User:Oddjob84/Archive 3

Porto Europa

The Porto Europa theme park was created by MCA Planning and Development (P&D), which was Universal Studios' creative arm prior to its renaming as Universal Creative in 1997. The park was built using American specialty vendors and Japanese construction companies, and opened in July 1994. With a footprint of 4.5 acres (1.82109 hectare), Porto Europa consists of three themed areas: a French, an Italian and a Spanish town. There are three major attractions, a flume ride/dark ride combination, a motion simulator/film ride, and an indoor stunt show which is now closed, with the theater space empty. The smaller attractions at opening included a jazz club, disco, cinema, laser tag, and virtual reality installation. There are also retail outlets, restaurants, and street shows.

High Dive

The High Dive ride is located in the Spanish Castle portion of the park. The load platform and splashdown pool are located outdoors, below the castle, with an observation deck/splash zone overhead. The ride vehicles ascend into the building, through an automated guillotine door, and into a spiraling fog vortex. Once at the top, the vehicle splashes down into a flume, which curves through the upper story of the building. This is the dark ride portion, which features a number of special effects including fog, blacklight effects, wind, animated figures and a 20 foot high parting waterfall. The vehicles then exit the building and curve around the rear of the castle before being released down the 65 foot slide into the splash pool. The ride system is by Arrow Dynamics. The ride is depicted in the lower left corner of the opening day program, reproduced to the right.

Seafari

The Seafari simulator ride is in the French-themed village, and occupies the majority of the space in the main building. It features an extensive preshow, including a moon pool with a 29 foot submarine hanging over it, as if it has been launched and recovered from the deep below. Guests move from the moon pool area to the Aqualab where they meet Sammy, a CGI dolphin who appears to be swimming in a 13 foot tank at guests' eye level. From this space, guests move into a 15 passenger themed submarine, which is in the actual motion base theater. The rendered image near the center of the program (right) depicts the ride theater. The Seafari motion bases are by Hughes Training. The ride film is a 3.5 minute Computer-generated imagery (CGI) short, in color, produced by Rhythm & Hues. At the time, it was considered one of the best CGI animated films ever made. The film was later used at PortAventura in Spain, renamed WorldSea Odyssey 4D. It opened there in 1999. Universal Studios owned PortAventura at the time.

Viking Adventure

The Viking Adventure Stunt Show is also located inside the Spanish Castle, occupying four floors, from the basement to the third level, the same level as the dark ride portion of the High Dive. The theatre space is an indoor ampitheater, featuring curved, steeply raked seating. Immediately opposite is a 110 foot wide curved plaster cyclorama approximately three stories high. The stage and set sits between the two. The rendering in the center left of the opening program gives some sense of the scale. The show itself is actually an adaptation of the Western Stunt Show, formerly at Universal Studios Hollywood and Universal Studios Florida. Some of the recycled stunts include the 8.5 ton falling wall, a rotating swaypole which swings an actor over the audience, an exploding well, a slide-for-life, again over the audience, and a high fall into the pool, rather than onto a wood pile. In the case of Viking Adventure, each stunt is larger and more extreme-looking than their predecessors. New are the moving iceberg, fast elevator, high bridge, and the pool and diving well. The action is supported by massive lighting, sound, pyrotechnic and special effects systems. The lighting, sound and show control systems were advanced state-of-the-art installations at the time. While theme park show control systems have long made use of industrial automation, such as programmable logic controllers (PLCs), Viking Adventure was the first to make full use of MIDI Show Control to completely synchronize the mechanical effects, atmospheric effects, lighting console, pyrotechnic controller, and audio system.

Minor Attractions

The smaller attractions in the French-themed area include Laser Tech, a laser tag installation, the International Cinema, which featured a 20 minute custom-produced cartoon at opening, and a large french restaurant. The Italian village, located between the French and Spanish buildings, contains the bulk of the retail, an Italian restaurant, Virtuality, a virtual reality gaming space, Monte Carlo, an arcade, Club Coyote, a western-themed discotheque, and Blue Tone, a live jazz venue. The Spanish castle, with two major attractions, houses only an American casual restaurant on the deck above High Dive.

Iron Ride Park & Japan Expo

At the time Porto Europa was completed, the area immediately behind the site and across the canal, was empty. During the grand opening, the Japan Expo was held on this site for 72 days. The program from that event is reproduced to the left. The owner has since installed a non-themed ride park, which is often confused with Porto Europa proper. This newer area has more in common with an American state fair and carnival than a theme park. This area features iron rides, including two coasters, merry-go-rounds, water slides, and a Ferris wheel. The coasters are Round and Round (Meisho) and Pinestar (Vekoma).