Revenge of the Mummy: The Ride at Universal Studios Florida
By WebmasterBarry
The Mummy and your Christmas fruitcake may be over 3,000 years old, but the Revenge of the Mummy: The Ride at Universal Studios Florida is brand new. Over a year in the making, the ride opened on May 21. I recently had the chance to experience this thrilling attraction.
Revenge of the Mummy: The Ride is basically an attraction that begins as a dark ride (a ride where you move from scene to scene and look at interesting things) and ends as a roller coaster (we all know what these are!). The ride was designed by Premiere Rides, who are known in the amusement park industry for their Linear Induction Motors (LIMs) catapult launch systems on their roller coasters. Premiere Rides has designed such rides as Batman and Robin: The Chiller at Six Flags Great Adventure in Jackson, NJ; Flight of Fear at Paramount’s Kings Island in Kings Island, OH; Mr. Freeze at Six Flags St. Louis in Eureka, MO; and Poltergeist at Six Flags Fiesta Texas in San Antonio, TX. Revenge of the Mummy, like its sister coasters, uses a LIM system and smaller LIMs called SLIMs to move the ride vehicles between each ride scene.
A LIM system allows a roller coaster train to start out fast and to create momentum without using a traditional lift hill. The system uses motors that are laid flat. A large amount of energy is applied to the motors and they create an electromagnetic wave. The coaster train surfs this electromagnetic wave and propels the ride vehicle forwards. No moving parts physically touch the train.
Revenge of the Mummy: The Ride, like most other Universal attractions, has a story behind it. As we enter the attraction building, overhead monitors inform us that we are going to be extras in an upcoming Mummy movie. We move between each queue room that have movie and behind-the-scenes photos from the previous Mummy movies. As we watch the queue video, the cast members -- the handsome Brendan Fraiser, the beautiful Rachel Weisz, and the rest -- tell us the curse of the Mummy. Brendan Fraiser also continuously cannot obtain a cup of coffee (this will be important to remember for a surprise at the end of the ride). As we move deeper into the queue, we enter upon an old Egyptian burial chamber. As we find out, the curse of the Mummy is true. The minons of the Mummy Imhotep force us onto our ride vehicles to encounter Imhotep. While waiting in line to ride, you can hear the familiar click-clack of the Premiere lap bars. Unlike other Premiere rides, there is no seatbelt that locks into the lap bar. Sorry, but you will not be able to see the confusion as guests try to figure out where to lock the seatbelt. The headrests are unusual since they’re four vertical soft rubber pieces instead of one large plastic piece.
The first portion of the ride is a dark ride. We encounter Imhotep, who does not look like the suave Arnold Vosloo, but the rotted out walking Mummy corpse. Keith Richards has seen better days! Imhotep offers us “riches untold” if we join him or death if we refuse. Just like gazing at the Eye of Mara at the Indiana Jones Adventure at Disneyland when we’re told not to, someone in the ride vehicle must have refused Imhotep’s offer because the Mummy is infuriated and then directs us to a room where we are surrounded us with scarabs. The ride vehicle suddenly moves backwards, turns around, and heads forward right into our doom. We are now entering the roller coaster part. This is our punishment. I don’t know about you, but a roller coaster doesn’t sound like much punishment. Perhaps a more suitable punishment would be watching re-runs of “Cop Rock” or listening to William Hung sing.
Before we enter the roller coaster portion, the ride vehicle does an Incredible Hulk Coaster maneuver and slowly goes up in what appears to be a lift hill. Then the LIMs kick in. You hear the familiar “waaaag” sound of LIMs and we’re shot into dark to the roller coaster! The roller coaster part begins with a pop of airtime as we spiral around and move up and down on the coaster tracks. Scenes of the Mummy attacking us fly by at a dizzying rate. We’re treated to about two more airtime moments. The roller coaster portion has a very unique coaster element called the trick track. A typical coaster track either inverts a coaster train or banks them left or right. A trick track moves a coaster train horizontally back and forth, creating a lateral motion. Trick tracks are found on Big Thunder Mountain at the Magic Kingdom; Shivering Timbers at Michigan’s Adventure in Muskegon, MI; and the Villain at Geauga Lake in Aurora, OH.
The ride stops momentarily for us to catch our breath, but we’re shot again into the darkness as we spiral down coaster tracks and attacked by the Mummy again. Finally, we hit the end and disembark. Brendan Fraiser finally gets his coffee, but he gets a surprise too! We walk down a long path into the gift shop, where we can purchase an on-ride photo of our terrifying experience and other Mummy memorabilia.
After riding it five times, I’d say Universal has a winner on its hands. Honestly, when I first rode it, I wasn’t too impressed by the ride. I felt it was kind of fun, but too over-hyped. I think my opinion was colored because the audio on the ride wasn’t work during my first ride. I was thinking, “The Mummy is going to do what to me? Huh, what did you say Mummy?“ On my second and consecutive rides, I found the ride to be very exciting. The roller coaster portion is no more thrilling than, say, Big Thunder Mountain Railroad, but it was quite fun. The only downside to the ride was the storyline was hard to follow. Even if you pay attention to the overhead monitors, it still is a bit confusing about why we’re here and what we’re doing. We hear of a curse, but how did we get into the burial room? Why are we being loaded into these weird ride vehicles? Like Sea World Orlando’s Journey to Atlantis, you don’t need to know the storyline to enjoy the experience.
For the best airtime, try to sit in the back row. As the previous occupant of the Revenge of the Mummy: The Ride’s building was Kongfrontation, look for a Kong tribute in the attraction. Hint: it’s somewhere in the treasure room.
Tip: Absolutely no carry-on items are permitted on the ride, not even small fanny packs attached to your waist. You will be asked to put all bags, packages, and any other loose articles into a locker. The lockers are free for 2-3 hours. The locker space is very tight, so be prepared to squeeze between people to store your gear!
