Greetings…You may call me…keeper…for I am the keeper of theme park tales.
So we’re all in agreement, Spiderman is AMAZING ..between his all new HD threads, a new coat of paint and tricked out Scoops the rehab reminds me why I fell in love with Islands at first sight. They always take things to the next level. To me this new addition is important to IOA and the future of Universal in ways that are deeper than the surface thrills.
I rode it with guests a few months ago after walking past for a few years and was blown away all over with the original. We sometimes forget what’s right in front of us without a reminder. It would be very easy to rest on their accomplishments with the original ride. We know that when the Marvel contract expires Spidey will go away anyway so why invest the money now when there will be a forced overhaul down the road to Superman or IOAman or…who knows what? They could have used the money to add a smaller attraction like Storm Force or just add it to the bottom line. IOA sure doesn’t need an attendance boost and as we know from Roller Coaster Tycoon, slapping a new coat of paint on a ride and spending money for some advertising just brings a momentary boost, it’s nothing like adding a new attraction.
Why indeed?? I think that this shows the competition that Universal is willing to put up money to maintain the show. That they re-invest in their park even when they can get away without doing so. That IOA is not “Harry Potter World”. That when they claim a title like most technically innovative ride, that they want to protect that claim. That they want to keep the bar high for theme parks so people can’t just get away with adding a meet and greet area and get away with it as an expansion anymore. That you can’t have a Yeti ride without a Yeti. That the IOA version of the Spiderman ride will forever be the bar that all future versions of Spiderman rides will be compared to—no matter who has the theme park rights. A lot of good reasons that are not about immediate profits but about long term strategies, about vision, about legacy, and dare I say…about adventure.
After I rode Erik asked my thoughts. I was still overwhelmed with the experience and the only thing that came out was “Long live the king!” In trying to re-think that I can come up with no better wys to express it. No boy wizard, however powerful, can ever take the top jewel in the IOA crown. There is ONE king at our islands since 1999 and I think Universal just wanted to make sure we didn’t lose sight of that.
LONG LIVE THE KING
Every Day’s An Adventure
Keeper
