Category: Fast And Furious: Supercharged

4/4/2016

A look back at Universal Studios Hollywood's "EPIC Transformation"

It's finally here!!! It's Potter Week!!

As you all know the Wizarding World of Harry Potter opens at Universal Studios Hollywood this Thursday (April 7) and the star studded premiere is tomorrow night (April 5). We will of course be there on the red carpet so be sure you are following us for all of that fun.

So while we're celebrating all things Wizarding World this week we thought it would be a good time to stop and take a look backwards a bit, to take a look at where the park was just a few short years ago and at the "Epic Transformation" they've made. Because it truly is EPIC.

From a park that just a few years ago was giving a full year away for the price of one day to where today is commanding multiple visits for tourists and has definitely swayed the attendance habits of local fans who now have a choice between incredible theme parks to attend each weekend.

It truly is an AMAZING time time to be a theme park fan in Southern California.

(keep in mind, we don't have all the older pictures we would have liked, but at the time we weren't thinking of taking them for posterity ... oh hindsight)

We'll start off at the front of the park since that's the first thing everybody sees when they enter. Remember when this was the new thing in the park?

Of course, the iconic entry to the park hasn't changed much over the years.

The rest of the entrance area has sure changed over the years though.

Sure looks different today

All new Starbucks!!

And they aren't even done yet, coming this Summer!!

The Wild West Theater

Now ...

Universal Plaza decked out for Lunar New Year earlier this year.

Let's take a left turn from Universal Plaza where we now have the amazing Despicable Me Minion Mayhem and Super Silly Funland.

T2:3D.

Now ...
Despicable Me Minion Mayhem and Super Silly Funland

Did You Know: Despicable Me Minion Mayhem was one of the first projects we started covering as a website?

Continuing on through the upper lot of the park, who remembers when Marvel had a presence at the park? It really wasn't that long ago.

Once Marvel left it was just "Comic Heroes"

Photo Credit David Yeh/EndorExpress

Or when this was actually a thing?

Even the Studio Tour entrance has undergone some pretty significant changes over the years:

The tour itself has had some changes, some forced and two totally different Fast and Furious attractions.

June 2, 2008 - The latest Backlot fire.

Have a tramtastic day ...

But all of the changes weren't exclusive to the upper lot, the lower lot has received it's share of love recently.

Then ... Special Effects Stages (now on the upper lot)

Now ...
Transformers The Ride 3D

Even small changes to make the guest experience better.

Then...

Now ...

But of course, none of that compares to the changes made to the upper lot in just the last few years. The thing that has finally made Universal Studios into a full fledged "Theme Park" and not just a "Studios" park.

Then ...

Did you know: The Universal Amphitheater closed in September 2013? Not even 3 years ago.

Photo Credit David Yeh/EndorExpress

Anybody know what is in this spot now? Certainly looks much different today.

Photo Credit David Yeh/EndorExpress

No Epic Transformation could be done without a LOT of Epic Construction.

Now ... we'll start off with the amazing Springfield addition that was made last year.

And of course, none of that compares to what is opening in just a few days.

So now it's finally here ... just a few short days away. Wizarding World opens for the world to see.

And we all have heard the rumors, we know they aren't done yet. When the new additions will be announced is anybody's guess. Will they take the advantage of the world looking at the park this week to make another big announcement? We'll find out tomorrow night.

We hope you enjoyed this look back at the park over the past few years. We of course had a lot more pictures that we could have shared, but we figured this was more than enough. It's still amazing how much work has been done in just a few years and we can't wait to see what the future holds.

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6/24/2015

Fast and Furious Supercharged Media Day

Yesterday was Media Day for Fast and Furious Supercharged at Universal Studios Hollywood. As always, the park put on a great red carpet event and opening ceremony which included celebrities, a stunt show, dancers, Universal Executives and even the Mayor of Los Angeles.

Written by Amanda Condon

Below we'll give you the run-down of the entire event and a re-review of the ride, as there have been a few changes since the last time we rode, some good changes.

You can see video of the ceremony below. We've cut it down a bit to show the fun parts, there were lots of speeches given as well.

The event was held down on the Metro Sets, more specifically in Courthouse Square, which was very cool.

Courthouse Square

The park was very nice to give me a prime parking spot right down on the Metro Set's. =)

First thing we noticed were all the signs now include the tagline "Grand Finale of the Studio Tour". Hopefully this should set expectations where they should be.

The Red Carpet

The stage set-up

Donuts on the Universal Backlot

Dancers kicked off the show with a fun routine

Larry Kurzweil arrived in style.

Vin Diesel made a very nice speech where he talked about the franchise and his late friend Paul Walker.

Vin Diesel ready to cut the chain and open the ride!!!

Just as Vin Diesel is about to cut the chain, the FBI shows up to mess up the party.

So just cutting a red ribbon or breaking a chain, not really Fast and Furious style, so they had a car do it with an awesome stunt.

The aftermath

The creative team that put on the opening ceremonies. They put on a great show.

Re-Review of Fast and Furious Supercharged:

So last week we did a review of the attraction after the Media Preview, outlining some of the issues we had with the ride. We are VERY pleased to report that a lot of these have been fixed.

The film print in both the pre-show and actual show have been cleaned up a bit. Not sure if this was due to a new print, lens adjustments or something, but it has DEFINITELY helped the overall experience. In addition, the water effects have been toned down A LOT as they weren't needed at all.

While we still maintain this isn't a ride (and them adding the tagline "Grand Finale of the Studio Tour" is a good step in the right direction of having expectations set correctly) this truly is the biggest/baddest finale the tour has ever had. Hopefully this is just the first step in the continued "plussing" of the studio tour.

We hope you enjoyed this look at the grand opening of Fast and Furious: Supercharged. The attraction officially opens today so be sure you head out to the park soon to check it out.

We'll have our normal Wizarding World/General Park update tomorrow.

If you enjoyed this update please share with your friends and make sure you "like" us on Facebook and "follow" us on Twitter and Instagram.

If you have any comments, please share them below

6/17/2015

6-17-15 - Wizarding World Hollywood Update

Hey everybody, welcome to another Wizarding World Hollywood Update. We're running it a bit late this week due to our review of Fast and Furious: Supercharged that ran on Monday, be sure to check that out if you missed it.
These pics were taken last Friday, so they may be a "bit" outdated seeing how fast the park is working, it's pretty much to the point if we don't get these updates up a day or two after taking them, they are no longer current. Lesson learned. =)

Pictures and Words by Gregg Condon

Before we get to the Wizarding World Stuff, we want to send out a HUGE congrats to Universal Pictures and everybody involved with Jurassic World. We all really enjoyed the movie for what it was, a fun summer popcorn movie. It had great nods to the original that had us all smiling and the action and dino's were great. If you haven't seen it, you should go out and give Universal more $$ now. =)

It will be interesting to see what, if anything is announced as far as Jurassic World expansions in the coming months/years. I'm sure they all knew it would be a hit, but I'm not sure anybody saw it being THIS big (so far at least).

With that said, let's head over to Wizarding World, starting off with our traditional opening shot of the Hogsmeade entry arch.

So much detail

Hogwarts, looking great

Greenhouse

What's that lurking through the trees?

Flight of the Hippogriff track is going up!!!

You can actually see the entire area MUCH better from the other side (where we entered for our Fast and Furious tour) but of course we were asked not to take pictures there, and we of course did not.

There are actually a few other things going on around the rest of the park such as the new retail/dining location where House of Horrors used to be. It's going up very quickly.

Believe it or not, construction is already taking place for Halloween Horror Nights!!!

The Metro Sets were totally closed off as they were filming something.

And finally, a jeep from Jurassic World has been added to the Universal Cars display.

Ok, that's going to wrap it up for this update. We'll be at the park next week for the red carpet premiere of Fast and Furious: Supercharged so we'll have more updates then.

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A look back at Universal Studios Hollywood's "EPIC Transformation"

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