Universal Studios Florida is a theme park in Orlando, Florida, part of the Universal Orlando Resort. The park, which opened in 1990, is a park that lets visitors "Ride the Movies." It offers many shows and rides, along with countless other things for guests to see and do. Universal Studios Florida, its sister park Islands of Adventure, CityWalk, and several on-site hotels combine to make a complete vacation destination.

The park plays host to many special events throughout the year, including the popular Halloween Horror Nights in October and Macy*s Parade over the Christmas season
The attractions at Universal Studios Florida are split into six different areas.


Shrek 4-D (2003) is a short film/ride. Participants are lead into a dungeon-like room with two giant television screens on either side. On the screen, Lord Farquaad announces that he has kidnapped the Three Little Pigs, Gingerbread man, and Pinocchio and is holding them hostage. After a brief tutorial from the ride operator, the cinema doors are opened and people take their seats.

The short film takes place right after the first Shrek film. In it, the spirit of Lord Farquaad returns from the dead to kidnap Princess Fiona. Therefore, it is up to Shrek and Donkey to rescue her.

Although the animation is 3-D , the ride is a 4-D film, which means it is designed to make viewers feel what they are watching. For example when Donkey spits, the sneezes in front of the seats spray mist into viewers' faces. It also has moveable seats, air jets and rubber tubing, to simulate other effects such as air, "creepy crawlies" and other movements.

Jimmy Neutron's Nicktoon Blast
This ride has replaced the old Hanna Barbara ride and is a motion simulator type ride where you have to rescue Jimmy from Dastardly and Mutley.


Revenge of the Mummy
is an indoor steel roller coaster themed after the popular Mummy movies directed by Stephen Sommers. The rides opened on May 21, 2004 and was built by Premier Rides. The ride was reputed to be built at a cost of $40,000,000 USD.

The Revenge of the Mummy coasters use Linear Induction Motors (LIM), a technology used to launch riders from a complete standstill. The coaster in Florida features 3 LIM launches.

The coaster in Florida lasts 3 minutes and features a top speed of 45 mph. The track is 2200 ft long featuring no inversions and a 50 degree angle of descent. The building housing the Florida version of the coaster was previously home to one of Universal's landmark attractions, "KONGfrontation". Homages to the Kong attraction can be found in several areas within the Mummy attraction.

Guests enter the ride by browsing through a film setup for the fictional "third Mummy movie". The film's props, molds, and concept drawings are on display near the entrance to the ride. The inside queue morphs into a 1940s archeological dig, where guests board mine cars utilizing individual lap bars.

Once the mine cars move away from the loading area, guests discover Reggie, a production assistant of the set, being sacrificed to Imhotep. Imhotep tell us that "With your souls, I shall rule for all eternity". The mine cars make their way into a giant treasure room, featuring many artifacts and a King Kong statue (in homage to the attraction's original tenant). Imhotep offers riders a life of riches or "bitter treasure" before warrior mummies arise. The cars dip out from under a falling wall, and are sent into an encounter with scarab beetles, before being sent backwards, rotated, then rocketed upwards into the coaster portion.

The ride features a "fake unload" sequence, parodying the unload areas of theme park rides. The silhouette of a worker sitting in a control booth is seen, before she is disintegrated into a skeleton. The booth's window "explodes" and Imhotep is seen in 3 dimensional animatronic form. Promising that "Death is only the beginning", the mine cars drop 45 feet into a fiery pit and are sent hurtling towards the finale.

Twister... Ride it out
Twister... Ride It Out is a attraction located at Universal Studios Florida. It is based on the 1996 blockbuster film staring Helen Hunt and Bill Paxton. The attraction takes guests to a small mock-up of the Oklahoma town of Wakita. Video monitors show home movies of tornadoes shot, and signs carry information about the Fujita Scale.

As guests walk into the "Twister filming centre" Bill Paxton and Helen Hunt talk about filming the movie. As soon as they are done, guests walk into a new room which is a square model of Aunt Meg's house after the twister. When guests walk into the kitchen, televisions are stuck into the wall, supposedly by force. Bill and Helen appear on the TV and talk about what is ahead. The moment they finish, guests walk into a scene, resembling the Drive-In scene in the movie. Suddenly, sirens go off, and scenes from The Shining appear on the screen, then winds in the room get stronger. All of the sudden, a tornado drops from the sky, and a tree is split in half by lightning. Guests suddenly notice handlebars and grab on. Soon, the tornado wrecks the Screen, the food station, the car, and makes a thrilling effect with fire. As the storm dies, the stage drops, giving guests a final scare to remember the tornado's fury. There is a giftshop at the end named Aftermath


Terminator 2 3-D: Battle Across Time
T2 3-D: Battle Across Time is a mini-sequel to Terminator 2: Judgment Day and reunites director James Cameron and the main cast of that movie, including Arnold Schwarzenegger as "T-800", Linda Hamilton as "Sarah Connor", Edward Furlong as "John Connor", and Robert Patrick as the "T-1000". The show is in two parts: a pre-show where a spokesperson talks about Cyberdyne and the main feature which has performers interacting with a 3-D movie.

***Spoiler Warning***
The pre-show is hosted by Kimberley Duncan, Cyberdyne Systems' Director of Community Relations and Media Control. She welcomes the guests while extolling the virtues of Cyberdyne. The showing of a promotional film (which includes several references to the Terminator universe and a cameo by Shaquille O'Neal) is interrupted by a message by Sarah and John Connor with a different point of view. Order is restored and guests are ushered into a theater to see a demonstration of Cyberdyne's newest creation, robotic soldiers called T-70s, or as Cyberdyne affectionately calls them: Terminators.

Guests put on their "safety goggles" (actually polarized glasses needed for the 3-D film effects) and watch a demonstration of the Terminators, which is interrupted by the appearance of the T-1000 in pursuit of Sarah and John, who are on the premises in an attempt to disrupt the proceedings. A classic Terminator shows up and rides with John into the movie. The rest of the show (except the conclusion) takes place on-screen with John and the Terminator in the future, where they must destroy Skynet. The line between film and live performance is blurred thanks to the skillful use of environmental effects like smoke and lighting and the film presentation itself, which starts on one wide screen but later expands to three. Guests in the front rows have screens filling almost their entire field of view.

Universal's Horror Make-Up Show
Lucy - A Tribute
A tribute to Lucille Ball.


Men in Black: Alien Attack
A ride that allows you to shoot aliens as you travel around the track in your rotating vehicle.

Back to the Future: The Ride
Back To The Future: The Ride is a simulator ride based on the popular film trilogy of the same name. It opened May 2, 1991. Each ride vehicle has a screen built in that acts as a "live" video feed of Doc in the institute and Biff in the stolen DeLorean and of the vehicle's condition. Here, ride patrons sit in a vehicle beneath a huge IMAX Dome screen.

The ride opens with a set-up video featuring characters from the film trilogy. Somehow, due to an error made by one of Doctor Emmett Brown's (played by Christopher Lloyd) time-travel crews, Biff Tannen (played by Thomas F. Wilson) stows away and finds himself at Doc's Institute of Future Technology. There he tries to locate Doc's 'Flying DeLorean,' as well as cause plenty of mayhem for Doc and the Institute's crew.

Just as each party of Institute "volunteers" (i.e. park guests) is getting ready to take Doc's 8-passenger DeLorean on a journey across the space-time continuum, Biff complicates matters even further. He locks Doc in his lab, and steals the original DeLorean time machine, causing Doc to worry about the possible ramifications of Biff's joyride through time. Unable to escape the lab himself, Doc devises a plan and recruits the volunteers to help, using the 8-passenger DeLorean to chase Biff across time. If the 8-passenger DeLorean gets close enough to Biff, it can 'bump' him back to the present time by reaching 88mph. Using his remote control, Doc sends the DeLorean's party to follow Biff into the future, back to the ice age, and even into the heart of an active volcano that existed in the primeval Hill Valley.

The "waiting rooms" feature prop-replicas from the movies including hoverboards, notes from Edison to Doc, and much more. The actual ride features video from both Doc and Tannen who tell the passengers what is going on throughout their adventure.


Fear Factor Live!


Jaws
Jaws is a slow-moving boat ride at Universal Studios in Orlando, Florida based upon the film Jaws. It simulates a shark attack in Amity Harbour. The boats rocks back and forth and riders are splashed with water. After the shark attacks portrayed in the 1974 film Jaws, the tourism industry of Amity Island, Massachusetts had almost died out. Years later some wealthy tourists asked an old seaman named Jake Grundy to take them out to see the places where the shark attacks occurred. Grundy has made a business out of that: Captain Jake's Amity Boat Tours. Due to the popularity of Captain Jake's, the town decided to change its philosophy of denying the sharks attacks happened to embracing the shark attacks. Now, Amity is Shark City with a booming tourist economy.

Tourists entering the ride will be taking one of Captain Jake's Amity Boat Tours out to see the sights from the film Jaws. The boats are piloted by one of Captain Jake's skippers, and all are protected by an army surplus 40 mm grenade launchers. However, Jake is confident that you'll never need to use the grenade launchers because the last great white shark anyone has seen was in 1974. What could possibly go wrong?

Beetlejuice's Rock and Roll Graveyard Revue
A musical revue from Beetlejuice, Frankenstein, Dracula et al.
 
Earthquake- and the Magic of Special Effects at the Movies
A bit dated now but still quite popular this ride starts off with a tour showing how special effects are done in the movies. It is presented by Charlton Heston. Finally you ride an underground train where you encounter an Earthquake.

Woody Woodpecker's KidZone
A Day in the Park with Barney
Fievel's Playground
Universal's Animal Actors
Curious George Goes to Town
Woody Woodpecker's Nuthouse Coaster
E.T. Adventure
The current ride, at Universal Studios Florida, has guests begin by entering a sound stage. Before going into the queue, Steven Spielberg tells us that E.T.'s teacher Botanicus needs E.T. to come to his home world, "The Green Planet" because the planet is dying. Only E.T.'s magical healing touch can save the planet, so it is up to the guests to bring him home. He also tells the guests that you make your journey on bikes, and that you need a "Interplanetary Passport" to get there.

The guest gives the assistant their name and the card is programmed with it, which is used later in the ride. You now enter the movie set which begins the adventure. The interior queue is a forest setting where it is established that police are looking for E.T. The guests then board the ride, a car suspended from the track. Each individual seat is a bicycle, whose handles come down as the safety belt. The car brings the riders through more of the forest where it is revealed that they are to save E.T. and bring him home. Guests ride past police officers who begin to chase them away from the restricted area. As they are about to be caught, the bicycles begin to fly over the city and into outer space. They fly past an alien space ship where they are told by an alien of the same species as E.T. to bring him home. The ride emerges on E.T.'s home planet, a world of exotic plants, animals, and many others of E.T.'s species. The ride continues through the alien world until the end of the ride. At the end, guests pass an animatronic E.T. who thanks them all by the name they gave to the travel agents.[1]


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