pianojohn Posted March 28, 2011 Posted March 28, 2011 Weird to think of this as retro, but I found my pics I took in March/April and may of 1999 while Islands of Adventure was doing soft openings. Notice the BRIGHT paint everywhere! Enjoy! Dueling Dragons from the now Hess station Dueling Dragons The Hulk from outside Dr. Doom also from outside the fences The old logo (EPIC Fail....seriously!!) Fire Dragon (now THAT's some red paint!!) Hulk from a distance The dragons dueling And another shot of DD Good Poseidon Before they ruined the show! Hulk from the back of Mythos Now THAT's a green train and track! Dr. Doom Toon Lagoon Seuss from across the lagoon Dueling Dragons with the old statues Hulk in action And Fired Dragon in action Green Eggs and Ham (when it was open all the time!) Hulk sign The Enchanted Oak (where Three Broomsticks now stands) And me at work! I used to play organ at Circus McGurkus when IOA first opened.
rydrmr9 Posted March 29, 2011 Posted March 29, 2011 I absolutely love the pictures John. IOA is my favorite park and it looks amazing freshly painted with all the bright colors. Thanks for posting!
HappyEisentrout Posted March 29, 2011 Posted March 29, 2011 I love looking at pictures of parks in the past. My cousin has years worth of pictures from Cedar Point and I love going through them. It will be interesting in 10 years time when I look back at the pictures I've taken now.
andyuk200523 Posted March 29, 2011 Posted March 29, 2011 I went during the soft opening (All Year!) I went along in September, and loved the park, everything was so clean and bright! Although I have to admit, I quite liked the Universal Studios Escape logo, got a Polo Shirt with it on somewhere Interesting to see you worked there, did you work there for long?
Brandy524 Posted March 29, 2011 Posted March 29, 2011 I was on a band trip in Orlando right around this same time. (I've done a retro TR with my photos). But we only went to Magic Kingdom. I remember seeing Hulk in passing and wishing we could go there instead! Nice pictures!
SoCalCoasters Posted March 29, 2011 Posted March 29, 2011 I actually like that logo too... These photos are great! It's interesting to see what the park looked like back when it first opened. And Fire Dragon did have some very bright paint! I have yet to visit USF/IOA, but I get the chance to this summer, I can't wait!
pianojohn Posted March 29, 2011 Author Posted March 29, 2011 I went during the soft opening (All Year!) I went along in September, and loved the park, everything was so clean and bright! Although I have to admit, I quite liked the Universal Studios Escape logo, got a Polo Shirt with it on somewhere Interesting to see you worked there, did you work there for long? I worked for USF/IOA from 1999-2002. I also helped open Universal Studios JAPAN in 2001. But I've been at Disney since 1999.
noticias24 Posted March 29, 2011 Posted March 29, 2011 Thanks for posting this, I really like to see "old" photos of theme parks and compare them to how they are now. Would love to see the Dragons with brand new paint again...
The SETGO Guys Posted March 29, 2011 Posted March 29, 2011 Wow, looks like a totaly different park! So Fresh and new. I hope that we can see those paint jobs come back!
LoopLover Posted March 29, 2011 Posted March 29, 2011 It's strange, IOA has always stood out to me as being very bright and cheerful. It makes me smile.
griffonj2022 Posted March 30, 2011 Posted March 30, 2011 Can you say fresh paint? I love the way this park looked when it opened...seeing all of the bright colors and how new everything seems. Now it's 10+ and still looks somewhat the same.
Snowboard246 Posted March 30, 2011 Posted March 30, 2011 Wow this is awesome, I have never seen the pics from way back when it opened! Love how the paint is all fresh and not faded or rusted and love to see how things have changed since then. (except for the dragon statues cause those were epic!)
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