Universal Studios Florida opened June 7, 1990 with three headline rides that didn’t work. Jaws was the worst: sharks that missed their cues, teeth that fell off, a guest who fell in the lagoon. It closed by late August and didn’t come back until fall 1993.
Universal Studios Florida opened on June 7, 1990, with 12 attractions and a $30.74 ticket. Three of the biggest, Jaws, Kongfrontation and Earthquake, broke down on opening day. About a thousand guests demanded refunds.
Jaws never really recovered. The $30 million boat ride limped through the summer, closed by late August, and became the subject of a lawsuit. When it finally reopened in 1993 it was, in most of the ways that mattered, a different ride.
Universal historian Sam Gennawey’s summary of that first day: “Other than Ghostbusters and the E.T. Adventure, nothing worked as planned.”
What was wrong with the original Jaws ride?
Almost everything, because the whole thing lived underwater. The sharks were hydraulic, the machinery sat about 20 feet down in the lagoon, and, per Mental Floss, water and animatronics don’t mix.
Sharks missed the boats or surfaced late. Teeth broke off. The ride evacuated guests daily, and skippers were told to call the breakdowns “technical rehearsals.”
In July 1990 a 39-year-old guest, Anthony Salamone, fell into the lagoon when a boat railing gave way. He sued for $1 million.
By August Universal had pulled the plug. It closed the ride and sued the original builder, Ride & Show Engineering, alleging defective design, shoddy workmanship, missed deadlines and parts that weren’t waterproof. The case settled out of court around 1992.
How long was the Jaws ride closed?
About three years. Universal brought in a new team, with Intamin on the track, Oceaneering on the sharks and Regal Marine on the boats, and rebuilt the attraction from the water up.
Technical rehearsals started in August 1993, and the official reopening ceremony came Oct. 1, 1993, with Steven Spielberg, Roy Scheider and Lorraine Gary in attendance.
By industry estimates the original build plus the rebuild ran somewhere around $70 million, more than double what the ride was supposed to cost.
The finale changed, too. The 1990 version killed the shark with a grenade. The 1993 version electrocuted it on a power cable, an homage to Jaws 2, then blew it up. Universal executive Sidney Sheinberg’s logic, per the ride’s fan archive: “In every shark picture, the shark blows up in the end.“
How did the Jaws ride work?
You boarded Captain Jake’s Amity Boat Tours for a five-minute, 1,140-foot trip around Amity Harbor. A skipper with a grenade launcher narrated. The shark, roughly 25 feet and three tons, attacked from the water, then from under a boathouse, then from right next to the boat, and the skipper’s line “We’ll be shark bait in 10 minutes!“ was, for a lot of kids, the scariest thing in Orlando.
The original shark’s teeth were molded from real shark teeth. Later sets were urethane, because the real-tooth molds kept breaking.
Why did Universal close the Jaws ride?
To build Harry Potter. Universal announced in December 2011 that Jaws would close, and the last boats ran Jan. 2, 2012. The Wizarding World’s Diagon Alley opened on the site on July 8, 2014.
Universal spokesman Tom Schroder said at the time, “Jaws holds a special place in the hearts of our guests.“ It did, and fans still bring it up.
The park kept one piece: the hanging shark photo op, Bruce, now lives on the San Francisco waterfront near Chez Alcatraz.
Can you still ride Jaws anywhere?
Yes, in Japan. Universal Studios Japan opened its own Jaws ride on March 31, 2001, built from the 1993 Orlando version, and it’s still running in Osaka. That’s the last working Jaws boat ride on Earth.
The original Jaws encounter, the one on the Hollywood studio tram tour, has been part of that tour since April 10, 1976. The lagoon was drained in the 2010s, and the tram version is a much shorter scare than Orlando’s ever was.
A few more Jaws ride facts
Universal Studios Florida’s first year, 1991, drew 6.9 million guests, disaster and all. Back to the Future: The Ride opened that May and worked from day one, which is what saved the park’s reputation while Jaws sat dark.
Thirty-six years after opening day, the ride that didn’t work is the one people remember most fondly. Nostalgia has a way of forgetting the refunds.
Article compiled with the help of the Pirates & Princesses newsroom.
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Hat Tips:
Theme Park Tribune, the opening-day failures, the refunds, the $30 million cost and the Sam Gennawey quote
Inside Universal (June 2020), the ticket price and attraction count
Mental Floss, the underwater machinery, the Salamone fall and lawsuit
Los Angeles Times (Aug. 23, 1990, via Wikipedia), the Ride & Show Engineering lawsuit
Last Movie Outpost (Jaws ride history, parts II and III), the daily evacuations, the settlement, the rebuild team and the Oct. 1, 1993 ceremony
JawsRide.net, the teeth, the cost estimates and the Sheinberg quote
Universal Orlando (Discover Universal blog), the skipper script and the Bruce photo op
NBC News (Dec. 2011), the closure announcement and the Schroder quote
AllEars (Oct. 2020), Back to the Future’s role in the park’s recovery
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