How Scary Are the Universal Rides?

Why Universal is harder on small children

Start with what the parks are made of. Disney's ride list is built on animated features and adventure serials; Universal's is built on monster films, action franchises and a horror-adjacent catalogue going back to the 1930s. That shows up everywhere — in animatronic creatures designed to look predatory rather than comic, in show scenes lit to conceal rather than to reveal, and in sound design engineered around sudden volume.

Then look at what is left when you take the intense material away. At Magic Kingdom, subtracting the handful of frightening attractions still leaves a park a four-year-old can spend twelve hours in. At Islands of Adventure, subtracting them leaves Seuss Landing, Camp Jurassic and a walk around the lagoon. That is not a criticism of the park — Islands of Adventure is one of the best theme parks in the world — but it is the fact that decides whether a family with a preschooler should be there at all.

The compensating factor is the height wall. Universal's thrill tier begins where Disney's tops out: 48, 51 and 52 inches are real numbers here and 54 is the tallest requirement at Islands of Adventure. A child who is too short for all of that is also too short for most of what would have frightened them, which is a crude but effective filter.

The exception, and the reason to read the numbers rather than assume them, is Skull Island: Reign of Kong. Its minimum sits in the mid-thirties of inches, among the very lowest at the park, and what it delivers is a long, dark truck ride through an environment full of large creatures, with a queue that contains live performers and a sixteen-foot animatronic at the end. Nothing about the number warns you. Check the current figure on the park's own height list before you use it to make a decision.

The five things that actually frighten children here

Children are not frightened by intensity in the abstract. They are frightened by specific stimuli, and knowing which one affects your child is worth more than any overall rating. A child who is frightened of the dark and a child who is frightened of loud noises need completely different itineraries.

Universal adds a category Disney barely uses: a creature filling your visual field in 3D, inches from your face, while your seat moves. Transformers, The Amazing Adventures of Spider-Man and the Kong sequences all do this deliberately, and it lands differently from a physical animatronic across a room. Children who are fine with the Haunted Mansion can be genuinely upset by something a foot from their nose in stereoscopic 3D.

The attractions that catch parents out

Some rides look worse than they are and some look far better. These are the ones where the outside of the building does not tell you what is inside.

Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey is the biggest one at either resort. Parents read Wizarding World, see the castle, watch families queuing, and assume a story ride. It is a dark, disorienting attraction with sequences involving large creatures and a section built around the film's frightening imagery, delivered by a ride system that swings you around. It has a 48-inch minimum, which helps, but a newly-48-inch eight-year-old is a very common casualty.

Revenge of the Mummy is the other. Its name and its facade suggest a themed dark ride, and it begins as one. It then becomes an indoor launch coaster in near-total darkness with fire effects and a false ending designed specifically to catch people out. It is the best ride at Universal Studios Florida and it is not a gentle one.

Skull Island: Reign of Kong is the low-height one already covered, and it deserves the repetition. E.T. Adventure runs the other way: it looks like it might be dark and frightening, and it is a slow suspended ride that most four-year-olds handle without difficulty.

At Epic Universe, Dark Universe is a whole land in this category. The attractions are built around classic monsters, the village is deliberately unsettling after dark, and there are costumed monsters walking around interacting with guests. Families walk in expecting a themed street and find something with intent.

• Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey — far darker and more disorienting than its setting suggests. The most common surprise at either Wizarding World.
• Revenge of the Mummy — starts as a dark ride, becomes an indoor launch coaster in the dark with fire effects and a false ending.
• Skull Island: Reign of Kong — one of the lowest height minimums at the park, on one of the most intense environments at the resort.
• Men in Black Alien Attack — looks like a shooting gallery, contains a lot of large alien animatronics in the dark.
• Harry Potter and the Escape from Gringotts — a coaster with drops and a screen sequence involving large creatures, inside a very appealing building.
• Dark Universe at Epic Universe — a land, not a ride, and the whole land is the intensity.
• E.T. Adventure — the reverse case. Looks worrying, is gentle, and is the last opening-day ride still running at Universal Studios Florida.

Costumed performers and animatronics

Universal's costumed performers are not universally friendly by design, and that is worth saying out loud because it is the opposite of the assumption most families arrive with.

In Dark Universe at Epic Universe, costumed Universal Monsters roam the village and interact with guests. They are in character. That is the point of the land and it is executed well, and it means a four-year-old walking through can be approached by something specifically designed to be unsettling. If your child would find that upsetting, walk the land in daylight or skip it — it is a different place after dark.

The Raptor Encounter at Islands of Adventure puts you a few feet from a very convincing velociraptor puppet with a handler managing the interaction. It is one of the best character experiences at the resort and it frightens a meaningful number of small children, which the handlers are good at reading and managing. Watch another family do it first and decide from there.

Elsewhere the character line-up is exactly what you would expect. The Minions, Shrek's cast, the Marvel heroes on the Marvel Super Hero Island plaza, and Mario, Luigi and Princess Peach in the SUPER NINTENDO WORLD courtyard are all straightforwardly friendly. The Marvel characters appear in comic-book rather than film costume, which surprises some children and delights others.

On the animatronic side, Universal builds them large and lights them low. The Kong figure at the end of Skull Island: Reign of Kong is sixteen feet tall and moves fast. The Gringotts bank lobby goblins are the opposite — still, quiet, and closer to uncanny than frightening, and children generally find them fascinating rather than alarming.

The shows, and the one to read the sign for

Universal's stage shows are among the best things at these parks and most of them are completely fine for young children. One is not, and it is signed clearly enough that nobody has an excuse for being caught out.

Universal Orlando's Horror Make-Up Show has been running since 1990 and is the best non-ride attraction at Universal Studios Florida. It is a comedy about how film makeup and prosthetic effects are made, performed live, and it demonstrates staged wounds and transformations on stage. Adults and older children find it very funny. A sensitive five-year-old will not. The sign at the entrance tells you what it is; read it.

The Bourne Stuntacular fuses live stunt performers to a moving LED wall and includes gunfire, explosions and sustained volume. It is not frightening in a horror sense but it is loud in a way that upsets noise-sensitive children. The same is true of WaterWorld at Universal Studios Hollywood, which is the best live stunt show at any US theme park and includes explosions and a substantial fireball.

The gentle end is genuinely gentle. Animal Actors on Location at Universal Studios Florida is the most reliable option in that park for young children. The Blues Brothers set on the New York street is short, musical and completely benign. The Untrainable Dragon at Epic Universe is staged with full-size puppetry rather than pyrotechnics. Le Cirque Arcanus uses puppetry rather than projection and is more spectacle than threat.

Rough guidance by age

Every child is different and this is a starting point, not a verdict. The variable that matters most is not age — it is whether your child is troubled by darkness, by volume, or by neither.

The honest summary for the under-fives: Universal Orlando is a hard sell. There is enough to fill a day at Universal Studios Florida between DreamWorks Land, the shows, E.T. Adventure and Minion Land, and enough at Islands of Adventure between Seuss Landing and Camp Jurassic, but you are working around the parks rather than with them. A family whose youngest is three will get more out of a Disney park, and saying otherwise does nobody any favours.

If it goes wrong

A frightened child in the middle of a dark ride is a recoverable situation and it is worth having a plan before you need one. Universal team members deal with this daily and are generally good about it.

The most useful preparation is a shared vocabulary. Agree before you enter that closing their eyes is allowed, that saying they want to stop is allowed and will not cost anybody their day, and that you will not be disappointed. A child who thinks opting out means failing will sit in silence and be miserable; a child who has been told it is a legitimate choice will use it and be fine.

In the queue, you can leave at any point. Tell a team member and they will show you the shortest way out — this is routine and nobody minds. At a few Universal attractions the exit route from deep inside a building is long, which is another reason to do the ones you are unsure about early in the day when the queue is short.

Afterwards, get somewhere cool, quiet and enclosed rather than pressing on. Knockturn Alley in Diagon Alley is dark, covered, air-conditioned and almost always empty. The Jurassic Park Discovery Center at Islands of Adventure is free, quiet and virtually empty. Every park has a First Aid station with air conditioning and somewhere to sit, and using it for a distressed child rather than an injury is entirely normal.

Do not re-attempt the same ride later the same day to prove a point. If it is going to happen at all it will happen on another trip, and forcing it converts a bad ten minutes into a lasting association.

• Agree in advance that closing their eyes and saying stop are both allowed and cost nobody anything.
• You can leave a queue at any point. Tell a team member and they will show you out.
• Do the rides you are unsure about early, when the queue is short and the walk out is not long.
• Use Child Swap rather than pressuring a child who has decided against a ride.
• Recover somewhere cool and quiet: Knockturn Alley, the Jurassic Park Discovery Center, or any First Aid station.
• Do not re-attempt the same attraction later that day.