Universal Hollywood... for Scaredy Cats

[twelvesixteen]

Hey y'all,

So I am admittedly a big chicken. I'm 19 and the "scariest" ride I've been on is Pirates of the Caribbean (or the Matterhorn, if you consider that "scarier" than Pirates), and I enjoy them both. I refuse to ride anything that goes upside down, on account of knowing someone who got stuck on a ride... upside down.

I've never experienced a "large drop", and I consider the first drop in Pirates to be a "medium sized drop" and probably only enjoy it because it's in the dark and I can't see where I'm going or how high up I am.

How do rides like Revenge of the Mummy and Jurassic Park, or the Simpsons ride chalk up to what I've done? This time at Disneyland I'm working my way up to Space Mountain, Big Thunder, and Splash. Yeah, yeah, I know. Haha.

 

[Luv Bunnies]

Here's a rundown of the rides at Universal (we were just there last week and rode them all). There are spoilers ahead, for those who would rather be surprised!

Jurassic Park - Very wet water ride. It starts out peacefully enough, with plant-eating dinosaurs, waterfalls, etc. There are several places where the dinosaurs spit at you and you get splashed by waterfalls. The first part is outside, then you go into a building where dinosaurs run amuck and you start climbing up a belt. When you get to the top, there's a drop that takes you back outside and gets you very wet due to the splash and four water cannons! I didn't think the drop was as steep as the one on Splash Mountain. It was a little scarier because there's a huge T-Rex right above you before you start to fall. I wasn't worried about the drop as much as I was about getting really wet. My husband and son went on it first and were drenched. The next day, I went with my son as soon as the ride opened. Turns out they hadn't turned on the water cannons yet so I didn't get all that wet!

Mummy - This is basically an indoor roller coaster. It starts out like a slow-moving dark ride and there's a bunch of mummy stuff. Then the bad guy takes over and tries to steal your soul. It starts moving pretty fast until you get to a dead end. Then you start going backward! The forward part didn't bother me at all. I got a little dizzy on the backward part, but I still rode it twice in a row (it was a walk-on at that point) before I decided I'd had enough. I would say that Space Mountain is more intense overall, although the backward part on the Mummy was a little intense for me. It's not a very long ride at all. I kept thinking it needed to be longer.

Simpsons - This is motion simulator much like Star Wars. Your car rises up and you go toward a huge screen and watch a movie that shows the Simpsons running from an evil clown at an amusement park that goes haywire. Your car moves so you feel like you're in the middle of the action. If the movie bothers you, you can close your eyes. You will still feel the motion of the car, but you won't have the sensation of falling or doing any of the other things that happen to the Simpsons. It's a really cool ride. We went on it 3 times and still didn't get enough!

I wouldn't consider myself a thrill-ride freak, although I like Space Mountain, Star Tours and Big Thunder. I don't like huge roller coaster drops (I avoid Screamin but, for some reason, I like Tower of Terror) and I don't like going upside down. None of the rides at Universal bothered me much. My thrill-seeking husband and son loved all of the rides.

I hope this helps you make your decision on what to ride. Have fun!