The 10 Best Attractions at Universal Studios Orlando

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As promised, courtesy of pastemagazine.com, here are the 10 Best Attractions at Universal Studios Orlando...

10. Despicable Me: Minion Mayhem

Clearly this hinges greatly on your affinity for the Despicable Me movies—or your ability to tolerate them. Universal has a lot of motion simulation rides, those attractions where you sit in a car or room that shakes or tilts while you watch a 3D movie on a large screen. Minion Mayhem is one of the smoothest motion simulators I’ve ever been on, and the movie seemed to be on the same level of quality as the real ones.

9. Twister … Ride it Out

It’s ironic that the word “ride” is in this attraction’s name, because it’s the only one on this list where you don’t ride anything. Twister…Ride it Out is a live special effects show based on the 1996 movie Twister. After a brief introduction from vintage 1996 Bill Paxton and Helen Hunt, you walk through the blown out ruins of a tornado touchdown spot before lining up to watch a twister tear down a drive-in movie theater and gas station. Windows shatter, a screen showing The Shining falls apart bit by bit, a truck knocks over a gas pump and starts a fire, and then a dark tornado appears just a few feet in front of your face. The effects are nice, and this is the only attraction that legitimately scared a kid during my visit to Universal.

8. Men in Black: Alien Attack

I love dark rides. It feels like they’re slowly disappearing, as thrill rides grow increasingly dominant and motion simulators are used more and more to recreate popular movies. Like Disney’s Buzz Lightyear AstroBlasters, Alien Attack is a target shooting game—every seat has a gun, and you get points for shooting those aliens. The marksmanship aspect makes the ride a little more hectic than it would otherwise be.

7. Transformers: The Ride 3D

This ride perfectly captures the style-over-substance incomprehensibility of Michael Bay’s Transformers movies. It’s another ride dependent on movie screens, but this time your vehicle is almost constantly moving, suddenly speeding up or slowing down, rushing backwards and making tight spins or turns. The story involves Transformers punching each other a lot and loud sounds and buildings falling apart. It’s an overwhelming, rapid-fire spectacle, especially since the movie scenes are all in 3D. It proves something that you’ve probably already assumed: those Transformers movies work better as a theme park ride.

6. Disaster! A Major Motion Picture Ride … Starring You!

Like Twister, Disaster is an old-school movie studio theme park attraction in a park full of thrill rides. The “ride” aspect to it is minimal—near the end you ride in a tram through a subway station replica during an earthquake, ostensibly to be filmed as extras for the disaster movie of the title. The best thing about Disaster is the crowd interaction and the charming sense of humor. It’s fun and funny and the closest Universal gets to feeling like an actual movie studio.

5. E.T. Adventure

This is the only original Universal Studios ride that’s still open. You can tell it’s older if only because there are no movie screens involved. This is a classic dark ride, like something you’d find in Fantasyland at a Disney park. Anybody who saw E.T. at the right age should grow wistful when the bike-shaped vehicles take off into the sky, flying over a town recreated in miniature like Disney’s Peter Pan ride, while casting shadows on the full moon.

4. The Simpsons Ride

The Springfield portion of Universal Studios is my favorite, with life-sized recreations of Moe’s Tavern and Kwik-E-Mart, along with a Krusty Burger, Duff Gardens, Lard Lad Donuts and other locations from The Simpsons. The ride is a relatively basic motion simulator—you sit in a car that rises a few feet off the ground and then rocks or tilts to simulate motion as you watch a 3D movie. The architecture recreates the look of the show, and the ride captures the spirit, which makes it one of the best experiences at Universal.

3. Hollywood Rip Ride Rockit

I almost couldn’t ride this one. Watching the cars spin around the track in the middle of a loop made me positive that I would get sick. And I don’t normally get sick on roller coasters. Still, this is a job, and thankfully Hollywood Rip Ride Rockit isn’t as painful or frightening as it looks. It’s still intense, though, starting you off on a 180-degree track that shoots straight up from the ground, before immediately hitting that loop. Yes, the cars spin halfway through the loop. Yes, it is awesome. I strongly believe that roller coasters are better with a soundtrack, and Rip Ride Rockit goes one better by letting you pick one of 30 songs from a handful of genres to pump into the speakers in your headrest.

2. Revenge of the Mummy: The Ride

Revenge of the Mummy: The Ride reminds me of Space Mountain, only instead of space you’re flying through an underground tomb. The presentation is more complex than Disney’s classic—you’ll stop occasionally, as the mummy from the Brendan Fraser movies threatens you, or so you can feel the heat from the sheet of flame engulfing the roof above you. Occasionally screens will make it look like the mummy is jumping out at you as you shoot down the unseen track. Somehow removing our ability to see where we’re going makes a roller coaster even more exciting, and Revenge of the Mummy is the best ride at Universal Studios that isn’t heavily dependent on a movie screen.

1. Harry Potter and the Escape From Gringotts

I’ve never read a Harry Potter book. I slept my way through the first movie and never tried to watch any of the rest. I know a bit about that world simply by being a person alive in the Western World in the late 20th and early 21st centuries, but I am by no measure a Harry Potter fan. So when I tell you that the Diagon Alley portion of Universal Studios might be the most impressive theme park attraction I’ve ever visited, that should mean something. Universal did an amazing job of making Diagon Alley feel like its own unique, fully formed world, from the architecture to the pavement to the type of stores and restaurants on display. At the center of Diagon Alley is a large building with a dragon nestled on its roof. Inside that building is Harry Potter and the Escape From Gringotts, perhaps the most amazing experience I’ve ever had at a theme park. Earlier I referred to Disney-level world-building; Gringotts outclasses anything I’ve ever seen at a Disney park. From the animatronic banktellers to the animated newspaper headlines, you’ll always have something fascinating to look at while waiting in line. And once the ride starts, you’ll wonder if children today could ever possibly be impressed by the rides we grew up riding. The visual effects are superior to the other, similar rides at Universal, and the total experience is about as revelatory as a theme park attraction can get today.