The new Harry Potter and the Escape from Gringotts officially opened about a week ago at Universal Studios Florida. If you believe you will make it to Universal Studios Florida in your lifetime, do yourself a favor and do not expand the spoiler box below, and do not read the rest of this thread. If you're a glutton for punishment and want spoilers anyway, read on.

While we knew from the beginning that the ride would be a hybrid dark ride / roller coaster, no one was entirely sure what it would entail. Now that it's open, folks are calling it the best dark ride in the entire world.

The ride includes a tilting track similar to Vekoma's Tilt Coaster model, motion-base simulators affixed to the coaster train, spinning cars including backwards track sections, a simulated freefall drop a la Spider-Man, two-story 3D screens, a wrap-around 3D screen, and a hidden launch through a 3D screen at the ride's finale.

If you like extreme spoilers or want to know what the ride entails, I'm embedding a night-vision video below that gives a crystal clear view of the physical ride, and another video that shows you the experience. Obviously you have to imagine the ride with its motion-base and with 3D, and I can see how this is EASILY one of the best dark rides ever. Also recognize that it's height requirement is 4" less than Forbidden Journey - this is a family dark ride, not a white-knuckle coaster experience.

Nightvision:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yp4eQNVx2Wk

Technicolor:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_FxKdOJ0AMs

The first person who says "They should build this at KI" gets blocked. Hahah!

Best new ride of 2014? How about best new ride of the decade!

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I'm seriously impressed. It looks incredible. I hesitate to say that it's as technologically complex as Forbidden Journey, but to imagine basically a Spider-Man SCOOP vehicle placed on a roller coaster track.... And then with launches and tilt tracks in there too... Wow.

That simply looks amazing.

That's freaking sweet

Pretty please..Dark ride coaster @ CP or KI..

Pretty please

I think Kings Island should get one even better than Escape from Gringotts. In fact, KI should buy the rights to Harry Potter (shouldn't be too expensive), then build their own Wizarding World - surely with the revenue KI's gotten from Banshee this year will be able to afford it.

To be fair, Guardian at Wonderland really is sort of a "value" version of Gringotts, what with the coaster intro, the screens, and the trick-track finale. Unfortunately, the incessant need for interactivity distracts from any "dark ride" storytelling. Imagine if Gringotts came equipped with cannons for blasting the bad guys. Would it still be a great ride? Sure. But it's not the same kind of ride anymore. Not at all.

Three weeks until I can ride this thing. I'm so excited.

Videos have been removed from YouTube due to a copyright claim from NBCUniversal, Inc.

No ride spoilers for NBCyou!

Pure fusion of entertainment! Can't wait.

Videos have been removed from YouTube due to a copyright claim from NBCUniversal, Inc.

No ride spoilers for NBCyou!

Quite possibly because they were posted here.

Wouldn't be the first time.

Whose video was it originally?

Regardless of whose it was, NBCUniversal claims it violates their intellectual property rights. It may have included music or depictions that are the protected intellectual property of NBCUniversal, a division of Comcast.