Tuesday, May 19, 2015

My Accessibility Ride Guide: Universal Studios (and more importantly the Wizarding World of HP)

As you know, I recently got back from The Wizarding World of HP.   We’ve been to Universal (and Disney) before, when we were kids, but I didn’t remember much.  I did remember “Poseidon’s Fury” and the “Men In Black” ride.  What I definitely didn’t remember were all the stairs to rides (and subsequently elevators), because I didn’t have as much of a problem with stairs then.  During this trip, I only went on a handful of rides, and we went to some shows.  Here’s my breakdown of the rides I did go on, in case you were thinking about going to Universal:

Hogwart’s Express (to go between Diagon Alley and Hogsmeade): There are stairs to and from the platforms on both the Hogsmeade and Diagon Alley side, but there are elevators.  I didn’t bring the scooter, I’m not sure if they would have let me, but probably since you would need it once you got off at the other park.  There was a girl in a regular wheelchair who shared a compartment with us. She had to leave the chair at the entrance on the train and walk a couple steps to the compartment. 

The Forbidden Journey (HP ride in Hogsmeade): There are elevators to the ride, however there is a moving platform to get on and off the ride.  I did not love that.  You can ask them to stop the ride to get on and off if needed.  The ride is set up like a roller coaster with the bar coming over your head, and your feet hanging with nothing under them.  I wasn’t a huge fan of the ride- mostly because it made me queasy, but it’s worth it to go through Hogwart’s and see everything inside the castle.

Escape from Gringotts (HP ride in Diagon Alley): This was my favorite ride in the whole park. I endured the 75 minute line twice!  There is also an elevator to get to the ride.  It’s set up like a wooden roller coaster with individual lap bars and your feet are on the bottom of the car.  It’s not too low so it wasn’t super hard to get out of.

We also stood in line for the Transformer’s Ride for an hour before it broke down. I was too tired at the end of the day to use our express passes to get on, so I’m not sure how the car was.  My parents said the ride was fun, but then, they don’t have the same concerns as I do for rides.

There are also stairs to get to the MIB ride and the elevator was broken when we were there so I didn’t go on it.  I told my parents to go without me.  The back row of the cars looked a little higher up (so you can see over the heads of those in front of you), so the row is probably also easier to get out of.

We saw the Shrek 3D Show and I rode my scooter all the way in, but transferred to a seat so that I could get the full experience.  I also rode my scooter through Poseidon’s Fury.  There’s no need to switch to a chair so it was a good, relaxing thing to do.  We went to the Despicable Me show.  There are stairs once you get into the show part (it’s like a simulator), unless you are in the first three rows which are ground level.  There are also sedentary seats at the front, which I actually liked better because the show made me a little motion sick.  We were allowed to wait at the entrance of the ride with the scooter until my mom made it through the 75 minute line.  You can either be transferred to a regular wheelchair or walk the rest of the way through (which is about 100 feet, but 10-15 minutes of standing). 

The last ride we went on was Spider Man.  The ride was level to the ground and the cars weren’t too low. That one is still fun- even though I kind of remember it from when I was younger.  

We didn’t have express passes for the park, but I can see how that would be helpful even for 1 day; especially if you get tired from standing in lines.  Most rides were a 60-90 minute wait, but some of the shows had a shorter wait time.  You also can’t use the express passes for any of the HP rides… just a forewarning :).  My last tip: bring a sweater; its freezing once the ride line moves indoors. 

All in all, I was impressed with the accessibility for the rides.  I suppose they have to make them accessible, but I never used to notice things like that.  There is a ride guide for Universal that you can look at for accessibility info, but hopefully this added to the information the guide provides. 

Feel free to contact me if you have any questions.