Universal announced that today was the last day for the attraction, which opened with the park in 1990. The attraction had already had a middle show section cut and will now get a more complete make-over, as well as a new name.
The rehabbed ride will reopen in December with the new name "Disaster! A Major Motion Picture Ride . . . Starring You." In its press releasem Universal said the ride "will offer guests an all-new experience that combines the best, most dramatic elements of Earthquake with new blockbuster celebrity talent, new ride elements, new digital technologies, interactive components and a new storyline."
No specific opening date or ride specs yet.
Yep.
Maybe rejigger a few things in the ride. New pre-show with current star who Universal wants to hype. New storyline to try to make the ride more fresh to audience where almost no one remembers George Kennedy and Lorne Greene.
It's too quick a turn-around for anything major to the ride.
Memories eh.
Well anyway, they say it'll re-open by the december rush. They've had near 2 months to work on the pre shows and I did wonder why the pre show doors were bolted shut...
I doubt they'll do too much with the ride, thats the best part, its the pre shows I just got bored with. I went on EarthQuake more during HHN's than I have throughout the rest of the year, just because the Pre-Shows were closed.
One element that always made me chuckle was when those "guests" that pushed and shoved their way to the front of the line had to move all the way down for the first part of the show only to find that the doors leading to the train were farther back and the rest of us always got on first.
Silly I know...........but I liked that bit most.( he he he)
I'm not talking about building generic attractions and slapping on a different coat of paint and new title every years. But why not build attractions in a way that elements can be swapped easily to accommodate a new storyline?
Earthquake fits that model. You can pretty substantially change this attraction with a new intro movie and modified middle show. They can reframe the final segment ride, allowing it to seem fresher with just a few new or altered effects.
Busch does a pretty good job of swapping 4D movies, for another example. (Even though I wish some of those movies were more entertaining.) We'll see how Disaster turns out, but I like the way Universal's handled this, so far, as a way to freshen an attraction with minimal downtime (and, I presume, capital investment).
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