Theme Park Enjoyment Index for AUGUST 2025 (Starcruiser Erasure, Putting the “R.I.P” in Rip Ride Rockit, Beak & Barrel and MORE!)

Remember, all links in TPEI open up in a new browser window. So feel free to check stuff out, we’ll be here when you get back! Each photo opens up to a larger version as well, and with that out of the way let’s look back at what happened during the past month, starting with…

*R.I.P. Ride Rockit

For those who don’t know, during the middle of this month Bacini and I took a trip up to New Hampshire. This is why you saw our prestigious Artist Spotlight series scrape the bottom of the barrel, along with an incredible bonus SATURDAY SIX by Joseph Matt because I had completely forgot to tell him and The Powers That Be at TouringPlans that I had finished an article to cover my absence.

Bacini and I travel back to the northeast each August for several reasons. To hear the English language mangled beyond comprehension, feel the chilling effects of Fall during the Summer, and to see family. This year we had one more reason to get away…

…because Universal closed my beloved Hollywood Rip Ride Rockit on August 18th. Like the unfairly maligned Shrek 4D, we need to give Rip Ride Rockit a proper sendup, so look for our heartfelt tribute to the Grand Dame of Universal Studios next month (EDITOR’S NOTE: Is that a promise or a threat?)

The good news is that Universal sent Rip Ride Rockit out in style. On the last day of operations, they even brought out face characters of the music DJs that you see in the queue. This was INCREDIBLE!

Riders during the last day also got a commemorative Rip Ride Rockit guitar pick!

This, along with the special Rip Ride Rockit Farewell Tour merchandise released earlier this year put a stark contrast on what Universal does when getting rid of an attraction compared to what Disney did when recently closing the Muppet Courtyard in DHS and Tom Sawyer Island/Rivers of America in Magic Kingdom (AKA absolutely nothing.)

Florida being Florida, operating an outdoor thrill attraction during the middle of Summer meant that there was probably going to be some downtime due to sudden downpours. Rip Ride Rockit’s last day was marred by repeated stoppages due to rain, but it did allow Universal Orlando’s E-Ticket social media team to pay a loving tribute to the recently closed Muppet*Vision 3D (which again, was more than Disney itself actually did.)

Universal took no time in dismantling Rip Ride Rockit to get the area ready for an as-yet-unannounced attraction.

In fact, in what may be a theme park first, Universal actually started construction on Rip Ride Rockit’s replacement months ago. Take a look at this aerial photo from blogger-in-the-sky @bioreconstruct that was taken back in JUNE.

Seeing photos like that by Bio was like a punch to the gut every time, and reminded me of a scene in one of my all time favorite movies, Step Brothers.

FULL DISCLOSURE: I have absolutely no idea what is replacing Rip Ride Rockit, but Rumors and Innuedo suggest it is going to be a coaster themed to the Fast & Furious franchise. Universal’s recent coasters including the VelociCoaster, Hagrid’s Magical Creature Motorbike Adventure and Stardust Racers are three of my all time favorite rides, so if this ends up being true I’ll be over the moon, as I also love the Fast & Furious movies and we need something to remove the stench of Supercharged.

Apparently Universal was having crews work in 24 hour shifts taking apart Rip Ride Rockit. We know this because our pal Bio was covering them 24/7 as well.

Bio even shot video of the demolition!

TPEI Score: – 22 This one personally stings, but I’ll be able to express my heartfelt feelings in a dedicated article in the near future. I’m excited for the future if it indeed is a Fast & Furious coaster (or maybe even more excited if it ends up being related to Ghostbusters.) Hopefully we’ll find out sooner rather than later to give us fellow Rip Ride Rockiteers the closure we deserve. There are dozens of us. DOZENS!

As I’m putting together this article, I noticed Bio posted a new photo…

My response?

As if I hadn’t suffered enough traumatic events this month, a SAT SIX Special Correspondent sent me the following photo from Cabana Bay showing that the former small size V05 bottles of shampoo and conditioner have been replaced by large pumps in the showers.

If you remember, this is what guests used to receive when checking in to what I consider pound-for-pound the best onsite resort at Universal or Disney.

I’m not going to lose it too badly, because we still have the V05 branded shampoo and conditioner. It’s not like Universal switched to some off brand generic stuff to save money. I would imagine there was also a tremendous amount of waste with the small bottles (although they were also great souvenirs.) The good news is that we still have the small bars of Zest soap.

*Starcruiser? I barely know her!

It’s extremely rare for something to be nominated for two separate Theme Park Turkey of the Year awards, but Disney’s ambitious Star Wars: Galactic Starcruiser interactive “experience” did just that. In 2023 it won the coveted Golden Turkey award for being shuttered less than two years after opening and introducing the term accelerated depreciation into the theme park lexicon.  Then, in a historic Theme Park Turkey first, the Starcruiser defended its Golden Turkey crown as Jenny Nicholson’s video explaining its spectacular failure garnered millions of views (it currently has a staggering 14 Million views.)

Well, we may have our first Turkey three-peat as this year as the Starcruiser’s closure forced Disney* to change several major pieces of road signage across Walt Disney World. Let’s take a look at how one sign appeared from January 2022  until this past month.

This particular sign directs guests to an exit for Disney Springs, EPCOT, Magic Kingdom and the Star Wars: Galactic Starcruiser.

At the very end of July 2025, the Galactic Starcruiser was finally removed from the sign…in the cheapest way possible. Keep in mind, the Starcruiser had officially closed its doors on Sept 30th, 2023, a full 22 MONTHS before they got around to changing the sign. Important to keep in mind that the road signage across Walt Disney World used to fall under the purview of the Reedy Creek Improvement District, which was run by Disney. If you remember,  back in February 2023 the Governor of Florida took over the RCID because of anything related to Disney being woke (I wish I was making this up) and replaced it with a handpicked goon squad filled with people who think drinking tap water can change your sexuality (I wish I was making *that* up.) The new name for this group is the Central Florida Tourism Oversight District.

Imagine taking almost two years to do something and this is how you did it…

It reminded me of that incredible moment in time back in 2021 when the Disney parks went from FastPass+ to Lightning Lane literally overnight and just put stickers over the old signage.

TPEI Score: -2 So there are people in Florida who can take two years to do something pretty minor, do it in the most lazy way possible, and they still get an incredible demand despite next level bonkers pricing and yet when I say, “Don’t worry, I’ll get around to it” at home I’m the one who gets the dirty looks? Where’s the justice?!

* The Beak and Barrel Opens

Over at Disney’s Magic Kingdom, The Beak and Barrel opened in Adventureland and TouringPlans was there to try the entire menu. The Beak and Barrel is an “immersion” dining experience not unlike Oga’s Cantina over in Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge. Thankfully this venue has a lot more tables than Oga’s, and you may be lucky enough to get one of the really cool ones.

Overall theming at The Beak and Barrel is off-the-charts. So many incredible details for fans of the Pirates of the Caribbean attraction and movies. Here’s a look at the Dead Man’s Chest. If we listen closely, will we hear Davy Jones’ heart beating inside?

There are some RULES when it comes to The Beak and Barrel. The first is that each party is granted 45 minutes in the restaurant. This rule is strict, just like Oga’s Cantina in Hollywood Studios, and your clock starts as you’re seated.

Each person in your party has a two-drink limit and your check will be broken down by seat number.

You sit where you’re sat. Talk to the Cast Member at check-in if you know you physically cannot stand for the full 45 minutes. There are no guarantees, but thankfully there are a lot more options to sit than at Oga’s. I can’t tell you how many friends and family have gone to Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge, got a reservation to Oga’s and just walked out before ordering anything because the seating experience was so awful. Hopefully The Beak and Barrel eliminates a lot of that guest frustration, but it blows my mind that in 2025 that anyone would make an elaborately themed dining experience inside a theme park where a paying customer is expected to stand the entire time. Communal seating is bad enough, but standing after a day walking the parks? Are you serious?!

Here’s a look at all the food options at The Beak and Barrel.  You can check out a full review of each by CLICKING HERE.

The Beak and Barrel includes some options in which a drink is presented with a dessert. That’s my type of menu!

The signature item at The Beak and Barrel is the Plunder’s Punch, which is served in a wonderfully themed pirate skull mug.

TPEI Score: + 8 Based solely on nostalgia, Adventureland has always been my favorite land in Disney’s Magic Kingdom. Jungle Cruise and Pirates of the Caribbean are two of my all time favorite theme park rides. I still remember the taste of the old Teriyaki burger at the Adventureland Veranda. The Beak and Barrel looks to be a huge improvement over the former Pirates Lair gimmick, with a TON of amazing details for Pirate fans and we also get a straight up E-Ticket souvenir mug. That’s a classic Michael Scott win-win-win scenario in my book

In the history books, there will one day be a chapter in some Marketing 101 or Business 101 text book about this month’s logo change from the restaurant chain Cracker Barrel. If you missed all of it, consider yourself lucky. If you didn’t, well then you had to read or hear people discuss that a drawing of a block of cheese could somehow be considered “woke.”
Anyhoo, resident rabble rouser Scott Walker had fun with this story by creating a faux “original” logo for The Beak and Barrel…

…along with their new one.

Interestingly enough, the Cracker Barrel logo news got so much attention that it seeped its way into the theme park world. Including these thoughts from former Disney Imagineer Tom K Morris….

*Horror Unleashed

This month we had the debut of HORROR UNLEASHED, Universal’s first year round haunt experience located in Las Vegas. TouringPlans’ own Guy Selga was on hand for the opening and you can read his review by CLICKING HERE.

Horror Unleashed includes four haunted houses, a stage show, dining, and merchandise along with scare actors included in the mix along your experience. The four haunted houses are themed to: Universal Monsters, Scarecrow: The Reaping, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre and Blumhouse’s The Exorcist: Believer. Be sure to check out Guy’s full review of each house.

The Stay or Slay stage show is headlined by none other than Jack the clown and Chance, two Halloween Horror Nights Icons. The story of the show is that performers have been taken from the Las Vegas strip and are forced to perform for the crowd and Jack’s gang of freaks. Volunteers from the audience decide if each of the performers “stay” (live) or “slay” (die).

The dining component of Horror Unleashed includes: Premiere House (bar and full service restaurant), Rough Cuts (quick service restaurant), The Boiler (bar) and Jack’s Alley (bar.)

Regular readers of this fine blog series know that this was the part of Horror Unleashed I was most looking forward to. The theming in the full service restaurant is something else. A few photo-ops and a minimally themed dining area. Maybe this is actually ultra themed, because if a serial killer’s basement was turned into a full service restaurant, it might look and have the overall atmosphere of something like this.

Appreciate the “blood soaked” menu. It takes courage to theme a menu and not the actual restaurant.

Let’s check out some of the food. Brisket Burger sliders are served on a tray with a themed wrapper, so they get bonus points for that.

Jack the Clown’s face being stamped onto a slider bun immediately elevates these burgers to a Must Buy in my book.

The Texas Chainsaw flatbread has a gimmick where the crust looks like a chainsaw blade. Have never seen that before.

The Boiler Bread is highlighted on the menu as one of Premiere House’s signature items. The description says “Garlic-herb stuffed pumpernickel roll and fiery smoked paprika cheese sauce.” Focus on the word “fiery.” In media coverage leading up to the opening Guy Selga saw pictures of the cheese on this appetizer lit on fire. He also saw this in person delivered to a group of people with media badges sitting at a table behind him. However, Guy’s cheese was not lit on fire, and none of the other normal visitors sitting around him had flaming cheese either.

All that said, it seems like taste-wise the Boiler Bread tastes so good you need to go out of your way to try one if at Horror Unleashed. And if you want to see cheese on fire, just do it the old fashioned way and order a cheese plate at Monsieur Paul when the France Pavilion goes up in flames.

The PIZZA SKULL!!! We’ve had this item at HHN for years (and even outside Skull Island at their kiosk) and its very good.

Here’s a look at the Haybale dessert. I don’t care how something tastes, you serve it on a shovel and I’ll buy it. That’s my policy.

There is a good amount of Horror Unleashed merchandise available, including this unique shirt that has blood spatters on it, but if you look closely it appears to have dried blood all around it too. That’s pretty neat.

Because the event is in Vegas, you know we’d get a poker chip. I like this because its a relatively cheap souvenir to buy and easy to travel with.

Meanwhile, back in Florida…

Believe it or not, we also got a whole bunch of merchandise here in Florida with the new Horror Unleashed branding. Even better? Some of the items included merchandise themed to Alfred Hitchcock’s Psycho!

Hard to believe we have a full line of merchandise for Psycho in an American theme park.

I absolutely love the Bates Motel robe and towels. So glad to see them back in stock!

*Right Place, Right Time

The best theme park photographers (like Tom Bricker, Blog Mickey and @bioreconstruct) put a lot of time and effort setting up their shots inside the parks to perfectly frame their photos. However, there is something to be said for just being lucky…

Speaking of Mel’s Drive-In at Universal Studios Florida, it changes over to the cleverly named Mel’s Die-In during Halloween Horror Nights.

This year, Universal released a whole bunch of fantastic Mel’s Die-In themed merchandise!

Speaking of merchandise related to Horror Nights, how about this incredible mashup of Universal Classic Monsters and the CARE BEARS!

Big fan of the Classic Monsters mashup with Hello Kitty as well.

For the last several years, Universal has had merchandise featuring a mashup of the Hello Kitty character and Chucky, from the Child’s Play series of movies. This year that line continued with a wild popcorn bucket!

This MEGAN popcorn bucket actually went to movie theaters when MEGAN 2 came out back in June. It arrived at Universal Studios Florida for this years HHN.

I’m not sure how many buckets were actually sold this Summer, and I hope Universal doesn’t pin their hopes on selling a ton during the spooky season because this is one of the creepiest popcorn buckets I have ever seen. I don’t say that in a good way. I say that in a way that means, if you buy this popcorn bucket, your name should be added to some sort of list.

The HHN item which drew the most attention this month was a DEATHLY AFRAID lanyard. A guest purchasing and wearing one of these in the park during HHN would alert scare actors to go easy on them.

There is a vocal segment online who are against the very idea of this lanyard existing, with their reasoning being “if you don’t want to be scared, why are you going to a haunt event?” Before I ever went to my first HHN, I would have at least seen the point in that argument. I wasn’t really a fan of horror movies, and thought I would have no interest in an event based around them. However, The Walking Dead got me to check out my first HHN, and I quickly realized it was so much more than just scares based around horror movies. I appreciated the artistry of the houses, the amazing shows, and the characters populating the park.

HHN should be for everyone. If you’re someone who is vehemently against the Deathly Afraid lanyard, HHN needs less of you than the people who are interested in it.

*Universal’s Premium Scream Night

Earlier this past week Universal had a special preview night of Halloween Horror Nights for its Cast Members. On Friday, they officially kicked off HHN 34 for each and every guest. In between they had a Premium Scream Night, which offered guests the opportunity to get shorter wait times along with all-you-can-eat snacks and non-alcoholic drinks for the price of $365 (plus tax) per ticket.

The Premium Scream Night made its debut in 2024 and drew raves for the incredibly low waits for the haunted houses. This year turned out to be a different story.

The picture above was taken from outside the Universal Studios Florida gates with Premium Scream Night ticket holders waiting to get in. The picture below was taken of the same crowd from inside the park. Last year, there was no option to be inside the park before Premium Scream Night took place.

For this year’s event, there was the option to take advantage of Stay & Scream. For those who don’t know, this means you are in the park when the event starts and have a HUGE advantage over the guests at the front gate. This became a bone of contention for many because the Premium Scream Night ticket said nothing about a Stay & Scream option being available and only indicated “the event begins at 6:30PM.”

Guests at the Premium Scream Night would get a wristband…

…along with a lanyard.

I expected to briefly cover the Premium Scream Night here in TPEI, but so much happened surrounding the event that we will be back next week with the return of our The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly series looking at aspects from that night.

I am happy to report that the food for this year’s HHN event is next level bonkers in the best way possible.

This slice of pizza should be encased in bullet proof glass and displayed at the Louvre. Titled simply ‘Murica.

Again, we’ll cover all the food and everything else you need to know about the Premium Scream Night debacle right here NEXT WEEK.

*UOAP Nights

Not the best month for Universal operations and special events. For the special Annual Passholder event in the middle of August there was absolutely no signage for the special offerings. The UOAP Nights event started off with a pre-show taking place in the soundstages, but many guests didn’t even have a chance to experience it. However, those that were able to get in got some pretty great photo-ops.

A Coke Freestyle refillable cup for Annual Passholders made its debut and it was pretty sharp.

If you were one of the lucky people who had a chance to get into the soundstage experience, you were alerted to the fact there was a special drink available at Chez Alcatraz. The rest of us? Well, like Corporal Barnes in A Few Good Men, we just “followed the crowd at chow time.”

Drink was actually top notch and worth going out of your way to get.

The slice at Louie’s was referred to as Bandeira Pizza. I don’t even know what that means. Google says it represents the colors of the Italian flag but it’s not like we can trust anything on Google anymore thanks the slop that our AI overlords are bound and determined to push on us.

Above Race Through New York with Jimmy Fallon there was a special meet and greet for Universal Visa cardholders with an unannounced character (who ended up being Beetlejuice.)

The chair is the actual one used from the old Beetlejuice’s Graveyard Revue show!

Talk about great details.

The meet-and-greet with Beetlejuice area also had some freebies for guests.

When entering the event, each guest got a special UOAP button featuring Frank the Pug.

One of the main “selling points” of these special Annual Passholder nights is to get a bunch of photo-ops with characters, featuring several rare ones including Frank himself.

Other characters included Labbie the cabbie, Woody and Winnie Woodpecker dressed as Classic Monsters, Glena and Elphaba from Wicked, Krusty & Sideshow Bob in Springfield, and even animals from the Animal Actors of Location show!

Don’t go to any of these Annual Passholder events expecting crowds like you see at an Orlando Informer Meet-Up. Its as busy as any other day in the park.

But it can be a fun time, especially if you love meeting characters.

*BREAKING NEWS: We Like Food

Apparently we’ve been living under a rock for a while because we never noticed this amazed DIY Sushi gimmick in EPCOT’s Japan Pavilion.

It’s advertised for kids which is pretty much like saying it’s for theme park bloggers as well.

I’m a sucker for Sushi stuff like this, and one item you have to make sure you don’t sleep on is over at Universal CityWalk with their PB&J Sushi Roll.

LOVE IT!

Meanwhile, a tweet this month alerted us to a must get item over at Disney’s BoardWalk Resort…

Deep fried Hawaiian rolls slathered with Cinnamon and sweet condensed milk? “You had me at deep fried. You had me at deep fried.”

*Look, up in the sky! It’s a brid, it’s a plane, it’s…BIORECONSTRUCT

Alright, time for my favorite part of every month, a fresh batch of awesome Bio photos. As always my favorite are the Big Picture ones giving us looks at entire resorts at once, like this tremendous photo of Art of Animation and Pop Century.

Also love when he gets us shots of Disney’s various hotel pools, such as this wonderful photo of the bowling pin pool at Pop.

Being able to see the entirety of Animal Kingdom Lodge and Kidani Village in one photo? ::Chef’s Kiss::

How about the entirety of Disney’s Animal Kingdom? Just incredible!

I love when Bio zooms in to give us the finer details. First we’ll start with this picture looking at a temporary Imagineering office at Animal Kingdom.

Bio zooms in to show that near those offices are pavement tests for the upcoming projects in the park.

Not many people can make construction walls interesting, but back on the ground Bio got us this shot of a construction wall in Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge.

The wall is actually cut to match the rock work, which is one of those details that separate Disney from everyone else.

Bio also got a shot of some colorful construction walls in Toy Story Land.

And because bio had been covering so much of the demolition of Rip Ride Rockit, he went back to his archives and posted photos from the archive of the construction walls put up when Universal was building the attraction!

You knew Bio was going to be at the opening night of HHN this week. We’ll be featuring many of his photos over the coming months in our HHN coverage, but today we’ll look at another great mirror glass shot he caught.

I mentioned earlier how the best photographers take the time to frame their shots. They can take what would be a good shot and turn it into something special. Something memorable. Bio does that all the time, and I absolutely love this shot he got in the Isle of Berk at Epic Universe.

*Have You Ever Seen This Before?

Our favorite Tiny Artist Jaime S. posted a rare item she was given at the Haunted Mansion. It’s a card proclaiming a guest to be an Honorary Caretaker. How cool is that?!

And check out this out, friend of the blog Cabel Sasser also got something unique in the parks this past month when his daughter lost a tooth.

That’s amazing, and reminds me of the time I had to go to First Aid at the Magic Kingdom and was give some Ace bandage with a Nurse Minnie Mouse sticker. Maybe we need to do a REAL Best Kept Secrets at Disney article and look at stuff like this. Anything you guys would like to add, let me know!

How about this post from the grand poohbah of TouringPlans himself…

You want old school? Let’s go old school!

*Hey Kids, Art!

Several of my all time favorite theme park artists have been able to design shirts for the RSVLTS brand and this month we got a new entry from none other than Hayden Evans!

Hayden even gave us a little insight into what went into his design of this awesome shirt and how it was inspired by Disney Imagineer Mary Blair.

Let’s check out some more great artwork from this past month…

Artist Spotlight Icon Rob Yeo presented an amazing piece of art of Dinoland that is LOADED with fun details.

Speaking of Dinoland, love this Carnotaurus by Imagination Station.

I could not like this Epic Eats series by Jess Feldman more. Knowing that it’s just the beginning of a series? To quote the Kool Aid Man, “OH YEAH!”

Halloween Horror Nights season means our all time favorite artists Brian Cooper is churning out incredible drawings of HHN related characters.

Check this out, Every Universal Orlando Character Ever – Studios Edition by Bryan Bindman.

We’ll close with this wonderful comic strip by artists Dave Kellett featuring a character we saw earlier in this article…

Last month’s Theme Park Enjoyment Index: 58
This month’s net change: -16
Current enjoyment level: 42

Writer Derek Burgan, when not cleaning Len Testa’s pool, can be found reading comic books, watching professional wrestling, organizing his various Tsum Tsums in alphabetical order, and taking his dog Bacini to Universal and Disney.. He will not, we repeat not, be found at a Disney Outlet Store. An official DisTwitter Influencer, you can interact with him @derekburgan

Digital Artist Scott Walker hails from Scotland and is the fifth most famous person from this country following Alexander Graham Bell, Ewan McGregor, Gerard Butler, and Groundskeeper Willie.