Fast & Furious: Supercharged - General Discussion

[Steptwice]

Yes. How dare people have fun with family and friends - especially at a theme park of all places. The nerve...

Of course everyone has fun at a theme park. I can go on storm force and have just as much fun. I'm Kind of just saying that a lot of people on this forum are theme park gurus and who are and should be critical of the theme park world. I know you are dedicated to this world and this site, and much respect for it. Its just my opinion that we should take some day-day context out of the review for the ride and judge it on what UC could have and should have done for this ride. Obviously I respect your opinion, Im sure when I ride it with friends I will have fun, but I know If i rode it alone, and had to be critical, I would judge this ride very poorly. Thats all Im saying.

 

[Brian G.]

Of course everyone has fun at a theme park. I can go on storm force and have just as much fun. I'm Kind of just saying that a lot of people on this forum are theme park gurus and who are and should be critical of the theme park world. I know you are dedicated to this world and this site, and much respect for it. Its just my opinion that we should take some day-day context out of the review for the ride and judge it on what UC could have and should have done for this ride. Obviously I respect your opinion, Im sure when I ride it with friends I will have fun, but I know If i rode it alone, and had to be critical, I would judge this ride very poorly. Thats all Im saying.

I think I've been fairly critical. I never said it was a good ride. I pointed out it's flaws on the forum and in our article.

But I still had fun.

 

[Cheezbat]

It's in technical rehearsals. There's a sign that literally says it could go down at any time.

Oh I know...I'm just saying it's just my luck. It was up and running until I was five feet from entering the queue... not the first time it's happened to me...
And sadly it came back up minutes before I got to work.

 

[Steptwice]

I think I've been fairly critical. I never said it was a good ride. I pointed out it's flaws on the forum and in our article.

But I still had fun.

Yes, I agree I didnt mean to get too persnoal to you, I guess

I think I've been fairly critical. I never said it was a good ride. I pointed out it's flaws on the forum and in our article.

But I still had fun.

Yes you have, and I apologize for seeming to critical on your opinion. I guess Im just PO'ed that UC and corporate utilized such a prime real estate plot on this ride. No hard feelings bro.

 

[Brian G.]

Yes, I agree I didnt mean to get too persnoal to you, I guess

Yes you have, and I apologize for seeming to critical on your opinion. I guess Im just PO'ed that UC and corporate utilized such a prime real estate plot on this ride. No hard feelings bro.

I liken it to a Big Mac. It's a terrible burger. It's awful for you. You can go and get a better burger elsewhere.

BUT DAMN, sometimes you just want to eat one.

 

[Steptwice]

I liken it to a Big Mac. It's a terrible burger. It's awful for you. You can go and get a better burger elsewhere.

BUT DAMN, sometimes you just want to eat one.

Heard that. When I get down there in a few months I will come with low expectations and hopefully leave a bit happier and fatter than expected :grin:

 

[OLSinFLA]

Oh I know...I'm just saying it's just my luck. It was up and running until I was five feet from entering the queue... not the first time it's happened to me...
And sadly it came back up minutes before I got to work.

I was on it when it stopped 5 feet from the loading dock. Those thing stop hard! Threw a bunch of us foward. Thankfully I had already had my hands on the seat in front.

 

[twebber55]

Your last statement, in the review, pretty well sums up my philosophy on theme park attractions, "we had fun-and that really is all that matters in a theme park ride". I am soooo in agreement with that statement. :thumbsup::toast:

agreed
if its fun and everyone leaves with a good laugh then thats all i want out of a theme park ride
ill be there in June to try it out

 

[Nick]

Your last statement, in the review, pretty well sums up my philosophy on theme park attractions, "we had fun-and that really is all that matters in a theme park ride". I am soooo in agreement with that statement. :thumbsup::toast:

agreed
if its fun and everyone leaves with a good laugh then thats all i want out of a theme park ride
ill be there in June to try it out

I agree that in the end, it is just a theme park so if people are enjoying themselves, then the ride is accomplishing it's goal. However I do still feel like there was an opportunity to make a ride that would truly "WOW" guests and fans alike and this doesn't reach that point.

I agree with @Steptwice that you can come off most rides having had fun. Storm Force was a good example of a cheap, carnival ride that Universal made a tad more unique and is genuinely fun to ride. That doesn't make the ride something the write home about just because we had fun on it, though. I went on F&F with friends and we came off having had a decent time and laughing - but we were laughing at the ride, not with it.

Look at the size of the show building and you guys tell me that the ride we got in there was worth it with a straight face. In my opinion, it's a huge wasted opportunity to put good use to a giant plot of land. I know Disaster was falling apart and had to go, but with a show building that large, I expect better out of Universal.

 

[Mad Dog]

I agree that in the end, it is just a theme park so if people are enjoying themselves, then the ride is accomplishing it's goal. However I do still feel like there was an opportunity to make a ride that would truly "WOW" guests and fans alike and this doesn't reach that point.

I agree with @Steptwice that you can come off most rides having had fun. Storm Force was a good example of a cheap, carnival ride that Universal made a tad more unique and is genuinely fun to ride. That doesn't make the ride something the write home about just because we had fun on it, though. I went on F&F with friends and we came off having had a decent time and laughing - but we were laughing at the ride, not with it.

Look at the size of the show building and you guys tell me that the ride we got in there was worth it with a straight face. In my opinion, it's a huge wasted opportunity to put good use to a giant plot of land. I know Disaster was falling apart and had to go, but with a show building that large, I expect better out of Universal.

As I said in a previous post, I'll keep an open mind and judge the ride in May. And, if you read my cumulative posts on this thread, you'll see I've been fairly critical of the decisions that went into choosing this attraction's layout & composition, and said repeatedly that my expectations are low ( actually, my expectations were so low, that what I've read so far actually seems a bit better than I expected). I'm pretty certain this will not end up on my best of Universal attractions list. But, all that doesn't mean I'll hate the attraction either. BUT, bottom line, after riding the attraction a few times, if I've had fun, & I have a smile on my face when I come off of it, then that's what's most important to me. Long ago I've accepted the fact that not every attraction is a home run, and not every new attraction is better than the last new attraction. This is a theme park where the reason I come is to have fun and be entertained. I'm not going to get upset & be grouchy because an attraction hasn't achieved some lofty goal, or even a middlin one. I certainly don't equate the deficiencies of a theme park ride with the intricacies of the outside world's problems, expectations etc..... I keep my theme park demands simple. Just give me a good fun time, in a relaxing leisurely entertaining environment. My opinion.

 

[tielo]

...a lot of people on this forum are theme park gurus and who are and should be critical of the theme park world. ...we should take some day-day context out of the review for the ride and judge it on what UC could have and should have done for this ride.

I feel your communication forces your opinion on the rest of the people on this forum. It's probably not your intent but it's how I perceive it. It's not something we do here. You can hate or like a ride as much as you want but respect others opinions.

To judge something on how UC could or should have done doesn't do anything for the end result. I know from reading this amazing forum that a ride is not only made to fulfill a creative urge for UC but are forced upon by management. There is also a fixed budget.
Before the ride was build we all had amazing dreams and had fun in the forum (go and read them, mine was the best imho:grin but blue sky is over and the ride should be judged about what is build.
In the end, if the guests hate the ride, it will be closed eventually to make way for something better.

 

[SpatulaShack]

Even sped up, that musion scene looks interminable. That should never have been directly transferred over to this version as part of the ride itself.

Honestly, this scene is what makes me hate the ride as much as I do. Like I said a while back... slow the bus down in the practical set and HEAVILY truncate the Musion scene and the project becomes way less embarrassing. I have no idea how/why the part of the tram tour that everyone hated somehow made it over to our version completely unchanged when we already have TWO pre-shows setting up the ride. We don't need ANOTHER pre-show on the ride itself. It's absolutely mind-blowing anyone thought it was a good idea to have a ride with so many pre-show scenarios.

We have the first awkward "family" pre-show, the war-room pre-show, the loading area which acts as a pre-show, the speed tunnel with exposition on a TV-screen which acts as a pre-show (complete with spiels about cell phones and flash photography!), and the musion scene (which acts a pre-show on the Hollywood Tram) and then a 60 second "ride" where a bus shakes. This isn't a theme park attraction. It's 50 pre-shows with bad acting and a 60 second tech-demo in a tunnel with bad CGI.

PRE-SHOW: THE RIDE!!

 

[Nick]

As I said in a previous post, I'll keep an open mind and judge the ride in May. And, if you read my cumulative posts on this thread, you'll see I've been fairly critical of the decisions that went into choosing this attraction's layout & composition, and said repeatedly that my expectations are low ( actually, my expectations were so low, that what I've read so far actually seems a bit better than I expected). I'm pretty certain this will not end up on my best of Universal attractions list. But, all that doesn't mean I'll hate the attraction either. BUT, bottom line, after riding the attraction a few times, if I've had fun, & I have a smile on my face when I come off of it, then that's what's most important to me. Long ago I've accepted the fact that not every attraction is a home run, and not every new attraction is better than the last new attraction. This is a theme park where the reason I come is to have fun and be entertained. I'm not going to get upset & be grouchy because an attraction hasn't achieved some lofty goal, or even a middlin one. I certainly don't equate the deficiencies of a theme park ride with the intricacies of the outside world's problems, expectations etc..... I keep my theme park demands simple. Just give me a good fun time, in a relaxing leisurely entertaining environment. My opinion.

I'm not upset or grouchy about the ride, the GP will certainly like it and that's really all UOR cares about. I just see it as a missed opportunity and wish they would've aimed higher.

 

[Mad Dog]

I'm not upset or grouchy about the ride, the GP will certainly like it and that's really all UOR cares about. I just see it as a missed opportunity and wish they would've aimed higher.

I wasn't referring to you. Perhaps some others though. ........Yes, it would have been nice if they plussed the 360 section and other parts like they did with Kong, or even did a completely different ride system, but that was not in the cards. I can't recall a new attraction discussion on this site where the expectations for a new attraction were so low, or there was such a lack of buzz. And it remains to be seen if the GP takes to it, though I think they will. This IP is certainly not my cup of tea since I don't care for action car movies. But, Brian's remarks that it was fun , even though it has issues, was encouraging to me. Honestly, that's the most important thing to me, since I'm not one who cares much about tech.

 

[captainmoch]

I'm not upset or grouchy about the ride, the GP will certainly like it and that's really all UOR cares about. I just see it as a missed opportunity and wish they would've aimed higher.

Honestly, I'm in the mind that... WILL the GP like it? We need to give casual guests more credit. With the trail of DMMM, Shrek, Fallon, and Transformers on the way here, I feel like most guests are going to be sick of basic simulators by the time they get to F&F, which also happens to be by far the weakest of the bunch.

 

[Nick]

Honestly, I'm in the mind that... WILL the GP like it? We need to give casual guests more credit. With the trail of DMMM, Shrek, Fallon, and Transformers on the way here, I feel like most guests are going to be sick of basic simulators by the time they get to F&F, which also happens to be by far the weakest of the bunch.

I understand what you're saying, but you also need to realize that many go straight to Diagon when they enter the park. F&F is then the closest ride once you exit and look for something else to do so it may not be something that people are doing after having done 4 or 5 simulators already.

 

[Mad Dog]

I understand what you're saying, but you also need to realize that many go straight to Diagon when they enter the park. F&F is then the closest ride once you exit and look for something else to do so it may not be something that people are doing after having done 4 or 5 simulators already.

Yes, that's big time correct.

 

[pat_naughty05]

Reading through this thread, I can’t help but notice how much the definition of “simulator” has changed over the last couple of decades. Before, we would refer to a simulator strictly as a ride where your ride apparatus never moved from it’s starting point and relied on a motion base to simulate movement. I think the first step towards blurring the line of that definition was Spider-Man, which is universally loved by the theme park fandom and GP alike. One has to wonder if Universal saw that as a sign to really run with the basic premise behind Spider-Man’s design of a moving ride vehicle combined with physical sets and screens. Now we have Spidey, Transformers, FJ, Gringotts, Kong, and F&F that follow that same basic premise and, while Spidey was praised, several of those have been criticized. Now each of those (minus FJ perhaps) has been criticized for a variety of reasons, but the core issue has been screens. It reminds me of that old saying that what we want is only what we want until we have it, seeing as how the early 2000’s theme park community would have probably loved to see more rides like Spidey. Now here we are longing for the old days of 100% practical sets and animatronics. I wonder how long it’ll take before we’re wishing that we had a few screens in our new rides...

 

[Nick]

Reading through this thread, I can’t help but notice how much the definition of “simulator” has changed over the last couple of decades. Before, we would refer to a simulator strictly as a ride where your ride apparatus never moved from it’s starting point and relied on a motion base to simulate movement. I think the first step towards blurring the line of that definition was Spider-Man, which is universally loved by the theme park fandom and GP alike. One has to wonder if Universal saw that as a sign to really run with the basic premise behind Spider-Man’s design of a moving ride vehicle combined with physical sets and screens. Now we have Spidey, Transformers, FJ, Gringotts, Kong, and F&F that follow that same basic premise and, while Spidey was praised, several of those have been criticized. Now each of those (minus FJ perhaps) has been criticized for a variety of reasons, but the core issue has been screens. It reminds me of that old saying that what we want is only what we want until we have it, seeing as how the early 2000’s theme park community would have probably loved to see more rides like Spidey. Now here we are longing for the old days of 100% practical sets and animatronics. I wonder how long it’ll take before we’re wishing that we had a few screens in our new rides...

I would classify rides like Spidey and FJ as next-gen Dark Rides.

Even though Transformers uses the same ride system as Spidey, I would classify that as a simulator, as the whole ride is just screens, no physical integration. To me, that is the difference.

 

[pat_naughty05]

I would classify rides like Spidey and FJ as next-gen Dark Rides.

Even though Transformers uses the same ride system as Spidey, I would classify that as a simulator, as the whole ride is just screens, no physical integration. To me, that is the difference.

I think your post really accentuates my point though about the line being blurred. Each of us will draw the line in a different place. To me, the only true simulators at UO are Fallon, Simpsons, and Despicable Me. I would consider all of the others that I mentioned before to be variants on dark rides. I actually really like your post because of what it points out about Spidey and Transformers: the exact same ride system with major similarities in how the story is presented, yet you perceive one as a simulator and the other as a dark ride due to specific details of each rides’ contents, specifically around screen usage. I guess my point is that I just find it interesting how various ride systems from days past have merged to create this new hybrid, some of which the community loves and others which we seem to outright hate.