Crushed Stone and Staging Have Gone In Where the Sindbad Theater Stood, the Clearest Sign Yet of What Comes Next at The Lost Continent

Nearly every recent update out of The Lost Continent has been about something coming down. This one has a bed of crushed stone in it, and that is a different kind of detail.

Photographer bioreconstruct posted new aerial video of Universal Islands of Adventure on Saturday, August 1, and WDW News Today wrote it up Monday, August 3. The demolition headline is real enough: the Poseidon's Fury temple facade is gone, and so is the whole plaza in front of it. But the line worth circling is on the other side of the construction zone, where the Eighth Voyage of Sindbad theater used to sit.

In bioreconstruct's words: "site prep has started for new attractions where the Sinbad Theater was removed. A bed of crushed stone, and staging for new infrastructure." (bioreconstruct spells it Sinbad; the attraction was The Eighth Voyage of Sindbad.)

The wide view: the graded Eighth Voyage of Sindbad site on the left, with staged materials and equipment around its edges, the partly demolished Poseidon's Fury show building in the middle, and Seuss Landing across the water on the right. Photo by bioreconstruct, via WDW News Today.

Why that one sentence matters: site prep is not demolition. The photographer supplying these aerials is now describing the Sindbad side as preparation for new attractions rather than removal of old ones. It is the clearest on-the-ground sign yet that the site is being readied for what comes next, and it follows the construction permit reported in July that named a ride engineering company.

What is left of Poseidon's Fury

The temple facade was described as mostly demolished in WDW News Today's last update; it is now completely gone. Where the courtyard once framed a colossal ruined Poseidon statue, there is now a spread of broken concrete and other rubble. The statue's feet, its trident, the surrounding rockwork, the themed walls around the courtyard and what was left of the entrance facade have all been removed. A curved section of themed wall still stands against the show building itself.

The debris field where the Poseidon courtyard used to be, with excavators working through it. A curved section of white themed wall is still standing against the show building at right. Photo by bioreconstruct, via WDW News Today.

Several excavators are parked around the former courtyard and along the opened sides of the building, and tracks worn into the dirt now form a route that lets heavy machinery circle the structure.

Inside the hollowed-out show building

With the facade gone, there is now a clear line of sight to the show building from almost anywhere around it. Whole stretches of exterior wall have been torn off, and the structural columns, catwalks, ductwork and fragments of the attraction's interior behind them are exposed. Dark walls and suspended acoustic panels are still in place beneath parts of the roof.

A corner of the show building with the lower walls stripped off, leaving bare columns and the dark interior exposed. Rusted steel beams lie in a heap on the ground beside it. Photo by bioreconstruct, via WDW News Today.

Crews had already taken out several of the chambers guests walked through, and more recent work reached some of the final show scenes, exposing equipment tied to the moving walls used in the finale. Those areas are being pulled apart further now. Much of the central roof and the upper exterior walls are still standing, while interior demolition continues. This is not finished.

Long heaps of twisted steel, concrete and other debris piled up beside the backstage road, with excavators working alongside the opened building. Photo by bioreconstruct, via WDW News Today.

How big the site actually is

The wide aerials give a sense of how much land has been opened up. Seuss Landing sits on one side of it and The Wizarding World of Harry Potter - Hogsmeade on the other. With the Sindbad theater completely demolished, its old footprint reads as graded earth for the most part, with one large mound of darker soil toward the middle, plus the crushed stone bed and staged infrastructure bioreconstruct flagged. Construction vehicles are spread across it.

A backstage road still divides the two main work areas. Some smaller Lost Continent structures survive in between, and along the lagoon Mythos Restaurant is still standing, waterfront rockwork and all. Mythos is due to close for good in 2027.

Still no answer on what replaces it

Universal Orlando has not announced what is going into The Lost Continent, and clearing both of its major show buildings is opening up a substantial development site. The construction permit reported in July names the ride engineering company Garmendale. That could point to the new project, but WDW News Today also raised the possibility that Garmendale is working on the Jurassic Park River Adventure refurbishment instead. Universal has neither confirmed a link nor said anything about a theme.

For the record on the two attractions: Poseidon's Fury opened with Islands of Adventure in 1999 and shut for good in May 2023, closing on May 10 after final showings the day before. The Eighth Voyage of Sindbad had already finished its run in 2018.

Sources

• WDW News Today: Poseidon's Fury Facade Completely Torn Down as Demolition Continues at Universal Islands of Adventure
• WDW News Today: Universal Orlando Hires Ride Engineer, Possibly for Lost Continent Replacement
• Inside Universal: Poseidon's Fury to permanently close at Islands of Adventure

Image credits: All aerial photos by bioreconstruct, via WDW News Today.