Orlando Back To The Future Soon To Thing Of The Past

[GADVwow]

March 30 is the last day in Orlando:

http://www.universalorlando.com/usf_attr_bttf.html

[Dubya91]

Ashame we cant turn back time for this ride....

[WadeJ]

FINALLY!  That thing nearly sent me to the ER last time.

[PcMan]

Yep it was getting old
The screen had visible marks and lines it in.
Lets hope they go state of the art with the next one.

[Dubya91]

^ Lets hope there even is a next one!

[GADVwow]

Bart, Lisa, Homer and Marge...

[coastermom]

We went on this ride this past summer and one word describes this ride and that word is OUCH !! Not glad to see it go but hope there is something better in the works.

[WadeJ]

for me, that one word is WHIPLASH

Anyway, let us pray they actually replace the ride vehicles and not just re-theme them when the Simpsons come to town.

[rjholla2003]

Man, I love that ride.  It's a shame to hear that it's in such bad condition.  Hopefully it has a great second life in whatever form.

[Dubya91]

Wait a minute, so if the Simpsons are coming to town, IOA is getting a Nuclear Power Plant!?

[PcMan]

Harry Potter and IOA



http://tinyurl.com/2zde8t


As one Imagineering insider told me last week:

    "Given how difficult Rowling had been to deal with, losing "Harry Potter" wasn't really that much of a loss. But Universal scoring an exclusive on Kuka's robotic arm technology ... That was a real heartbreaker."

http://tinyurl.com/3e2h8x

You see, to date, that's been the under-reported part of this story. That it wasn't just that Universal Studios had scored the theme park rights to the "Harry Potter" characters. But that Kuka had also awarded Universal a 10-year exclusive on using its amazing technology in a theme park setting.

[GADVwow]

They just keep trying to sell that thing to somebody.  Having ridden a version, then called a robotic coaster, at IAAPA years ago, I think I was underwhelmed.

No, I KNOW I was.  It's like a Power Surge, but without the fun parts.  Adding it to a moving coaster track MIGHT help.  Or it might be an even worse version of X.

Sheesh I feel old.

[PcMan]

Simpsons Ride to Come to Universal Studios
24-Apr-2007
  http://thecelebritycafe.com/features/9713.html

In 2008, experience a ride with the entire Simpson family.

Watching The Simpsons sometimes feels like a rollercoaster ride, with its ups and downs of laughs, disgust, and surprise. In the spring of 2008, Universal Studios will open a new ride in its two parks in Orlando and Hollywood.

The creator of The Simpsons, Matt Groening, is collaborating with Universal on the project. On his intentions for the ride, he said, "The ride is designed to duplicate the Simpsons home-viewing experience, only at high speed with lots of screaming."

While watching a video on a giant screen that spans the entire room, guests will be sitting in a vehicle, "moving along with the action," says the spokesman for Universal, Tom Schroeder. Based off of Krusty the Clown's vision of an amusement park, the ride will include special effects, to create the sensation of experiencing a ride along with the whole crew: Homer, Lisa, Marge, Maggie, and Bart.

[PcMan]

The Simpsons at Universal Studios in Orlando will have its grand opening May 15-16, Universal Orlando announced.

The brief announcement promises a  "Simpsons-style" grand opening" complete with celebrities, then promises more details later.

The Simpsons Ride is a rebuild of the old Back to the Future: The Ride building. Construction began about a year ago and looks just about finished.

There's no word whether there will be a soft opening to get the kinks out of the ride before the opening. Usually soft openings start a few weeks before the grand opening. As of Friday, a construction wall still surrounded the building and construction workers appeared to be still putting things together.

The construction, reportedly costing $30 million, will use the 80-foot-tall movie screens and the bases of the motion-simulation vehicles from Back to the Future: The Ride, to give visitors virtual-reality trip through a cartoon theme park called "Krustyland" -- the domain of The Simpsons' TV clown.

The ride also is being built at Universal Studios Hollywood, and is set to open May 17 there (with a reported $40 million pricetag.) The studios there have given local reporters a couple of opportunities to tour the construction site and the reports are that the pre-show is the highly-themed Krustyland carnival. There are new ride vehicles, new scissor lifts, new motion platforms and new digital projectors.

[David Jr]

For some strange reason, i'm thinking of that episode where the Simpsons went to Duff Gardens. 

"I am the Lizard Queen" Lisa Simson.