Universal Orlando Resort (USF, IOA, Epic) Discussion Thread

[monsterfan99]

So far I know two cast members who have gotten the chance to ride Rockit. Both of them have said that the ride is rough, but they've also said that it still manages to be a lot of fun despite the roughness. Word from CM previews tonight though is that several of the riders got no audio during testing and that the audio system is still unreliable. Hopefully they'll get this fixed before the ride officially opens to the public.

 

We were by one of the employees while watching the ride and kept hearing about the audio. It did seem like people enjoyed it greatly, hopefully they let gp in the next 2 days for soft openings (crosses fingers.)

[King_K.]

New videos from today!

 

Man that is one quick lift.

 

 

[Homeboy23]

Well atleast we know the stairs work

 

Good to see it finally somewhat opening.

[coastakid]

So what exactly does 'CM' mean. Will I be allowed to ride when I'm at the park in 2 weeks?

[monsterfan99]

So what exactly does 'CM' mean. Will I be allowed to ride when I'm at the park in 2 weeks?

It was park employees only.

[Swiminn6]

Guys look, I read this from a article,

 

Hollywood Rip, Ride, Rockit soft opening tomorrow?

 

Reports on the web are claiming that Universal Studios Orlando will begin a soft opening of its Hollywood Rip, Ride, Rockit rollercoaster tomorrow at 2pm.

 

Here is my source, http://www.themeparktourist.com/news/20090815/219/hollywood-rip-ride-rockit-soft-opening-tomorrow

[themeparkman25]

^It soft opened today and will be opening off and on for the next 4 weeks.

[cooksta77]

Soare they planning on putting the banner up or did they throw those out?

[King_K.]

It didn't soft open today. It's just currently doing TM Previews. Only employees.

[thrillgeek]

The latest testing vids look awesome. Just one question though. What exactly does "soft opening" mean?

[ReelBigFish419]

The latest testing vids look awesome. Just one question though. What exactly does "soft opening" mean?

 

When a ride opens to the public before media day, the park won't really advertise that the coaster is open, it just will be. Then comes the 'official' opening on media day.

[ECZenith]

Coastakid,

 

CM stands for "Cast Member" , TM stands for "Team Member"

 

Cast Members in this instance meaning the staff that will be operating a Universal attraction. I'm not sure if Universal officially calls their crew team members or cast members (We call them CMs at Disney) but I'm sure someone here could clear that up.

[JT3000]

Universal employees are team members.

[INDIOUK]

as we waited to get into blue man group last night, they were queing to ride the rocket. all seemed fine and not sure how long it ran for but looked ok..

[Maximo37]

My partner rode it twice after work yesterday... Much to his surprise they were offering Team Member previews.. (he called me after work to tell me, but he wasn't going to ride as he just wanted to get home... I nearly demanded he go and ride it and not to be foolish...) He couldn't honestly tell me if he liked it whole-heartedly or not... He didn't DIS-like it and states its a "nice" addition to the park.. Three trains were running... He said the ride was SMOOTH (not rough as some others stated in earlier posts) but the audio was a mixed bag... it worked once and not the other time... He said they had VERY little time to pick a song the first time (which is the time it worked) and the next time attempted one of the "easter eggs" which will allegedly be included in the ride by meeting certain criteria and that is the time it DIDN'T work.. The audio was very clear (when it worked) and confined only to his seat (so he couldn't hear others choices, assuming the audio in the other seats were working).. The moving sidewalk on the load platform was not working which meant that the trains were stopping to let people on (I've heard that the load platform was supposed to be "non-stop" as the trains were supposed to advance forward slowly while guests were loading)... Towards the end of the ride, he said the very steep tight turns made him feel a little claustrophobic... Again, he didn't DIS-like the ride, but had trouble telling me that he overall liked it...

 

I'm really looking forward to getting to finally ride this coaster myself in the not too distant future (sometime after my vacation next week... going to Busch Gardens Williamsburg) and will form my own opinion of it... No matter what, its good to have this ride closer to opening to the public...

[Swimace]

He said the ride was SMOOTH (not rough as some others stated in earlier posts)

 

It's all just speculation at this point. The people I know who have gotten a chance to ride said that it was rough, but not so rough that it isn't enjoyable. Everybody has a different tolerance for roughness, what one person considers to be a "rough" coaster another person might not.

 

Here come the mixed reviews.

[Maximo37]

^^

Very true... his perception of the ride was very smooth, where others have felt it was rough...

 

(..I should have phrased it that way, but didn't re-read my post close enough... sorry about that, my bad...)

[KrakenKing]

Any ride with a little vibration is considered "Rough" these days it seems. People just need to suck it up.

 

I've been told the ride is great... so I guess it's very mixed. Some people probably just hate it on principal because it took so long to get the ride open. They probably went on with the mindset that it was going to be super awesome and were let down, or just went in thinking it was going to be really crappy.

 

I'm just gonna go on it and ride it for what it is.

[pat_naughty05]

About the moving load platform...

 

 

I have been told that the ride will probably not open with that particular device operating. From what I was told, they won't start using that until they have all of the trains on the track.

[Snicket]

Here's a detailed review of Hollywood Rip, Ride, Rockit! from Chris at OrlandoUnited.com:

 

So - for a more detailed review- I'll break it down by element since that's what people will want to hear --

 

The lift - to me, this was nothing different. By now I've been on quite a few different coasters with vertical lifts.

 

The drop - Great. Steaper than it looks. Cresting the top, you cannot see it all, which is always a great sign. Fast and smooth with a little air.

 

Non-Inverting Loop - one of the single most fun elements you'll ever find on a roller coaster - exactly what I expected it to be. It's fast, it's smooth and has a constant flowing motion. It's really, really good.

 

First block - really nice pop of air

 

Drop off first block - WAY steaper than it seemed like it would be. Felt like there was no way the train would make it into the firehouse because the firehouse is just way too close.

 

Bursting through the firehouse- very fun moment. Great way to "enter" the park for the first time.

 

Trebble Clef - Fun. Pulls some good G's winding up, but NOT enough to black you out which is VERY good news. The almost-but-not-quite-inverted peak didn't feel quite as exciting as I'd expected, but it was fun enough.

 

Second block - really nice pop of air, and feels way too close to the track above. Pretty neat.

 

Drop off second block - a little air

 

Twists leading to the Crowd Surfer - fun, but not as banked as I'd hoped.

 

Crowd Surfer - REALLY great. One of the better parts of the ride. VERY banked (95º) and very close to the buildings, queue, etc. At night, with all the LEDs around the queue, it verges on epic. Can't wait to see it with a full queue below at night.

 

Third block - really nice pop of air

 

Drop off third block - more air

 

Trick Track - very smooth, flowing feeling of tipping you from one side to the other plus airtime

 

Plot Twist- pulls some decent Gs (again, not enough to black you out) - but didn't feel as much like an incline loop even though that's really exactly what it is. Felt more like a standard helix.

 

Fourth block - really nice pop of air

 

Drop off fourth block - more air

 

Bunny hop before final brakes - more air

 

Final brake rune - really nice pop of air

 

 

Here's the thing - I haven't really ever said on here what my coaster track record is because I don't want to come off as being snobby or say "I'm better than you because I rode more" - but I'm going to say it once, and never again - Hollywood Rip, Ride, Rockit was coaster #731 on my track record. I've done and seen a LOT. What that does is tend to make you very jaded. It's harder and harder to really be impressed by a ride anymore. Everything starts to blend. Everything tends to feel the same. I've said for almost two years - long before most people even knew Rockit was being conisdered - that after seeing the plans, THIS would be the ride that feels different from everything else. It would be the stand out ride because it is so unque, and just downright fun.

 

Rockit was *everything* I expected it to be.

 

My friend from Creative approached me after one of my rides to ask what I thought - knowing my range of travel and knowing how cynical I am about new coasters most of the time. He was verging on speechless after hearing my glowing review, and shook my hand saying that a review like that coming from me, after all I've seen and done, is one of the best compliments they could have gotten.

 

Other things of note-

The queue, while just a standard Six Flags-esque compound of switchbacks was well done. The first portions of it behind Jimmy Neutron really do look great. The combination of the graphics applied to all the buildings around it, the giant LED wall, the LED text scrolling screens, and the track - right there - severely banked overhead makes for a very bold statement that excuses the switchback zoo feeling.

 

The music - In my eight rides, I had five different tracks, chose one repeat on purpose and two times that I ended up with no audio at all. First I'll start on the worst side of the spectrum - even without audio, the ride is just as fun. It's not like Disneyland's (or Disneyland Paris') Space Mountain, or California Screamin' where the audio is sync'ed to each twist, turn and drop of the track; on something like that, the music really enhances the ride and can mark the difference between an OK ride experience and a great ride experience (Space Mountain isn't NEARLY as fun without the sound track). Most of the tracks on Rockit - just as I expected - are just music playing on a roller coaster. They have nothing to do with what the ride does, its mood, its tone or anything. It's just there. It's nice that there's music playing; I'd rather have it than silence - but it doesn't add to the sensation of the ride. The one exception I've found thus far is Evanessence's Bring Me To Life - the song I chose twice. This song just WORKS - very well. It works so well in fact that if you didn't know it was an existing song that hadn't been edited or remixed, you'd be able to accept believing that it was sync'ed to match the coaster. It works so well going up the lift, gets VERY fast paced the second you start to drop, and matches in quite a few places. Most of note - a realtive slow part of the song matches to the first block and drop off it, and (assuming you are familiar with the song) there is almost silence at the bottom of that drop and the sudden fast paced "BREAK ME OUT!" happens *exactly* when you burst through the firehouse. It's epic. I also tried Sabotage by Beastie Boys, which worked decently well, Intergalactic also by Beastie Boys, which was pretty awful on this ride believe it or not, Born to be Wild by Hinder which was pretty ok, and Rollin' by Limp Bizkit which kind of worked. I'd heard that Pump It by Black Eyed Peas works pretty well, but when I tried selecting it, the screen froze and I got no music at all. The other time I got no music was when I'd tried to select one of the secret hidden bonus tracks. Although I did it right, it glitched and I got a silent ride instead. Whoops.

 

Oh yeah - there's more than 100 *other* songs hidden in this thing that can be accessed if you know how to do it. And that's all I'm gonna say.

 

It's worth the wait. It's really, realy worth the wait. You're likely never gonna see another review this glowing from me for a new ride. Rockit is awesome.

 

I was able to talk to a worker - due to technical problems and the fact that the employees are only mid-way through the training, the conveyor belt has been turned off and only two to four trains are running. In a few weeks, employees will be better trained to load passengers quickly and safely using the conveyor system.

The lack of music on some people's rides are glitches that will be resolved.

 

There are several more technical issues that I won't go into now since they've probably already been resolved as of this morning. There are currently no major setbacks.

[King_K.]

Fantastic review, I knew this coaster would be worth the wait. I just can't wait to ride it. There are some rumblings of a 6pm opening for GP tonight. Take that with a grain of salt, but I've heard it from reliable people.

 

[Edit] Here's a couple of new pictures from the TM Previews going on. I really love the entrance. You can make out the Technical Rehearsal sign for when they open GP softs.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

All photos are courtesy of Justmikeyhrc.

[RctInfinity]

I love how the entrance looks and I can't wait to see the Peoplemover loading up and running!

[adeuce02]

Ok just got done riding team member preview. Its pretty sweet i got alot of airtime much more than i expected going into the break runs. Might open at 6 to the public but they dont know yet. My audio work luckily

[King_K.]

People are lining up outside Rockit in hopes that the supposed 6pm Soft Opening is true. Someone looks familiar in this photo..

 

 

[EDIT] - THE CONSTRUCTION WALLS ARE COMIN' DOWN.

 

Dozens of uniformed employees standing about and Park just brought over an iced drink cart.

 

"Here at Hollywood Rip Ride Rockit, all sorts of management standing planning a line formation. I've been told by staff 6 pm!!'"

 

[RctInfinity]

Awesome! I hope this means more pictures of the great entrance.