Today We Mourn the Loss of An Old Friend...

As you may have heard at this point, Universal has announced that the dragons will no longer duel. After over a decade of zero casualties on the ride, two people were hit with loose objects and suffered injuries. This is like throwing a penny off the Empire State Building, I realize that, but Universal strongly emphasizes to use their lockers for your belongings. I'm sorry if someone got hurt, but this was their own doing, the rules were laid out for them. It's just amazing it took this long for something like this to happen!

The rest of us know that we will never again fell the quick breeze of a train of riders soaring past our faces five inches away, their feet extended giving the illusion that if we collide, we will be kicked in the face. Never again trying to high-five a friend on the opposite dragon knowing very well we could lose an arm. Never again bet our Fastpass tickets against friends to see which dragon would finish first.

Nope, now we just have, as Universal puts it, a "chase." Ah yes, because we all know that a simple chase is all Harry Potter had to do to complete the first challenge in the Triwizard Cup which the ride is named after. The Hungarian Horntail and the Chinese Fireball simply ran after each other in circles, yet somehow our wizard hero won the first round. Thank you, IOA. I'm astounded yet again at your marvelous attention to detail.

                                  RIP Dueling Dragons
                           Although we'll never pass you by,
                          We'll still remember jousting up high,
                           As, in near-collision, we tried to spit,
                           On a rider of our dragon's opposite.
                                               Farewell.