R.i.p. Bttf :(

[Queenie]

Can anyone confirm if the ride did close today? We're in Orlando from Saturday so I was praying for the oct 1st closure date.

 

[keishashadow]

BTW, The Simpson's is still a ratings generator & is very popular with pre-teens/teenages & young adults.

Do a search, for those of us who have watched it for years, the staying power is rather amazing.

Matt Groening is a master of merchandising, can easily see him granting the rights to a ride. All my DSs but, especially the youngest is obsessed with "where in the world is Springfield".

This ride would be a perfect fit for Universal's demographics, easily recognizable to a multi-generational audience, while appealing to hard-core fans.

We haven't visited Universal since 2/05, just the rumour alone is enough to pencil it in for our late summer trip next yearthink it would draw in quite a few others who don't visit every time too.

 

[MoreorlessaDisneyfan]

Well, it will be sad to see the BTTF ride go, but I still think that the movie is liked by young audiences. I'll visit YouTube and check out the various BTTF videos on there (scenes, spoofs, trailers of all kinds)...There's plenty of them and many of them get good reviews, not just from people who saw it the first time out, but also from teenagers who weren't even born when the movie was made. If you visit MySpace and run a search on "Back To The Future", you'll see that there are hundreds, if not thousands, of young people who like the BTTF movies.

Okay, the ride had to go, but the movies still appeal to audiences to this day. It's a true classic, and I hope that they can still do something to keep BTTF in the park somehow. I was thinking that perhaps they could do some sort of show where Marty and Doc traveled through the past 5 decades and got involved with the best music from each decade (the 50s, the 60s, the 70s, the 80s and the 90s). Dancers, medleys, a humorous script...Too bad "Beetlejuice's Graveyard Review" pretty much has that concept locked up.

Sincerely,

John "MoreorlessaDisneyfan" Kilduff

 

[nogooddeed]

I was at US on Sat the 16th and the line for BTTF was the longest I had seen it in a long time. When we walked by Doc Brown was standing by the line entrance talking with people...usually he is over by the car.

 

[CJN]

I'll do a little mourning for the loss of BTTF, too, even though I never ride it. But it is responsible for one of my favorite trip memories:

Years ago, I went to Orlando with my mom and 10 year old niece. First trip, woowhee! I was expected to be the tour guide so ahead of time I devoured every bit of available info. Al Gore hadn't quite perfected the internet yet so no disboards in those days, just guide books and a few brochures from the travel agent. Worried about mom on rough rides, I used a red marker to note anything questionable that she should probably skip. She thought It's a Small World was darn near nirvana, btw. Every night in our room we'd check over the notes and make plans for the next day. So here we go into Universal (thinking we're well-informed) and come to BTTF. I'd forgotten to take along the guidebook that day and for the life of me couldn't remember anything the book had said about it, which I translated in my head as "Well then it must be fairly tame or I would've remembered to skip it." So like innocent lambs to the slaughter we walked in, cheerfully ignoring a bazillion warning signs, all because "I would've remembered to skip it" if the guidebook had thrown up a red flag.

I'll never forget the look on her face when we walked out of there (more like staggering than walking ). She'd turned an interesting shade of I'm-gonna-puke-green and needed a little help getting to a bench to sit down. I didn't feel so great myself but barely noticed because I was too busy sputtering, "But I didn't mark it, I didn't mark it so I thought it would be okay". It took a while to walk that off, I tell you. The first thing we did when we got back to the hotel was check the guidebook and, yep, right there it said "considered probably the roughest ride in all of Orlando." But I hadn't marked it in red and still don't know how I missed it. She absolutely loved telling that story afterward, always with a twinkle in her eye as if I'd deliberately suckered her in that day.

Anyway...we lost mom in a car accident not long after that and so she never made it back to Orlando. But every trip for me since always meant stopping in front of BTTF long enough to smile at that memory. Darn, it'd be nice to see it one more time but we won't get there until February!

 

[bubba's mom]

I'll do a little mourning for the loss of BTTF, too, even though I never ride it. But it is responsible for one of my favorite trip memories:

Years ago, I went to Orlando with my mom and 10 year old niece. First trip, woowhee! I was expected to be the tour guide so ahead of time I devoured every bit of available info. Al Gore hadn't quite perfected the internet yet so no disboards in those days, just guide books and a few brochures from the travel agent. Worried about mom on rough rides, I used a red marker to note anything questionable that she should probably skip. She thought It's a Small World was darn near nirvana, btw. Every night in our room we'd check over the notes and make plans for the next day. So here we go into Universal (thinking we're well-informed) and come to BTTF. I'd forgotten to take along the guidebook that day and for the life of me couldn't remember anything the book had said about it, which I translated in my head as "Well then it must be fairly tame or I would've remembered to skip it." So like innocent lambs to the slaughter we walked in, cheerfully ignoring a bazillion warning signs, all because "I would've remembered to skip it" if the guidebook had thrown up a red flag.

I'll never forget the look on her face when we walked out of there (more like staggering than walking ). She'd turned an interesting shade of I'm-gonna-puke-green and needed a little help getting to a bench to sit down. I didn't feel so great myself but barely noticed because I was too busy sputtering, "But I didn't mark it, I didn't mark it so I thought it would be okay". It took a while to walk that off, I tell you. The first thing we did when we got back to the hotel was check the guidebook and, yep, right there it said "considered probably the roughest ride in all of Orlando." But I hadn't marked it in red and still don't know how I missed it. She absolutely loved telling that story afterward, always with a twinkle in her eye as if I'd deliberately suckered her in that day.

Anyway...we lost mom in a car accident not long after that and so she never made it back to Orlando. But every trip for me since always meant stopping in front of BTTF long enough to smile at that memory. Darn, it'd be nice to see it one more time but we won't get there until February!

what a touching story...so sorry you lost your Mom....but, it is a wonderful memory to have, and smile, each time you go back to Universal to the BTTF area....that's what we're doing...livin' life and makin' memories!

 

[Amity 3]

there's an idea being kicked around to suspend the closing until after HHN. there's still a lot of behind the scenes work going on, and it would help to pull crowds back to that corner of the park during the event.

 

[disneyfreek1]

i loved this ride when we went. this was one of the better rides at universal (better than jaws that's for sure).

 

[Lizzybear]

Very sad news for me. I loved the ride and my bf will never get to ride it Whatever replaces it better be good!!