The queue has me interested I think more so than the ride. With this not being a constant loading ride and lots of stops with big movements when the massive vehicle loads 65+ people, the queue will move in a not-so-common fashion. With the rumors of actors and special effects in the queue, will they group people up early on and they will move as a group through multiple "rooms" until they are at the station giving riders a great story build up? Think about Disaster but with less people and a lot more rooms. Or will it be a normal queue and if you get lucky you will see the actor or special effects? Also interested to see how this works out later on when the big rush if over. Will they keep live actors in the queue for years to come or will it be the first budget cut? Finally, how scary are we talking about for the queue? Like, will we get a "this ride/queue might give your child nightmares" like Alien Encounter did at MK?
As far as the ride goes, I am glad it is rumored to be scary and intense. I think people were expecting a standard safari type ride since the vehicle won't be performing any crazy movements...we don't think. However, having an intense, action packed, fast paced story with scary images and AA's will make this a popular attraction! Also if the ride does indeed have 5 different "stories" based on your "driver" it will make it even more popular as people ride it over and over to see what changes happen.
The drivers worry me though. With the promo pic they released, I figured we would be getting LIVE actors with unique costumes for each truck. When I saw they were AA's, I was a little confused. Sure, you won't see the front of them so mouth movements and stuff that are hard to pull off won't be an issue but you can't reproduce how a human moves and reacts while driving a truck believably. Also, it seems like it would be a lot more upkeep and maintenance would be required to keep them working. Not sure if it was a cost saving idea but I just don't see it working out well. Frosting the glass and using recording of a live actor projected on the glass would have been better. If cost wasn't an issue, have a LIVE person "driving" the trucks would have been the best.
I am glad Universal is fully embracing their "adult" image though. Having a scary (subjective of course) queue and ride just cements the fact that they are not trying to copy Disney and be a "whole family" park. Going to be interesting to see if any backlash comes their way if the ride and queue are indeed scarier than most expect.