Fast & Furious: Hollywood Drift coaster (USH) - Opening 2026

[Brian G.]

Honestly, I wish someone would leak USH strategy for these kind of these

Media being random, cool but if the ride is opening within 30 days what are the business benefits for not telling people?

Same with Mega Movie summer, no official news yet and its weeks away

I feel like if this really was the best option for fans and to make money, then Disney would be doing it but its not how Disney runs things. They tell you ASAP about events, new rides dates and so on. We knew Bluely was coming for like 8 months

So if I ever get one question that they have to answer its the reason for this business move

Man, what? They've been advertising the hell out of this thing. They haven't released an official opening date because they're not ready to. They also know that as soon as they do, people will put off their trips until it hits.

I'm not saying their comms are always great - I don't think they are - but this one is a nothing burger.

To piggyback off Clive, this argument always comes up with Uni's attraction openings. We saw the exact same discussion with Hagrid’s on the forums, and I think most people would agree that ended up opening just fine.

The assumption always seems to be that everyone is planning vacations specifically for opening, when in reality that audience is mostly die-hard fans and locals. The vast majority of guests are planning trips months later.

 

[Mr_Pendington]

For rides I understand the lack of a release date, it took 3 years for the ride to open for a reason.

This isn't a huge issue for me but I do agree with the idea that Universal's silence for alot of things is a little disheartening. Mega Movie Summer is a small little event, it doesn't nessecarily need a huge build up because it's mostly for APs anyway (unless there's a tourist who REALLY looks forward to it every year haha) but it's a little sad for me that we have to comb through permits and stuff to get an idea of what the future of the park is. The evolution plan leak was the most "news" of the parks future and its still up in the air

I'm not asking for a D23 style event where they announce 7 new lands for the next 4 years cause that isn't realistic but maybe just a confirmation of anything would be nice. "We will be moving the Studio Tour Lot to [blank] for theme park expansion/employee space in the upcoming future" would be kinda nice.

Once again for me its not some huge world ending issue, but some little communication would be a little nice in general

 

[Jake S]

Two things can be true: Universal’s communication can be perplexing at times … and I don’t think this is one of those times. They’ll announce an opening date when they have one they’re comfortable announcing. I think that will be coming very soon, fwiw.

 

[fryoj]

Personally, I prefer the "we know you can see this being built but we aren't telling you what it is yet" method to the "here's what we'd like to build for the next decade even though a lot of it may never happen" method.

 

[Tobias]

The evolution plan leak was the most "news" of the parks future and its still up in the air

Admittedly, you provided a very good reason why they don't do a "Hey, we're doing this for the future" kind of communication. Since if something is still up in the air, you'd just be pulling another Disney blunder by announcing something way too early.

 

[Mr_Pendington]

Admittedly, you provided a very good reason why they don't do a "Hey, we're doing this for the future" kind of communication. Since if something is still up in the air, you'd just be pulling another Disney blunder by announcing something way too early.

Very good point

 

[highdefrex]

Personally, I prefer the "we know you can see this being built but we aren't telling you what it is yet" method to the "here's what we'd like to build for the next decade even though a lot of it may never happen" method.

That's one thing that definitely irks me about how Disney often handles things -- all the unfulfilled promises made by announcements years out, either because they vanished into thin air or they arrive stripped of so much of what got people excited in the first place.

Universal's strategy can be frustrating because who doesn't want to know everything, but at the same time... it works. Certain people were complaining about how the park "wasn't promoting" FFN this year in the lead up to opening night, and yet it ended up popping off every night, and this coaster has people I know who haven't been to the park in ages itching to go the moment it's open. Social media alone is providing free marketing/hype for Universal. I can't believe anyone's still doubting that this is going to be anything but an imminent success just because someone from Universal isn't out going door to door to tell people about the ride.

 

[Tobias]

View attachment 29895
Very good point

Heh, now I totally understand if you're not fond of how they usually handle announcements, it's personal preference and you don't have to like it.

For me, I'm fine with the way they do things. Yes, it can be befuddling at times, but for stuff like rides and such, permits are filed and various demo/construction is going on to clearly show something is coming.

And over on Orlando's side, considering the number of times projects and rumors have hopped from park to park and changed around, it just further proves why it's not the best idea to announce something is coming in the future until it's firmly set in stone/in construction.

 

[Mr_Pendington]

I agree that Disney handles their announcements very very poorly. I remember when Avengers Campus was supposed to have a Quin-jet ride (to the audience's thunderous applause) with some ambitious concept art; and then a few years later they re-announced the ride as two separate smaller scale attractions to... thunderous applause (almost no influencer even brought up the strange change). And now the CoCo ride is having a ton of people confused on how big it's going to be... and then Avatar Land in the same park also got delayed and nobody knows whats going on with that. Yeah it could really be worse huh

It's very fun to hear speculation based on permits, I should have clarified I am not 100% against Universal's current strategy. There is so much fun to be had in speculation season, it's why I joined this forum in the first place! But there are times where I get a little worried we're not going to see major progress for anything substantial; I admit those concerns are sometimes unjustified because they are working on the security bubble and new mills and stuff

Overall just a tiny bit of more communication is all I ask for, but Universal's current strategy is not something that'll make me boycott the company or smth. Very good points guys thank you!