Wednesday, July 16, 2008

The Simpson Ride at Univeral Studios, Orlando

This is basically an experiment of posting audio, text, photos and video into a single blog post. I know it's not that complex, but its through this multiple media experience that I think blogging is at its most powerful.


The mobile audio post above was recorded using Utterz while I was waiting in the queue at The Simpsons Ride at Universal Studios in Orlando, Florida. The $30 million ride officially opened on May 15th this year so it was very busy - even on a day when the park was not that crowded due to rain.

According to Wikipedia, the ride has been well received by fans after it opened. Seth Kubersky of Orlando Weekly described the ride as "a more than worthy successor" to Back to the Future: The Ride. Brady MacDonald of the Los Angeles Times described the ride as "visually stunning" and said it "truly delivers — with loads of in-jokes and satire for serious fanatics and tons of thrills and fun for casual fans." Elise Thompson of the LAist said "the ride is a total blast, with plenty of laughs as well as thrills."

Jay Cridlin of the St. Petersburg Times wrote that "the ride is packed with more original, funny material than you'd expect to see in a sitcom, much less a theme park." However, he admitted that the ride was "a little discombobulating".

The one millionth rider was hosted on the ride on July 14, 2008, two days before my visit. According to Universal this milestone was reached fast than any other attraction ever at the park.

The photos come from my Flickr account where you can see a few more photos from my afternoon at Universal. Finally, the YouTube video below is from the pre-show area prior to boarding the six minute ride (which I waited for about an hour to board). It includes all the safety warnings in a way The Simpsons could only offer.


2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Was the ride worth the wait? I'm going on my yearly trek to Cedar Point in Aug - but I won't have the half hour Breakers advantage this year.

Tim Eby said...

For me since it was the one ride I had not done before it was worth it. Plus, they made the queue pretty entertaining while waiting.

We've also been talking about Cedar Point although not sure if we'll get there this summer. The Millennium Force is one of my favorite coasters.