AdamNVillani

Aw man, lots of good memories there. I remember when I was a kid in the 70s/early 80s, the tour was the big, main attraction at Universal. People would just say "going on the Universal Studios Tour" instead of visiting Universal Studios. The weird thing is that after going twice when I was about 6 years old in 1979 (my dad got to be the pilot in the Airport '77 thing), I went 20 years without going to Universal Studios. So when I went back SO MUCH had changed... they didn't have the escalators then; the tram would take you down there where you could hang out and see stuff, and then you'd catch another tram to finish the tour and take you back up. I remember the Wild West show and an Incredible Hulk appearance in the theater that later had Fear Factor in it. And of course, Magic Mountain... I think the Mountain Express may have been the first coaster I ever went on, unless it was something at Disneyland.

I can certainly see why they got rid of it, but I was actually one of the psychos who liked that ride... I figured out how to ride it without getting in pain, and it was pretty fun. But judging from the moans and groans I would hear coming off of that one (and the VERY short lines), I was one of the few. I noticed they got rid of the station, too. I could be mistaken, but I think they used that same station for the Sarajevo Bobsleds and Shockwave. The big question is what are they going to put there in its place?

Hey, I've lived in SoCal just about my whole life, so my home parks are SFMM, Knott's, and Disneyland. My coaster count is 72, only a handful of which are outside of California. I work as an urban planner, and my boss is a total Disney-head; it's kinda scary. Not that there's anything wrong with that. You can check out my blog at http://blogbilongadam.blogspot.com , where mostly I talk about stuff other than coasters. Also, yes, my avatar is an accurate picture of me... it was a horrible genetic engineering experiment. I am the only capuchin monkey taller than the height limit on coasters.