they don't like Islands of Adventure. Universal doesn't like SeaWorld using the name Journey to Atlantis. I feel a compromise coming on. That's exactly what happened. According to the theme park tourists, they made a pact. They shook hands, took a blood oath. No. Hold on, I'm kidding. Could you imagine that though?
Tale as old as time. That Good old blood oath, you know? Yeah. Beauty and the I'm just kidding. , so what happened was Universal would hand over the trademark of Journey to Atlantis to SeaWorld. Thus, , allowing SeaWorld to use the name Declassified Disaster Journey,, to [00:16:00] Atlantis, which I believe is still there.
Okay. May not be. Who knows? SeaWorld's changed a little. Who knows? Who, who knows anything about SeaWorld? Who knows? The only thing I know that's happening is Mako and then there's Surf. Yeah, anyways, I was watching
Ayren: a video yesterday man. It looks like SeaWorld might actually have some bangers I might eventually make a trip over there.
Maybe when the new family coaster opens. I don't know Oh, yeah, maybe worth worth spending a day there
Tim: possibly Meanwhile Bush Entertainment would agree and kind of back off their threats to allow Universal to officially name their park Universal Studios Islands of Adventure, but now Universal has to figure out a new name for their attraction
and so, because it dealt with the culmination of it being the Sea God's Rage, that's where we get the name Poseidon's Fury, Escape from the Lost City. Bum bum bum But, but,
Ayren: but. There's always a but.
Tim: As [00:17:00] things tend to change, the, Blue Sky quote unquote idea. Mm hmm. Didn't quite make the finish line.
I feel like it rarely ever does. Anyways before we jump into Some things that changed. Let's talk a little bit about the lost continent. So the whole idea in general the land in general Okay, so there would be comprised of kind of three mini lands including medieval Merlin wood I love that name so much, Middle Eastern Sinbad's Bazaar, and of course the Lost City, , where of course we talked about a lot of Greek inspired architecture.
You have rubble. It looks great. Fantastic. Seriously. Highly recommend go checking pictures and videos out. We may not see stuff like that produced by Universal and or Disney ever again. What do you mean by that? As in like, a brand new random IP, like, Oh, yeah. Something created specifically for the park, like, neither of them have done that in years.
Yeah. So, well, at least until, you know, Epic Universe opens
Of course over there is where [00:18:00] Mythos would be, all that sort of stuff. You get a towering Triton that's in there.
This is where we get to opening day, script is in, things look good, and so the show would open two guests in May 28th of 1999, the same day as the rest of Islands of Adventure would open. I did not find how much the attraction show costed, but Islands of Adventure approximately costed about a billion dollars to build.
Ayren: Universal is so weird with that man, they are like pretty hush hush on how much their attractions cost to build. , which is weird to me, only because I feel like you would think they would want to tout that for like, clout reasons, you know, like we spent this much money on this ride, but they're pretty close to the vest on, on how much they spend for attractions and even some of their little details about some of their attractions.
Tim: There were a few changes to the show. Poseidon was, , depicted as the antagonist of the ancient temple. Our guide, still called the Keeper, would share, , a story of Zeus [00:19:00] and his disgruntled brother, , Poseidon, who vowed to flood the world.
Guest bore witness to the keeper guiding through the ruins entering the water vortex portal Which would lead to poseidon who had been held prisoner the keeper reveals himself as zeus bum bum bum to protect the mortals in a epic battle filled with various special effects ,
Ayren: you know What I wish these attractions would do and I know it's probably tough as far as like budget stuff like that goes But it would be cool if like shows like this If you had almost like an a mode and a b mode, you know We're like we have multiple storylines and like depending on when you go in you can get different stories.
That'd be really really cool Yeah, I get why logistically that could be tough to pull off
Tim: but that would be cool So it was promoted as a 21st century headliner of the world's most technologically advanced theme park. Poseidon's Fury promised a next generation, original experience that would merge Disney style storytelling with Universal's [00:20:00] special effects, expertise, and iconic original characters.
Industry insiders claimed Poseidon's Fury would put Universal's new park on the map. They had that much confidence in it. And then it opened. Uh oh. And contrary to the marketing, contrary to industry insiders, early visitors to islands of adventure found Poseidon's Fury minding, confusing. And, unfortunately boring.
Oh no. It was not good.
Ayren: Was that predominantly based on the story or was it the effects? Does it, does it say?
Tim: Yes, we do. We do. We do have an answer. Uh, no, not necessarily, Visitors reported that the attraction was just kind of confusing and muddled. , it was hard to understand.
In terms of both like light and sound and also just story wise there were Things that just felt over complicated that needed more exposition or just better And it is just too [00:21:00] difficult to
Ayren: follow that's what happens in that brainstorming room and when you sit down and you have those ideas and everybody just kind of throws their Stuff on the wall and then you try to create it and yeah I guess if you're one of the people creating it, you know what your vision is But if that doesn't translate well to the audience then yeah, I guess you run into this issue
Tim: And a lot of audience seemed to kind of leave, , Poseidon's Fury kind of shell shocked, kind of questioning, like, Is it over?
Cause then it's like, one door, oh, is it over? Nope, you got another room, and then he got another room. Say, dawg, we heard you
Ayren: like rooms. Yep. So we got you a room that leads to another room. Ta
Tim: da! So after two years of operation, Poseidon's Fury would change to the story we see today.
Ayren: I'm so fascinated in how theme parks choose, like, when do we budge?
You know, like when do we make the change? When do we, how much money do we invest in this? How long do we have to stick with this concept? Because before we change it, because we've invested so much money in it, two years, I'm sure with them hyping it up as much as they did, they expected this attraction to last a very long time without
Tim: having to make any changes.
Yes, they definitely [00:22:00] did. So two years later, they would change the story. They brought in Garry Goddard and Landmark Entertainment. , Garry worked Wonders with Universal before, crafting Jurassic Park The Ride, Terminator 2 3D, and The Amazing Adventures of Spider Man. It's all solid. So, high, high bar here.
All very solid, yeah. That's you have a problem. Here's the thing though. He's given 12 weeks, . Not a lot of budget, and was asked to reshape Poseidon's Fury to improve guest satisfaction of the show. Hey, here's,
Ayren: Three months and fourteen hundred dollars. Fix it. Yes. That's basically what they hit him with.
That's
Tim: horrible. Here's what he came up with, though. Present day tour guests are introduced to Taylor, the nervously bumbling assistant of recently disappeared Professor Baxter. Small talk and some gags break the ice between guests and their live guide as they help to establish the story. After present day Taylor awakens [00:23:00] Darkanon.
Lord Darkanon. This name sounds like a Bakugan, and I am so freaking Hey, don't. No, hang on, Darkanon. You mean Lord Barkanon? I'm gonna mispronounce his name the rest of the time. It's all good. I'm gonna just say different things. Anyways Taylor awakens, , Lorg Darkanon.
Uh, in the first chamber and guests are led into the second one where they're forced to retrieve Poseidon's trident, or take kind of his secrets to his grave as a poisonous gas fills the room. Ooh. Taylor picks up the trident, which awakens the goddess. The goddess aids tourists by opening a passageway through the sea, bringing guests deeper into the temple.
Vortex is where this is. This is a water
Ayren: vortex. Such a great moment.
Tim: Guests arrive in another sealed chamber looking very much like the one they had left a sea nymph took the place of the goddess spoken about in [00:24:00] the group via impressive projection stuff. After unlocking the door into the water vortex, guests would arrive directly into the main chamber, which the climactic finale would take place.
This time instead of Zeus versus Poseidon, it would be Lord, , Bakugan versus Poseidon and of course having water and fire effects and of course, eventually Poseidon would win the day, hurrah, guess what exits, and here's the thing, fans were happy with the changes. Yeah,
Ayren: man. I mean, that's the version we ended up with, right?
Yeah.
Tim: Yeah. So , in 12
Ayren: weeks. That's
Tim: impressive. To get the show that we have now that lasted for 24 years of operation. That's insane. So yeah, it lasted 24 years until, Universal would announce in 2023 that they would be closing the attraction.
Ayren: Which do you have anything in there about their refurb?
So in [00:25:00] 2022, I think it was, or maybe it was 21, they like shut the ride down for this really prolonged period of time and gave it a refer. So there were rumors that were starting that the ride was going to close. Well, what happened when they closed it for an extended period and when it was closed, everyone thought, well, this is it.
It's never going to open again. Well, apparently they were like, no, we're refurbing it. And so people were like, oh, great. Like it's getting a new paint job. It's getting a facelift. , I think they kept a lot of the old projections and stuff to try to leave it true to the original ride, but. Then yeah, I think like a year or two later.
They were like, uh, actually we're gonna close it after we just put Millions of dollars into a refurb for this.
Tim: Yeah, I
Ayren: remember that in real time and I'm like dude, what the
Tim: heck it was definitely definitely weird Yeah, but the attraction Poseidon's Fury officially closed May 10th of 2023 with its final tour taking place May 9th I'm gonna put sad music behind this part.
Womp, womp, womp. There's gonna be sad music playing.
Show mixed a lot of practical effects, such as fire, , [00:26:00] water tunnel, movie screens, smoke screens, lasers, it had like 200 practical effects. This sounds like
Ayren: something that like a little kid would rattle off. Like, we're
Tim: gonna build a show and there's
Ayren: gonna be lasers, and there's gonna be smoke effects, and there's gonna be Lord Darkanon!
Tim: Heh heh heh heh heh. I love that name so much and hate it at the same time. It's
Ayren: so The cheesy acting is what made it. So great effects
Tim: And of course, like I said the main feature of this attraction was the water Vortex,
Ayren: yeah, which there are rumors that they're gonna keep with whatever ends up going in that space like it's something that universal is so proud of that they want to try to Keep that water vortex as a part of Whatever fills that space next so I'm interested to see I mean, obviously that's gonna be tough You know if they decide, you know, let's build around it.
They're smart enough. They can figure out what that would look like but Yeah, I'd be interested to see if they find a way to incorporate that into whatever it comes next there
Tim: Speaking of what may come next there hasn't been anything announced as of this [00:27:00] recording It may get announced soon. I hope so I would like to kind of know what is going to be in that area current rumors , take this with a grain of salt, everybody.
But current rumors are stating that Legend of Zelda might move into that space. That would be awesome. Which I wouldn't be entirely mad about. I know there's been, , thoughts that Universal wants to have Nintendo properties at each of their parks. So they're adding one, of course, with Super Nintendo World, which essentially is just Super Mario World, uh, over to Epic Universe.
And it looks like they want to try to add one to both Islands of Adventure. Universal Studios Florida, that's such an
Ayren: interesting approach to me. I mean, obviously we've seen them do that with Harry Potter Right in the wizarding world. That's really fascinating to me I think Harry Potter lends itself well because you have the Hogwarts Express to bring you from one of the other Man, I don't know.
That's, uh, that's super fascinating. It'd be dope if they find a way to get, like, green tubes to take you from one to the next or something. That [00:28:00] would I don't know what that would possibly look like, but Was there a scene in the Super Mario Bros. movie where they showed you, like, the inside of the tubes?
There was, right? Mm hmm. I wonder if they can figure They're smart enough. They can figure something out. Yeah.
Tim: But I mean, you know, they did well with both Japan and Hollywood as well. Yeah, just how they they made the tunnel but Here's the thing though. The legacy of this attraction still does live on In the form of tributes now, I don't know if this was this year's Halloween Horror Nights or not I believe it was I believe it was this past year, but there was a Story tie in for Dueling Dragons, Choose Thy Fate, Merlin attempted to fight the Lady of the Lake by chanting the Fury of Poseidon.
And so a little reference there. , there was a, , Mardi Gras tribute store, that's Had a trident appear in the room, back in 2023. And then of course over at the port of entry during the [00:29:00] Christmas season, there was a ornament depicting Poseidon's trident, excuse me, that was hung up as tribute for the attraction in 2023 as well.
And so that is kind of the Very interesting, very intriguing. Yeah. Lots of chaos and that was and made Poseidon's Fury. I am
Ayren: so bummed that I didn't get a chance to get one of those final tour shirts that Universal put it. Did you ever see that one? I did. It was so great. I actually looked at it the other day I was looking to see if I could find a one of them on eBay and it was like 60 bucks Which actually isn't too bad But I don't know.
I'm not a 60 bucks on a t shirt kind of guy Me neither. Well, dude, that's great. Thank you so much for doing all that research. Yeah, of course. No, that's really cool. That is an attraction that, , man, I love so much. And I am kind of bummed that it closed. It's weird. It's one of those things that every time I would go to the park and I would see it, it was like.
It was a coin toss on whether or not I would want to go in. Mm hmm. But if I [00:30:00] need it, like kind of a break in the day or to get out of the sun, it was a good option, but I always loved having the option now that it's not there anymore. It's a little sad also not to mention, , this show building that it's in.
It's one of the most impressive facades that I've ever seen. I agree. It looks cool from a distance, but like, as you're walking up through it, and there's like that arm holding the trident up, like, over the like the scale of that facade is just so freaking
Tim: cool to me. They put so much detail and time and effort, and I mean, that's what you want from These sort of things right that's why they're called theme parks and not amusement parks It's just the level of detail that they put in and I mean it just it was fantastic I am very like I said at the beginning of Our time together.
I am so thankful. I got the chance to do it because it was it was cool I mean it was one of those things where i'm like If I ever got a chance to do it again, yeah, maybe I probably would, same as you, but, you know, so it's one of those things that's like, oh, [00:31:00] this was, this was pretty, pretty
Ayren: cool. I'm going to say this, and I know you, you might assume it's my bias coming out here.
I promise it's not. It probably is. I promise it's not. But, I mean, I really can't, personally, okay, nighttime spectaculars aside, I can't think of a Disney stage show that was as elaborate as this one is
Tim: I mean if you're looking a lot of them use either Animatronics or it's you know a screen the entire time with a few
Ayren: Yeah, it's just the idea of like you're you're kind of walking through this attraction You're kind of like a part of the attraction and stuff like that.
I I can't think of too many moments like like there's a Story time with bell, you know when you walk through the mirror, which is like a small scale version of that But I don't know one that Like again, of course Disney's crushing Universal in the nighttime spectacular game like with Fantasmic and Happily Ever After but like Fantasmic, okay Yeah they run it like two times a night but a show this scale to run it over and over and [00:32:00] over and over again throughout the day with Different team members acting in the roles and in just the capacity.
What's that?
Tim: Maybe festival in the line game, but that's just okay. Yeah. No, that's fair
Ayren: though. I mean, yeah I mean, I would consider this to be a stage show as well. You're you know, you're moving through it, but no, that's fair That's probably the next one that i'll consider to be that elaborate I think the frozen sing along is a lot as well like you think about those performers and doing that over and over again, it's a lot but Yeah,
Tim: or any well indiana jones, but then you also have like jason bourne over at universal.
Yeah
Ayren: I would say that's probably a little bit more of the comp there. But yeah, I don't know. I think that's Yeah, that's super impressive to me. So yeah, it was a thought. Okay. One of those things. Did this come up in your research at all? Because there's people who would argue whether or not this was true.
And it seems like there's more people who say, yes, this is what happened versus it's not. But there are rumors saying that, in the timeline supports this, that lost continent is essentially, the stepchild of beastly kingdom. An animal [00:33:00] kingdom that you have imagineers who worked for Disney who were either let go or quit I'm not entirely sure but they went on to go and work for Universal during the the launch of Islands of Adventure And a lot of the ideas once they were scrapped from Disney Ended up becoming Lost Continent.
Did you end up seeing anything about that in your research?
Tim: I did not and granted that might be specifically something for the Lost Continent. Yeah But I didn't, only because of the fact that, like, Beastly Kingdom and Animal Kingdom, which I think we should definitely do an episode on that.
Was meant for animals because it's animal kingdom. So we're gonna tackle mythical animals. So dragons, unicorns, Etc, etc. This is dealing more with like the human aspect of it. So you have Poseidon and Zeus and Merlin and you know some of those Figures and stories so to speak. Yeah, and so I didn't see anything, but I'm sure I am sure there was inspiration Yeah
Ayren: I [00:34:00] know we talked about this, I think on a previous episode, but there was kind of this, , yeah, you mentioned it.
It was this , kind of dragon coaster that they had thought through that was supposed to go in beastly kingdom , I believe that that concept, again, with these imagineers who had kind of been working on it behind the scenes for a long time, which, and again, like we see this where competition dictates where the other company decides to go in some of their creative choices.
But I think in universal wanting to appeal to a little bit more of a thrilling crowd, a little bit more of an older audience, I think that the idea of the. Dragon coaster from beastly kingdom ultimately turned into dueling dragons at one point. It wouldn't surprise me again It's so tough because they were working on similar projects around the same time So it's tough to determine what's true and what's a lie But if that is true, I find that really interesting and I find it really cool because beastly kingdom is one of those lands that I really wish we would have gotten Me too.
So to even like usually, you know, you you hear about concepts like that and then it ends up completely falling by the wayside but to think that okay, maybe we [00:35:00] got like a slight glimpse in lost continent I think is is pretty cool. But again, who knows who knows the truth about that? Yeah for sure But dude, anyway Thank you so much for the any other closing thoughts or anything that we maybe left behind that you wanted to mention
Tim: or No, if you do want to try to check out the original pre 2001 version of the show, not the one we know and love, I couldn't find any videos on YouTube about it.
I might have missed it. So if I did, let me know on Instagram. Yeah,
Ayren: if you find it, please send it to us. We'd love to see that. Maybe you have a home video floating around somewhere.
Tim: That'd be pretty cool. Awesome, because I know there was one linked and then it's a private video now, so can't see it. But there are plenty of videos out there on the Lost Continent, specifically on Poseidon's Fearing.
So if this is a attraction that you missed or maybe one you just want to kind of reminisce a little bit about, similar Maelstrom, you can check it out on YouTube. Not on our page, we don't have it, Womp womp. Womp womp indeed. [00:36:00] But, there are plenty of videos out there, so definitely check it out there.
Show some love to those who captured the footage of it. Cause this is a pretty sweet show, Yeah, it was fun. Let us know what, next attraction you would like us to do history on. That will be , the next part of the history. Of series, so you get to dictate which, which attraction or land or heck, maybe even park.
Ayren: Who knows? Yeah. Whatever you want to do. If it's in that, if it falls in that universe, go ahead and throw it to us. That'd be, , that'd be a lot of fun. Well, this has been another episode of Magic Meets Adventure. We are super glad that you chose to join us again. Hey, , continue to leave those reviews for us.
Let us know what you think of the show. We'd love to hear your feedback on all of our channels, whether that be Instagram, YouTube, TikTok, all the good stuff. , yeah, there is another episode in the books. I'm Tim, ever in the magic, and I'm Aaron. I bring the adventure. We'll see you next time. Bye.
Tim: Guess that wraps things up. You guys did. All [00:37:00] right. Carefully raise your left part and exit the vehicle. Oh, and don't forget to retrieve your stone lines. We hope that you've enjoyed your visit with us and that you'll come back soon. See you real soon. Hi everybody. Hello. Be careful getting home.