Extinct Attractions - Hollywood Rip Ride Rockit

Welcome to Extinct Attractions. This week, I left the Disney bubble and took a look at a (very) recently closed Universal attraction.

Last Thursday, Universal opened a brand-new experience in Las Vegas called Universal Horror Unleashed. The experience includes four different haunted houses that will bring the Halloween Horror Nights experience to Vegas all year long.

It’s just about a week until Halloween Horror Nights begins in Orlando, taking advantage of the Labor Day weekend festivities. I won’t be making it there this year, but I do prefer the Florida version to the Hollywood edition, though things will look a little different this year without the ability to get extra thrills on Hollywood Rip Ride Rockit.

But I’m getting a bit ahead of myself, so let’s start at the beginning, when construction began on the coaster in May 2008. In a rare change of events, very little of the park needed to be removed for the new coaster, with the extended queue for Twister … Ride It Out and a couple of soundstages serving as the only casualties. While Universal is generally known for moving pretty quickly on construction, there were some issues with the track, so it took until August 16, 2009 for the attraction to make its official debut.

After it opened, the attraction wasn’t a huge success because it loaded pretty slowly and there were mechanical issues with the connection of the trains, necessitating a two month closure in 2010. But it ended up being worth it in the end with a 167 foot apex and 3,800 foot long track making it the X-Car roller coaster in the world. An X-Car coaster generally has two connected cars with only six people in each car.

Via ​​Universal Orlando 

On top of that, Universal took some inspiration from Hollywood Dream - The Ride at Universal Studios Japan, with guests having the ability to choose which music they wanted to hear on board the ride. Originally, there were five different genres available, totalling up to 30 different songs. But there was more than that, in terms of a secret menu that guests could activate by holding the logo on the choice screen that had an additional 60 songs on it, selectable by adding punching in a three digit number related to the song.

The Florida version upped the ante a bit by allowing guests to purchase a video of themselves on the attraction, complete with their song choice (though the secret menu songs were not eligible to be purchased). The video came in handy because metal detectors were added in 2015, making it necessary to leave everything in one’s pockets in lockers before hopping in line.

The coaster started with a sense of purpose since the vehicles never stopped moving, so one needed to be ready to hurry themselves onto the car to make sure they didn’t hold the entire ride back. As soon as one was loaded, it was right into a 90 degree lift hill that led into a super steep drop.

From there, the attraction was a pretty standard (and intense) coaster, with the most notable moment being the fake loop, known as the Double Take, where the track spun at the top, so passengers never actually were upside down. I liked the moment, but it was a little bittersweet for me because I lost my glasses on it when I was younger because of how fast it spins around. I then had to go on a cruise wearing my mom’s glasses because I forgot to bring a back up pair like a fool.

Via Discover Universal 

Even with that traumatic experience, I still enjoyed Hollywood Rip RIde Rockit, because it was a fun coaster and really cool to get to choose different songs and try them all out. I think I got to try 5-10 different songs over the years, but one could tell the writing was on the well when the ability to choose from 30 songs was reduced to five total songs in August 2023. For those curious, these were the final five songs for RIp Ride Rockit.

With that in mind, Sunday, August 17, 2025 was Hollywood Rip Ride Rockit’s final day of operation. Universal pulled out the stops and even had costumed actors dressed as characters from the preshow to meet and greet with guests on the final day.

While there hasn’t been a replacement announced yet, but it does seem like another coaster will be replacing it, so it’ll be interesting to see if they go the IP route now and tie it into the New York area of the park. I’m sad to see it go, but I’m very excited to see what ends up coming in its place.

Via Reddit 

As always, don’t forget to check out my interactive maps of the Disney Parks throughout the years where you can watch or learn more about all the attractions from every Disney park around the world.

Thanks for reading and have a magical day!