Attraction Review: Harry Potter And The Forbidden Journey Ride

Comments for Attraction Review: Harry Potter And The Forbidden Journey Ride

Forbidden Journey

161 Comments

  1. Jenny

    i absolutely loved this article because i always like to read about the ride before going on it. my question is that is it scarier than the ride dinosaur from animal kingdom at disney because my little sibbling was scared during that ride but i read that this was a family ride. are the spiders, dragon, and demon thing realistic and very scary? Im just worried about him having some sort of freak out and end up crying at the end of the ride. thank you for your time 🙂

    1. Ricky Brigante

      Yes, I would say Forbidden Journey is scarier than Dinosaur. Dinosaur is darker, as a whole, but Forbidden Journey has much more going on with a larger scale. The dragon does not entirely look like a real creature, but appears quite close. The Dementors are surrounded by darkness and seem to come out of nowhere.

  2. Kelly Young

    Thank you so much for this detailed description. My 9yo daughter was REALLY nervous about going, but we had flown all the way from California to go! She was sobbing as they pulled the restraints down, and I felt like a horrible mom – but she went a second time and now is telling all her friends how awesome it was. The first time she asked throughout, “where’s the drop?” – so I would say the “drop” is only 5-7 ft and really isn’t noticeable as a drop like a roller coaster. Definitely less than Pirates of the Carribean. She and I both closed our eyes a lot the first time around spiders & dementors, but opened a lot more the second time, and it wasn’t very scary. We are super wimps, and the part in the chimneys was really mild to me. I think people with motion sickness are likely to have more problems than super wimps. anyway, thanks to everyone for the comments. Definitely err on the side of going on the ride – it’s fine – you can always close your eyes. Also, they are doing a thing where you pick up a slip of paper near Sinbad with a return time (usually in just 1-2 hrs) – worked well to spread visitors out. We waited < 1 hr for the actual ride (Feb 24). We got a total of 3 slips of paper and went back to the HP land 3 times through the day (can't get into HP land at all without the paper).

    1. Ricky Brigante

      Thanks for your report. As I’ve written in a few comments above, the “drop” isn’t really a drop at all, but rather you being pulled downward in the ride vehicle. And it is quite short. It’s a fun sensation for just a second and then you move on.

      1. Kelly Young

        Yeah- you were definitely right. Someone else said something about 15 ft – so that was wrong info.

      2. Jon Lefkove

        What about any other parts? Tilting backwards on your back,or forwards.What about all of the motion by the spiders? I watched a video with people screaming over there? I wished I knew how everything felt,I think I might be forced onto this ride.I remember I had my eyes closed through most of the back to the future ride back in 1999.

        1. Jenn

          I don’t remember any drops as much as I remember a lot of tilting when I went on this ride. As the reviewer says, it’s sometimes confusing as to what direction you’re supposed to be moving. You feel as though you’re going forward, and then back, left and right, as decent speeds. I’m prone to motion sickness, and I was only good until about half-way through (reading the review, I’m guessing this was at the “drop” which felt more like falling backwards). After that, my motion sickness took over, and the ride seemed to go on forever! I couldn’t wait to get off! Since I was so focused on not puking, I don’t remember much of the actual scenes. Needless to say, THE RIDE IS INTENSE! NOT FOR THOSE PRONE TO MOTION SICKNESS! PERIOD!

          1. Jennifer

            OMG I am glad I’m not the only one! This ride made me feel so confused and awful. My husband and I came here for part of our honeymoon in June of 2011. We’re from San Diego, CA and I have always loved rides. Have been plenty of times to Disneyland, Six Flags (all of those crazy rides), Legoland etc. This was my first experience with motion sickness I suppose. I had a huge panic attack and wanted off I closed my eyes for the rest of the ride and prayed. The way the ride is I couldn’t enjoy it and focus on anything. WAY too jerky and just flashes of the screen and too dark of screens. I yelled at my husband to tell them to stop the ride but he was just like calm down… it’s ok… I was mad at him afterwards. From then on now I can’t go on 3D dark rides without my brain flipping out and going into panic mode. Motion sickness medicine only kinda helps but I think it’s more of a panic thing so that’s why. It was also super hot and humid during that season even locals were complaining. I was kinda feeling sick from the heat wave and the humidity was tiring. I’m used to mostly dry heat.

  3. Stephanie Sumners

    Thank you so much for the review! I was so worried about this ride since I refuse to go on roller coasters, and I scared my husband so bad about eight years ago when he made me get on Splash Mountian but I actually got off the ride on the side right before the big drop. (It shut the ride down. I had a really bad panic attack)We did get to see the back of the ride though.lol. I’m a huge Harry Potter fan and I really want to go on the ride when we go back to Orlando this summer, and you made it possible for me not to be scared about what I’m getting myself into. Thanks.

  4. BDS

    Wondering how the ride would be for a person with a fear of heights?

    1. Ricky Brigante

      There are no heights to be afraid of on this ride.

    2. Sarah

      It says in the warnings that people with a fear of heights should not go on the ride. I guess even if there are no real heights, it still looks and feels like you are flying.

  5. Michelle

    I was wondering if you could talk more on the “snug” fit of the ride. I’ve read that those that are “chesty” or have a waist more then 38″, you will not be allowed on the ride. We have people in our party of various heights & weights (5’2″ – 6’4″) and a few very “chesty” gals. Can you help us out on this? It seems a waste of time to wait thru everything and then not be able to ride.

    1. Ricky Brigante

      Since the attraction opened, Universal has added seats that can accommodate some larger folks, so you may not have a problem. There are seats outside the attraction that you can test prior to entering the line, so you don’t have to worry about unnecessarily waiting. With that said, the queue is just as entertaining as the ride itself, so even if some of your party can’t ride, they’ll still enjoy walking through the castle.

      Unfortunately, no specific measurements have been released regarding what sizes can and cannot ride.

  6. Tampa Jen

    We went this weekend – I took my tween daughter on it and she absolutely loved it. I have some other comments, though 🙂

    The review is right – the movie goes way too fast to enjoy; it’s very herky jerky. The ride itself if is technically excellent – until it stops and leaves you there for four minutes :P. Seriously. It got stuck. However, the biggest issue for me was that I was absolutely sick to my stomach for over an hour afterward. I don’t get seasick, carsick, or coaster sick, but this ride was horrible for me. Loved SpiderMan. Loved The Simpsons – but HP was too much for me to handle. Really thought I was going to barf. But, as I said, my tweener loved it, so maybe that’s more important 🙂 If you’re sensitive, I would say you’re probably going to vomit lol…

    1. Jon Lefkove

      Was it because of the car’s motions,the video or both?

      1. Jenn

        My motion sickness was due to the car’s motions. Closing my eyes did not help at all, but actually made it worse. Although the video makes it hard to tell what direction you’re supposed to be moving, and that certainly didn’t help. Half the time it was hard to tell if I was supposed to be “flying” forwards or backwards, confusing my inner ear.

    2. Jenn

      I felt the exact same way. I started feeling sick about halfway through the ride, and it took an hour afterwards to fully get over it. This ride is NOT for those prone to motion sickness!

    3. David

      This ride was awful for me. I’m not a coaster person but I enjoy log flumes. I’ve also taken the spider man ride and loved it. However, somewhere about half way through this HP ride I started to feel queasy, and it only got worse… Even closing my eyes didn’t seem to help. By the time I got off, I was on the verge of vomiting, and it took me over an hour to stop feeling really nauseous. The last time I was motion sick was in 1998 on a small aircraft in extreme turbulence (tornadic weather over Denver) so if you get even slightly motion sick then avoid this ride.

  7. Caitlin

    I am going on this ride this week and i am terrified. I dont know what it is. I read all these reviews saying how great it is but i am still scared. Should i be? How long are you on your back for? Does it feel like you go upside down? Is it a scary ride? Thankyou!

  8. Ken Poppins

    Need a question answered. Those video domes. Is one video dome assigned to each ride vehicle, so they’re essentially moving with us? My guess is that there might be a series of two or four in a giant carousel and we just rotate with them. Help!

  9. David

    Just went to Universal today. Got to ride Harry Potter 8 times! The rest of my family only wanted to go once – it did make them a bit queasy from motion sickness. I loved it! The single rider line was a big help – got to go several times very quickly.

    Ken’s question about the video domes was one thing I was very curious about. Since the ride vehicles are spaced fairly close together I was wondering how the video was managed for each vehicle. Yes, there is a separate dome that travels with each vehicle through those sections. I leaned forward just enough to see the the edge of the dome. And if you look closely as you transition back to the live sequence you can see the dome video turn off and the dome continue off on it’s own track to circle around.

    This was my first time on this kind of ride. Later in the day I went on Spider Man and see how that was the stepping stone to Harry Potter. There the video screens are all static and it’s more obvious how you go through live sections and then stop in front of a screen for a video sequence. The traveling video domes are very, very clever.

    I did not find the video to be such a problem – I felt the synchronization was great with the video and the motion of the the ride vehicle.

    I had a great time!

  10. Damaris

    Woow tthat waas unusual. I just wrote an extremerly loong comment butt after I clicked ubmit my comment didn’t appear.

    Grrrr… wrll I’m nott writing all thgat over again. Anyways, just wanted to ssay wonderful blog!

  11. Woow tthat waas unusual. I just wrote an extremerly loong comment butt after I clicked ubmit my comment didn’t appear.

  12. Hola, me gustó tu artículo si bien me parece que aún puedes ir un poco más al fondo y no tanto a la forma.
    Me parece que mantienes un toque muy atrayente y
    esto hace que el texto sea más agradable. De cualquier manera,
    es indispensable mejorar ciertos aspectos que carecen de fundamento.
    🙂

  13. I was suggested this blog by my cousin. I am not sure whether this post is written by him as no one else know such detailed
    about my difficulty. You’re wonderful! Thanks!

  14. Jackie

    Thanks so much for posting this! I’m going to share it with my sister, she loves Harry Potter but isn’t much of a fan of thrill rides.

  15. Leanne

    Quick question. Is the ride supposed to stop amongst the spiders and whomping willow? Our ride did yesterday. There were 8 of us, 1 cart stopped staring directly at a spider, the other almost completely upside down staring straight up at the whomping willow. There was no audio & the stop seemed to make no sense at all. I was in the cart nearly upside down staring up at the tree. We were suspended for at least 30+ seconds. Felt MUCH longer but I’m sure that’s a reasonable guess. Anyway we couldn’t figure out why we stopped in that location and wondered if it was part of the ride or maybe due to difficulties with someone getting on at the beginning while the ride is in motion?

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