Adventures in Amity: Tales From The Jaws Ride Kindle Edition

I admit up front that i am exactly the demographic dork this book was written for. Jaws has been my favorite film since it's release, i saw it day 2,( i was 10) AND i worked at Universal Florida '95-'97 at Back To The Future. The book arrived about 24 hours ago, and i just finished reading it. Simply put, i couldn't put it down. I loved the ride almost as much as the film, and was fortunate enough to ride it more times that i can calculate, never once having anything other than a GREAT time. McNeill's book is THE deFINitive history of the attraction. Meticulously detailed through interviews with a variety of people involved with it's legacy. From it's disastrous 1990 opening to it's 2012 closing, it's all here. Fantastic tales from many of The Skippers, for whom it became a rather seminal part of their lives. Lots of great photos and fun facts. The read exceeded my expectations. Grateful someone made the effort to document what a unique and technologically impressive milestone this attraction was. Introduction by J. Michael Roddy really sets the tone for the book and i take comfort in knowing that i am not alone in my reverential amazement and LIFELONG affection for Jaws The Movie, Jaws: The Ride and Jaws: The Fans. Well Done! (Photos from my personal collection, not the book).

I never visited Universal Studios and never went on the Jaws ride, but as a fan of theme park history and the story of how Disney World got its first serious challenge ever from Universal in the 90s, I was fascinated to read more about this attraction based on one of my favorite movies. After a great beginning, the book utterly ran out of steam for me with too many interviews with former skippers and cast members telling us the umpteeenth version of the same story over and over. That was only mildly irritating until I had to come to the interview with "the last skipper hired for Jaws" and had to read this first-class jerk's nasty comments about the time a Christian youth group was on the ride and how this bigot decided to act toward them.

A great behind the scenes book about the Jaws ride at Universal. Lots of great "inside" information and a true pleasure to read for the real Jaws fan, whether you experienced the ride or not.However, I strongly suspect since the movie is 45+ years old and the ride has been closed for almost 10 years, this book caters to an older demographic. Thus, it would have been nice to been written in an larger and easier to read font. Not a fan of the Comic Sans font at the beginning of certain chapters.The book does make mention in the beginning that many of the pictures were from cell phones or cameras from an era where technology was significantly less, but I still think many of the pictures could have been enhanced more or published in color. The font font and pictures are why I am giving it 4 stars.A must read for true Jaws fans!

It's quite obvious the author had mad love for this "Jaws" theme park ride in all of its incarnations. And the level of detail he goes through in outlining its conception, creation, execution, and decline is quite admirable. But it gets a bit dry after an hour or so of reading. Not sure I'm going to be able to finish this one without some concerted effort.Still, I tip my hat to the author for the exhaustive research that obviously went into this work and for tracking down so many people for interviews. He put in the legwork and it shows!

As a former skipper I love that Dustin has written this book. Would have loved some more diverse representation (there are a lot of white dudes profiled in the book, lol, I seem to remember plenty of women and persons of color working at JAWS when I was there). But overall, it's the history of my youth and I really enjoyed it.

I love this book! I loved the JAWS Ride at USF, and was sad when it closed. I think the last time I rode it was 2006. The interviews in this book were extremely enlightening. Didn't know the were two different versions of the ride...I only rode the second version. It was great reading the skippers' interviews in particular. Mr. McNeill did an excellent job with this book. Greatly recommended for true fans of the ride. LONG LIVE JAWS!!!

Was honestly shocked at how well done this interview collection was. Some of the answers can get a tiny bit repetitive (Scene 4 is covered pretty exhaustively!) but when you are finished you really feel like you know pretty much everything there is to know about the experience that was the Jaws ride. For anyone like myself that sorely misses it, and still watches YouTube videos of it, I now have an even greater appreciation for what we had - and lost. Highly recommended.

Dustin does an amazing job of going deep into the history of the ride, interviewing everyone from ride skippers to the folks behind the scenes who made the ride a reality. This book is a must-have for fans of the Jaws Ride AND fans of theme parks in general.It's a quick read, full of details, but not overwhelming the reader with a barrage of facts. You actually feel like a participant in that history, and rather than feeling like you're attending a lecture. Dustin weaves a narrative that takes the reader through the history and makes you feel like you've got a front-row seat to history.

The media could not be loaded.  The Jaws ride will always have a special place in my heart - I first rode it in the early 1990's, when my dad was lucky enough to win a family holiday to Florida, and along with Earthquake! and Kongfrontation made a huge impression on me. We returned a couple of years later, and it was Jaws that we made a beeline for straight away. Fast forward 20 years or so on, and when my wife and I were on holiday in Japan it was again the jaws ride that I took us to first when we visited Universal Japan.This isn't the first book detailing the history of the ride - I'd previously purchased "Amity 6 to base" by Mike Jones, which was a spirited but lacking book, full of grammatical errors and silly mistakes (including some notes presumably from the publish to the author, or from the author to himself, which were not supposed to be published!). I wasn't sure if this book would just tread the same old ground and add nothing, but that couldn't be further from the truth as this is fantastic and the book the ride deserved.There's plenty on the troubles history of the ride, which I suspect you may be familiar with if you are interested enough in the ride to read this review, but it's supplemented with fascinating interviews from people involved with the ride such as ex-skippers, engineers, designers etc. Whereas "Amity 6 to base" felt very sparse on the page this is nearly 300 pages of text with some great pictures. The only slight issue I have is that it's black and white only, and from thje author's website for the book you can see there's some great colour pictures that would have really taken things to the next level, but I guess that was essential to keep the book affordable.In conclusion then this is essential for any fans of one of the greatest theme park rides ever made.

I'm a huge fan of Jaws and I devour anything on the subject! My favourite Jaws book has always been The Jaws Log, but now I've had something new to sink my teeth into! And it's every bit as good as The Jaws Log, but about the Jaws Ride instead, which is a story just as interesting as the making of the movie - even mirroring it at times! It's a fascinating read, meticulously researched and hugely entertaining. I loved it!

This book is a must for any fans of the Universal Studios Jaws ride. It gives an insightful history of the development and running of this iconic theme park ride. There's also plenty of interviews with the people who designed, built, and worked Jaws day to day. All in all a great read

I admit this book is perfect for me from the outset i’ve been crazy about this attraction since like 93!The books well written, thorough, great rarely seen photos and if you even have a slight interest in this ride honestly youbwon’t want to put this down!I had big expectations and it was better than expected plus for £15 you can’t reslly go wrong!Add this unique book into your collection, it’s a shame more aren’t like this because some themed attractions are such works of art and ingenuity!

Shame it’s all in black and white photos would be better in colourPretty informative and interesting