Skull Island Reign of Kong is a trackless 3D dark ride at Universal Islands of Adventure. It features videos and special effects while you ride in large expedition trucks. You’ll run into bats, dinosaurs and Kong himself along the way. However, the star of the show, a giant animatronic Kong, is currently hidden behind a black curtain. This is speculated to be because of fire damage to the face during maintenance, although details are sketchy. This has given him the nickname “Curtain Kong” for these last 2 months.

The animatronic is one of the largest ever made at 30 feet tall and 18 feet wide only depicting Kong from the chest up. Seeing this animatronic is really the climax of the ride where you can almost feel and smell his breath. Currently on the ride you still hear him and your animatronic driver still talks like he’s there, but all you see is a big black curtain. I suppose this solution is better than not having the ride at all, but it makes the ending a tad confusing and anticlimactic. In many ways it would have been best to just speed by this section, but that may have proved too difficult. However, the ride still has an enjoyable coveted and air conditioned queue and the ride experience has some of the most intense themes and visuals you’ll find at Universal. If you’re a regular at Universal you may want to skip this until it’s fixed. If you’re on vacation a recommendation is more nuanced based on the wait time, weather and when you might return again. The ride is missing its star, but if it had a 30 minute or less wait it’s still more than worth your time no matter what, but longer than that you might want to compare it to the other wait times in the park. If VelociCoaster, Hagrid’s and other attractions are hovering around 2-3 hours then a longer wait could still be worth it and rain or hot weather could make the indoors worth a significantly longer wait.

Universal, to their credit, is very up front about the modification with signage in front of the ride. It’s not uncommon for theme parks to have a “B mode” for major scenes should mechanical issues arise with show elements like “disco yeti” on Expedition Everest and several elements of Rise of the Resistance, but this curtain is one of the most extreme. This means the show can go on, but hopefully the curtain comes down and Kong returns soon!