Officially opening on January 17‚ 2008, there have been some soft previews of the Disaster Ride at Universal Studios. As expected, it is a re-work of the Earthquake attraction, with a slant towards the more generic disaster movie and away from the old Charlton Heston movie.

In fact, Heston has been removed totally from the attraction, with your host now being Frank Kincaid (AKA Oscar Winner Christopher Walken) the fictional movie director. With some cool effects, Kincaid appears projection appears to run on the stage, interact with the audience and elements on the set (furniture and the like).

Next up, volunteers from the audience are filmed getting reaction shots for the ride finale.

The ride itself is fairly similar to the old Earthquake where you take the subway to a station and encounter a simulated underground earthquake.

At the end of the ride, the action shots filmed of the audience are put together with your ride and shown on monitors in your tram on the way back to the final destination.

So Disaster! really is a A Major Motion Picture Ride.