Skull Island: Reign of Kong is now back to operating normally, as the doors leading to the outdoor section of the ride have finally been repaired at Universal Islands of Adventure.
Skull Island: Reign of Kong Outdoor Section Repaired
Skull Island: Reign of Kong opened in Universal Islands of Adventure in 2016. The ride involves trackless vehicles designed to look like trucks driving through an ancient, skull-filled temple.
The ride includes a section where the doors to the temple open, allowing the truck to drive outside the temple and through a short outdoor area before heading back indoors. When the attraction first opened, it was also designed with a side path that skips the outdoor section entirely. However, this outdoor section was only skipped due to weather-related reasons.
Since early 2023, the outdoor section has not been included as part of the attraction, regardless of the weather. This was due to the large temple doors leading into and outside the building being broken.
As we reported earlier this year, Universal has been seen working on the doors and had installed temporary construction scrims around sections of the queue where the outdoor area was visible to guests. Now the doors have finally been repaired, and the outdoor section is accessible once more.
The outdoor area of the ride includes a concrete path through what is intended to look like unexplored jungle. The sides are lined with rockwork, bamboo fences, and foliage.
The outdoor area also provides a much better view of the temple than what can be seen from the attraction’s queue.
These large doors shaped like an extended skull are now opening and closing as they should. The doors open to allow each vehicle to enter and close once the vehicle goes back inside the temple.
Skull Island: Reign of Kong was already updated to remove the 3D components of the attraction, making it a standard 2D ride without glasses. As a result, guests no longer need to put on their glasses after going through the outdoor section, and the announcement telling guests to put on their glasses has been removed.
If you want to see more of the attraction in its full glory, we have a full ride POV video on our channel that includes the reopened outdoor section:
What do you think of Skull Island returning to normal operations? Let us know in the comments.
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