I take it that I chose the wrong word when I used "intensity". To me, that's not subjective at all. I mean, just looking at the ride vehicles and how guests are restrained in them will give you an idea of "intensity". Dark ride with lap bar - Low intensity. Seatbelt - Medium intensity. Full body restraint - High intensity.
As far as my personal motion sickness triggers, it is mainly spinning and tight turns (especially at high speeds). However, any attraction with extreme g-forces (0 to whatever takeoff for example) is too "intense" for me. While it may not necessarily trigger motion sickness, that type of attraction is just too much.
Thank you to those who have tried to help me sort through this mess! Universal attractions are a completely different animal than the Disney attractions I grew up with.
By your logic, the “intensity” scale would be as follows:
Over the Shoulder Restraint
- Hulk
- Forbidden Journey
- Dr. Doom’s Fearfall
Lap Restraint
- Rip Ride Rockit
- Mummy
- Gringotts
- Men in Black
- Trolley Train Ride
- E. T.
- Jimmy Fallon
Lap Bar
- Spiderman
- Transformers
- Simpsons
- Flight of the Hippogriff
- Woody Woodpecker Nuthouse Coaster
- Despicable Me (Minions)
- Cat in the Hat
- Kang and Kudos (belt)
- One Fish Two Fish Red Fish Blue Fish (belt)
No Restraint
- Storm Force Acceleration
- Fast and the Furious
- Kong
- Hogwarts Express
As you can see, I think most would agree that this method doesn’t work very well for determining the intensity of Universal rides. There are only 3 rides with an over the shoulder restraint, leaving the majority of all the rides to fall under general lap restraints. To help with this, I differentiated between Lap Restraints which would go around each individual’s waists and Lap Bars / Belts which span multiple riders and do not fit very tight or securely. However, even this still gives a skewed view.
Many of the rides listed in the lower categories could and have been argued as being more intense than those listed in the higher categories. For instance, I don’t think many people would say that the Trolley Train Ride is more intense than Transformers. Most would also not classify MIB and RRR as having the same intensity. In fact, most of the rides listed under Lap Restraint are not even close to the same intensity at all. The last four rides listed under Lap Restraint are all fairly tame. I don’t think anyone would compare those to RRR even though the restraints are not vastly different. You see this same issue with the Lap Bar rides also, Spiderman and Transformers would definitely be considered more intense than Cat in the Hat or Kang and Kodos or even ET from the higher Lap Restraint category. Also, many people find the Simpsons to be one of the most intense rides motion sickness wise despite it being a lower category Lap Bar Ride. The same with Storm Force which has no restraints whatsoever, but I don’t think many would call it all that tame, especially if you are talking dizziness / motion sickness.
I think you’ll find that definition in itself is very subjective.
I remember a fairground ride from some years back called ‘Gravitron’. You stood against the wall in a UFO shaped room and it spun so fast that the G-Forces had you ‘climbing’ up the wall. It was certainly intense, yet not a belt or body restraint in sight.
I agree with the previous poster though that you are probably best to google a height chart as this will largely correlate with the restraints.
This is another great example. The Gravitron is probably one of the most intensely painful rides I have ever done. The amount of pressure exerted against you is unbelievable. You are essentially in a centrifuge. There are no restraints whatsoever because the G-forces are so strong you literally can’t move at all even if you want to. Therefore, there is no reason to restrain you.
Restraints are to keep you in a ride vehicle, either to keep you from voluntarily doing something stupid like standing up or getting out or to keep you from falling out. If the ride doesn’t go upside-down or cause you to shoot out, there is no need for over the shoulder restraints. However, just because the ride doesn’t go upside down, doesn’t mean it might not be more intense (faster, taller, larger drops, faster acceleration, more spins, 3d effects, etc). Also, because children don’t listen and adults can be stupid, we end up with restraints on slow moving rides where they really aren’t needed. Rides where you wouldn’t fall out if you stayed seated, but someone could climb out or stand up and hurt themselves. When this happens, it throws off gauging rides by their restraint systems.
The best advice I can give is take some type of motion sickness medicine before going, either over the counter or ask your Dr about the patch. Then try the rides for yourself and see what does and doesn’t work for you. Your legit coasters are RRR, Hulk, and Mummy. I’d argue in that order, but Hulk does go upside down and has the zero to X speed thing you said you don’t like, so you might see it as more intense. To me, Hulk is smoother and the over the shoulder restraint helps keep you from being bounced around so much which makes it more tolerable which is why I rate it lower. However, I’m thinking you aren’t going to care for any of the three coasters, as they all make tight turns at high speeds. FJ and Simpsons aren’t coasters but are known for causing motion sickness on a fairly regular basis due to the motion and the screens. Spiderman, Transformers, and Gringotts seem to be more hit or miss with people, with Gringotts being the slightly more intense in my opinion as it is a hybrid coaster. Minions has non moving seats you can request, and it seems like most people who have issues with it, can do those fine. Storm Force is the tea cups ride, so if spinning is an issue avoid that. Dr Doom is tame and over quickly for the type of ride it is. It is nothing like ToT. As long as heights aren’t an issue, it should be ok. Everything else should be ok. Good luck.
