It’s hard to say exactly what makes Walt Disney World feel like Walt Disney World. We can talk about background music, exquisite theming, cleanliness, and friendliness as much as we like, but ultimately, there’s something about that patch of land in Central Florida that makes things just feel different from other places.
But just because something feels different than Disney doesn’t mean it’s any less excellent.
Take Universal Orlando for example. Long an also-ran in the Orlando theme park scene, Universal launched a direct assault on Disney with the addition of the Wizarding World of Harry Potter in 2010. And now, four years later, they’ve opened the long awaited Diagon Alley and King’s Cross Station expansion.
These additions created a new energy in Universal, certainly, but more importantly, they’ve encouraged guests to discover some of the lesser-known attractions that have been wowing Universal fans for years.
What follows are some attractions that, with an open mind, even Disney’s most ardent fans couldn’t help but enjoy:
5. Dudley Do-Right’s Ripsaw Falls
When Universal opened Islands of Adventure in 1999, it didn’t make much of a dent in Disney’s enormous market share. That wasn’t for lack of trying, certainly, as IOA was chock full of some truly brilliant and innovative attractions.
One attraction, Dudley Do-Right’s Ripsaw Falls, took a traditional log flume and transformed it into a headlining theme park ride.
Much in the mold of Disney’s Splash Mountain (no olfactory pun intended), Ripsaw Falls tells an elaborate story starring the Canadian Mountie that twists and turns until its dramatic and very steep finale. Unlike Splash Mountain, however, Ripsaw Falls can get you very, very wet. But if you admire the elaborate theming and charming design of Splash Mountain, you’ll enjoy Ripsaw Falls and its disarmingly silly story.
4. The Cat in the Hat
Here’s how dedicated Universal Creative was to creating a beautifully constructed environment when they built Islands of Adventure:
One of the titular islands is Seuss Landing – a themed area devoted to the works of children’s author Dr. Seuss. Seuss Landing is unique in that, much like the artwork created by its namesake, it contains no straight lines anywhere in the design.
The result is an area as whimsical and wondrous as the source material it is derived from, and the area’s centerpiece attraction, The Cat in the Hat, perfectly embodies this whimsy.
The kinetic and frantic energy of the ride is a bit faster-paced than anything you’d find at Magic Kingdom’s Fantasyland, but the aesthetic is similar – bright colors and simple storylines, all created to take guests inside one of their favorite stories from childhood. It’s not unlike The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh in that regard, and fans of that attraction will feel right at home watching The Cat in the Hat wreak havoc during an unusually blustery day.
3. Revenge of the Mummy
Image: Universal
Now, I’ll say this up top: this is far, far more thrilling than any ride you’ll find at Walt Disney World. After all, it’s a ride about a resurrected mummy that wants to kill you.
With that said, Revenge of the Mummy takes itself very seriously, both in terms of design and visual effects – ultimately, that makes it on par with some of the more thrilling attractions at Disney’s Hollywood Studios.
The ride is a roller coaster/dark ride hybrid that features well-decorated set pieces and animatronics as well as launched sections of wildly white-knuckle coaster track. While that might make it sound like a similar experience to Disney’s Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster, the ride is aesthetically and experientially more like the Twilight Zone Tower of Terror:
In both attractions, guests enter a forbidden space inhabited by supernatural forces. Both rides also begin as slow moving dark rides and, when the mysterious beings take over, become far more thrilling affairs.
Revenge of the Mummy is far more intense, but if you’re a fan of the spooky-theatricality of Tower of Terror, consider the Mummy when in search of your next adrenaline fix.
2. The Amazing Adventures of Spider-Man
When Islands of Adventure opened, its marquee attraction was The Amazing Adventures of Spider-Man. The ride went toe-to-toe with a similar attraction at Walt Disney World, Animal Kingdom’s Dinosaur, and absolutely blew it out of the water.
Combining 3D animation, motion simulation, and a dark ride experience, Spider-Man’s debut was unlike anything anyone had seen before in a theme park. The ride’s use of practical effects combined with on-screen visual spectacle provides a fully-visceral thrill that is just as exciting today as it was more than a decade ago. This relationship between motion simulation, projection, and physical objects would be used by Universal again and again in the future — most notably with both Harry Potter attractions.
In fact, Spider-Man’s ride-system is so well acclaimed that the company used it again for Transformers: The Ride, which joined its predecessor at the Universal Orlando Resort in 2013 (after debuting in Singapore and Hollywood, of course).
But for Disney fans, Spider-Man’s unique blend of humor, action, thrills and immersiveness make it the better choice.
1. E.T. Adventure
If there’s one attraction at Universal Orlando that could be teleported to Walt Disney World, with guests never knowing the difference, it would be E.T. Adventure.
Based on the landmark film from Steven Spielberg, E.T. Adventure is one of the only opening day attractions remaining at Universal Studios Orlando, and the reason for its longevity is its powerful commitment to storytelling. Spielberg had a direct hand in the design of the ride, so this should come as no surprise.
The queue for the attraction is rivaled only by Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey in terms of its fully-realized design and transporting atmosphere, and the ride’s moving-if-somewhat-cheesy ending is surely equal to any of Disney’s classic attractions.
Ultimately, E.T. Adventure endures because it’s the closest Universal ever came to capturing the so-called “Disney Magic.” In that way, it’s an attraction of another time – a time when Universal was not so self-assured and was still trying to figure out its place in the Orlando tourism ecosystem. They’ve now come into their own as a park, telling stories using their own unique voice, and even pushing Disney to up their own game.
But for one attraction, Steven Spielberg cracked the Disney code. And, well – John Williams’ score certainly helped too.
