Scott Powers | Sentinel Staff Writer
March 19, 2008
Universal Studios is about to build a new signature ride: a high-tech roller coaster full of lights, music, loops, twists and turns -- and a quick trip over the heads of people walking through the nearby CityWalk entertainment district.
The Hollywood Rip, Ride, Rockit is planned to be big, bright and brash enough to become the new visual symbol for the theme park when the coaster opens in about a year. Universal Orlando officials said Tuesday that it also will feature enough digital technology to appeal directly to what they refer to as the "YouTube culture."
Universal Orlando officials said the coaster will rise 167 feet into the air and feature numerous loops and corkscrew turns. Rockit -- the first big, outdoor thrill ride for Universal Studios -- is set to open in spring 2009.
It will provide another link in Universal Orlando's recent chain of big new attractions. An overhauled version of an old ride, renamed Disaster!, opened in January. The Simpsons Ride, a 3-D fantasy-simulation ride replacing the old Back to the Future, is set to open in a few weeks. And several still-undisclosed attractions are to open together in late 2009 as the "Wizarding World of Harry Potter" in Universal Studios' sister park, Islands of Adventure.
The flurry of activity follows a dormant period of nearly three years during which Universal offered no big new rides.
Although it will be the tallest coaster in Central Florida and one of the fastest in the state, the Rockit will be nowhere near the tallest or fastest in the amusement-park business. But like the Incredible Hulk in Islands of Adventure and several other Florida coasters, it aims to use innovation and novelty to make up for any lack of record-setting height or speed.
"We like to go for the best," said Mark Woodbury, president of Universal Parks & Resorts' creative division -- though Universal would not comment on the project's cost.
Rockit will offer high-energy video displays in the waiting line; high-intensity, color-changing LED lighting and digital audio and video effects during the ride; and various engineering innovations.
'A whole new level'
And unlike any of the other big roller coasters in Central Florida, Rockit will loom over its park's entrance and beyond. Universal plans to squeeze its track between the Jimmy Neutron's Nicktoon Blast ride and the Sharp Aquos Theatre, which houses the Blue Man Group show. From there the track would run along the boundary between Universal Studios and Universal's sound stages, then rise over the fence to twist over the sidewalks of CityWalk, outside the theme park -- a brightly lit, scream-filled advertisement for the park.
"We like to look at this as taking the thrill ride to a whole new level, both physically and figuratively," Woodbury said. "It's iconographic in its position. It's going to do some things no ride has done before. And it combines entry into the digital age with the ability to customize and personalize the ride for each rider."
That particular digital-age feature will allow riders to select their own music and create a music video of the ride. Afterward, a rider could download the video and use it on personal Web pages or video-sharing sites.
But the ride -- which Universal officials had referred to for months by the code name "Project Rumble" -- still draws principally on the basic thrills of a roller coaster: speed, height, loops, corkscrews, twists, turns and drops. Universal officials said Rockit would have several signature moves and a record-breaking loop, though they would not elaborate. The artist's rendering that they released shows the track climbing a 167-foot-tall peak, then corkscrewing downward, twisting eight times.
'It's a natural for us'
The ride's Internet-based theme digresses a bit from Universal Studios' original theme, which was all about "riding" the movies. But Universal officials insisted that the coaster will justify the inclusion of the word "Hollywood" in its name -- a term also adopted earlier this year by Walt Disney World when it renamed its rival movie-studio theme park.
"We've always fancied ourselves as embedded into the Hollywood culture with Universal. It's part of our essence. It's a natural for us," Woodbury said. "The name is very specific to the attributes of the ride. It combines creating your own movie, to customize it; that's the 'rip' part. You can download it to your personal site. And you ride it, of course. You have the 'Rockit' part, which combines the thrill and the music."
http://www.orlandosentinel.com/business ... 6109.story
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This is a very major development. Just a reminder Universal just revamped Earthquake into Disaster, will be opening The Simpsons Ride within the next month, and will be opening Harry Potter Island with 2-6 attractions in Late 2009!!!! This new ride is high-tech, and will be a first of its kind. I'm very excited about the announcement.
