Universal Orlando confirmed this morning that the Poseidon's Fury show at Islands of Adventure will play for the last time on May 9.
The closure of Poseidon's Fury leaves IOA's Lost Continent land without any attractions, save the talking fountain, which should spark fresh conversation about the land's future. Universal said that Poseidon's Fury is closing for new experiences, but Universal still hasn't offered a replacement for the land's The Eighth Voyage of Sindbad show that closed in 2018. Lost Continent lost its biggest attraction - the old Dueling Dragons roller coaster - when Universal cleaved half the land to make The Wizarding World of Harry Potter in 2010.
At its height, Poseidon's Fury offered a collection of impressive stage tricks, including disappearing rooms and a stunning water vortex. But the walk-through attraction's filmed media didn't hold up to higher modern standards. Nor the stage effects did not work consistently enough for the attraction to build the strong word of mouth it needed to drive high daily visitor counts. Universal also never developed any movies or TV properties around the Greek god, so there was no crossover IP to promote with the attraction.
Throw in that long-unused theater between Marvel Super Hero Island and Toon Lagoon with the rapidly clearing Lost Continent and Universal has plenty of space for a major refresh of Islands of Adventure at some point. And that's even before considering the future of Toon Lagoon, which is built upon aging cartoon franchises that have little resonance with visitors under age 40.
Over at Universal Studios Florida, most of the former Woody Woodpecker's Kid Zone land closed earlier this year, giving Universal Orlando even more development space on its original campus, as the expanding resort works on opening the new Epic Universe theme park on its new south campus, near the Orange County Convention Center, in 2025.
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I agree with Russell, amazing this has gone so long. It wasn't a bad show but with the entire Lost Continent section fading away, figured this gone long ago. So goes another part of the original IOA.
This is bittersweet. I enjoyed Poseidon's Fury but I understand that its valuable real estate could be used for something else. Especially with the closure of Sindbad, this space is now large enough for something kind of big. I just hope that they actually have plans for something here and start moving on it, instead of just letting the empty space rot.
I would assume that they are going to build something here to coincide with Epic Universe in order to keep IOA active and growing as well.
I would be stunned to see a replacement before 2026 so as not to cannibalize Epic Universe.
if mythos is removed, which would be a tremendous shame, I hope Robert is given right of first refusal on the theme park insider banner outside the restaurant.
We always skipped Poseidon's Fury when visiting but did it once and thought it was ok. I do love the theming from the outside so until they build something new hopefully they keep the fountains and waterfalls working. Would hate to have it sit there with no water.
I'm not one for speculation, but let's hope those online rumors of replacing Lost Continent with Hyrule from Legend of Zelda are true. It would be easy to keep a lot of the rockwork in place that way.
@Jacob: While I think 2026 is still the more likely option, 2025 is still a possibility in my mind. They may want to be combatting the inevitable cannibalization of their other two parks when Epic Universe opens. Every time a new park in the Orlando resorts open, they hurt the other parks in their respective resorts. We saw this with Animal Kingdom, where attendance dropped for all the other Disney parks the year it opened, and we saw it when IOA hurt Universal Studios Florida's attendance in 1999. It also might be them wanting to entice people to do more than just tack an Epic Universe day on their Disney trip come 2025.
Always liked walking through the water tunnel. Although knowing how long it took to go through the whole experience it wasn’t one I was eager to do with every visit.
Never forget - it was used for an ambitious house for HHN when it was in IOA. Really wish I could relive that experience.
I just started a discussion thread on what Universal ought to do with the land: https://www.themeparkinsider.com/discussion/thread.cfm?page=2597
All I know is when they do inevitably shut the area down I want the Eagle/lion/fish Chimera creature at the entrance delivered to my front yard!. HOA be damned.
@Michael B: Haven't they sold actual props from shut-down rides in the past? I know I saw a list years back on how you can buy stuff from Jaws ride to the old Beetlejuice show. Pricey but possible.
The LC was basically a pre-show line to the WWoHP. I loved the concept initially but I am looking forward to what they have planned next, just please not Zelda
I'm very disappointed that they would close an attraction with such an enormous footprint, and offer nothing to replace it. This thing is huge, and how long will Universal just let it sit there, taking up (lots of) space?
Also, I really wanted to experience this one more time, since we skipped it on our last Universal visit (the timing of the shows was sometimes really inconvenient).
BTW, that Sindbad show was a sin...and really bad. It's also a sin that they haven't replaced it. Another big waste of space.
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Honestly I'm surprised this attraction lasted this long. I think it was a cool diversion, though the way in which it operated at odd intervals instead of continuous loads, made it difficult to plan for in a park full of other more interesting attractions.
I do find it odd that Lost Continent is now essentially stripped bare, but UC hasn't offered any hints at what might come next. With the company obviously putting all of their resources into Epic Universe, I highly doubt that anything will happen in the next 2+ years. It's a shame, because there was oodles of potential with the Lost Continent theming that was essentially left to rot when they annexed half the land for the WWoHP. I worry that Mythos might be next on the chopping block, which would be a sad day for the theme park world.