Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey

What it is

Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey opened with Hogsmeade in 2010 and was, at the time, the most technically ambitious dark ride ever built. The vehicle is a bench of four seats mounted on a robotic arm carried along a track, which lets it pitch, roll, tilt and rotate freely while moving. The result is a ride that can put you flat on your back looking up at a dome screen one second and swing you sideways into a physical set the next.

The queue is one of the great theme park queues, and it is a large part of what you are here for. It runs through the greenhouses, into the castle proper, past the moving portraits in the gallery, through Dumbledore's office, the Defense Against the Dark Arts classroom, the Gryffindor common room and the Room of Requirement. It is dense, faithful and worth walking slowly. Universal also runs a non-rider castle tour of the same route for anyone who does not want to ride.

The 2010 mechanics show their age in the screen work - the dome projections are lower resolution than anything built since - but the physical sets and the motion system have not been bettered. It is also the ride here most likely to make people sick, because the arm's rotation combined with wraparound projection is precisely the combination the inner ear objects to.

What riding it is actually like

You walk through the castle for fifteen to twenty-five minutes, and this is not dead time. The portraits argue with each other, Dumbledore appears in his office, and the Defense Against the Dark Arts classroom has a good gag in it. Then you enter the Room of Requirement, take your bench, and the lap restraint comes down.

The ride opens with a flight over the castle grounds on a dome screen, and it is the best-executed part. From there it moves into a sequence of encounters: a dragon with real heat, the whomping willow, an acromantula nest where physical spiders drop toward the bench and spray you, a dementor sequence in near-total darkness where figures reach into the vehicle, and a Quidditch match.

The dementor and spider sequences are what people remember, and not always fondly. Both happen at very close range in the dark with the bench tilting, and both are more frightening than the film-derived content would suggest. The ride ends with a return to the Great Hall. Total run time is a little over four minutes.

Is Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey scary?

The most frightening ride in Hogsmeade by a distance. Giant spiders drop toward the bench at close range, dementors reach into the vehicle, and a whomping willow sequence throws you around in near darkness. The 48-inch requirement means the children who can ride it are old enough to handle most things, and this one still gets them.

Scores are editorial, on a 1–5 scale, judged against what frightens a typical four- to seven-year-old rather than an adult.

Accessibility

Full transfer to a bench seat with a lap restraint that must close to a fixed point. There is a test bench outside the entrance and using it is genuinely important - larger and broader-chested guests are turned away at the loading platform daily. A non-riding castle walkthrough is available for anyone who cannot or does not want to ride.

Full Universal's Islands of Adventure accessibility guide →