The death of Jaws

When the life of Jaws the ride came to a end at Universal Studios Florida, I felt saddened, a loss in my heart for a ride I cant say I loved, or excited to go on, or really enjoyed that much. It felt like the death of a celebrity, you felt like your knew them, you thought you knew their likes and dislikes but really you did not know them at all. But it pushed me to write, to look back on this beloved by many ride.


Jaws the ride opened in June 1990 ( 22years ago, I know i cant believe that 1990 is 22 years behind us too.) received mixed reviews mainly to the unpredictability of the ride. But with at the time amazing technological aspects this was a ride for the mases. A six minute long journey would take you into the films which everyone of us remembers and loves (well the first film anyway). The sharks coming out at the boat look as real as the sharks in the film (not sure whether a good thing or a bad thing) and the whole experience brought young and old together on an adventure through Amity.


What really made the experience was both the boat guide and the other people in the boat. Never did i go on this ride and experience a second rate boat guide. It felt like these people were handpicked by universal because they loved the films and loved the ideas of the ride. It was an experience that you enjoyed remembered and told stories to the people that would listen. 


The other people in the boat also helped, whether American British Chinese or a little purple dinosaur who cares the people were with you when you survived the adventure with the big white.


So with the demise of this great ride to make way for what I'm sure with be a new exciting ride i would like to detract my original statement. Jaws was a ride i enjoyed, Jaws was a ride I loved and Jaws was a ride that i knew the likes and dislikes. The loss of Jaws is not that of a celebrity but that of a close friend you could speak to at any opportunity. You may not speak to them for a couple of years but you always know they will be there when you want them.


So i raise a glass to the ride i enjoyed when i was only 8 and a ride i enjoyed when i last rode it at 25. So long good friend, thank you for the memories you have gave me and thousands of other people.