Fast & Furious: Supercharged/Nighttime Studio Tour

[William]

Finally got to experience the Nighttime Studio Tour on Saturday evening, as well as F&F. 

Firstly, I was hoping for a bit more with the new tour. While the lighting was impressive and the upgrades to many of the animations/sets were desperately needed, there just wasn't enough to warrant advertisement as a new attraction (I use the word "attraction" loosely). I love that they added a few more live actors into the mix, namely Marilyn and Frankenstein, but the driver just whizzed right past them. Something I noticed was that the tram actually activates the lights on Wisteria Lane, which was made clear to me by a piece of paper taped to a blue traffic cone on the side of the tram's path letting the driver know how fast to drive in order to turn them on. 

As for F&F, it really wasn't as bad as I thought. My only issues with this addition were the cheesy acting and the abrupt ending, but besides that, I'd say it's a pretty solid addition to the Studio Tour animation lineup. I noticed that the controversial clip of Roman referring to a woman on the tram had been edited, which I thought was sorta nice to see. I really loved the Musion effects, and the fact that the main showroom was projecting the animation in front of the tram as well. Sitting in Car 1, I could see other vehicles driving down the freeway ahead of us during the attraction. Also, I didn't find the CGI itself to be as lackluster as some others made it out to be. Maybe I just wasn't paying attention since there was so much happening on both sides, but I never really got that video game vibe others were mentioning. Something I must commend them for is the fact that they blast air on guests the whole time the tram is in motion, which I found great. King Kong and Transformers both attempt to make the simulation more believable by hitting us with air, but I don't think they quite pulled it off as well as F&F. 

All in all, the Nighttime Studio Tour is alright. Nothing too notable to differentiate it from the regular tour, but the lighting really did do a justice. As for F&F, I genuinely enjoyed it (and I haven't watched any of the films yet). I think lowering my expectations and watching a few ride-thrus helped me get in the right mindset before experiencing it. In my opinion, Universal really only dropped the ball with Supercharged in terms of the massively misleading advertisements. I can sort of understand why they did it, but they really messed themselves up with that one.

 

[chris.g]

I too rode the Nighttime Studio Tour last night as well as finally being able to ride Supercharged. I did what everyone in the forum recommended doing and went straight to Guest Relations to acknowledge my disapproval about my preview being postponed. Lady at the counter was super nice and gave me a Priority Boarding ticket. Kudos.

Anyways, as for the Nighttime Studio Tour, it was nice and I felt all the extra effects were really fun. My only disappointment was the Frankenstein encounter as he could have been more into it and be more interactive, still fun none the less. We didn't pass through Courthouse Square either, and apart from that the tram in front of us broke down going up the hill to the Universal Picture Cars segment, so we had to wait while they brought in a truck to push that tram up and bring in a new tram for them. Poor riders. 

As for Supercharged, well I went with extremely low expectations after hearing what everyone else said the thing had to offer. Aside from the cheesy acting and tremendously terrible dialogue... I enjoyed myself! I really, really did. The pre-show really wowed me in terms of effects and how they were able to make the characters look so life like on there. The actual attraction itself didn't really seem like a GTA video game anymore as compared to other videos I had seen and you actually feel you're going pretty fast among the freeway. My only complaint is that the 3D SUCKS. Everything is super, super blurry and it kind of made that whole aspect useless.

But other than that, I feel I had gotten what I expected. 

 

[Allen The Actor]

*siiiigh* still haven't experienced it yet. The anticipation is killing me, and I refuse to watch any spoiler videos! Grrrr....soon. hopefully my next day off.

 

[Tyler Crouch]

Well, not to worry Allen! NBC Universal is blocking all the on-ride videos on youtube. I got a copyright claim manually issued today. Even Inside Universal's video is down now. It raises an interesting question: Would they have blocked the videos if they had faith in their attraction? Or is this just part of business for them? I've never had one of their attractions blocked before. What do ya'll think? Is this some desperate attempt at a cleanup?

 

[Alexshow.]

Hmm..its interesting, as I thought the same thing happened at the start with Gringotts? Whatever the case is, it'll probably be lifted in a few months.

 

[Allen The Actor]

Well, not to worry Allen! NBC Universal is blocking all the on-ride videos on youtube. I got a copyright claim manually issued today. Even Inside Universal's video is down now. It raises an interesting question: Would they have blocked the videos if they had faith in their attraction? Or is this just part of business for them? I've never had one of their attractions blocked before. What do ya'll think? Is this some desperate attempt at a cleanup?

When my YouTube channels used to be big on YouTube from 2006-2010, NBC/Universal were always the worst when it came to taking down on-ride videos. One of my King Kong 360-3D videos got taken down, but one is still up to this day. Universal is just anal about it, especially when the ride is new. Same thing happened with Potter on ride videos. They'll cool down in a few months.

It's kind of stupid though. They allow filming on the tour and encourage it, it's not like uploading an on ride video of The Simpsons where they tell you to NOT film. Universal is just weird. They don't get that YouTube videos are the best possible promotions for their parks. Disney gets it now.

 

[KreepyKarpy]

I noticed that the controversial clip of Roman referring to a woman on the tram had been edited, which I thought was sorta nice to see.

I'm pretty sure they had two clips: one with Roman getting off topic about the cars and the woman in the third row and the other where Letty just gets to the point just to speed things up. I guess the tour guides chooses whichever clips they have enough time to play. The same goes for when Luke Hobbs (a.k.a The Rock) interrupts Agent Novak's transmission and gives the tour guide a choice whether to trust him or "Mrs. Pusskits" when the tour guide is told to mute the agent.

 

[Jon Fu]

^ Yes, it hasn't been removed. Boils down to tour guide preference.

 

[Alexshow.]

Nighttime Studio Tours will now be daily from now till August 17th then back to Weekends till the date its supposed to stop..

 

[Freak]

Well, when I went on it the last two times, the fog effects weren't working.

Any more word on if a complete redo is in the works?

 

[Wesker69]

Any more word on if a complete redo is in the works?

Yea... it will open in Orlando in like 2017-ish..

 

[12th Man]

By the way, the Universal billboard on Barham now is advertising F&F not Minion Mayhem.

 

[Jon Fu]

A friend of mine got a great shot of the mechanical lift that hoists the screen upward as the tram leaves the main show building.

 

[mratigan]

^So It basically just rises up and down, correct?

 

[jay]

Finally experienced Supercharged. Went in with no expectations since I deterred myself from anything that may have spoilt my experience. I will parrot all of the things that have been said about it, however, I don't think some of things were as bad as some made the seem. Still bad though.

I didn't understand what was going on lol. That message at the end given by Vin Diesel, La Roca, and the woman who never seems to smile in her movies whose name I can't recall atm, it was just so cringingly scripted with each of them waiting for the other to finish speaking in order to talk themselves. Vin Diesel hanging onto the helicopter drone was silly. Is the character he plays that kind of guy in the F&F franchise? I liked the fans. Those were nice since it was a hot day.

Thinking back on it, I think I enjoyed it because of how weird the thing is to me. A mish-mash. No direction whatsoever. Would you guys dislike Stage 55 less if it didn't have that miserable song playing and "dancing" cars? I think they're on par in the sense that I think both had potential for something better, but I digress.

I think I...it is plausible I may have liked it since I'm a fan of things so bad they're "good". (not a fan of stage 55 though). I'm hoping the F&F franchise is the same. Maybe I'd give those movies a chance now.

 

[Wesker69]

The F&F movies are sooooo much better than "Supercharged". They actually have a plot, practical stunts/effects, better dialogue. etc.. There is a reason why its such a successful franchise of films... great cast, great story, great action. However, Supercharged is NOT a proper representation of the films. .The lack of Paul Walker doesn't help Supercharged either

Yes, they have some crazy stunts in the movies, but no, they don't have Vin Diesel's character hanging from a drone. That was just dumb & really cheesy/cartoonish. Same goes for Michelle Rodrigueiz's character picking up & crush-throwing a car with a tractor thing.

The movies aren't for everyone, but if you actually give them a chance they'll surprise you. While I love them, I'm torn about another movie being made.

 

[12th Man]

Here is a picture of Supercharged at night. It is really nice

 

[Wesker69]

It really is a nice façade, just a shame the attraction itself isn't up-to-par. Definitely looks pretty cool at night.

 

[Jwhee]

Rode for the first time today! I was on the VIP tram. It was much better than I expected. 

 

[Chris]

*siiiigh* still haven't experienced it yet. The anticipation is killing me, and I refuse to watch any spoiler videos! Grrrr....soon. hopefully my next day off.

Hurry up!