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What to do with Poseidon's Fury?

Universal Orlando: We're all complaining about it, but what should actually be done?

From Marcus Guimaraes
Posted July 12, 2010 at 2:42 PM
No one like Poseidon's Fury. Even the amazing water vortex tunnel isn't enough to save it. So what should be put in its place? However bad the attraction itself may be, the facade is still great, so I'd like to see that kept. But besides that, anything's fair game.


Comments in chronological order. Most recent at the bottom. Scroll down to respond.

From Rod Whitenack
Posted July 12, 2010 at 2:53 PM
Poseidon's Fury may be the single most frustrating theme park attraction I've ever endured. The entire show is like a long, crowded ride queue and you're cow-hearded endlessly from one boring room to another until the lackluster finale. I suppose the whole attraction could be reworked to represent the last Harry Potter book with the last room a Harry Potter/ Voldemort wizard battle. I think that might be the only way to save it without having to radically alter the whole ride building.

From Melissa Donahue
Posted July 12, 2010 at 3:36 PM
Rod - I like your Harry Potter idea, but I don't see Universal adding another HP attraction "outside" of the Wizarding World island. And there's no way that the WWoHP will ever absorb the remainder of the Lost Continent, so I think it needs to be completely reworked with a better mythological show concept or a dark ride/4-D theater of some kind.

From Tyler Bell
Posted July 12, 2010 at 6:30 PM
a indoor rollercoaster based on the greek gods or a posidens fury indoor coaster

From Marcus Guimaraes
Posted July 12, 2010 at 8:06 PM
Yeah, a battle between Harry Potter and Voldemort that wasn't in the books would be impossible to fit into canon. I do like the idea of a dark ride though, Universal needs more of those. They'd be able to keep the water vortex, which is about the only part of the attraction that I like. They should keep the theme related to Poseidon, seing as there's an enormous trident outside. Even though that could be easily removed, it's become a sort of symbol for The Lost Continent, so that'd be a bad idea. They might as well add a giant sorcerer's hat. Maybe it could be a journey to Atlantis.

From Rob P
Posted July 13, 2010 at 9:22 AM

Part 1.

Well I'd certainly keep the water tunnel ( the original one ! ) as that was pretty impressive.
The idea behind Poseidon's Fury was a sound one. It just wasn't executed properly. Almost as if it had been rushed through the design meetings to meet the deadline.
What I'd like to see is a more considered attraction on the same or similar theme.

From Rob P
Posted July 13, 2010 at 9:22 AM
Part 2

As has been mentioned the herding of visitors into cramped areas to endure, what felt like, hours of meaningless fantasy-babble was a poor concept badly executed.
By the time the suffering audience had reached the finale they had already been lost. But the finale wasn't a complete disaster. It just lacked that bit of quality that sets some other attractions apart. A little tweaking and I think this would be pretty good.
I'm sure that Universal have invested a lot more time and energy into the new Harry Potter area than they did on this.
No wonder Poseidon was furious.

From Carrie Hood
Posted July 13, 2010 at 10:11 AM
I don't know, I do believe Harry Potter in coming years will swallow up the entire area of Lost Continent. Along the lines of every few years adding in a new high tech attraction to keep people coming in worldwide, perhaps sometime after the final movie a new attraction or two will pop up.

Poseidon would work well for almost any kind of show or ride. The building is large enough to be converted into almost anything without to much frontal work if they keep it in the HP theme. My original thought when HP was coming to universal was the Poseidon would turn into a Chamber of Secrets show, mostly because I wanted them to keep the vortex water tunnel.

I also think Sinbad will eventually become a HP stage show or perhaps even be removed for another form of a ride. Again, I just hope Universal will keep the fountain!

Which brings up the only downside of IOA, nearly no room for expansion or addition.

From James Rao
Posted July 13, 2010 at 6:45 PM
While I don't have the same aversion toward Poseidon as many others, I agree with Carrie that eventually it too will be gobbled up by Harry Potter. Which begs the more important question: what will become of our beloved Mythos Restaurant?

Back to the topic, maybe they could do a Harry Potter version of Universal Hollywood's House of Horrors? I'd love a year round "haunted house" to visit in Orlando, and JK Rowling's wizarding world is just brimming with supernatural elements that could be incorporated into a unique walkthru attraction.

From Rob P
Posted July 14, 2010 at 2:08 AM
I know I'm going slightly off-topic but it does have some relevance to Poseidon's Fury and all the other attractions and restaurants in this area of IOA.
My scepticism over the whole Harry Potter franchise is based on whether it can carry a dedicated area for longer than it's current popularity. That's not to say that I don't like what's been done. In fact I'm looking forward to seeing it.
I just feel that a generic theme has more scope to develop than a specific theme that may eventually lose it's appeal.
Other areas may be specific too ( Jurassic Park etc ) but their franchise had already stood the test of time.
By leaving some of the original concepts there IOA would have more options later on.

From James Rao
Posted July 14, 2010 at 3:21 AM
By the time the final movie lands in July 2011, Harry Potter will have been in pop culture for around 15 years. The novels have been translated into more than 65 languages and have already sold in excess of 400 million copies worldwide. The movies, already the highest grossing franchise in film history, will boast around $7.5 billion in ticket sales, a staggering number almost four times higher than the impressive numbers for the Jurassic Park franchise ($2 billion). And with a merchandising wing valued in excess of $4 billion, JK Rowling's creation has more in common with a cultural phenomenon like the Baby Boom than with a fad like the Pet Rock.

For good or for ill, I'm afraid Harry Potter is here to stay.

From Rob P
Posted July 14, 2010 at 3:56 AM
Those are impressive stats there James and I certainly won't argue against them.
I think you may be right that Harry Potter is here to stay..........for a while at least.
As I say I'm actually looking forward to seeing it.

From Rod Whitenack
Posted July 14, 2010 at 10:11 AM
I do believe that the Wizarding World of Harry Potter will eventually take over all of the Lost Continent, and since both are fantasy oriented, it should be a smooth transition. I don't know why Mythos would need to be changed substantially. It fits in fine in the Harry Potter universe.

As far as haunted walk-thru attractions go, the Harry Potter books have their own haunted house called the Shrieking Shack where even Hogwarts ghosts are afriad to go. The creaky old shack was used to hold Prof. Lupin when he turned into a werewolf, but also served as a hiding place for Voldemort at one point. So you have a great excuse to build a walk-thru haunted house with werewolves, snakes, spiders and any number of other creepy crawlies.

From Nick Markham
Posted July 14, 2010 at 10:29 AM
The problem with Harry Potter taking over the rest of the lost continent is that it would have to expan outside of the Hogsmeade Village which would not work well.

From Nick Markham
Posted July 14, 2010 at 10:29 AM
The problem with Harry Potter taking over the rest of the lost continent is that it would have to expan outside of the Hogsmeade Village which would not work well.

From Carrie Hood
Posted July 15, 2010 at 3:28 AM
Oddly enough I think it would work just fine since they could turn the area outside of the "village" into the forbidden forest which would work for the Sinbad stage store and Poseidon's Fury. I think it would even work well for leaving Mytho's alone, because as well know the riots if they changed it.

Honestly, I love HP and was glad to see it go to Universal mostly because I suspected they'd pull it off far better then anyone else.

Now, I'm off to work!

From TROY DAVIDSON
Posted July 16, 2010 at 1:16 PM
I WOULD BUILD OUT THE FRONT OF THE BUILDING AND MAKE A SCARY "HAUNTED MANSION" TYPE OF RIDE. (NO WALK THROUGH) YES, HARRY POTTER IS HERE TO STAY AND WILL TAKE UP THE REST OF THIS LAND.

From James Koehl
Posted July 16, 2010 at 1:41 PM
Troy, why are you yelling?

From Kristin A
Posted July 16, 2010 at 8:28 PM
We just got back from Universal and when we came out of Poseidon, my 10 yr old son side eyed me and said "What was THAT all about?" I had heard a lot about this water vortex, but it wasn't a part of the show I was in. I love the idea of turning it into Harry Potter something. Anything's better than watching a Bruce Campbell look a like dressed up as the devil fight my grandpa.

From Andy Stevens
Posted July 17, 2010 at 12:45 PM
I'm not sure about Poseidons Fury. I visited the attraction shortly after IOA openned and found it to be excellent. There after though when visiting, something seemed to me missing, it was as if the original format had been messed with, but I couldn't put my finger on it.
Changing to a HP attraction may be the way to go, but whatever is done, it has to be good.

From duncan henny
Posted July 18, 2010 at 9:28 AM
if they could get the rights a clash of the titans theme could be cool

From Derrick O. Foreman
Posted July 18, 2010 at 12:35 PM
They should destroy both the attractions at Lost Continent and rebuild them from the ground up. We might not see that until like 10 years from now. But that should leave plenty of time for Universal Creative to think up something innovative.

From Tony Duda
Posted July 18, 2010 at 7:34 PM
Google Earth has new photos of Orlando dated May 2, 2010. The new additions and construction at Universal and Disney are visible.

As for PF at IOA, it is not that big of a distance from WWOHP with Sindbad in between. Some of the Lost Continent can be worked around if those areas are to be added to WWOHP.

From Michael Smith
Posted July 18, 2010 at 8:43 PM
I love Poseidon's Fury. When everything is working properly it has a great wow factor. Live actors are a plus too. They give the attraction a custom feel, like you never get the same show twice. I think just keeping all of the effects working and maybe spicing up the script from time to time would be enough for me. There is something uniquely immersive about walk through attractions like this. I also love twister.. yeah the little upside down "tornado" is a dissapointment to most, but the other effects are so great, you feel like you are right there in the storm. It wouldn't be the same if you were sitting in a vehicle.

From Carrie Hood
Posted July 19, 2010 at 12:20 AM
What is the construction at Universal? They finally giving in and doing the waterpark?

From Michael Smith
Posted July 19, 2010 at 2:23 AM
To add to my post above.. I do think they should try to go queue-less with this attraction. I know Disney has tested the concept. This would be a perfect attraction to use something like this. I'm not sure what they could do for people waiting for their showtime, but anything would be better than standing motionless in a wide crammed queue with nothing to do but stand there and hope you make the next group. It makes you want to just make it to somewhere where you can sit down.. and you don't want people feeling that way before an attraction like this.

From Rob P
Posted July 19, 2010 at 5:40 AM
Michael makes a good point. That would be one of the "tweaks" that could make this a far better attraction. Maybe something a little more interactive too while you're waiting.
As I wrote earlier I always felt as if I was being herded around like so much cattle into an uncomfortable room. It was wearisome for adults so I can only wonder how smaller kids must have felt.
Technology has advanced since it opened and there's a lot more they could do to make the finale better. I agree with Michael when he said that this was considered pretty good when it first opened.
Instead of finding ways to demolish it perhaps we could explore ways to restore it's original impact.

From Scott B
Posted July 20, 2010 at 5:02 AM
Okay, so Hogsmead and Hogwarts are represented at Wizarding World. But what about Diagon Alley? Couldn't the lost continent just be turned into that? I say just level the whole thing. Really, I have no attachment to anything there except for Mythos, but that will have to come down too. Because I just don't see how that could fit into the world of HP.

As it stands, the Lost Continent is just something people walk quickly through to get to HP.

From Javi Badillo
Posted July 20, 2010 at 4:14 PM
To me the Lost Continet is a big waste of space. It only has two attractions which both are heavly outdated shows. The only thing worth saving is Mythos resturant. Also the only thing good about the area is the theme and scenery including the outside of Posiedon Furry which is pretty impressive. However people today including myself would much rather prefer Harry Potter over Greek Gods and Arabic warriors.I believe that Universal should demolish the rest of the lost continet and expand the Wizarding World of Harry Potter. The lost continet already lost its most popular ride to Harry Potter. What I think would be a great addition to the the WWOHP would be a quidditch area with a flying roller coster in the middle of the area. The rollar coaster should resemble what its like to actually play quidditch where you hear sound effects such as the golden snitch flying around, other player fyling past you, and the theme from the movies. In addition to the quidditch area Universal should create a Forrbian Forest area with a huanted dark ride located where PF is located. The problem with Diagon Alley is that in the books it is not located in the Hogworts Area which Hogsmded and the Forbbian Forest are. Mythos should be saved and it shouldnt be changed because of the design of the buidling works well with a forest. With those additions the Wizarding World of Harry Potter would be complete.

From Doug Kelley
Posted July 22, 2010 at 10:04 AM
Honestly, Universal should rethink ALL their show-type attractions. I can honestly say I don't enjoy any of them that much. How many ways can you make an attraction from fire and water spritzing?

From Derrick O. Foreman
Posted July 22, 2010 at 10:42 PM
I agree with you Doug. Universal's shows are pretty weak compared to Disney & SeaWorld. That's why they should just re-think the whole area and make some rides!

From Mark Hollamon
Posted July 23, 2010 at 7:33 AM
The Sinbad show is not too bad. It is cheesey and definitely could be better, but it has pyro and I like Pyro!!!

The Posideon attraction was much better in it's first version. It was later changed and got real bad, but it was never great and one wonders how it ever got out of the drawing board stage.

It is a monumental waste, but I think scrapping it and building a new attraction from scratch is the best thing. The only good thing in that section of the park now is Mythos!

BTW, the last time I experienced the attraction the famous vortex was not operating. I was told it doesn't anymore. Don't know how true that is.

From Susan Rubner
Posted July 23, 2010 at 7:17 PM
We just got home today from a five night stay. It was amazing fun. It was our first visit to the park. I also walked out of the Posideon wondering about what that was all about. I was the first to go into the first room and the last to go into the second. I couldn't see hardly anything. I felt very cramped. Harry Potter has already been around for a long time and has proven to be very popular. It seems almost a given that it should expand into this area.

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