Did you know that the new Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey ride has some stringent ride restrictions for size? One Wizarding World park guest found out the hard way that he wouldn’t be able to ride the new ride on his first visit.
The guest, Banks Lee, turned the experience into a positive circumstance by changing his diet and lifestyle to lose the weight and get on the ride — he was successful, just this past week! However, Banks lives in Orlando and apparently has an annual pass to Universal Orlando parks. What would you do if you were at the Wizarding World of Harry Potter for your vacation and got turned away? Really, there’s not a whole lot you can do, except prepare!
Lots of rides at Universal and Disney have ride size restrictions. This is nothing new. Banks had been told prior to his first visit to the Harry Potter ride that if he could fit in the modified seats for rides at Universal, he would fit fine into Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey. Wrong! Banks always fit in the modified seats for other rides, such as the Dr. Doom Fearfall and the Hulk coaster. However, when it came to the Forbidden Journey ride, Universal cast members just couldn’t get “three clicks” — Universal requires three clicks of the safety restraints for this ride.
The ride has “test seats” as you progress through the queue line, so you can test it out before getting all the way to the front of the line. When I first rode the ride, I was about 240 pounds (I’m now 45 pound lighter!) on a 6′ tall frame. I still fit, but it was very tight, as I’ve mentioned before. This at least gives you some idea of where you may need to be, size-wise for your visit to the Harry Potter park and to ride the Forbidden Journey.
If this is a ride you just “must do” when you’re visiting Universal Orlando, be sure to get down to your “fighting weight” before traveling to Orlando or it will be a “won’t do” ride for you.
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Want to get all our tips and tricks for visiting the Wizarding World of Harry Potter? We wrote a travel guide for the Wizarding World of Harry Potter Hogsmeade! We included all our tips and tricks that we’ve learned over the last year to make your visit to the Wizarding World as magical as possible. Be sure to check it out!
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