Back to the Future the Ride... one last time.
Well I figure then write everything in this story-like post, I guess I'll do it in a simple notation form since I am exhausted.
Getting up early and the weather: I hate waking up early. Especially after barely any sleep. The weather was severely hot and humid that day, oh and the air was brown. Yes. You heard me. Brown air. Hey, its LA, what do you want?
LA Traffic and Universal Parking: I HATE LA freeways. Nothing but jerks who dont know this law of staying 'three cars behind you' and signaling when you merge. Plus side was I took the route from 138 to the 14 to I-5, which basically cut ALOT of having to drive LA out of my time. So except for the parts I was actually in LA, the drive was quiet. I still hate that 14/I-5 junction. Its too high. O_O As for parking, I dont mind paying the fee... same as Disneyland, but hey Universal... make better signs that explain how to get to the park. I walked around in circles for 30 minutes before I found Citywalk was just on the OTHER side of the garage wall, which made me look dumb, especially since you HAD NO SIGNS. >=[ But I'll say Citywalk is pretty darn cool. Expensive, but cool.
Tickets and entering: Hey it was a breeze basically. I always worry if Im gonna be short or if they will reject my coupons. But once I got in the main gate, there was this big Hollywood film dramatic fanfare music that like really made it feel like the whole day was just all about me. =3 Points there.
Lines: Hah, barely any. =3 The longest waits were at Studio Tour and it wasnt too bad... prolly like 30 minutes was average wait time.
Souvineers: Kinda wish there was more BTTF stuff. I only found two Delorean models in the WHOLE PARK. But if they are getting rid of the ride, I guess there'd be no point to.
Now what about the rides and attractions? Well lets break it down:
Terminator: a stage show/3D film. The live action stuff was good, even if cheezy. They even had a kind of Smell-o-vision thing when it got into the movie... it was supposed to be a stench of death to what one of the cast members told me... wow, the future stinks. ;3 However the biggest failure was the 3D film part. The effects were terrible, the plot is crap, and the 3D film part... Im gonna make a major burn here. Captain Eo at Disneyland was like... the Casablanca of 3D films compared to this movies cutting room floor (And by the floor, I mean a public restroom thats not cleaned for a week.) work. FAIL. Oh and the 3D glasses just give you migranes. I looked around and saw everyone else having the same squinting problem.
Studio Tour: Go on this first. The guides are alert and raring to go. Our first guide was freakin awesome. The tours are always cheezy but this guy must have been like... the brother to the guy we had on the Jungle Cruise ride at Disneyland last week (Who was an outright riot)... Ive never laughed so hard in my life. The second guide we had when I went back later- crap. She flubbed her lines, and the tram driver didnt really bother to stop unless he had to for a soundstage red light. x.x Didnt get any good pics or laughs the second time around. But it was mostly just an excuse to laze back and rest my feet. I have a few video clips I'll try to post of the tour guide we first had on the Earthquake bits. (Oh and he was gold cause he ad-libed in addition to the standard script they follow.) Down side, we didnt see Courthouse Square cause it was in use for filming and remade for a different movie. (No clocktower. T.T)
Mascots: Woody Woodpecker, Fivel, and Scooby Doo on a tram dancing to "I like to move it" from Madagascar. AWESOME. And theres something about a Doc Brown look-alike riding around Universal on a Segway thats humorous. Either Disney Imagineers copied that idea from Universal or vise versa. Either way, funny and a good way to get around.
Jurassic Park: Had to talk myself into doing either this or the Mummy. Couldnt bring myself to do the Mummy cause Im terrified of coasters that spin. I bought a poncho for $1 because I learned my lesson at Splash Mountain last week. Well it didnt do much good, cause Dinosaurs spit and splash water DIRECTLY at you instead of accidentally. Yeah theres a difference. The drop wasnt as big as Splash mountain, but steeper. Not as wet, but ya still get a good drench. The dinosaurs looked too cheap though. I always thought that ride would be more elaborate like with how they did the animatronics on Jack Sparrow manequinn in Pirates of the Carribean, but no... cheap quality. How cheap? Small World ride-quality cheap. Overall it was a fun experience to get out of the heat.
Backdraft: HOT. Literally. But still a damn good show. What I dont get is why kill off BTTF and not THAT attraction? There was literally NO ONE there. Plus everyone knows about BTTF, but when was the last time someone talked about the movie "Backdraft"?
Interesting things: I did like the scene setups they do for some of the shopping areas. Its like going to Main Street USA at Disney or something, but each street is a different genre. And what made me giggle- "Doc Brown's Chicken- The finest chicken of all time". Its a resturant that serves chicken. Nothing extravagant, its just a name. Unfortunately NO ONE in Universal had vegetarian anything unless you count junk food. Bleh. Good thing I brought some munchies with me, but it still left me hungry afterwards. So I stopped at the Evergreen Cafe in Wrightwood for my usual Veggie Burger. Especially since I didnt really buy anything but the ticket and parking. And that poncho. I thoight about eating at Wolfgang Puck's at Citywalk, but the prices were pretty high and I was exhausted by then. Not even the cute woofy statue could entice me into sitting down for a meal. (Dont worry I DID take photos.) And Citywalk itself was a treat to explore. I remember Timduru trying to wear his fursuit all the way to the Universal Globe... he did get pretty far before security stopped him I guess.
Now for the whole purpose of the trip... the Back to the Future Ride...
I rode it 3 times, like I wanted. Each time when the ride ended I felt very very sad, cause I knew this would be the last time Id ever be able to do it. Or actually BE that close to or in a DeLorean. Yeah I know its not a REAL DeLorean, but thats as close as Ive ever been able to get. =(
First trip I was on the ride within 5 minutes... which was scary seeing how deserted the ride was. Apparently half the ride was already decommissioned (Theres two projection screens, one in each tower of the building.) I was wanting to get the shirts the staff members wore on the ride so badly, but it was only Studio employees that were able to get em. (Look at Back to the Future 2 and see the shirt Doc is wearing with the trains on it. Thats what they were all wearing.)
Sadly you could tell the ride had been put into disrepair for quite some time... half the TVs were old burned out CRTs in the waiting queue and only a couple worked. The pre-flight movie was ALOT different then what I first rode. I remember specially a scene where Doc screws something up before hand and calls himself a butthead. That was gone completely. Im pretty sure the PC people complained, yet Biff still kept calling the riders a butthead through out the ride. WEIRD. And to top it off they dont even go through the whole preflight movie like they used to. Its like "Ok whatever, just go down the hall and wait there." Its not like their rushed or anything. >.o
Another sad part to the ride was the fact that when the ride was going and you were in the waiting area, the whole building vibrated. NOT a good sign of maintence. Not to mention the rides vibrated alot too. Considering they are like 16 years old, I dont blame them for vibrating probably out of neglect. It was smooth originally. And quieter too. You used to never hear the hydraulics. (It is cool how it works... you basically get in the 'car' and instead of going forward through the garage door, the car seperates into two pieces. The rear end doesnt go anywhere, just the cabin and front end actually go up through the roof. into the theater section. 12 cars are actually running at the same time too on one big Omnimax screen. Four across, three levels high since its a 3 story building.)
And a final sad thing was the film aged pretty badly too. Looks like Universal never made any plans to carry it over from actual film to digital media cause it looked like watching an actual movie in a old theater. (Yes, even dust specs and a dead bug was on the projection. x.x) Its like being in a movie theater where the projectionist NEVER cleans anything on the projector and doesnt care about the film aging.
ALL that aside though... it was the BEST thing Ive been on in a long time. =3 It took me back to my childhood and reminded me WHY I loved the movies, WHY I wanted to be an inventor, and WHY I always wanted to mod my first car to look like the DeLorean. Heck now I wanna do it even more, the trick is figuring out how to do that to a wagon without looking... dumb. LOL. Its possible, I know it is. There HAS to be a way. Maybe not exactly like the DeLorean, but something cool and homebrew looking like that. I even spent a bit of time looking at the props on the ride itself. I could do better. ;3 They were cheap particle board and fiberglass pieces which was kinda sad, but still inspirational.
Rode it 3 times during the day, and the third time the staff was like "lol back again?" and I just grinned and went "Not back yet, but I will be." as I boarded the ride. PERFECT line in my opinion. I never have the right thing to say, but that time I did. XD On my second ride I got to ride in the front and I noticed that I was tall enough to see outside of the car. Not something they intended, but I saw all the other cars operating at the same time. Ruined the illusion yes, but didnt kill the magic and love for me one bit. =3
What made me even more jazzed was the buzz around the whole park.. people were saying NOTHING but "OMG, BTTF is the best ride ever even to this day, that Simpsons ride will make this park suck." or even "They should leave this ride here, its a freaking classic landmark!" and even kids like 5 years old were being introduced to the movie for the first time and FALLING IN LOVE WITH IT. Its sad a generation wont know how cool the DeLorean actually was or what a great trilogy is, but Im sure a few kids will be lucky enough to experience that joy like I did when I was their age. LOL heck even a 90 year old grandma and grandpa got off the ride and the whole way out of the building were like "Lets ride it again! It felt like we were actually THERE!"
Ahh man... it was hard to leave that park. I kept wanting to ride it over and over again, but I couldnt. I did put my name in to win the 1981 Delorean they had on display. It wasnt mint condition. Some parts were like needing replacement. I figure it was just a spare Studio car they never used for the mods. It probably doesnt run the best, but man... just the fact of having one... thats like a dream in itself. I know I wont win considering how many people were entering, but thats the closest Ive been to a real DeLorean. Low to the ground and sleek, but theres just something about em thats just beyond awesome. So it was like one dream come true for me to see it, and ride the ride one last time before it was gone forever. For that, I feel like the luckiest guy in the world today cause I have the best friends out there who helped me to get there. And tomorrow? Hmm, dunno what the future holds there, but I think its about time to start making it what *I* want it to be. =3 After all, the future is whatever you make it, so make it a good one.
Mission: Accomplished.
Getting up early and the weather: I hate waking up early. Especially after barely any sleep. The weather was severely hot and humid that day, oh and the air was brown. Yes. You heard me. Brown air. Hey, its LA, what do you want?
LA Traffic and Universal Parking: I HATE LA freeways. Nothing but jerks who dont know this law of staying 'three cars behind you' and signaling when you merge. Plus side was I took the route from 138 to the 14 to I-5, which basically cut ALOT of having to drive LA out of my time. So except for the parts I was actually in LA, the drive was quiet. I still hate that 14/I-5 junction. Its too high. O_O As for parking, I dont mind paying the fee... same as Disneyland, but hey Universal... make better signs that explain how to get to the park. I walked around in circles for 30 minutes before I found Citywalk was just on the OTHER side of the garage wall, which made me look dumb, especially since you HAD NO SIGNS. >=[ But I'll say Citywalk is pretty darn cool. Expensive, but cool.
Tickets and entering: Hey it was a breeze basically. I always worry if Im gonna be short or if they will reject my coupons. But once I got in the main gate, there was this big Hollywood film dramatic fanfare music that like really made it feel like the whole day was just all about me. =3 Points there.
Lines: Hah, barely any. =3 The longest waits were at Studio Tour and it wasnt too bad... prolly like 30 minutes was average wait time.
Souvineers: Kinda wish there was more BTTF stuff. I only found two Delorean models in the WHOLE PARK. But if they are getting rid of the ride, I guess there'd be no point to.
Now what about the rides and attractions? Well lets break it down:
Terminator: a stage show/3D film. The live action stuff was good, even if cheezy. They even had a kind of Smell-o-vision thing when it got into the movie... it was supposed to be a stench of death to what one of the cast members told me... wow, the future stinks. ;3 However the biggest failure was the 3D film part. The effects were terrible, the plot is crap, and the 3D film part... Im gonna make a major burn here. Captain Eo at Disneyland was like... the Casablanca of 3D films compared to this movies cutting room floor (And by the floor, I mean a public restroom thats not cleaned for a week.) work. FAIL. Oh and the 3D glasses just give you migranes. I looked around and saw everyone else having the same squinting problem.
Studio Tour: Go on this first. The guides are alert and raring to go. Our first guide was freakin awesome. The tours are always cheezy but this guy must have been like... the brother to the guy we had on the Jungle Cruise ride at Disneyland last week (Who was an outright riot)... Ive never laughed so hard in my life. The second guide we had when I went back later- crap. She flubbed her lines, and the tram driver didnt really bother to stop unless he had to for a soundstage red light. x.x Didnt get any good pics or laughs the second time around. But it was mostly just an excuse to laze back and rest my feet. I have a few video clips I'll try to post of the tour guide we first had on the Earthquake bits. (Oh and he was gold cause he ad-libed in addition to the standard script they follow.) Down side, we didnt see Courthouse Square cause it was in use for filming and remade for a different movie. (No clocktower. T.T)
Mascots: Woody Woodpecker, Fivel, and Scooby Doo on a tram dancing to "I like to move it" from Madagascar. AWESOME. And theres something about a Doc Brown look-alike riding around Universal on a Segway thats humorous. Either Disney Imagineers copied that idea from Universal or vise versa. Either way, funny and a good way to get around.
Jurassic Park: Had to talk myself into doing either this or the Mummy. Couldnt bring myself to do the Mummy cause Im terrified of coasters that spin. I bought a poncho for $1 because I learned my lesson at Splash Mountain last week. Well it didnt do much good, cause Dinosaurs spit and splash water DIRECTLY at you instead of accidentally. Yeah theres a difference. The drop wasnt as big as Splash mountain, but steeper. Not as wet, but ya still get a good drench. The dinosaurs looked too cheap though. I always thought that ride would be more elaborate like with how they did the animatronics on Jack Sparrow manequinn in Pirates of the Carribean, but no... cheap quality. How cheap? Small World ride-quality cheap. Overall it was a fun experience to get out of the heat.
Backdraft: HOT. Literally. But still a damn good show. What I dont get is why kill off BTTF and not THAT attraction? There was literally NO ONE there. Plus everyone knows about BTTF, but when was the last time someone talked about the movie "Backdraft"?
Interesting things: I did like the scene setups they do for some of the shopping areas. Its like going to Main Street USA at Disney or something, but each street is a different genre. And what made me giggle- "Doc Brown's Chicken- The finest chicken of all time". Its a resturant that serves chicken. Nothing extravagant, its just a name. Unfortunately NO ONE in Universal had vegetarian anything unless you count junk food. Bleh. Good thing I brought some munchies with me, but it still left me hungry afterwards. So I stopped at the Evergreen Cafe in Wrightwood for my usual Veggie Burger. Especially since I didnt really buy anything but the ticket and parking. And that poncho. I thoight about eating at Wolfgang Puck's at Citywalk, but the prices were pretty high and I was exhausted by then. Not even the cute woofy statue could entice me into sitting down for a meal. (Dont worry I DID take photos.) And Citywalk itself was a treat to explore. I remember Timduru trying to wear his fursuit all the way to the Universal Globe... he did get pretty far before security stopped him I guess.
Now for the whole purpose of the trip... the Back to the Future Ride...
I rode it 3 times, like I wanted. Each time when the ride ended I felt very very sad, cause I knew this would be the last time Id ever be able to do it. Or actually BE that close to or in a DeLorean. Yeah I know its not a REAL DeLorean, but thats as close as Ive ever been able to get. =(
First trip I was on the ride within 5 minutes... which was scary seeing how deserted the ride was. Apparently half the ride was already decommissioned (Theres two projection screens, one in each tower of the building.) I was wanting to get the shirts the staff members wore on the ride so badly, but it was only Studio employees that were able to get em. (Look at Back to the Future 2 and see the shirt Doc is wearing with the trains on it. Thats what they were all wearing.)
Sadly you could tell the ride had been put into disrepair for quite some time... half the TVs were old burned out CRTs in the waiting queue and only a couple worked. The pre-flight movie was ALOT different then what I first rode. I remember specially a scene where Doc screws something up before hand and calls himself a butthead. That was gone completely. Im pretty sure the PC people complained, yet Biff still kept calling the riders a butthead through out the ride. WEIRD. And to top it off they dont even go through the whole preflight movie like they used to. Its like "Ok whatever, just go down the hall and wait there." Its not like their rushed or anything. >.o
Another sad part to the ride was the fact that when the ride was going and you were in the waiting area, the whole building vibrated. NOT a good sign of maintence. Not to mention the rides vibrated alot too. Considering they are like 16 years old, I dont blame them for vibrating probably out of neglect. It was smooth originally. And quieter too. You used to never hear the hydraulics. (It is cool how it works... you basically get in the 'car' and instead of going forward through the garage door, the car seperates into two pieces. The rear end doesnt go anywhere, just the cabin and front end actually go up through the roof. into the theater section. 12 cars are actually running at the same time too on one big Omnimax screen. Four across, three levels high since its a 3 story building.)
And a final sad thing was the film aged pretty badly too. Looks like Universal never made any plans to carry it over from actual film to digital media cause it looked like watching an actual movie in a old theater. (Yes, even dust specs and a dead bug was on the projection. x.x) Its like being in a movie theater where the projectionist NEVER cleans anything on the projector and doesnt care about the film aging.
ALL that aside though... it was the BEST thing Ive been on in a long time. =3 It took me back to my childhood and reminded me WHY I loved the movies, WHY I wanted to be an inventor, and WHY I always wanted to mod my first car to look like the DeLorean. Heck now I wanna do it even more, the trick is figuring out how to do that to a wagon without looking... dumb. LOL. Its possible, I know it is. There HAS to be a way. Maybe not exactly like the DeLorean, but something cool and homebrew looking like that. I even spent a bit of time looking at the props on the ride itself. I could do better. ;3 They were cheap particle board and fiberglass pieces which was kinda sad, but still inspirational.
Rode it 3 times during the day, and the third time the staff was like "lol back again?" and I just grinned and went "Not back yet, but I will be." as I boarded the ride. PERFECT line in my opinion. I never have the right thing to say, but that time I did. XD On my second ride I got to ride in the front and I noticed that I was tall enough to see outside of the car. Not something they intended, but I saw all the other cars operating at the same time. Ruined the illusion yes, but didnt kill the magic and love for me one bit. =3
What made me even more jazzed was the buzz around the whole park.. people were saying NOTHING but "OMG, BTTF is the best ride ever even to this day, that Simpsons ride will make this park suck." or even "They should leave this ride here, its a freaking classic landmark!" and even kids like 5 years old were being introduced to the movie for the first time and FALLING IN LOVE WITH IT. Its sad a generation wont know how cool the DeLorean actually was or what a great trilogy is, but Im sure a few kids will be lucky enough to experience that joy like I did when I was their age. LOL heck even a 90 year old grandma and grandpa got off the ride and the whole way out of the building were like "Lets ride it again! It felt like we were actually THERE!"
Ahh man... it was hard to leave that park. I kept wanting to ride it over and over again, but I couldnt. I did put my name in to win the 1981 Delorean they had on display. It wasnt mint condition. Some parts were like needing replacement. I figure it was just a spare Studio car they never used for the mods. It probably doesnt run the best, but man... just the fact of having one... thats like a dream in itself. I know I wont win considering how many people were entering, but thats the closest Ive been to a real DeLorean. Low to the ground and sleek, but theres just something about em thats just beyond awesome. So it was like one dream come true for me to see it, and ride the ride one last time before it was gone forever. For that, I feel like the luckiest guy in the world today cause I have the best friends out there who helped me to get there. And tomorrow? Hmm, dunno what the future holds there, but I think its about time to start making it what *I* want it to be. =3 After all, the future is whatever you make it, so make it a good one.
Mission: Accomplished.