Universal Orlando Resort (USO, IOA) Discussion Thread

[jray21]

^^Don't give them any ideas!

[JT3000]

A person may dislike the fantasy genre, but I don't see how that would make the slightest bit of difference here. The area Potter replaced, Merlinwood, was ALSO fantasy. Dragons, wizards, unicorns, the whole kit & caboodle. If you hate Wizarding World because it's fantasy, you should have hated Merlinwood equally, if not moreso, since it represented fantasy in a very generic, stereotypical way. While I'm no fan of the Potter mythos, I can appreciate the fact that it's more creative than what was previously there.

[Imhotep]

Are you a fan of the Mythos mythos?

 

*hides from Jeebus facepalm*

[KrakenKing]

A person may dislike the fantasy genre, but I don't see how that would make the slightest bit of difference here. The area Potter replaced, Merlinwood, was ALSO fantasy. Dragons, wizards, unicorns, the whole kit & caboodle. If you hate Wizarding World because it's fantasy, you should have hated Merlinwood equally, if not moreso, since it represented fantasy in a very generic, stereotypical way. While I'm no fan of the Potter mythos, I can appreciate the fact that it's more creative than what was previously there.

 

Quoted for truth.

 

All this "I can't believe they did this to Lost Continent!" crap is getting old. If you don't like it, don't go into the area. I don't see how it being transformed into something that is actually *recognizable* to virtually everyone is a "Bad thing". Before the transformation I'd walk into the area and I've heard park guests asking what "Lost continent" was exactly... it's so... open-ended I guess.

 

Dueling Dragons, Flying Unicorn, Enchanted Oak... all very "Basic" names.. all themed to generic "Fantasy figures"

 

So this whole "Oh it's fantasy, It's for twelve year olds, I hate it" argument is complete crap. All you older people need to get over it, it's not changing back.

[alpengeist04]

While I do like the Harry Potter land as a whole, there's just no getting over what they did to Dueling Dragon's queue.

[Meteornotes]

Heaven forbid anyone not like Potter! Sheesh...

 

dt

[SharkTums]

I think we need to get back on track here and by that I mean stop talking about it!

 

If there's more news, let's post it, but the constant insults back and forth between the pro and con potter people is getting old.

 

Move along!

[rosscoe]

There was a very interseting article in yesterdays New York Times on Universal and Harry Potter, about the over all impact the opening of the land has had on the park itself. The big issues facing Disney. This was in the hard copy not 100 per cent sure, if it was online as well.

[downunder]

^Is this it?

 

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/01/09/us/09potter.html

[snowboard83]

See, I rode it last year and then again this year. Once in the very front, once in the very back. I found the ride to be very intense in some areas with some really crazy pops of airtime.

 

I don't understand how people can have such a vastly different experience on this coaster. Personally, I absoultely LOVE it. I've never found it rough and really love the pacing on it.

 

I also didn't find any difference between the previous version and the rehabbed version. I thought both of them were GREAT! It greatly exceeded both of our expectations. I don't get how so many people seem to have bad rides on it.

 

--Robb "I ranked it #24 in the world last year, Elissa ranked it #15!" Alvey

I will concede that the one ride I had on it was a horrible experience after about an hour wait, so that probably had a lot to do with it. But all I could concentrate on was how much my seat was shimmying the entire time, and then the uncomfortable "crowd surfing" portion that just hung me over the side of my restraint. I'm sure I'll give it another shot whenever I go back, I just hope this time it's better.

 

I was very surprised by the ride. Big pops of air coming onto then again off of the brake runs, especially the last two. Everything about it was good IMO! I rode May '10 in the back seat.

[KI Kidd]

I rode it for the first time this past Saturday. I fall into the the 'horrible ride' camp for sure. From the bottom of the first drop I could tell that it was going to be a very bumpy ride. I was in the last row for my only ride of the day. The non-inverting loop was a cool element and I would love to ride a B&M or Intamin version. After that however, it was just jerky. There were some positive g's in spots but no real airtime at all. Hopefully I can get back down there sometime and experience it on a good day.

Fun element...not so fun ride.

[Maximo37]

^^

I've ridden it about a dozen times so far... and for the most part, you pretty much summed up the majority of my rides on HRRR... out of the dozen, about 3 were very good... the rest were exactly as you described... my personal worst was actually in the front seat... while I'm certainly glad Universal built the coaster, its not a favorite of mine...

[Imhotep]

I thought the ride was decent, not B&M or Intamin glass-smooth, but its not crazy rough. They would have done better to go with the more reliable less ugly B&M and just made a Hollywood Dream clone, however we may not have been able to have our two unique elements.

 

I can only recall experiencing airtime on the NIL. The rest of the ride is just a fun laid back ride to accompany the music, which is what I'm pretty sure they were going for.

[dragonskeep]

I bet most of us locals have a love hate feeling about Rockit. Aside from the operational problems, the ride can be an unpleasant type of "rough" and at times quite boring. At the same time it has delivered some very good rides as well.

[JuanSe_Colombia]

I rode it last summer twice in a day, both in the second row and I had a great experience on both rides, I found it very smooth and not as intense as I expect I would be, just perfect amounth of intensity. I really enjoyed it and I got my video.

[StarTrekGeek]

From Screamscape:

 

Park News -(2/3/11) Over the past few months the Hollywood Rip, Ride, Rockit did reopen and quietly went back into regular daily operations, all the while hoping everyone forgot about that long bout of unexpected downtime last year. Before the downtime, there were a few rumors about impending changes on the way to the ride which never took place, due to the last year’s problems. Now, almost everyone is silent on the matter. Almost...

According to a Screamscape source, Universal and Maurer got together and performed a little upgrade to one of the ride’s trains in an effort to improve the ride experience. This new car has been running the rails for awhile now, mixed in at random with the other cars, in order to judge the guest reaction. Hearing comments from you readers all the time about this coaster, I’d have to say that the new car seems to have gone unnoticed, as the comments are generally the same as before, with the ride having a hot & cold reputation both before and after. As such, the cost to upgrade the entire fleet of cars may not be justified.

This is where the other interesting rumor comes in, as I’m told that Universal is also rumored to have shopped around the idea of buying entirely new trains from other coaster companies. The list of those asked is pretty much the usual suspects… B&M, Vekoma, Premier and Intamin. Before you get too excited, I’m told B&M has already turned down the project, which isn’t surprising as they turned down the chance to build Rockit in the first place. The other three are said to have submitted basic bids on the project, and ideas on how they would do it, and any other items of note for Universal Creative to base their judgment on.

Premier could be an interesting choice, and they do have a successful lap-bar only system that could handle the Rockit’s layout. The park maintenance team is also familiar with Premier trains from the nearby Revenge of the Mummy coaster as well, which is a plus.

Vekoma would also be an interesting choice, if they were to opt to use Vekoma’s new and very comfortable restraint system, which is great for riders of virtually all sizes, but also has the safety of an OTS system, without the need for a redundant seat-belt for quick loading.

Finally there is Intamin who have apparently submitted the idea of switching over to use their Maverick style train design, complete with standard Intamin OTS restraints. I would imagine they are thinking of using three of their 4-passenger cars per train to keep the train capacity up to at least 12 riders.

So which way will the Rockit go? Nothing has been decided upon yet it seems, but it seems a safe bet that Universal doesn’t want to keep things going the way they are any more either. So stay tuned and maybe you can get a lucky ride on the new car.

[Ace Of Spades]

^This...could be very interesting. Looking forward to seeing how that plays out.

[jarmor]

im interested in the B&M thing about refusing to do HRRR...

[SoCalCoasters]

im interested in the B&M thing about refusing to do HRRR...

 

Yeah, since when does a company Refuse to do a project? It just seems a little weird to me....I really hope B&M hasn't developed some kind of snobbish attitude towards theme park corporations... You think they would want work in the tough economic times.

 

Anyone else find it weird that both of Universal's Hollywood themed coasters aren't in Hollywood?

 

Hollywood Dream Clone for USH please! (Before you start bashing me, yes I realize this will never happen.)

[B-RadG]

im interested in the B&M thing about refusing to do HRRR...

 

Yeah, since when does a company Refuse to do a project? It just seems a little weird to me....I really hope B&M hasn't developed some kind of snobbish attitude towards theme park corporations... You think they would want work in the tough economic times.

 

Anyone else find it weird that both of Universal's Hollywood themed coasters aren't in Hollywood?

 

Hollywood Dream Clone for USH please! (Before you start bashing me, yes I realize this will never happen.)

It's pretty common to refuse things... just like when a construction company refuses to submit a bid for a project. B&M was asked to design Millennium Force and refused.

[SharkTums]

B&M refuses a ton of projects. They're a small company and have the ability to pick and choose which projects they want to work on. They pretty much exclusively take easy, safe projects.

[stricklandCC]

I think the deal with HRRR was budget and time constraints. I was informed that Universal had contacted B&M about the idea, and because of Universal's demands, ie: Unique elements/first of its kind, budget limitations, and completed time-line/time restrictions, B&M declined the project.

[jarmor]

^ Thanks thats what I was looking for lol. I know companies declines jobs but I wanted some insight as to what their reason would have been.

[dragonskeep]

I hope Intamin's Florida debut goes a little better than Mauer"s. I have had some pretty fun rides on Rockit but some just awful ones as well. Here's an idea: since you will never ever ever ever get the capacity you were hoping for why not remove the first brake run and turn it into the mother of all airtime hills .

[braztaz]

That's what I've never understood about this ride, once it gets going you're thrown into a brake run, again and again.