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Universal Orlando (Studios/IOA/Epic Universe) : General Discussion

It says a lot that a POV of a dark ride can wow people, even in grainy black and white. Most dark rides, even the mighty Spiderman or Forbidden Journey, look pants on video. Sofor this to still look as amazing as it does... you just know it must be good.
I especially like the part where a door in the screen opens under cover of smoke. And is that a tilting trick track I see in the first room?

Hot damn, this thing is almost enough to tempt me into visiting the land of evil.
 
Alastair said:
The transitions from screen to physical are seamless. I guarantee, without even riding, THAT is the best dark ride in the world.
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I concur. Just from the POV this is the best Dark-ride I've ever seen (albeit in night-vision, so I'm sure it's underselling it) - I can't wait to ride this next July...

The coaster section doesn't look too bad either, looks fun with the tilting & drops, probably will be even better when you can't see the track, just a shame its so short, but certainly not complaining. :D
 
DiogoJ42 said:
I especially like the part where a door in the screen opens under cover of smoke. And is that a tilting trick track I see in the first room?

Hot damn, this thing is almost enough to tempt me into visiting the land of evil.
Click to expand...

Trick track? Check. Using the ride car technology of Forbidden Journey to move a screen out of the way of the car before it launches? Check.
 
I know a lot of people complain about Universal "using screens for rides". Personally, I really don't see it as a huge issue. As long as the experience as a whole is different on each ride, then who cares if there's animatronics or moving images on a screen? As long as you get the sensation of additional movement from the immersiveness of the scenes, then the ride has done it's job. For those who haven't been on the likes of Spiderman, Transformers or indeed Forbidden Journey, it's very easy to underestimate just how real things can feel on these rides. To put it simply, it's a whole other level to anything else we have in the world - and as boring as screens can sound on the face of it, when carefully mixed with various effects they create an experience that can blow traditional physical only effects out of the water.

My only very very slight criticism about Universal is that Transformers and Spiderman offer very similar experiences. Even then they're in separate parks, and Transformers was a copy of an attraction developed primarily for other resorts at first. Not a cheap addition because of this by any means, but cheaper than starting from scratch. There's just enough of a difference between the two though for me, so it's only a slight moan :).

Forbidden Journey and Gringotts seem to give vastly different experiences, and from that POV alone it looks absolutely stunning. Baring in mind that a lot of the hidden stuff is seen due to the night vision, the fact it's still gaining praise really says something about this attraction.
 
That ride looks like it would scare the crap out of me.

All that spinning and disorientation, this looks like it's pushed "family" ride to its absolute limits here. Seems like a ride you get off and walk around for a few minutes wondering wtf just happened.
 
There is all that, but if it's all based around screens and environments that move with you - there's probably a loss of disorientation with it as you will simple feel part of a story rather than on a moving ride with the occasional thing near you.

If that makes sense?
 
It's how dark rides are now, spinning is another means of creating immersion. As Scott says, it has no bearing as it's not designed to disorientate you. The coaster sections aren't bad at all, I'd say that was a perfect family ride - on a par with Forbidden Journey thrill wise.
 
Wowowowooowowowowowooooooooowwwwwwwww!!!!

I wasn't going to spoil myself until I head over in 2015 but I'm reading the book series again and I couldn't help myself. This, on top of Forbidden Journey (which I rode in 2010) is THE DOGS NADS.

Get me a plane ticket!

Universal have such strong financial leverage that they can create truly stunning attractions like this - spectacular. They've really raised the bar.

Did I see that riders were wearing 3D glasses?
 
Oh well that's interesting. Personally I felt FJ was better without the glasses, purely as the screens work perfectly well without them and there's much more a feeling of the unknown if you go in without them. If you have the glasses on, there's almost an expectation to be anxious of what's going to happen. If a ride can make its guests gasp and scream without the need for glasses the it's done it's job above and beyond!

I'm so excited to go back!! I keep dreaming about FJ recently.. its a sign I'm being called...
 
Interestingly two separate people i know who have now ridden Gringotts have said Forbidden Journey is better. Still said Gringotts was an amazing ride though!
 
Gringotts is more family friendly and less of a thrill ride than Forbidden Journey. Universal wanted a ride suitable for more members of the family than FJ, hence the much lower high restriction.

Everyone i know who have ridden it have stated its much more of a ride similar to spiderman/transformers than its a coaster. The good news is that the queue line is starting to settle down a bit and now averaging between 120-180 mins, the last few days its been down to 120 mins in the afternoon, the single rider line is apparently taking about half the time of the main queue.
 
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I've just returned home from Orlando and finally got a chance to ride Gringotts, after four hours of breakdowns no less!!

First impressions - the theming is utterly outstanding, I went single rider so missed a good deal of the queue, but from what I saw it was amazing and the area itself is probably the best theme park area I've ever been in. It's the first time I've felt like I'm not in a theme park but a real city.

As for the ride... I enjoyed it, but wasn't blown away. I'm attributing this partially to when I rode, it was day three after the grand opening and had been having a great deal of problems all morning. By the time I got off the ride they had already closed the entrance again so I'm getting the impression I didn't experience the ride at its optimum performance.

From what I did see though the coaster section was fun, the trick track and launch at the end took me by surprise and some of the sets were genuinely breathtaking. The problem for me was the previously mentioned use of screens which, in my opinion, didn't fully blend in with the physical surroundings 100%. Saying that though 3D and myself have a mixed relationship... Spidey and Transformers are fine but stuff like Philharmagic and Captain Eo sometimes don't work, probably because of the slight weakness in my left eye. Maybe if I rode again it would be better but on my first ride I didn't feel the 3D worked as well as on their other rides.

Finally I thought the cars movements when the ride was moving great, it's impressive to think they're essentially sending a full motion platform along coaster track, but the rides pacing felt off to me. You go from sections of full blown coaster to stopping still in front of a screen with no simulator movement in a matter of seconds and I found this kind of jarring. At points it was if you were just moving through sets from one movie screen to another with little simulated movement, unlike Transformers which I feel is must faster paced.

Maybe I'm being a tad harsh, but I'm kind of sad to say my first thought as we hit the final brakes was the dreaded "was that it??". Like I said, they were having problems for most of the day and I didn't experience the full queue, but from my experience I just didn't quite feel wowed by it in the way I did on my first time riding Spiderman. For now I'd say FJ is better but this has potential once they get over the problems you would expect from such a new ride.

Bear in mind that FJ left me disappointed on my first ride too, so maybe if I get to ride again in the future my opinion will change, but for now, a solid 7/10. Great potential but my first experience just fell slightly short.
 


Here's a video of the ride when it broke down and they're releasing the riders. An interesting way to do so!
 
I was in Orlando myself 2 weeks ago and on the Wednesday evening and my first day on park, we said we'd chance queuing for Gringotts after we've done everything else we wanted to do on park. So at 6pm we made our way over and luckly the board only had 120 minutes of a wait.

Although after a 7am start and a full day in the park in 36 degrees heat a 120 minutes wait with the opening part of the queue in the sun with little to no fans or cover didn't sound too fun. Our moods quickly changed tho once we got into the Bank itself and took in the theming. The theming is simply breathtaking and they really go all in on making the whole thing an experience from start to finish.

We were only actually queuing for 60 minutes before we ended up on the ride. The ride itself is immensly fun. I would agree with people who said the Forbidden Journey is a better ride, that's not saying Gringotts isn't amazing, I just preferred the Forbidden Journey's carrages and robitic arm movements.

The ride although the main attraction of Diagon Alley is far from the only thing to see and do in Diagon Alley. The scale of the area is amazing and all of the little nods and winks to the Harry Potter books and films are great fun. The entire area is a must do for any Harry Potter Fan!
 
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I personally found gringotts the better ride and the overall area is really well done I didn't rate the forbidden journey

But gringotts is amazing, I took about 120 photos which will be on Facebook soon


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