Intensity Questions

[Marty Joe]

Hiho everyone! Normally I visit the Disney and photography parts of the DIS! This is my first foray into the Universal area. My DW, DD15, and DD’s BFF(?) want to visit IOA to see the WWOHP – I like Potter too. We are going for one day (I know – not enough time) to get our/their feet wet. I have waded through as much info as my eyes can take and my computer will allow (it is just crawling today). I’m sure this has been asked so many times that you are sick of answering, but I’m trying to get a feel of the level of intensity of Forbidden Journey, Spiderman, etc... Would you say they are on par (intensity wise) with Dinosaur, RNR, ToT, or Test Track? I can tell you almost anything you want to know about the Mouse, I’m just looking for a reference point - for me. DW, DD, DDBFF will go on anything. They would be up for a space shuttle flight. I, on the other hand, would be content with a Mai Tai on the beach at the Polynesian Resort. I’m a Haunted Mansion/POTC kinda guy – and proud of it! Point me in the right direction, tell me "DO NOT go on this...
BTW - I don't do ToT, RnR, or Everest.

 

[Badge]

Well Spiderman and the HP ride are close to being the same. Basically, both of these rides takes the system used on rides like Star Tours and puts them on a FLAT TRACK that moves around a building. So, the car in spiderman can spin around 360 degrees to make you face the right direction. You may enter a room facing forward looking at a screen with the movie playing on it and then spin around a screen that is behind you. It is a VERY fun ride! If you can handle Star Tours without getting sick, you can easily handle Spiderman.

Now for the HP ride, some people feel it is more intense than Spiderman. I however, think it is less intense (but a LOT more fun!). Basically you sit on a robotic arm that holds four people. It them moves around (up, down, left, right) to follow the action taking place around you. Sometimes you are on your back. However, you NEVER go upside down. You also never change speeds while on the right because it loads just like Haunted Mansion where the cars never stop at the station. Again, if you can handle Star Tours, you should have no problems with this ride. The biggest issue with this one is motion sickness, but I nobody in my family ever feels bad on it and we can all handle Star Tours and Spiderman.

As far as the other rides NOT to ride:

IOA:

Hulk
Dr. Doom
Dragon Challenge

Everything else is really fun! Jurrasic Park does have a big hill at the end, but it is a fun ride!

STUDIOS:

Hollywood Rip Ride Rockit
Mummy(?)

Mummy is an INDOOR rollercoaster, but not nearly as intense as RR. The first portion of the ride, your car goes through the building flat without any hills. At a certain point, you speed up to about 30 mph up a hill and never go much faster than that. During the coaster part of the ride, you do a lot of banking turns, but never go upside down or anything. I told my friends that were scared that it is like Big Thunder Mountain except it is indoors with a better storyline and FIRE! Since it is indoors, it seems scarier and like you are going faster, but it never goes much faster than 30 mph (the max is something like 34).

Hopefully this is the type of information you were looking for! Enjoy your trip!

 

[Marty Joe]

This info is huge! Thanks!!!

 

[dtum]

Well Spiderman and the HP ride are close to being the same. Basically, both of these rides takes the system used on rides like Star Tours and puts them on a FLAT TRACK that moves around a building. So, the car in spiderman can spin around 360 degrees to make you face the right direction. You may enter a room facing forward looking at a screen with the movie playing on it and then spin around a screen that is behind you. It is a VERY fun ride! If you can handle Star Tours without getting sick, you can easily handle Spiderman.

Now for the HP ride, some people feel it is more intense than Spiderman. I however, think it is less intense (but a LOT more fun!). Basically you sit on a robotic arm that holds four people. It them moves around (up, down, left, right) to follow the action taking place around you. Sometimes you are on your back. However, you NEVER go upside down. You also never change speeds while on the right because it loads just like Haunted Mansion where the cars never stop at the station. Again, if you can handle Star Tours, you should have no problems with this ride. The biggest issue with this one is motion sickness, but I nobody in my family ever feels bad on it and we can all handle Star Tours and Spiderman.

As far as the other rides NOT to ride:

IOA:

Hulk
Dr. Doom
Dragon Challenge

Everything else is really fun! Jurrasic Park does have a big hill at the end, but it is a fun ride!

STUDIOS:

Hollywood Rip Ride Rockit
Mummy(?)

Mummy is an INDOOR rollercoaster, but not nearly as intense as RR. The first portion of the ride, your car goes through the building flat without any hills. At a certain point, you speed up to about 30 mph up a hill and never go much faster than that. During the coaster part of the ride, you do a lot of banking turns, but never go upside down or anything. I told my friends that were scared that it is like Big Thunder Mountain except it is indoors with a better storyline and FIRE! Since it is indoors, it seems scarier and like you are going faster, but it never goes much faster than 30 mph (the max is something like 34).

Hopefully this is the type of information you were looking for! Enjoy your trip!

This is great info. I get very motion sick and even with Dramamine don't like to take a chance (usually feel a little queezy after Star Tours even with taking it, but I recover rather quickly after exiting). I heard Simpsons it not good for motion sick prone people....any thoughts? DD gets annoyed with me when I don't ride things because then GS thinks the ride is bad and won't go, but she's never had motion sickness and it can really ruin your whole day. Was thinking about going on Simpsons and just closing my eyes, but that seems a waste and I'd rather just hold all the bags and wait outside.

 

[stacynak]

Basically you sit on a robotic arm that holds four people.

This is all great info and the piece above made me think of something....we are a group of 5. Is the queue designed so we can choose to split up 3/2 or will be just be seated in a random way (possibly 1 person being seated separately from the rest)?

 

[mesaboy2]

This is all great info and the piece above made me think of something....we are a group of 5. Is the queue designed so we can choose to split up 3/2 or will be just be seated in a random way (possibly 1 person being seated separately from the rest)?

I expect they will split you up 3/2. If they don't, request it. Even so, you can't really see the people next to you anyway. That's one of the reasons I recommend the single-rider queue in certain circumstances.

 

[Badge]

This is great info. I get very motion sick and even with Dramamine don't like to take a chance (usually feel a little queezy after Star Tours even with taking it, but I recover rather quickly after exiting). I heard Simpsons it not good for motion sick prone people....any thoughts? DD gets annoyed with me when I don't ride things because then GS thinks the ride is bad and won't go, but she's never had motion sickness and it can really ruin your whole day. Was thinking about going on Simpsons and just closing my eyes, but that seems a waste and I'd rather just hold all the bags and wait outside.

Simpsons is more intense and more "rough" than Star Tours is. If Star Tours makes you feel bad, I would skip this ride. However, on a related note. My sister can handle Star Tours without feeling really bad (feels bad right when she gets off, but passes quickly), and Simpsons she can not handle, however the HP ride gives her NO trouble at all. What makes these "motion" rides bad is the movie that plays. With HP and even Spiderman, you are not only watching movie screens, but you are also moving around sets. So, you could ride both HP and Spiderman and just close your eyes when the movie sections start (if I remember correctly, HP has 4 movie sections). Have somebody sitting next to you just poke you when the movie section is done.

This is all great info and the piece above made me think of something....we are a group of 5. Is the queue designed so we can choose to split up 3/2 or will be just be seated in a random way (possibly 1 person being seated separately from the rest)?

You have a few options here. Like somebody else has said, the way the seats are designed, you really can not see the people sitting next to you. You can reach over and touch them if you really wanted to, but its more of a "personal" ride than a "group" ride experince. So, your options:

1) Before getting to the station, line up in your groups. Have the first three people just tell the TM you are a party of three and the next two people say your a group of two. This way each person get to set in the same car with the people they want to.

2) Tell the TM 5. They will must likely divide you into a group of 2 and group of 3. The group of three will get one single rider and the group of two will get another party of two or two singles riders. This option works, but it is better to have it figured out (and easier for the TM) like option 1.

3) All ride single rider! You will save yourself between 45 minutes to maybe even 90 minutes if you ride single rider. Again, since you can not see the person sitting next to you, there really is no reason to sit together becuase its not like you are going to talk about what is going on around you...you will be so wrapped up in this amazing experince to want to ruin it by talking. If you are all waiting together in the single rider line, you will be really close together in terms of cars. Just meet up at the exit of the ride and then share your thoughts on the experince. Then, you can ride it again since you saved so much time!

 

[mesaboy2]

3) All ride single rider! You will save yourself between 45 minutes to maybe even 90 minutes if you ride single rider. Again, since you can not see the person sitting next to you, there really is no reason to sit together becuase its not like you are going to talk about what is going on around you...you will be so wrapped up in this amazing experince to want to ruin it by talking. If you are all waiting together in the single rider line, you will be really close together in terms of cars. Just meet up at the exit of the ride and then share your thoughts on the experince. Then, you can ride it again since you saved so much time!

Just be aware this option will have you miss almost all of the top-flight queue. Only do this if you don't care about the queue, or plan to see it via the castle-tour queue.

 

[Babbletrish]

From my experience, the weird thing about Universal is that their rides are usually similar to the rides they are roughly similar to in WDW -- but MORE. Usually this means wilder and more intense. Would you believe I almost got serious whiplash from the Cat in the Hat ride? (And ye gods, those animatronic characters have got to scare children.)