Remembering the Dueling Dragons ride

We’ve got a boatload of bullet points to wade through in this week’s Theme Park Rangers Radar. There’s extended time in the Islands of Adventure time machine to reminisce about Dueling Dragons, sounds and sights from IOA and news from afar that might make one scream “fire in the hole” or “pumpkin spice, already?”

Radar is a weekly complication of theme park notes and nosiness. It is published on OrlandoSentinel.com on Wednesdays.

Digging Dueling Dragons

Did this reporter gasp a little when Universal’s Halloween Horror Nights announced there will be a haunted house called Dueling Dragons: Choose Thy Fate? Sorry, I was triggered by the memory of the intertwined coasters that opened with Islands of Adventure in 1999.

Universal’s description of the maze involves warlocks turned into dragons after trying to take Merlyn’s spell book. From the ride, I primarily remember the skulls in the queue, the weightlessness of the Fire dragon and the near-miss experience with a stone wall aboard Ice. And, of course, the alleged 1 foot of distance between the feet of dangling Dueling Dragons riders.

I also remembered preferring DD to Incredible Hulk coaster, which, as my dad would say, would shake your gizzard.

In honor of the Dragons, which would eventually be rethemed to become Dragon Challenge as the Wizarding World of Harry Potter era began, here’s a timeline of the attraction using our Orlando Sentinel archives.

• 1997: First mention of Dueling Dragons in print, saying it will up Orlando’s reputation for thrill rides. Its design – inverted vehicles racing along separate tracks – is described. “It’s really something that hasn’t been tried before,” said Mark Woodbury, then VP of creative development for IOA. “You come at very high speeds to within 12 inches of each other, and all of this happens over water. … You have to see it to believe it.” (Today,

Woodbury is chairman and CEO of Universal Destinations & Experiences.)

• 1999: In Sentinel’s Central Florida Business section, it’s said, “Word is even the designers, when they rode it for the first time recently, worried they had miscalculated and would slam into a wall at one point.”

• 2000: Steve Harvey says he’s ridden Dueling Dragons. “That was the greatest mistake I’ve made in 23 years. I don’t even understand how you can have the words fear and fun in the same sentence.”

• 2002: Sentinel columnist Tyler Gray, riding during Halloween Horror Nights, asks UOR official “What happens if I’m 12 inches taller than the average person?” (It’s pertinent because Gray is about 6-foot-7.) “Hmm, yeah. I wondered about that,” was the response.

• 2009: Universal announces plans for Wizarding World, including that some Lost Continent attractions will be repurposed. Later, trademarks are filed for Dragon Challenge as well as Flight of the Hippogriff, Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey, Ollivanders, Three Broomsticks, Magic Neep and butterbeer.

• Also 2009: OSHA fines Universal for safety violation after employee under coaster tracks was hit by a vehicle. Additional fencing was installed.

• 2010: Dueling Dragons is shut down in order to retheme it into Dragon Challenge.

It reopens June 18 with the rest of Hogsmeade and with a Triwizard Tournament theme and renamed dragons, now known as Chinese Fireball and Hungarian Horntail.

• 2011: A rider literally loses an eye after being struck by a foreign object while aboard the ride. Later that year, the deployment of the vehicles is staggered, decreasing the chance of interaction.

• 2015: Metal detectors are installed in an effort to detect loose objects at Dragon Challenge, Hulk and Universal Studios’ Hollywood Rip Ride Rockit coaster.

• July 2017: Universal says it’s closing Dragon Challenge in September, replacing it with something else in 2019.

• 2019: Hagrid’s Magical Creatures Motorbike Adventure, a completely new coaster, opens on the former grounds of Dueling Dragons.

Sounding off again at IOA

We’ll stick in the IOA Wayback Machine for a little bit. For a few days, Universal Orlando teased about news and used an old Islands of Adventure logo with its social-media posts.

Turned out to be pointing us toward the former park soundtrack, which has 23 songs now available to everyone on YouTube. I found a playlist that put them in order of appearance if you’re walking through Port of Entry and then hang a right to go into Seuss Landing. It’s just like being there.

• I’ve always thought the IOA music as you approach was mesmerizing. Or perhaps mind-numbing if you were to linger there too long. On the soundtrack, “Ocean Trader Market” covers that ground, but with a fuller, more orchestrated sound to my ear. Perhaps having less racket from people helps.

• I like the way “Sinbad Basar” blends into “Merlin Woods Plaza,” which, verily, sounds like an extremely peppy renaissance fair.

• I haven’t spot-checked this yet, but some of the tunes go with gone attractions and I’m guessing the music is out of there too. Stuff like “The Flying Unicorn” and “Island Skipper Tours.”

• “Thunder Falls Terrace” is surprisingly salsa-ish and “Sex and the City”-ish.

• For my next glow party? “Banner Science Park.”

News from afar

A sampling of attractions news with a Florida connection.

• Pigeon Forge, Tennessee, will be the home of the sixth Crayola Experience location. The second one ever is open in Orlando’s Florida Mall, and the company plans to develop four more by 2027.

• Silver Dollar City has announced a new Fire in the Hole coaster to replace the Fire in the Hole coaster that’s closing this year at the attraction in Branson, Missouri. Price tag: $30 million.

• Great Wolf Resorts, a Chicago-based chain of indoor water parks and hotels, is rolling out “Pumpkin Spice Suites,” using scents and sights of the season. The closest one to Orlando is in Atlanta, but Great Wolf is scheduled to open in Naples – its first in Florida – next year.

Weekend outlook

• Science Night Live, the adults-only evening at Orlando Science Center, is Saturday. Advance ticket purchase is required.

• Central Florida Animal Reserve, located in St. Cloud, is hosting Cat Tales & Cocktails with big-cat interactions and feline-inspired beverages on Saturday. Admission is $45. More information: cflar. org.

• SeaWorld Summer Spectacular and its Craft Beer Festival continue Friday, Saturday and Sunday.

• Epcot International Food & Wine Festival continues daily, with Eat to the Beat concerts by Ayron Jones on Friday and Saturday then Phillip Phillips on Sunday and Monday.

• Taste of Terror, a preview of foods for Universal’s Halloween Horror Nights, winds up with Friday and Saturday events at Universal Studios. Details: universalorlando.com/hhn. (Beware, there have been sell-outs.)

• Mickey’s Not-So-Scary Halloween Party continues at Magic Kingdom on Friday and next Tuesday; however, the event is sold out through Sept. 17.