Fast and Furious: Supercharged (USF)

Fast and Furious: Supercharged opened to a soft open this past Sunday, so I made my way over the following Monday to hopefully be able to experience it. Reviews on Twitter were virtually non-existent heading in, but the ones that did pop up were generally unfavorable. I took this with a grain of salt as social media is generally a haven of hatred and negativity as it is.

I made it to the show building at 6pm with a posted 45 min standby time. Not bad at all for a soft open considering Kong would see waits of 2 hours. Once inside the facade, we're in an open-air overgrown warehouse area that's set up as a BBQ.. small beer bottle tribute to Paul Walker in there. The queue turns into the giant garage area where all the cool cars are stored. My favorite portion of the queue definitely, as we make our way to some parts are kept along with a video from Ludacris talking about race day. Wasn't really paying attention, but I'm guessing Vin Diesel won his race and we're taking a 'party bus' to the afterparty. Let's go with that.

We head into our first preshow room, where a staff member talks about Ludacris putting the finishing touches on our party bus; then he does a few dance moves to help us practice for the party? Vin Diesel's sister interrupts via video feed to tell us how we're part of the family. The next room is The War Room where another host greets us. But the FBI is about to raid us so we have to get out quick... wait what? Anyway onto the party bus after a considerable extended delay (forgivable during tech rehearsal).

The party bus is literally the same ride vehicle as Kong. It even has an animatronic beanie-wearing driver. Instead of an expedition theme though, this vehicle has neon lights, music and TVs.

The ride takes a right and we're in a dark tunnel, virtually driving (not moving, looks like we're passing through a tunnel though) and end up pulling right into the party where a bunch of Peppers ghost'ed party-goers are grinding on each other. The FBI comes and breaks up the party. The Rock shows up and tells the FBI to leave? And then we're tracked thanks to the party host still having his cellphone... Vin Diesel's enemy knows where we are now. This whole exchange is done in the party room with no movement whatsoever. A few minutes of just watching another movie in our party bus.

The next room we're in a garage and the chase with the enemy starts through the streets. It's about a two-minute sequence with the 360 screens. What's odd is that it's not 3D. Maybe this will change? But as of this writing you don't wear 3D glasses on the ride. There's some action, cool smoke effects and a leap from a bridge that happens to land us all in a safe spot. We make a right turn and we're back in the station.

The Good: decent queue, car room was cool. Smoke effects were nicely timed and tunnel effect was simple.

The Bad: Nice to not have something in 3D, but you're still using screens.

The Ugly: Terrible use of space. Boring ride layout, first third was stationary in the party room.

Conclusion: I originally put this above Fallon. After second thought, I realized I couldn't. The duds at Universal generally have something mildly good in them.. whether it's Fallon's barbershop or Kong's scare actors. Fast and Furious: Supercharged is the most uninspired ride I've ridden in a long time.. in a sense, it's exactly what the movies stand for. A money grab. Not only did Universal carbon copy its Hollywood counterpart, it copied the ride system from its own park in Islands' Kong ride. It managed to rip off two of its own rides at once to try to pass itself off as something new. And for that, I hope Disney blows them out of the water this summer when Toy Story opens.

Wait Time: 65 minutes

Wouldn't-Wait-Longer-Than Wait Time: 10 minutes

Grade: D.

We also hit Voodoo Donuts recently. Not much to say here... Brittany got the Bavarian Cream and Mexican Chocolate. I got the Bavarian and Maple Bar. They had run out of Maple Bar with Bacon.. even though we had gotten there as it opened! Oh well. I thought the donuts were all right, the cake based ones are better than the yeast. The plus side is a breakfast option inside the park property for all us early risers out there.

Oh and just one more thing. When you're looking at the rotating donut case in line, watch your head. The metal spiral staircase is in an awkward spot. Brittany gave herself a nice bump on the noggin. She managed to survive though and made it through a day at the park. All's well that ends well.