Nightmare Unfolds Inside Universal Park’s Hogwarts Attraction - Inside the Magic

Comments for Nightmare Unfolds Inside Universal Park’s Hogwarts Attraction

Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey at Universal Hollywood. Credit: Universal

Credit: Universal

66 Comments

  1. Matt

    How exactly is this a “nightmare”. It seems more like a mild inconvenience to me.

    1. Keith

      This happened to my wife and I in Feb ’22. She has major arachnophobia. The ride stopped and we were right in front of the biggest spider. She had been closing her eyes already since she knew the part was coming up but just knowing it was there and hearing the noises was enough for her to become hysterical. We were stuck probably 10 minutes before it started back up. It was definitely a nightmare for her!

      1. Eric

        Maybe don’t get on a ride that features abnormally large spiders if you have arachnophobia? Lol

        1. Private

          I was on the summer 22. I am very claustrophobic and it stop at the dementors for a minute or two. I then realized I was trapped in a small box in the dark. I still have nightmares about it.

          1. abc

            You should definitely not even be riding a dark ride like FJ in the first place if you have claustrophobia. I hate to say it but it’s only your own discretion that causes this, it isn’t anyone else’s fault.

        2. Private

          Why do you have to be a bass, how died it benefit your life. Grow up.

      2. Natasha

        The nightmare for me for not being in oversized plastic fake spider a nightmare for me was being stuck in that damn chair when you can’t see the people next to you and you’re hovering in the air in an uncomfortable position when you have claustrophobia it was one of the worst experiences as I’ve ever had in my life and hyper ventilating I wanted to get out it was terrible never again!

        1. Darell

          It literally says not to ride if you are claustrophobic

      3. YourWifesBull

        Your wife sounds like an infant

        1. Pete

          Not sure why this is a story now. This is nothing new. This happens all the time on this ride. I’ve been on it around 20 times and this has happened to me around half the time. I’m almost more surprised when the ride goes all the way through without stopping.

      4. Boethiahschampion

        Also funny how the writers of this article delete the perspectives they don’t agree with.

      5. shelia

        you wife is a dope… the spider clearly isn’t real and she should address the real fear: marrying you

      6. Nancy

        I hate spiders, I have arachnophobia too

    2. AS

      It seems that this site always makes Universal look bad and praises Disney in their articles.

    3. Not a sheep

      Exactly! A real nightmare would be if the Dementors began killing the guests.

      1. Mz.Marlez

        🤣🤣🤣 you win the internet today

      2. Tamara

        It is annoying to be stuck on this ride. Similar situation happened to me. I felt restrained by the shoulder restraints and tried to get out (I could not). My husband asked for a hando to pass the time and relieve his anxiety (I complied).

  2. Chuck

    I was on the ride at the beginning of October, 22, with my kids when the ride suddenly stopped next to the weeping willow tree. It was a few minutes before the ride started up and we heard an announcement to stay calm and seated. We just assumed it was part of the experience. Guess it might have been an actual breakdown now.

  3. Jackie

    The ride isn’t shutting down like it’s broken, this has happened to us many times. I can’t believe this is a news article lol. The ride stops so that riders can exit the ride or hop on the ride. Due to the moving platform some folks have a difficult time hopping in and being secured. It’s a mild annoyance because you do miss part of the cinematic. Trapped? Give me a break.

    1. Exactly 💯 I agree. I recently took my family to Disney and the haunted mansion ride stopped briefly twice and it was the reasons you stated with this ride at universal. It was a busy day at the park and it stopped so other park goer’s could get on and off the ride. This article was a bit over dramatic. Lol

    2. Billie Sue Patrick

      Good explanation. I don’t do theme parks, but reading the article reminded me of when the ski lift would stop. If it was cold and windy, it wasn’t much fun dangling 30′ above the snow covered ground. It became annoying when it happened repeatedly because I knew it was from people falling getting on or off. That may sound cold, but people who can’t use a lift should stay on the beginner slopes. Just like people who are afraid of the dark and big hairy spiders shouldn’t get on a ride through a dark, spider filled tunnel. Oh, I forgot to mention that about once a year someone paniced when it took too long to get the lift going again and jumped.

  4. Mickeymouse3

    Sounds like Universal is contracting with Disney’s ride maintenance crew.

    1. John

      Issues occur and load station. The people getting on and off need to get their sh** together so those in-ride aren’t affected. Unload/load is the reason 99/100 downtime occur cascading the experience.

  5. E. Thomas

    In December, 2022, our family was enjoying the ride until we stopped in front of the dragon. Eventually, all lights were turned and we sat hanging there for over an hour while someone ahead of us on the ride continued yelling for help saying someone was having a panic attack. This almost caused me to have a panic attack! We were given water and 2 express passes when we left the ride. Not the most fun experience we have had at any park!

    1. Joy

      I’ve been stopped on it twice in one day. Workers said someone needed help on the moving platform. We got stuck side ways by the weeping willow. Fun! Gave us a second to look around at all the cool stuff.

  6. Becky

    In December 21, we where in the other park on the Harry Potter ride when it stopped about 3 feet from the exit, my son had already said when the bar came down his private parts where being crushed, tried to tell the folks working before we took off and ignored him. So when we stopped it was terrible so much pain, we sat there 20 minutes. They offered us nothing.

    1. Mahler

      Creatures of unusual endowment take note

  7. Bayone Hoggler

    Even though it’s unfortunate it’s inevitable that rides will fail … what it takes mechanically and technically is unimaginable,,, these rides go nonstop for hours on end and are guaranteed to fail once in a while.

    1. Ali

      👏🏻 Say it again for the people in the back/front/middle/queue/Florida/etc! My family have been fortunate enough to be UOAP’s since 2011, and theme park visitors for decades before that. It’s absolutely ridiculous reading some of the things that people on this forum whine and complain about. We also travel domestically quite a bit and I can assure you that absolutely ANY experience you freely choose to encounter that is man-made (i.e. – pretty much EVERYTHING) will falter and have “hiccups” along the way. Especially the super popular experiences that are running almost 24/7 catering to the biggest crowds each and every day! Then if/when they do decide to take one down for awhile, people get salty and lose their minds for the “audacity” of the theme park to shut down one of it’s most popular attractions, is a total no-win situation for everyone. TM’s “love” nothing more than getting repeatedly yelled at, accosted, and called every not nice name in the book when rides go down. People literally act like it was done to them “on purpose” and then demand some sort of compensation for “ruining their entire family vacation”. Is it a royal pain…yep! We took a few friends for their very first trip a couple of Christmases ago and as if on queue, about 1 minute into The Forbidden Journey, we went down. I was just a tad bit not happy about it since it was our friends first time, but then you find out after that they were loading a disabled young child onto the ride for their very first time, as well, and then you feel like a jerk for fussing and hope that family has/had the best trip ever! Is it slightly annoying and not much fun? Sure (though during our 38-minute sit still I got some amazing pictures from the interior of The FJ with the lights on!), but don’t blame a ride interruption for “ruining your entire vacation”. You brought those bad vibes and attitudes with you and blaming a single attraction for it just shows YOUR arrogance and bad attitude. I’d rather be stuck half the day on a theme park attraction (just please Lord don’t let it be Small World again! 😳) than at work or some other not fun activity! ✌🏻 💜 🎢

      1. Jake

        Thank you. I work at forbidden journey and I will say that 96% of the stops are simply because people don’t put their restraints down, or decide they want to get off at the last minute and cause delays.

        1. Boethiahschampion

          Rides break down. It happens. Whether it’s Disney, Universal, or a cedar fair park, they break down. My husband is horrified of snakes so if we go to Disney he… Avoids Indiana Jones. If humans were perfect at building machines then plane accidents and such wouldn’t occur. It’s an accident. Just learn to deal with it and grow up.

      2. I absolutely agree. My son and I were at Universal on Saturday, and the ride went down, again. We actually make bets if we will make it through or not. The first time it happened was actually really exciting. After that, it’s like “okay, someone is getting on or off, no biggie.” It’s a great ride. Definitely my favorite. I’m literally shocked that this is big news. Never, in my 51 years, did I think I’d see this on my Google page. 😂

  8. Sheryl

    Yup stopped on us in March 2021. Seems like someone should be looking into this?????

    1. Dee

      Look into what, the fact that rides close down at all parks. It’s been looked into it happens.

  9. Clara

    Maybe don’t go on a ride that has a warning of Claustrophobia to start with….

    1. Eli

      I had a similar experience on that ride, it broke down when the vehicle had me almost upside down, when a dementor was doing his soul Kiss. For me it was horrible because I am extremely claustrophobic and we were moving thru some mist, which caused water to drip on my face.

  10. A

    Yes we were stuck on the ride broke down while facing downward it was not a great experience this was sept 2022

  11. 10min2USH

    I’ve been on a few times when it stopped. Usually it is a few minutes. The longest was about an hour. We all got express passes and a voucher for $10 off food.

  12. Will

    I think that ride is too fast to fully appreciate the graphics. The fact that it can pause and leave someone face downwards into a Dementor sounds too too cool… as long as it gets fixed timely and no on is in real danger, it’s no big deal.

  13. Nick

    Omg seriously, the ride stopped safely. Maybe not the scene you were hoping for but it’s a bit over the top calling it a nightmare

  14. Chris

    Nightmare for some is no sugar in the coffee.

  15. Abby Purvis

    This happened to us Thanksgiving week 2022 on the same ride. My husband is a big guy and the shoulder harness was tight enough on him so he couldn’t take a deep breath. Not a big deal to be on it if he knew it was only a few minutes and is distracted by the ride but stuck hanging there it was awful. My 17 year old son was having a panic attack because of claustrophobia. My seat ahead of them was stopped sideways. Not fun. They did give us an express pass for another ride but still not worth the discomfort!

    1. Lars

      Wtf go on a ride when you are claustrophobic?

      Kids these days

  16. R.p

    When that happened to me and my son, we were not offered another ride. But, awhile back, when we had a faulty car on Spider Man and rode the whole ride with the car backwards(was really weird & cool), they let us hop right back on to ride again!

  17. Ryan

    This has happened to me multiple times, as someone with a season pass who has ridden the ride dozens of times.

    Surprised this is newsworthy?

  18. Are these comments AI generated? Why does everyone state the month and year they rode the ride? How do they even remember? “It was April 2021…”. Get out of here.

  19. BlackSpire

    Is this article also available in English?

  20. Monica

    It is a nightmare, especially when it happened to me and my 2 kids we were suspended upside down for longer than a minute. It was very uncomfortable n dark n not being able to see of my kids were ok.

  21. Kirstyn

    I got stuck on there Aug 22. None of the staff said a word. We just dangled over the pitch and then the timing and footage was off for the whole rest of the ride. Was not offered another go or anything.

  22. Lorne

    Happened to me and my 2 daughters years ago on the same ride. We were suspending facing down for 15 minutes. Ride started up again and died in 10 seconds. We were stuck up there another 10 minutes the 2nd time

  23. RS

    Happened to us on dec 2022.

  24. Ken

    So voldemort was totally the one who complained what a dummy we already know his name lol

  25. Allison

    This happened to me my senior year in high school in 2011. The ride broke down in the same section with the dementors. I have a major phobia of dead things, skulls, etc. (necrophobia) and the dementors were terrifying to me. It wasn’t that big of a deal though, I just kept my eyes closed until it was fixed.

  26. Stephen

    Hey people have understand rides are going to break down it’s happens at all them park’s it’s not a nightmare things happen them park’s can’t help when rides break down I have been stuck on plenty of rides in my time one of my freinds got stuck on a ride years ago at carowinds it was the ride Drop zone stunt tower carowinds had to call in air rescue to help get people off the ride its not like the cast members say let’s get these customers stuck on the it just happens

  27. Brian

    This happened to me and my family almost 5 years ago, we were down for at Minute, I found it fascinating, Every lit up you could see how the ride operated, it’s amazing to see.

  28. Meg

    The ride stopped on us when we were suspended on our backs. It was pitch black and it seemed like an eternity before the ride began again. It was probably close to 5 minutes that the ride was actually stopped. I was getting freaked out because we couldn’t see anything and were on our backs in the air. Definitely felt trapped. The people in the car next to us were freaking out hysterically crying. We rode it two times before and loved it. I’d never go on it again because of this experience.

    1. Ashley

      It’s a ride, a very technologically advanced ride, that goes for 12+ hours a day. It’s going to have issues. We went in May and it glitched, broke down and had us stuck almost completely upside down for 5 minutes. Was it scary? Absolutely, because I’m not a fan of going upside down. But it’s a ride, it happens, and it surely isn’t the parks fault.

  29. Joy

    This article should be called “know before you go”. This happened to us mid air, in an uncomfortable position. We weren’t sure what was going on and began to freak out because the lights were flashing and then went completely dark, in an uncomfortable position. There’s a myriad of things that may go through your head when you don’t know what’s going on. It was very scary. If we had known it does this, I think we would have been prepared or maybe made the decision to not ride at all, considering…The ride should give a warning that it may stop for periods of time while handicap riders are loading or unloading. We were told this AFTERWARDS by our tour guide Smh..

  30. LLP

    I got stuck on Its a Small World. The song is bad enough during the ride but being stuck was torture.

  31. Cheryl

    Had the same happen to us. Several minutes for the longest breakdown, with three stops on that ride. We rode 4 times in all that day and only the first time was a flawless ride.

  32. Catherine halliday

    I was there with my young autistic son. It was a pain yes but nightmare? No. The staff went above and beyond and in the end my son came away with a free special edition wand. Most people were laughing, joking and taking selfies.

  33. Rich

    This doesn’t sound like it was all that bad. We waited in line for hours the year this ride opened in Orlando, only to be turned away when we got to the front of the line. We were then offered a spot in the family ride swap area while they worked it out. When we finally got on the ride it broke down and we were stuck face down for nearly an hour, well, face down, face up, face down, etc…No offer for a return ride. I still get on that ride every time we are there because it’s awesome!

  34. Mows

    Got stuck 2019 right at Hagrid’s part. Thought it might have been the earthquakes and aftershocks that were going on at the time. Or the penny that my kid dropped on the conveyor belt at the loading station.

  35. Brandan

    It wasn’t just 3 times, it was 4 times at least, so that was fun, the people in the one after us got stuck upside down so we got lucky.

  36. Jen

    First ride i took my kid on, she was 7 and super excited. We travelled from Canada. Same thing happened only we were stopped for 10 minutes way up in the air. Whole thing ruined our vacation she was too scared to go on other rides. I rode it again by myself the following day. It did it again.

  37. Dem

    We were on that ride and didn’t mind at all, definitely wasn’t a nightmare and the workers are excellent.
    Rides don’t always work 100% like everything else. It never took anything away from our vacation just made it more memorable!

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