The Riverside Press-Enterprise
What a ride for Universal this year
Santa Claus must have worked overtime for Universal Parks & Resorts in 2021. Because Universal’s fans got four of the biggest gifts in the industry this year.
First up was the pandemic-delayed Super Nintendo World at Universal Studios Japan in Osaka. An interactive Mario Kart dark ride within Bowser’s Castle anchors the video game-themed land. Ongoing travel restrictions kept international visitors from experiencing the land in person, but locals raved online about the interactive features throughout Super Nintendo World that make a visit to the land feel like stepping into a real-life video game.
Super Nintendo World and its Mario Kart ride each won Thea Awards from the Themed Entertainment Association, helping to establish the land as one of the best in the industry, alongside Disney’s Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge and Pandora — The World of Avatar and Universal’s The Wizarding World of Harry Potter. Universal Studios Hollywood will be getting its own version of Super Nintendo World sometime soon, as construction continues on the park’s lower lot.
Upstairs at Universal Studios Hollywood, the park reopened last spring with The Secret Life of Pets: Off the Leash!, an animatronic-focused dark ride that brings the Illumination animation franchise to life. The queue walk through the pets’ luxury Manhattan apartment building offers plenty of amusing photo ops, while the ride itself delivers the mix of action and humor that helped make this movie franchise a hit. Universal Orlando fans already have been expressing their jealousy online, demanding that Universal build them a copy of this attraction, which also won a Thea Award.
But fans’ biggest ovations this year have come for Universal Orlando’s Jurassic World Velocicoaster, the new Intamin roller coaster that has become an icon at the Islands of Adventure theme park. A roller coaster ride through a velociraptor paddock — what could possibly go wrong with that? Well, nothing, actually, because this coaster offers nonstop thrills and amazing visuals that have pushed it to the top of many fans’ “mustride” lists. Including mine.
The biggest gift of the year came in September, when Universal Studios Beijing opened officially. Universal’s first theme park in China features seven themed lands, including Universal’s firstever “Kung Fu Panda” land — an indoor land that features a boat ride called Journey of the Dragon Warrior.
A Hollywood Boulevard entrance plaza sets the stage for visitors, who also will find lands themed to “Transformers,” “Minions” and “Waterworld” as well as The Wizarding World of Harry Potter and “Jurassic
World.”
Jurassic World Adventure is a Transformerslike motion base dark ride that includes both media and animatronic dinosaurs, while “Untrainable” is a live stage show themed to the “How to Train Your Dragon” franchise and featuring a dragon puppet that flies over the audience.
Again, travel restrictions have limited international visitors, but the park’s lineup has many Universal fans wishing for the chance to visit someday.
In all, these new attractions helped Universal Parks become of the star of the show in the theme park industry’s comeback year.
Robert Niles covers theme parks worldwide as the editor of Themeparkinsider.com.