Earthquake: The Big One

ated at Universal Studios Florida, based on the 1974 disaster film "Earthquake". It opened with the park on June 7, 1990 and was located in the San Francisco/Amity area. The ride was in operation from 1990 until November 5, 2007, when it was closed and replaced into the current Disaster! A Major Motion Picture Ride...Starring You! Guests would enter the attraction through a facade recreating the Cliff & Ferries Rail house in San Francisco, and enter into the first pre-show room which was the inside of an authentic looking San Fransico brownstone with many photographson the walls showing the aftermath of real earthquakes which hit San Francisco and Los Angeles, as well as photos from the "Earthquake" film. Here, a casting director would begin speaking and then select multiple volunteers who would become the star of scenes taken from "Earthquake" and (later) "U571" later in the attraction. Guests would then enter the second pre-show room where they viewed some of the actual minerature sets used to create the disaster scenes from "Earthquake", and then a screen would lower in front of the sets, and guests viewed a short video hosted by "Earthquake" star Charlton Heston, who described who the special effects in the film were created with the construction, and then, destruction of the minerature sets. In the second version of the attraction, guests would view two montage videos in this room, the first showing many action-packed and disaster-related scenes from Universal Pictures films, and the second elaborating the many minerature sets and props built for the production of Universal's films, and then the screen would lift to show multiple mineratures from Universal films including E.T.'s spaceship from "E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial", The Grinch's sleigh from "How the Grinch Stole Christmas", the U571 submarine from "U571" and the destroyed Los Angeles sets from"Earthquake". The video with Charlton Heston would then again play. Guests were next ushered into the third and final pre-show room room where the lucky few who were selected in the first room would be instructed to act in scenes from "Eathquake", including experiencing the quake while on an escalator in a mall, and be lowered (actually dropped) from a destroyed high rise. In thesecond version of the attraction, the chosen guests would act on a submarine set in front of a blue screen from "U571" and would again be involved in the high rise drop from Earthquake. Guests then finallyb entered into the main ride portion of the attraction where thay boarded an open-air BART subway train in the West Oakland station. The ride then began as the subway traveled to the Embarcadero station. Soon, a minor tremor occured and a BART operator notified riders over an intercom not to be alarmed, before the minor tremor then escalated into a massive 8.3 scale earthquake shook the station as the train began violently rocking back and forth, electrical sparks came spraying out of the ceiling, the floor of the station broke apart and erupted in flames, a section of the roof collapsed as a tanker truck caved into the station and exploded, another BART train entered the station, derailed and nearly collided into the ride vehicle, and a flood of water came pummeling down from a stairwell on the right side. A casting director then appeared and congratulated guests for surving the earthquake. The BART train then returned to the West Oakland station where guests would exit. The attraction was based on the "Earthquake" scene on the long-running Studio Tour at Universal Studios Hollywood. It opened with Universal Studios Florida on June 7, 1990. "Earthquake" star Charlton Heston attended the grand opening of the park to support the ride. In 2002, Universal Studios refurbished the attraction to focus the pre-show portion less on the "Earthquake" film and more on multiple other Universal films such as "E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial", "How the Grinch Stole Christmas" and "U571". A "U571" scene was also added to the third pre-show room during this refurbishment, taking the place of the original "Earthquake" escalator set. In the years following, the attendance at EARTHQUAKE - THE BIG ONE continued to decrease slowly with every year. As a result, Universal Orlando officials began planning out a new attraction which would replace it. On September 8, 2007, the pre-show of Earthquake was closed in preparation for the attraction's closure. The ride portion still remained in operation until it was closed forever on November 5, 2007, to make way for Disaster! which opened on January 17, 2008, replacing Earthquake: The Big One. Although the current Disaster! attraction recycles many of the same effects from the Earthquake ride, such as the exploding taker and runaway train, it is not based on the Earthquake film, but instead follows a new storyline concerning Disaster! Studios and their newest film "M***a Nature". Plasa screens were also added to the BART trains for the attraction's transformation into Disaster!, and an entirely different pre-show and queue were added.