Universal Studios Florida RockIt, Simpsons, and Mummy Review

[sheikra_rocks]

Well first of all, I have to just mention that the park looks better and better each time I visit.

The last time I went to Universal Studios, Kongfrontation was closing later in the week. (Just to give you an idea of the time frame since last time I visited.)

My partner and I head to Hollywood Rip Ride Rockit when we enter the park. 20 minute wait time posted. The queue is HUGE! Music is blaring, and the traditional instructional video is playing. The video was very informative, and showed you how to choose your song. Before we knew it, 10 minutes had passed and we reached the loading platform... 10 minute wait! Asked if we could sit in the front.

We get sent to the loading area first then 5 other couples followed suit. The first awesome thing that I noticed was the MOVING loading platform that ran parallel with the trains on each side. We were then ushered to our row, and the lap bars were placed around us. Remembering the instructional video downstairs saying you had 30 seconds to choose a song, I immediately went to Country. I only knew one song, "Devil Went Down To Georgia". Now, once the train passes the overhead control room, the song locks in. I just locked it in myself.

Our train of 2 cars with 3 rows of 2 stadium style seats paused for a moment until the train ahead.... above us cleared the lift, then we advanced forward. Climbing the lift was cool with Charlie Daniels blaring in my ear, but that is pretty much the only place I heard the music. Once we dropped, I was all about the coaster. The first element was the non inverting loop. To my surprise, it was a pretty cool maneuver. I sat on the left side, so there was a little air during the twist at the top of the loop. Right after the loop, a block brake. The climb to the top of this brake was steep with a sharp down bend to level us out. Nice ejector! Then another drop. At the bottom the train flies through the Twister building, then spirals up with a steeply banked turn into a nice drop. Then up into another block brake, and once again the climb into it ejects us as we level off. On the run back past the station, there is a nice nearly 90 degree bank turn over the entrance. Then up into another block, airtime just as before! We dropped for some ground level runs with a small airtime hill, then a leaning loop / turn. G - FORCE HEAVEN! This turn was awesome, then up into the last block with more air. Then we drop off of it, at the bottom a nice little bunny hop, then into the final brake run with what i think is the best air on the entire ride.

He ended up riding it 3 times with me, I went twice more alone. All rides were in the front row. I waited in the main line each time because it moved faster than single riders. I passed the same person in the single rider line TWICE after waiting 20 minutes in the main line for each of my rides by myself.

Hollywood Rip Ride Rockit is my favorite of 2010 so far... I rate it 10/10 The other song I used for my other 4 rides was "That's The Way I Like It"

That is it for now. I will post about the other two tomorrow.

[SonofBeast07]

ride mummy!

[Delirium_Guy]

He ended up riding it 3 times with me, I went twice more alone. All rides were in the front row. I waited in the main line each time because it moved faster than single riders. I passed the same person in the single rider line TWICE after waiting 20 minutes in the main line for each of my rides by myself.

Hollywood Rip Ride Rockit is my favorite of 2010 so far... I rate it 10/10 The other song I used for my other 4 rides was "That's The Way I Like It"

That is it for now. I will post about the other two tomorrow.

Great review of the ride, glad that you enjoyed so much. Do yourself a favor, don't ride any other place than the front if you want to keep that positive impression :-) The backrow of either of the two cars gets quite rough in places, which combined with the shaking and shuffling that *some* of the trains do around the track makes it a bit unpleasant. The moving load platform has helped capacity TREMENDOUSLY and they have been running 5 trains on a regular basis now. The entire covered part of the queue has only been taking about 35 minutes to get through and up to the load platform.

Oh....I recommend trying Bring Me to Life by Evanescence....its a GREAT track for the ride!

- Todd

[sheikra_rocks]

ride mummy!

Did you see the Topic name? I already have ridden Mummy. I will upload tomorrow.

My motto is "Front row or no go."

[Delirium_Guy]

My motto is "Front row or no go."

A good motto :-) I'd recommend giving the backseat on Mummy a whirl, though, it has some awesome airtime in there and is still very just as smooth as the front!

- Todd

[jzarley]

I'm glad to hear someone else enjoyed Hollywood Rip Ride Rockit. I had read such poor reviews leading up to my last trip to Universal, that I had extremely low expectations. But after riding it, I thought "hey, that was really pretty good" . (I wasn't in the front seat...I think I was in the front seat of the 2nd car...)

My only disappointment was that they aren't running Universal Express on it yet, but I'm sure that will change by my next trip.

[bkroz]

Yes! I loved HRRR. If Cedar Point or Kings Island got the same ride, it would be a MASSIVE hit. It's admittedly a medium sized coaster with a fun twist. Kind of a large-scale version of Backlot Stunt Coaster, and with the same issue - the "park puritans" and enthusiasts hate it just because of where it is and what it replaced and how it 'ruins the atmosphere and look of the park.' Meanwhile, people who don't visit the park every single day find it to be a great addition and couldn't care less what used to be there or how it [hoity-toity-British-accent]"absolutely and abhorrently ruins the skyline!"[/accent]

My friend listened to "I Will Survive" and still says that it's got to be the best song to listen to on a roller coaster - upbeat & dancy. I listened to "Don't Phunk With My Heart." It was incredibly fun either way!

But honestly, The Revenge of the Mummy is in my top three rides. Not necessarily coasters, but rides. It's an amazing experience.

[sheikra_rocks]

Revenge Of The Mummy was better than I thought. However, I only rode once. I will try to get everything I can remember.

I mentioned Kongfrontation in the first post. Mummy now occupies the former Kong building, the only part I recognized was the exit ramp.

So, we are in line for the front row as our car pulls up. The cars are like Congo Falls boats. 4 to a row and about 5 or 6 rows. It is a Premiere Rides coaster, like Flight of Fear. So the track looked very similar. Looks are deceiving, I thought it was going to be hard to get into the car like on some of our coasters at KI, but we got in without problems. The lap bars are EXACTLY like BLSC and FOF. I said, "I feel like I'm at home."

Got the thumbs up and we are advanced forward. Now, this ride has a dual load station. As we moved forward the switch track was still set for the other side. We got closer and closer to the end. I said to my partner that I hope it stopped. We did a split second afterward. Only long enough for the car ahead of us to advance to the next block. Off we went. We snaked around a few scenes, and we were warned that we all were doomed or something. I noticed the car speeding up and slowing down during certain scenes. This added to the experience. We rounded a right hand turn, and noticed the wall closing, getting closer and closer. We drop about 3 feet, barely escaping the closing wall. The drop caught me by surprise. After a quick unbank turn to the left, we are heading right toward a wall. I was expecting the wall to raise and we would drop or something. The ceiling started to catch fire, and on the wall in front of us millions of scarab beetles came out of the cracks and ran down to the side of the car. (One thing that would make this effect 100% better would be air blowing on the legs of the passengers.) The car begins to roll backward, we drop about 5 feet and stop. The car begins to turn 180degrees. We were then launched up hill, at the top, a nice little pop of ejector air. Lots of twisting, turning, and small pops of air here and there. We come up to a block brake, and pause for a moment, show effects happen, then we drop into more turns and small airtime. Finally we escape the wrath of the Mummy, and exit down the former Kong exit ramp.

Coaster 10/10

Show 6/10 I would have rated it better, but it is kind of hard to hear with all the noise of the coaster. It was hard for me to get into the story because of the noise.

Wait time - 20 minutes

Simpson's ride review coming soon...............

[sheikra_rocks]

The Simpson's Ride was without a doubt, 100% hysterical from beginning to end.

It was kind of weird going into that building without all the gadgets and gizmo of the former Back To The Future ride.

You are selected as well as the Simpson family to be the first to experience a new ride at Krustyland. 8 people are ushered into a room where you get the "how to" spiel from one of the characters. The doors open and you climb into the ride vehicle. Lapbars are checked then the doors are lowered and secured. The ride begins.

Throughout the ride I noticed references to other theme park rides as well as other parks. There is reference to the E.T. ride vehicles, P Fliers at IOA. There is a reference to Sea World.

The ride is more interactive than the former ride.

The ride settles back down into the loading bay, and Krusty has the last laugh.

Action - 10/10

Film - 10/10

Humor - Side splitting

Wait for a Tuesday - 25 minutes