December 26, 2024, 4:46 PM ·
It looks like the days officially are numbered for a roller coaster at Universal Studios Florida.Universal Orlando this week filed an application with the South Florida Water Management District to remove and replace its Hollywood Rip Ride Rockit roller coaster. Filed under application number 241223-48710 and codenamed Project P830, the application would allow the resort to begin work to “remove [the] existing attraction and replace with proposed attraction,” according to the document.The document does not detail what that attraction would be, but one obvious candidate for a Rip Ride Rockit replacement would be an Orlando installation of the Fast & Furious: Hollywood Drift coaster that is now under construction at Universal Studios Hollywood in California.That Intamin spinning coaster is set to open in 2026.Given the timing of this application, Universal is unlikely to begin any demolition work until after Universal Epic Universe opens May 22, 2025. And given that Hollywood Rip, Ride, Rockit runs near the soundstage buildings that Universal uses for many of its popular Halloween Horror Nights houses, I would not expect to see any demo work begin until after next year’s HHN event. That puts the commencement of the project at late in 2025, at the earliest. A Maurer Rides X-Car coaster, Hollywood Rip, Ride, Rockit is known for its vertical lift and on-ride music options that individual riders can select. The original idea for the attraction was that you were recording your own music video, with a custom on-ride video with your music that you could purchase at the end of the ride.But HRRR has suffered from a rough ride experience for many years, making it the lowest-ranked roller coaster at the Universal Orlando Resort among our readers – even lower than the kiddie coasters. That lack of popularity plus downtimes and maintenance costs have made the coaster a top candidate for replacement at the resort.So if you want to get in a last ride on Hollywood Rip Ride Rockit, now is the time to get that done.For Universal theme park tickets, please visit our ticket partner’s Universal Orlando tickets page.For assistance in planning a complete Universal Orlando vacation, including discounts on bundled Epic Universe tickets and on-site hotel stays, please contact our partner for a free, no-obligation vacation quote.Finally, to keep up to date with more theme park news, please sign up for Theme Park Insider’s weekly newsletter.
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