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Universal Studios Florida
Orlando, FL
NBC Universal / Blackstone Group
Click to buy Universal Studios Tickets
 Park News - (11/6/09) I’m told that the Hollywood Rip Ride Rockit apparently valleyed again yesterday, in the usual spot just after the non-inverting loop.
(10/13/09) A new unique iPhone App has been developed specifically for the Hollywood Rip, Ride, Rockit coaster. They call it the Pocket Rockit Rollercoaster Setlist and it is hooked into an online database that keeps track of all the official and hidden song tracks available for the Rockit coaster. Of course, it’s so much more than just a list of songs however, as it includes animated instructions to show you how to access the hidden tracks, allows the users to rate the tracks, keep a time/date history log of which tracks you have chosen, so you can make a check list of which songs you have tried and which you still need to do. As new songs are added to the ride, the database will be updated so you will always have the current list. In fact, if you find that you have discovered a new hidden track, you can even submit it the list for confirmation.
(8/21/09) We’ve heard one minor rumor claiming that Universal may be looking into a cost evaluation to see what it would take to bring back a modified version of the old Wild West show. Apparently they are just looking at all the options, so nothing to get excited or upset about yet…
2009 - Hollywood Rip, Ride, Rockit - (11/16/09) A fun video showing off a nighttime POV ride on the Rockit from the front row has been posted to YouTube. We’ve also heard that the final (7th) Rockit train has arrived at the park at last from Maurer. No word on when it may be put on the tracks.
(10/20/09) A reader sent in a picture taken  on Sunday showing the work crews pulling the Rockit car that ‘valleyed’ the night before up the hill to the mid-course brake run. While I don’t know anything for certain, witness who saw it running Saturday afternoon reported that the morning’s test runs seemed to be quite slow, and were barely making it through the course due to the cold weather. They shut down the ride until the sun came out and warmed things up a bit, and when they did finally open the ride in the afternoon it seemed to be running fine. However later that night, when the temperature dropped, is when the empty train valleyed just after the non-inverting loop. Rumor has it that they may not attempt to test the cars without some weight in them again until things warm up in the spring.
(10/16/09) According to the latest buzz, the Rockit has been testing at night with the moving floor finally moving. This has led some to believe that they could follow through with that earlier rumor and open Rockit for HHN, but so far the official word is that it wont happen. I’ve also heard that it could be December before they finally get the moving floor working with the coaster.
(10/15/09) Screamscape has heard an  interesting report claiming that a few music groups or music labels have been informed about the whole fun section of hidden tracks available on the Rockit coaster, and have apparently informed Universal that they would like to have their songs removed. Yeah… makes sense doesn’t it? Fans of your music are going out of their way to find and access a HIDDEN track in the ride software to play these select songs over the official song selection list… and you want to take this away from them? Sigh…
I haven’t heard any specific band of song names, but I’d be willing to bet that Metallica may be behind some of this, given their history of fans and free music access (ie: the Napster Bad animated shorts from about 10 years ago). Anyone know more? If the certain songs havn’t been removed yet, it may be before too much longer.
(10/7/09) A fairly detailed video showing off about every element on the Hollywood Rip Ride Rockit coaster has been embedded below.
(9/21/09) I’ve got a few interesting items of note about the Rockit from readers. We know that at most they are only running 4 trains at a time right now, instead of the 7 that they are supposed to have. This is said to be a temporary item until they get all 7 trains on site (one still had yet to arrive) and get the final block brake programming set. Then they will be able to run more trains as well as use that moving platform as intended to speed up the process. However, until that time comes an interesting problem has been reported from a few readers.
It seems your audio selection comes to and end when you hit the brake run, at which point the touch screen resets to the starting point again. However due to the stacking of trains in the brake run, due to the slower than intended unload/load process, riders have begun to play with the touch screen, often selecting new songs for the next set of riders. On average, the new riders have little time to realize what has happened, back out of the menus to start over and select their own song before it is simply too late. People have started to watch the trains running from over in Citywalk to listen for that odd “flat tire’ sounding noise coming from the trains, as seen in a previous video link. According to the latest reports, of the four trains running, two had it and two didn’t, so you’ve got about a 50/50 chance right now.
2010 - Nothing new is likely at this point in time.
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