Jaws, the original ride

[scooby-the-doo]

Back when Uni opened in 1990 Jaws opened with the park, but only operated sporadically before closing for many changes. Did anybody ride that original Jaws ride and could say what, if any, changes were made from that ride to the one that operates today?

The closing of Kongfrontation brought me to consider the longetivity of the Jaws ride. I love the ride, but I know the premise can offer so much more. So instead of closure in the future to be replaced by whatever film is the flavour of the month, I advocate a rethinking of the Jaws experience.

Take the lagoon as it stands now and cover it completely. Enlarge it a little even. We now have a large expanse of covered water; a dark ride is much better suited to scares and that is what Jaws should evolve into - a nerve tingling, jangling experience.

Picture it now: pitch black inside, with only the boats light flashing this way and that. We can give a much better sence of a great expanse of water in the darkness too. Cue the wind machine, cue the rain machine. It's choppy. We hear a fog horn in the distance as we roll into it, cutting our visability even more.

The ride is now perfectly setup for a Jaws onslaught that, done right, would be THE dark ride / horror experience for the 2000s.

What do you think? A new uber Jaws experience that takes the Ride the Movies premise to the next level, or a coaster we can ride at any Six Flags park labeled XXX?

 

[Elemental Force]

I never rode the first incarnation of the attraction, but I do know that the boat used to spin in the water or something. They always had problems with the effect, but I believe it would have been cool to experience.

 

[Dznefreek]

I believe they also had problems with the shark ramming the boats unintentionally.

 

[Afroman]

Well, the one of the sharks that was supposed to take a "bite" out of the, used to be, inflatable front bumper, kept on pulling the boat on accident and the ride would always shut down do to that effect. On the subject of the refurbishing idea, I think that would be one of the coolest and inexpensive (compared to a brand new ride) things Universal could ever do. I really do hope that idea may be in Jaws' future. They could do storm effects like project a storm up on the walls of the building (like in twister) and have fog, rain, wind effects...that would be great. Plus the shark looks so much better in the dark than it does during the day.

 

[chainsawwolf]

Mike:

I have to correct you. JAWS did indeed open on that dreadful day back in '90. It spent much of the day broken, and in one instance stranded Jimmy Stuart on a boat in the lagoon for over an hour. They actually had to pry up one of the prop rowboats to get the people off of the ride.

 

[Dznefreek]

The ride never opened with the park.

I rode it with a friend the first week the park was open. It had problems from the beginning.

 

[skiwee1]

Jaws was open at the beginning because we rode it. We have only been to US once and that was its opening year. We loved the Jaws ride and had no idea there have been changes to it. I can still remember the heat from the flames feel like it was going to singe my hair! We are finally going to US again next month and will definitely be checking it out.

 

[chainsawwolf]

>Speaking of which will you be working there Sunday? I know
>you said you only work weekends and this will be the 1st
>weekend since the opening of the "New" E.T. on 3.23.02 that I
>will be at the park.


I won't be working this Sunday, but my daughter will be working at Kong until about 3:00.

Wolf