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.

On a recent trip to Universal Islands of Adventure VelociCoaster had wait times reach 205 minutes (3 hours 25 minutes) and regularly sit at 175 minutes. This was likely due to Hagrid’s and Forbidden Journey both having numerous closures that day. However, as awesome as VelociCoaster is, it got me thinking which rides I’d be willing to wait 3 hours to ride. Which attractions would you wait 3 hours to ride?

Many fans spotted Victor Wembanyama (Wemby) and several Spurs teammates including Dylan Harper and Stephon Castle visiting Six Flags Fiesta Texas last Sunday for Fright Fest. In comments to reporters Monday Wembanyama, who is 7’4″, said he was unable to join his teammates on rides at Six Flags last weekend. “I can’t do it safely, so I’d rather not do it,” Wembanyama said “I didn’t pass the height requirement.” You can see the interchange in the Spurs Nation post below:

On Friday, October 16, 2026 Hershey Park announced the reopening of their B&M Hyper Candymonium. It had been shutdown since the tragic incident with the similarly designed Goliath at Six Flags Over Georgia like other B&M Hyper and Giga roller coasters nationwide with the “clamshell” restraint. However, what was most telling and newsworthy was the press release. It stated, “We also consulted with the ride’s manufacturer. Based on the information presently available, the manufacturer has not identified an engineering basis to recommend shutting down similarly designed coasters solely because of the incident in Georgia.” Here’s the complete release.

Incredibly sad news out of Six Flags Over Georgia as it’s being reported one man was killed after being ejected from Goliath, the B&M hyper coaster. Many news outlets have posted pictures of people being evacuated from the lift hill, but insiders I know said the incident was actually on the bunny hills on the return. The next train was stopped on the lift and they thus needed evacuate people there. The details I heard sound horrific though and appear to have been captured by the ride camera, but I’ll spare all the details. We have zero idea the cause of the incident at this point, but generally it’s between mechanical failure, control system failure, poor maintenance, ride operations error (either overriding a safety system or allowing someone to ride who shouldn’t) or rider behavior. Early reports are often wrong (see the Stardust Racers incident earlier this year). Initial attention has been placed on the restraint since there was an ejection. B&M has a patent on their clamshell restraint and I wanted to provide some technical information about it here.

Fast and Furious Hollywood Drift at Universal Studios Florida has a car on the track and has been conducting “pull-through” and “envelope” testing. The train started Saturday morning October 10, 2026 at the base of the spike and ended the day suspended high on the spike. You can see clearly the “envelope” testing apparatus which is meant to mimic the distance rider extremities could possibly reach to test for safety and clearance around the vehicle. The “pull-through” test is a way to winch a train through the course to ensure smooth travel across the tracks. With the train left where it was it appears either the team just quit right there for the day or thought it would be a fun place to leave it for guests to see.

On Friday, October 9th, 2026 Universal Orlando made a quiet change to its “park hours” page where it also displays current and scheduled ride closures. The reopening of Jurassic Park River Adventure was delay out a month until December 17, 2026. The ride has been down since January 5, 2026 and was originally slated to reopen November 20, 2026. The ride is a “people eater” with a massive capacity of 3,000 riders/hour, so when another major attraction at Universal’s Islands of Adventures goes down (like Hagrid’s or Velocicoaster), there’s not many places to put the overflow. No doubt the park certainly wants this ride back as soon as possible and the renovations must be taking slightly longer than originally anticipated. Maybe it may even open sooner as the ride was actually seen testing on October 14, 2026.