| Watch the on-ride POV |
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| The ride entrance in 2012 | |||||||||||||
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| Statistics | |||||||||||||
| Manufacturer | Ride & Show Engineering | ||||||||||||
| Designer / calculations | Universal Creative | ||||||||||||
| Type | |||||||||||||
| Capacity | Subway Train seating 108 people per car | ||||||||||||
| Animatronics | 5 | ||||||||||||
Disaster: A Major Motion Picture Ride... Starring YOU!, simply known as Disaster, was a Dark Rideformerly located in the San Francisco section of Universal Studios Florida in Orlando, Florida, United States. It was manufactured by Ride & Show Engineering.[1]
Opening with the park on June 7, 1990, it was originally known as Earthquake and was based off the 1974 disaster epic, Earthquake, while also being based off the attraction at the Studio Tour at Universal Studios Hollywood.
The ride closed in 2015 to make way for Fast & Furious: Supercharged.
History
In 1988, the original Earthquake exhibit opened at the Studio Tour at Universal Studios Hollywood. This part of the tour put guests directly in the line of fire for a deadly magnitude 10 earthquake.
When Universal Studios Florida was under development, the original idea was to turn the most successful parts of the Studio Tour into their own attractions. Jaws, King Kong Encounter, and Earthquake, were some of the attractions chosen for the new Florida Park.
Earthquake opened with the park on June 7, 1990, however, design flaws with it and Jaws caused it to operate unreliably[2] until October. of that year, where an ongoing lawsuit between the park and the manufactured had been dropped by then.[3] A similar experience to the original ride, it had a new pre-show educating guests on the process of shooting scenes for a disaster-Esque movie.[4]
The ride would virtually see no changes for the better part of a decade and a half, that was until November 5, 2007, when Earthquake closed down to be refurbished into something completely original.[5]
The new ride, Disaster! opened on January 17, 2008, with Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson making an appearance.[6] Instead of being based on an existing property, it now was a spoof on the disaster genre of films, with guests put in the action with their own film being made at the end.
In August 2015, it was announced that Disaster! would close by September to be replaced by Fast & Furious: Supercharged.[7] It closed on September 8, 2015. The ride building was demolished, with the original entrance remaining in place.
References
- ↑ "Park taken for a ride?". The Stuart News. 1990-08-23. Retrieved 2025-03-05.
- ↑ By (1990-08-22). "PARK SUES DESIGNER OF JAWS, EARTHQUAKE". Orlando Sentinel. Retrieved 2025-02-12.
- ↑ By (1990-10-09). "UNIVERSAL PUTS 2 THRILL RIDES ON FULL TIME EARTHQUAKE, KONGFRONTATION IMPROVE RELIABILITY RATINGS". Orlando Sentinel. Retrieved 2025-02-12.
- ↑ MouseSteps / JWL Media (2016-07-20), Earthquake: The Big One - FULL POV Ride Experience 1996, Universal Studios Florida, Orlando, retrieved 2025-02-12
- ↑ "Universal Studios to replace Earthquake attraction by December - Orlando Sentinel". web.archive.org. 2012-10-03. Retrieved 2025-02-12.
- ↑ "Orlando Attractions Magazine - Your source for Orlando-area theme parks and attractions!". web.archive.org. 2008-08-19. Retrieved 2025-02-12.
- ↑ Andersson, Corinne (2015-08-25). "New Fast & Furious ride coming to Universal Orlando, Disaster attraction to close". Inside the Magic. Retrieved 2025-02-12.