Fast and Furious Supercharged - Failure

Some equipment seen while waiting

Hello! I've been gone a while. I had a lot going on and am just now settling back in. But enough of that. Universal Studios Orlando has finally opened its newest attraction Fast and Furious Supercharged. Let me start by saying this as soon as I got off the ride I posted on Facebook and this is what I posted "Fast and Furious supercharged. How do you make a Fast and Furious ride that goes so slow and is so bad you don't even have seatbelts?". Its true. I do feel that way. Honestly I had been disappointed with the last three or four attractions that opened at Universal I feel like they are relying too much on screens and 3D, but as much as I was disappointed I could still enjoy them. I would rather see the Barney show by myself as a 34 year old woman than ride Fast and Furious again.

The ride from my understanding is basically a copy of the studio tour in Universal Hollywood which I'm guessing on the tour when its mixed with other things this great, but as a stand alone attraction that you have to wait in line for its sucks.

You start off by going through an area with cars and garage parts and what not. You would think 

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Universal would have made it more like Toretto's garage. But it doesn't have that feel to it. I enjoyed looking at the cars but that was ruined quickly for them when my husband who races and paints cars said that Universal cheaped out on the paint. They did cheap jobs and he started to point out all the flaws. After you finally make it through the line you are shuffled into two rooms each with a real person who is suppose to be talking to a screen, the real people are cheesy and people on the screens are overacting and cheesy as well. Think Disaster. After you leave these rooms you are herded not so much in a line and a mob to wait to get on the ride.

I was still hopefully but as soon as I saw the ride vehicles my hope started to fade. Looks a little different but basically the exact same vehicle and the new King Kong ride. Six people in a row no lapbar and no seatbeats. You putter along and you enter a room where you see four cars, actually the best part of the ride. The cars are pretty cool to see. However with the way the ride vehicle is set up if you are on the right you can see one car and the left can see three. You can't really see all of them no matter where you are.

The next room killed all hope I had. You are looking at screens which are suppose to be a group of people dancing, but its not done well, so it looks like a screen with a bunch of people standing in a

The car that can be seen from the right side of the vehicle

line dancing. Finally you see Letty and Dom, they are talking to your group. But they don't look at each other even when talking to each other and rather than look like they are looking at you they look as if they are staring off into space. Then you move to the final room. Its a screen fully surrounding the car, you basically see a loud movie all around you, and you get some loud bangs, smoke, water etc... The vehicle doesn't move much at all. And the video you are watching is so out there. Vin Diesel grabs a helicopter that is smaller than him, it almost had a video game feel to it, but not a good video game. Then you vehicle moves to the exit.

I have to admit everyone I saw getting off that ride looked mad, or upset. The best thing is the gift shop. If you like the franchise they have nice shirts and jackets, I actually want some of them. Me and my husband were so upset we left the park after riding it. I was so excited and pumped and then I got that. Its sad that Universal made a stand alone Fast and Furious ride and there are no lapbars and no seatbelts. Its just sad, even The Cat in the Hat has a lapbar. I will ride again at some point to give another go, but I have a feeling my mind won't change.

The Jungle Book Alive With Magic Ends Its Run at Animal Kingdom

Disney's Animal Kingdom has always been the park at Disney World that people view as a half day park. Disney would seldom leave the park open past dark, and most people didn't think there was enough there to warrant an entire day at the park. This year however, Disney decided to try and change that. They announced earlier in the year that the Safari ride would start to offer nighttime safaris and the Tree of Life would be lit up with lights and scenes much like Celebrate the Magic use to do at the Magic Kingdom. The best surprise Disney had up their sleeve or so they thought was the nighttime show The Rivers of Light. The only problem was that it was not ready to open on time, and its still not ready to open.

That being said Disney was not going to just let the summer go by without any show in a nighttime stadium at Animal Kingdom. The decided to throw together a nighttime show based on The Jungle Book. This show was called The Jungle Book Alive With Magic. While a lot of guests enjoyed the show there were many that didn't think it was worth the wait. The show had a very short run and ended last week. I had the chance to make it out to see the show during its last weekend.

I have to admit I wasn't expecting much given what other people had said. And in the end I wasn't blown away but I didn't think it was a bad show. It had good music, and very talented dancers and singers. The problem I thought with the show was that there was too much going on. You would be trying to watch a scene displayed on water in the background but find that you also wanted to watch the dancers that were in front of you, but oh wait the singers out in the water, but that other float on the water has a different set of dancers..... you get the idea. Too much going on all at the same time.

All in all the show was not a bad show for something that was put together at the last minute because the real attraction wasn't ready to open. And I left feeling happy so I guess that's a win. However after going to the show I found myself wondering something. How is Disney going to manage The Rivers of Light in that space? The stadium wasn't all that big and at least half of it was reserved for fastpass. The lines were insane to get into the stadium whether you had a fastpass or not, making it hard to get around certain areas of the park if you weren't going to the show. Hopefully they can perfect this a little bit before The Rivers of Light Show open.

 I did have a chance to film to the show and you can watch it below if you didn't get a chance to make it out and see it for yourself. Enjoy!

Lights Motors Action Stunt Show, Says Farewell This Weekend

Disney's Hollywood Studios is undergoing a lot of changes. Every time we turn around it seems they are announcing an attraction closing, and promising some new attraction in the hopefully not so distant future. The latest attraction to be closing to make way for a newer and hopefully worth it attraction is Lights Motors Action Stunt Show.

The stunt show itself was a pretty interesting show to see. I personally liked it better before the added part where Lighting McQueen shows up, but that was a very small add in and one that I could see kids would love. I always liked seeing this show because it was very entertaining. It was a good place to go and take a load off and maybe have a snack and be entertained. That being said there were a lot of problems with the show and those problems made it hard for Disney to keep it going, when they could easily put something new there with all the new plans.

This was a great show. It had the entertainment factor that a lot of the newer attractions are missing. Sadly a lot of people overlook the shows and go for the rides. And many times this can pressure theme parks to get rid of shows to place more rides in their parks. Lights Motors Action was a stunt show that involved cars, motorcycles, jet skis, explosions and much more. It gave guests a chance to see some of these stunts in person and get an explanation as to how they are performed. It didn't just have stunts on the vehicle nature but people fell from buildings, got show, caught on fire. It was an entertaining show and always had me leave smiling. 

The show was very expensive. By the nature that it involved cars, motorcycles, fire, explosives and so on it was not a cheap show to put on. And of course you had to have just the right people to perform the show. It was one of the more expensive attraction to upkeep per day in all of Disneyworld. And for a daytime attraction having two shows wasn't a whole lot of performances to keep guests busy. Most of the daytime shows have several shows to make sure that people have

several chances to see it and it takes some of the crowds off of the rides. Most days Lights Motors Action only had two shows.

I know that Disney has a lot in store for Hollywood and I hope its all good, even though I have my concerns. I just hope that they remember people liked a lot of what has closed or is going to close and try to think of different tastes in their new plans. I loved this show and will miss the motorcycles and the cars and the fire. It was a great show. And if you get the chance go make sure that you say goodbye. Lights Motors Action will have its last show this Saturday. But it case you aren't able to make it you can see a full video of the show below.

Universal Studios Orlando Says Goodbye to Beetlejuice's Graveyard Revue

The theme parks in Orlando have been busy the past few years and that doesn't seem to be slowing down anytime soon. With new attractions being announced almost monthly it's no surprise that some older ones are being closed down to make way for the new and improved rides and shows. Universal Orlando most recently said goodbye to the Beetlejuice Graveyard Revue. This was one of the only original things left in the park and was a very popular attraction.

Because of the Beetlejuice show's popularity I'm a bit surprised that Universal decided to simply close it and not try to find a way to keep it running. Especially given that Universal has a huge stadium theater that currently houses Fear Factor Live. Which while its not a bad show has never had the attendance that Beetlejuice had, even in more recent times. I'm a little shocked that Universal didn't take the Fear Factor stage and redo it and move Beetlejuice there and then close Fear Factor. It definitely would have been the move that would have made guests happier than simply getting rid of the show altogether.

The Beetlejuice show went through many different revamps during the course of it being open. The most recent redo of the show got rid of the ever annoying Hip and Hop and replaced them with four dancers suppose to be ghosts. I personally preferred them over Hip and Hop. And it also brought in two new characters to the show, Cleo daughter of the Mummy and Fantasia daughter of the Phantom of the Opera. While maybe not my favorite thing that they did with the show it worked alright, the new characters added some more flavor to the show. The biggest problem with the latest revamp of the show was not the recast of the characters but the song choices themselves. I remember the first time that I saw the new show my first response was, "they could have picked better songs". They just weren't as entertaining as any of the previous versions. This led to a of guests not liking and show and I think it's what doomed it to be closed. I firmly believe that if it had not been revamped they would have moved the show, and not closed it.

I always loved the Beetlejuice show and still liked even the latest version, even if not as much as the earlier ones. I hate to see it go and I feel that Universal made a huge mistake in keeping something like Fear Factor over Beetlejuice, unless they have bigger plans on the horizon for that area. However when thinking about Universal they aren't like Disney, who has room to build and grow, Universal has to close current attractions in order to make way for new ones. Which makes it exciting to hear what's coming but also sad to hear what's leaving.

If you missed the Beetlejuice show while it was running below you can watch the last two versions of the show.