Land Changelog // updated 2022.08.30
Universal Studios · Universal Orlando
Reopened after a roughly seven-month refurbishment (closed early January 2022) with upgraded 4K projection mapping, refurbished animatronics and show scenes, new launch-tunnel lighting, and new ride-control hardware; the original story and Brendan Fraser queue/coffee videos were retained.
Opened at Universal Studios Florida as a 3D motion-simulator attraction in the former Twister...Ride It Out soundstage, launching as Universal Orlando's first attraction with a virtual line (no traditional standby queue) and a 30 Rockefeller Plaza-themed queue.
Twister...Ride It Out ran its final storm and closed permanently after more than 17 years of operation.
Universal announced that Twister...Ride It Out would be retired after 17 years and replaced by a Jimmy Fallon attraction opening in 2017.
Twister...Ride It Out returned to regular operation due to guest demand.
The attraction was cut back to operating only during peak seasons.
Revenge of the Mummy opened at Universal Studios Florida, an indoor LIM-launched coaster/dark ride that replaced Kongfrontation (closed September 8, 2002).
Revenge of the Mummy, a $40 million indoor launched roller coaster, opened on May 21, 2004 in the same six-story, 62,000-square-foot building that had housed Kongfrontation.
Kongfrontation closed permanently on September 8, 2002 after twelve years of operation, freeing its show building for Revenge of the Mummy.
An Orlando Sentinel report on August 16, 2002 stated that Kongfrontation would take its final riders on September 8, quoting Universal Orlando president Bob Gault saying that 'in Kong's stage, we are creating another must-do attraction that pushes the limits of ride innovations'.
Universal's Islands of Adventure, the park the Preview Center was built to promote, officially opened to the public on May 28, 1999.
The Islands of Adventure Preview Center closed shortly after Islands of Adventure opened, ending a run of roughly two years.
The vacated space was repurposed as Universal Orlando Vacation Services, selling admission to the neighboring park rather than housing a replacement attraction.
Twister...Ride It Out opened in the New York area of Universal Studios Florida, taking over the venue vacated by the Ghostbusters Spooktacular.
Universal postponed the attraction's planned March 1998 debut after a deadly tornado outbreak struck the nearby Kissimmee area, and the company donated $100,000 to the victims.
Universal Studios Florida publicly announced on February 6, 1997 that Twister...Ride It Out would be built in the former Ghostbusters Spooktacular venue.
The Islands of Adventure Preview Center opened in the New York section of Universal Studios Florida, replacing The Screen Test Home Video Adventure.
The vacated New York building reopened in 1997 as the Islands of Adventure Preview Center, a walk-through preview of the theme park Universal was then building next door.
The Screen Test Home Video Adventure closed on November 11, 1996, vacating the New York-area space that the Preview Center would later occupy.
The Screen Test Home Video Adventure closed permanently on November 11, 1996, after roughly five and a half years of operation.
The show gave its final performance on November 8, 1996, closing permanently after six years.
The Marvel Show closed in 1995, ending its run as a seasonal outdoor show in the New York City area of Universal Studios Florida.
Universal overhauled the show with a new pre-show in which Louis Tully pitched Ghostbusters franchise starter kits and Walter Peck threatened to shut the operation down, stretching the running time to roughly 20 minutes.
StreetBusters was retired after its final season and did not return.
The Marvel Show opened in the summer of 1993 as a seasonal outdoor show staged in front of and on the building to the left of the Firehouse facade in the park's New York City area.
The show's cast featured multiple Marvel Comics characters, including Spider-Man, Storm, Iron Man and Wolverine.
The Screen Test Home Video Adventure opened in the New York area of Universal Studios Florida, in a space in front of Kongfrontation, as a separately paid experience in which guests were filmed against a blue screen to star in a short film.
StreetBusters opened as a seasonal street show in the park's New York area, in which the Ghostbusters attempted to catch Beetlejuice.
Accounts of the attraction's first weeks conflict: Theme Park Tribune reported that Kongfrontation was not running on the park's June 7 opening day because of a fault in the 'talk back' system linking the Kong animatronics to the ride vehicles and dated its official opening to August 4, 1990, while Wikipedia lists it among the attractions that opened with the park.
Ghostbusters Spooktacular opened with Universal Studios Florida in Soundstage 50 on the New York backlot, staging the film's rooftop climax with Pepper's Ghost illusions and a Stay Puft Marshmallow Man animatronic whose head measured 22 feet in diameter.
Kongfrontation opened with Universal Studios Florida on June 7, 1990, carrying guests in aerial tram vehicles through a six-story, 62,000-square-foot New York show building past two 39-foot King Kong animatronics.
That's every change on the record in New York since 1990.
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