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Credit: Universal Orlando
Hollywood Rip Ride Rockit is closing. If you are familiar with the longstanding Universal Studios coaster, you may have mixed feelings about the change. You wouldn’t be alone. It’s been a giant red and yellow fixture on the skyline with its notable vertical lift and its secret playlist for more than a decade. Still, that playlist has changed over time, and the ride has also been criticized for its jerky movements and generally rough ride.
The roller coaster officially closes on August 18, which means August 17th is the last day to jump on, and some frequent parkgoers are definitely taking advantage. Others are certainly quite a bit less sad to see it go. Let’s run down the reactions!
Some Fans Are Saying Sayonara To Rip Ride Rockit
National Coaster Day just so happened to fall on August 16th, two days before the Hollywood Rip Ride Rockit would be closing its gates forever. One fan spent that day saying goodbye and commemorating some of the ride’s best songs. One X poster noted:
For #NationalRollerCoasterDay, I got a couple rides on Hollywood Rip Ride Rockit to say goodbye. My song choices so far were:Humble (Kendrick Lamar)Immigrant Song (Led Zeppelin)Waterloo (ABBA)Rainbow Connection (The Muppet Movie)
Another fan showed up to Universal Studios in the a.m. of its last day specifically to say goodbye to the coaster one more time. In fact, that Xuser had one goal in mind.
Today is the last day for Rockit! And you know I had to be here early to be one of the first to ride today!
Fans attending the closing day noted the characters for the ride were out in full force as people queued, and Universal Orlando was also giving out a freebie to commemorate the last day. This may have just been unsold merch, but it’s still a nice thing for the park to do, as user Thrill Geek noted.
For everyone happy to head to the parks to commemorate the last day of the ride, there are some who could not contain their snark online.
Some Of The Rip Ride Rockit Goodbye Comments Are Downright Aggressive
A lot of people seem happy the coaster is going. Our own theme park expert, Dirk Libbey, said “good riddance” in his official write up about the ride’s demise.
In one particularly notable and aggressive tweet, an X user took a “Weekend Update” update clip and edited it to make it fit their feeling about the ride closing this week. In the clip, we can see Colin Jost saying “retire bitch” as a ride logo floats on the screen.
Another person who did go out of their way to catch one last ride, also noted their disappointment that Hollywood Rip Ride Rockit had changed in recent years, slashing the once-long roller coaster playlist. (Editor note: This was edited for capitalization and punctuation).
Rocked out one last time to ‘Waterloo’ by Abba🎸🤘(but the day they removed ‘Hella Good’ by No Doubt was the day Hollywood Rip Ride Rockit died to me.)
They weren’t the only person annoyed about the changes to the ride over time, either, particularly when it came to the playlist. Another X user also said the song functionality changing was the worst.
Bye Rip Ride Rockit see you never I’ve hated you ever since I couldn’t play ‘Glamorous’ anymore. ✌️
But some people rightfully pointed out that even before dropping songs the ride was downright “painful.”
Rip Ride Rockit is truly one of the worst coasters in existence. It’s painful and terrible. Good riddance to this abysmal experience.
Listen, for me, two things can be true at once. I always found Rip Ride Rockit to be a bit charming, thanks to the secret playlist that engaged the theme park insiders who knew about it. However, it was a tough coaster to ride, and I can sit here all day and tout the benefits of great coasters like the popular VelociCoaster at Universal Orlando.
I think one of the most telling things about this ride is that it only opened in 2009 and is already closing its doors after just over 15 years. Wait times were generally low, it took up a lot of space, many parkgoers downright hated it or skipped it most of the time, and Universal Orlando is ready to go in a new direction. I totally get it.
Still, every time a change comes to a theme park, it’s bittersweet. It means we are heading into a new era, for better or for worse. Moments in time become simply memories, and it’s always a little bit sad to let that go, even when we’re talking about a ride that may have given us a neck impingement on more than one occasion.
So RIP, Hollywood Rip Ride Rockit. You paved the way for the musical Guardians of the Galaxy coaster at Disney, and your original playlist, at least, will very much be missed.
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