Universal quietly closed the Skull Island single rider queue, handed out free Express passes instead, then stopped doing that too. The app still has not caught up.
Skull Island: Reign of Kong at Universal Islands of Adventure no longer has a single rider line.
Team members at the attraction confirmed the queue is closed indefinitely.
The Universal Orlando Resort app still shows single rider as available. Team members said the app is waiting on an update, which means anyone planning around it right now is planning around something that does not exist.
What replaced the Skull Island single rider line?
For a short window, a free ticket.
Guests who asked about single rider were handed a printed Single Attraction Pass, which looks like a receipt with a QR code along the bottom. You could present it at the Skull Island Express queue and walk in without paying.
The pass is good for one guest, one use, at one location. It also works at most attractions across both Universal Studios Florida and Islands of Adventure, with three exceptions: Pteranodon Flyers, Hagrid’s Magical Creatures Motorbike Adventure and Jurassic World VelociCoaster.
That is a genuinely better deal than a single rider line, since a free Express pass can be spent on a ride with an hour wait instead of the one you happened to be standing at.
Is Universal still giving out the free Express pass?
Apparently not.
Guests began reporting within a day that Universal had stopped handing out the free Single Attraction Pass. No announcement came with it, the same way no announcement came with the single rider closure.
So the situation as of tonight is that the single rider line is gone, the thing that briefly replaced it is gone, and the app has not been told about any of it.
Has Universal done this before?
Something close. The Single Attraction Pass resembles Universal Express Single Attraction Access, which the resort introduced for a limited time last year at Skull Island and Revenge of the Mummy.
The difference is that version cost money. This one was free while it lasted.
Why did Skull Island lose single rider?
Universal has not said.
What is known is that Kong reopened on Friday with its headline animatronic missing. Universal Orlando confirmed the giant King Kong figure was damaged during routine maintenance, after weeks of silence about the attraction.
An attraction running without its centerpiece is a different attraction, and the ride’s throughput math changes with it. Whether the two decisions are connected is unconfirmed either way.
Are other parks cutting single rider lines?
Disney just did, on the other side of town.
Expedition Everest at Disney’s Animal Kingdom lost its single rider line permanently this week. Disney’s explanation was close to the opposite of Universal’s situation: it said the loading process had been improved to the point that single rider was no longer worth keeping.
Two Orlando parks, one week, two single rider lines gone, for reasons that do not resemble each other at all.
For anyone visiting in the next few weeks, the practical advice is short. Do not count on single rider at Skull Island, do not count on the app to tell you the truth about it, and ask a team member at the attraction rather than planning around what the app shows.
Universal has not announced whether the single rider queue is coming back, and “indefinitely closed” is doing a lot of work in that sentence.
Article compiled with the help of the Pirates & Princesses newsroom.
Pirates and Princesses is your destination for Disney news, theme park updates, and the pop culture you love. From Disney cruises and travel tips to Disney fashion, food, collectibles, and movie news, PNP covers it all. Visit us at piratesandprincesses.net for daily coverage. Follow PNP on Facebook and Instagram, and listen to the Pirates & Princesses podcast on Apple Podcasts and YouTube.
Hat Tips:
WDW News Today (Sept. 20, 2026), on-site confirmation from attraction team members, the Single Attraction Pass details and the follow-up update that Universal stopped issuing it
Universal Orlando Resort, confirmation that the King Kong animatronic was damaged during routine maintenance
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