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The Future of Fast and Furious: Supercharged

UniversalRBLX

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Nov 3, 2015
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Not understanding how building Harry Potter was a gigantic shift away from teens to family friendly when dueling dragons was kept and Fordbidden Journey has a 48inch requirement. Potter was just broadening their scope for adults and not so much “family friendly” attracting young kids as they didn’t build rides that support that reasoning.

Potter is wizards/magic. Kids love wizards/magic. Throughout the land you see kids playing with the interactive wands... there's definitely the ability for them to build a ride without a height requirement for Potter. I think the Villain-Con/Walkthrough design could work for such an interactive wand shooter attraction.

Dueling Dragons was kept cause they didn't have the money/resources to replace it from the outset. It was pretty much earmarked for replacement the moment they realized the land was a success.

Hagrid's was a 100% shift at recognizing that the IP is more family-friendly than thrill-oriented. And then they built Velocicoaster to balance out offerings. There's obvious room for both markets.
 

OrlandoGuy

Veteran Member
Sep 29, 2014
1,265
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Chicago
This is a conversation about market positions - Disney is the market leader and Universal for years was a market nicher. Universal is moving to become more of a market challenger, but they're having to go through the awkward market follower stage first.
I don’t think I’d consider Universal a market nicher at any point beyond 1990. I think the whole point of this conversation is that Universal is a differentiated offering in a market that is far from monopolized.
 

UniversalRBLX

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Hold on - what are we qualifying as a family-friendly ride here?

I can tell this is going to cause some debate/confusion here... but my definition of it has always been something you can take your grandparents/young children on without worrying about health/safety issues.

Coasters are a bit different due to their physical nature and restraints, but a "family-friendly" coaster (like Hagrid's, Everest, etc.) is designed to target a much wider audience compared to a thrill coaster.
 
Mar 8, 2021
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A SLOP like omnimover but with improved seating or some other family dark ride will come to USF. It's only a matter of time. Maybe one will come in the phase 2 expansion of the DWA KZ retheme as I seem to remember @Alicia saying.

From what I have read online that Kung Fu Panda area at USB was cobbled together at the last minute. Universal wanted a version of SNW at USB but due to how unpopular Nintendo is in China, it was cut. Universal obviously seems to struggle with boat rides. The now defunct Madagascar Crate Adventure at Singapore which was leveled to make way for their SNW, also was not that good either. Pacing being a common issue on both. Plus with the action of KFP, a slow moving boat ride is NOT a good fit.
I think their issue is with indoor boat rides. Jaws, JP, and even the Toon Lagoon water rides are/were all very well-received. Those attractions are outdoors and all offer some sort of thrill. They can offer ‘dead-zones’ and be perfectly fine because of the outdoor aspects. A dead-zone in an outdoor ride isn’t as much of an issue because there are trees and other outdoor things to look at that you wouldn’t see in a warehouse. Indoor boat rides seem to be an issue for them because when a ride is built in a steel box, Uni doesn’t know how to transition between scenes. You have a scene, a section of pitch black darkness and bare walls, and then another scene. Even some empty but detailed sets would work to transition from scene to scene, but uni seems to like having dead space.
 

TheUniC6

Contributing Member
Oct 10, 2021
898
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RVA
I think their issue is with indoor boat rides. Jaws, JP, and even the Toon Lagoon water rides are/were all very well-received. Those attractions are outdoors and all offer some sort of thrill. They can offer ‘dead-zones’ and be perfectly fine because of the outdoor aspects. A dead-zone in an outdoor ride isn’t as much of an issue because there are trees and other outdoor things to look at that you wouldn’t see in a warehouse. Indoor boat rides seem to be an issue for them because when a ride is built in a steel box, Uni doesn’t know how to transition between scenes. You have a scene, a section of pitch black darkness and bare walls, and then another scene. Even some empty but detailed sets would work to transition from scene to scene, but uni seems to like having dead space.
That's why I am hoping they don't go with a boat ride for Zelda at IOA and use some sort of other dark ride system.
 

TheUniC6

Contributing Member
Oct 10, 2021
898
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Or they recognize it as a weakness, and improve. That would be the dream.
If they figure out the pacing issue, they should be golden. Nintendo will be closely involved with any hypothetical Zelda ride so hopefully that means that they nail down a plot line that has good pacing.
 
Mar 8, 2021
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539
If they figure out the pacing issue, they should be golden. Nintendo will be closely involved with any hypothetical Zelda ride so hopefully that means that they nail down a plot line that has good pacing.
Fingers crossed. I hope that they have Ganon in full force on the ride. A lot of these new boat rides seem to be jolly romps with no sense of danger of urgency. The villain is what makes it breaks the ride. Also hoping the go with the pig-beast instead of the swirling cloud!
 

DodgsonHere

Contributing Member
Dec 3, 2020
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With the USH coaster layout out there now, do we have any clue what could come to this space as an inevitable replacement? A straight up clone of the Hollywood layout for a coaster would definitely be impossible here, though I don’t think that was really rumored anyways.
 

Alicia

Premium Member
Jul 17, 2014
12,264
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Orlando
With the USH coaster layout out there now, do we have any clue what could come to this space as an inevitable replacement? A straight up clone of the Hollywood layout for a coaster would definitely be impossible here, though I don’t think that was really rumored anyways.
Two things...

One, from what I have heard, I do not see Supercharged being replaced with a F&F coaster.

But Two, that doesn't mean we wouldn't get one.
 

Alicia

Premium Member
Jul 17, 2014
12,264
49,157
Orlando
Oh now you have my attention.

RIP Rockit?
Before we speculate too much, I’m not saying it’ll happen, or that I have info, just that Universal’s on a coaster kick, so you never know.

But if Supercharged closes, not onIy do I not expect a coaster to replace it, I don’t expect anything to replace it for awhile. It’s better to us all dead, that’s all.

As for Hollywood Drift, I can think of another Universal park that may want one of their own next.
 

DodgsonHere

Contributing Member
Dec 3, 2020
825
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Before we speculate too much, I’m not saying it’ll happen, or that I have info, just that Universal’s on a coaster kick, so you never know.

But if Supercharged closes, not onIy do I not expect a coaster to replace it, I don’t expect anything to replace it for awhile. It’s better to us all dead, that’s all.

As for Hollywood Drift, I can think of another Universal park that may want one of their own next.
Bummer that it may not be replaced for a while after closing, no matter how bad it is it’s still park capacity.

Not a Florida park I’m assuming? I don’t think I could see F&F in Islands or Epic.
 

belloq87

V.I.P.
Dec 7, 2009
6,853
13,666
Universal Exports
But if Supercharged closes, not onIy do I not expect a coaster to replace it, I don’t expect anything to replace it for awhile.
confused-baffled.gif

How many dead/under-used areas does Universal want at these parks?!

It's arguably the most prime location for redevelopment in USF (not counting expansion areas) if they're determined to close Supercharged.

Universal’s on a coaster kick
Waiting for them to get on a dark ride kick at their existing Orlando parks again:
Waiting-For-Dark-Rides.jpg
 
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Mad Dog

Premium Member
Jan 30, 2013
21,534
36,424
Pittsburgh area
confused-baffled.gif

How many dead/under-used areas does Universal want at these parks?!

It's arguably the most prime location for redevelopment in USF (not counting expansion areas) if they're determined to close Supercharged.


Waiting for them to get on a dark ride kick at their existing Orlando parks again:
Waiting-For-Dark-Rides.jpg
Yeah. Closed under used areas are becoming USF's M.O. .....Worrisome for a resort that has limited expansion areas and a park, USO, that has significant capacity issues.....Oh well, mgt. will just blame it on covid, hurricanes, and opening a new Epic park. Good well practiced excuses that fans will buy into.
 
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