Back to the Future fans will cry, Simpson’s fans will get misty eyed, thrill ride fans will scream, and all will laugh at the newest addition to Universal Studios Hollywood: The Simpsons Ride.

The all – refurbished motion simulator ride has been transformed from the former Back to the Future ride. And in only eight months, the ride is now officially open at both Universal Studios Hollywood and Universal Studios Orlando. Not only is the new ride more fluid, repainted, and extremely refurbished, it’s gone green! The ride now uses 21 jigowatts less then it’s predecessor. Or.. something like that.

The experience begins in the queue line where posters of Krustyland’s many rip off attractions are displayed. There are also several queue monitors that show the Simpsons goofing around in Krustyland, and their journey through the lengthy queue. A cameo appearance is made by Doc Brown in which the lead nerd at Krustyland goes back in time to prevent Krustyland from ever happening. And in true Back to the Future fashion, he ends up causing Krustyland to be built instead of preventing it as planned.

You then enter a room where there are several carnival booths set up on either side of you with Simpson characters operating them. It is in this room that you are directed into one of ten rows which corresponds to the room you will go into. You are shown a brief video where Krusty picks one “lucky” family to be the first to ride his amazing flippy, something or other teen operated thrill ride. Oh so coincidentally the Simpsons are that lucky family, and they choose you to come along! But before you go, you are warned that a dangerous criminal, Sideshow Bob is out for revenge on the Simpsons and Krusty and may be inside the park!

You are then escorted into a small preshow room where you and the other members of your party watch a video that portrays the Simpsons going into the ride area. They first pass by a nuclear radiation room, where Grandpa Simpsons and Maggie are told to wait outside the ride due to their health condition/one of them being a baby. As soon as the rest of the Simpson clan goes into the room where the ride vehicle is, Maggie climbs out of Grandpa Simpsons lap and into the nuclear radiation room, shocking, isn’t it?

Once they are inside the ride room Sideshow Bob appears and states he wishes to deliver a dish best served cold. No. Not Ice Cream.. revenge! He then knocks Krusty out and orders the Simpsons into the vehicle at gun point. It appears you will also be killed – guilty by association of course. But before your doom – you must watch a legally required safety video featuring itchy and scratchy! Ahh!

You then enter the room where the ride vehicle is housed, and board. The doors close (Huh.. something seems familiar about those doors.) and your restraint is lowered and you are all ready to go. You then see your trusty ride operator – an acne ridden teen who has an algebra one test to study for – we wouldn’t want him banned from the audio visual club would we?

Sideshow Bob then appears on the screen to inform us he is in total control of the park, we have no hope, and so on and so forth. Your car then rises up into the auditorium where three other cars are housed in order to boost capacity. You the climb up an elevator type lift and on to a roller coaster track where you are plunged down thanks to our maniacal villain.

All the while the Simpson family are in the car directly in front of you. After several more wacky encounters, crazy drops, twists, spins, water effects and being have eaten by a radioactive baby your ride comes to an end where you are escorted to the exit by a trusty Krustyland employee.

In short, the Simpsons Ride delivers the thrills, laughs and quirkiness you would expect from a Simpsons episode combined with a fantastic ride experience that you can only get at Universal Studios. So what are you waiting for? Krustyland, and the adventure of a lifetime awaits at Universal Studios Hollywood and Universal Studios Orlando.

This entry was posted on Sunday, June 1st, 2008 at 12:32 am and is filed under Reviews. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.