The best rides at Universal Studios Hollywood

A real working backlot, narrated for an hour, and the only attraction of its kind anywhere on earth.

Upper Lot · Transportation · 60 min · Express · Scare factor 3/5

There is no argument to be had here. The Studio Tour runs an hour across an actual film production facility, past standing sets that are still shot on, with a live guide and three purpose-built set pieces layered into the route. Nothing at Universal Orlando, Disneyland or anywhere else replicates it, because nobody else has a functioning backlot to drive a tram across.

It is also the attraction most first-time visitors underrate, because a tram tour sounds like the thing you do when you have run out of rides. Treat it as the headliner and build the day around when you ride it. Missing it is the only genuine regret available at this park.

The best ride system in the park, in the best-looking building, with the worst motion sickness record.

The Wizarding World of Harry Potter · Dark ride · 4½ min · Express · Scare factor 4/5

A bench on a robotic arm that itself rides a track, moving through practical sets and enormous screens in ways nothing else moves. The Quidditch flight, the dragon and the acromantula nest are all staged at close range and the arm puts you at angles a conventional vehicle cannot reach.

The queue through Hogwarts is half the attraction and is worth walking slowly. There is also a castle walk-through option for anyone who wants the interior without the ride, which is the right answer for a lot of people.

It is second rather than first for one reason: it makes a meaningful number of riders ill, and it is the same ride you can do in Orlando. The Studio Tour is not.

Skip it if: You are prone to motion sickness. This is the worst offender in a park with several.

A gentle dinosaur boat ride that turns into an 84-foot drop in the dark, and the best big ride here.

Lower Lot · Water ride · 6 min · Express · Scare factor 4/5

The structure is what makes it work. Six minutes of slow drifting past herbivores in daylight, then the boat is diverted into the containment building, the lights drop, and the Indominus rex sequence delivers the single best moment at Universal Studios Hollywood.

It is also the only major ride here where practical scenery does the work rather than a screen, and the animatronics are the best in the park. The 84-foot drop is genuinely steep and genuinely soaking.

Ride it in the first hour, when the Lower Lot is empty and the rest of the park is queuing up top for Mario Kart.

Skip it if: You are going straight home afterward, or it is a cold evening. You will be wet, not damp.

A live stunt show with real falls, real fire and a seaplane crash — the best show at any US theme park.

Upper Lot · Show · 17 min · Express · Scare factor 2/5

Running since 1995 and still doing things no modern theme park show attempts: high falls into water, a full fire burn on a performer, jet skis at speed through gaps in the set, and a seaplane crashing into the atoll with a fireball you feel as heat from the back rows.

There is not a screen in it. Everything you watch is a person doing something difficult, live, twice an hour, and the set is destroyed and reset between performances.

It ranks this high on merit and it is skipped by more guests than anything else here, which tells you how badly a stunt show sells itself on a park map.

Skip it if: Sudden loud explosions are a problem for someone in your group — the pyrotechnics are not gentle.

The park's only real roller coaster: launched, fully dark, with fire overhead and the best false ending anywhere.

Lower Lot · Roller coaster · 2 min · Express · Scare factor 4/5

Two minutes, entirely enclosed, entirely dark. A slow themed setup with an Imhotep animatronic, then an abrupt launch into unlit banked turns, a reverse section, and a ceiling of fire that produces real heat.

The darkness is the design. With no reference points, riders who are comfortable on much bigger outdoor coasters find this genuinely disorienting, and the false ending catches almost everybody the first time.

It is the shorter of the two Revenge of the Mummy coasters — Orlando's has more show scenes and more track. Hollywood's is the tighter, more relentless version of the same idea.

Skip it if: Total darkness is a problem for you. There is nothing to look at and no warning of what is coming.

The best screen ride in the park, and the loudest five minutes on the property by a wide margin.

Lower Lot · Dark ride · 5 min · Express · Scare factor 3/5

The same ride system as Spider-Man in Orlando, used at higher volume and higher speed. The synchronization between the motion base and the projection is excellent, and the sequence where the vehicle appears to fall down the side of a building is the best illusion at this park.

It is relentless in a way that divides people. Five minutes of continuous motion, cutting and noise with essentially no pause. Riders who enjoy that come off elated and riders who do not come off needing a bench.

It sits below the Mummy because it is a screen ride in a park with too many of them, and because doing it back to back with Forbidden Journey or The Simpsons Ride ends afternoons.

Skip it if: You have already done two screen simulators today. This is the one that tips people over.

A trackless dark ride full of practical animatronics, in a park that otherwise runs on screens.

Upper Lot · Dark ride · 4 min · Express · Scare factor 2/5

This is the most consistently underestimated attraction at Universal Studios Hollywood, and it is here at seven on merit rather than as a curiosity. It is a trackless dark ride with dense practical figures, built at puppy eye level so the sets loom over you, and it is the closest thing this park has to a classic Disney dark ride.

It is also air conditioned end to end, has a 34-inch requirement — the lowest on any real ride here — and rarely posts a wait that matches its quality.

Adults skip it because the films do not appeal to them. That is a bad reason to skip a well-built ride, and it is why this one stays quiet while Mario Kart posts ninety minutes.

Technically remarkable, genuinely frustrating to play, and not worth the wait it commands.

Super Nintendo World · Dark ride · 5 min · Express · Scare factor 2/5

The engineering deserves the praise it gets. Universal built an augmented reality system that places objects accurately in a moving vehicle inside a set full of practical scenery, and the queue through Bowser's castle is the best-built queue in the park.

The game is the problem. The overlay is dim, aiming is imprecise, steering barely matters, and most riders finish with no idea how they scored. It is a demonstration rather than a game, and a demonstration is not worth ninety minutes.

Ride it once, early, and use the single rider line. Then go and do something that rewards the time.

Skip it if: Anyone in your group dislikes wearing something over their eyes. The visor is mandatory and cannot come off mid-ride.

Ten minutes, no screens, live performance and practical effects — the best small thing in the park.

The Wizarding World of Harry Potter · Show · 10 min · Standby · Scare factor 1/5

A group of about twenty-five goes into a dark room, a wandmaker picks a child, three wands fail with well-timed practical effects, and one works. That is the whole attraction and it is executed better than anything else at this scale here.

It is entirely analog in a park that leans hard on projection, it is cool and dark in the middle of a hot afternoon, and the performers do live work that adjusts to whoever they picked.

The exit is through the shop and the commercial logic is unsubtle, but nobody makes you buy anything and the experience holds either way.

A puppeteered velociraptor that behaves like an animal, and the best live performance here after WaterWorld.

Lower Lot · Character meet · Standby · Scare factor 3/5

The raptor never breaks character. It tracks movement across the queue, reacts to sound, snaps at its handlers and lunges at whoever is being photographed, and the puppeteering is good enough that adults who queued out of curiosity leave impressed.

It ranks above four actual rides because it is better made than they are. A character meeting that a meaningful number of children refuse to approach is a compliment to the people operating it.

It sits on the Lower Lot, so fold it into the single trip down rather than making a special journey for it.

Skip it if: You have a small child who will be genuinely frightened — ask the handlers to keep the raptor back if you go anyway.

Very funny writing on a 2008 dome simulator that makes more people ill than anything else here.

Springfield · Simulator · 6 min · Express · Scare factor 2/5

The script is the best thing about it. Dense gags, the real voice cast, and a premise built as an affectionate attack on theme parks that plays much better inside one than it should. Even the queue video is well written.

The ride mechanics have aged badly. A domed screen fills your peripheral vision with no fixed reference point while an abrupt motion base throws you around, which is a textbook recipe for nausea, and there is no stationary seating alternative.

It is worth doing once if simulators agree with you, in the evening when the queue drops and Springfield looks better lit.

Skip it if: Anyone in your group is at all prone to motion sickness. This is the one that ends days.

A funny film on a rough motion base, redeemed by a stationary seating option almost nobody asks for.

Upper Lot · Simulator · 5 min · Express · Scare factor 2/5

The animation is genuinely well timed and the queue through Gru's laboratory has more detail than anything else in this half of the park. It is a better-made simulator than The Simpsons Ride and a considerably shorter one.

The motion is sharper than the cartoon presentation prepares anyone for, which is exactly why the stationary seating option matters. It shows the same film without the movement and it carries no height requirement.

The dance party at the exit is rated higher than the ride by every child who goes through it, and you should budget fifteen minutes for that whether you planned to or not.

Skip it if: You have already done Transformers and Forbidden Journey today.

A physical scavenger hunt that turns Super Nintendo World from a twenty-minute walk into an hour.

Super Nintendo World · Interactive game · Standby · Scare factor 1/5

Three built puzzle mechanisms hidden around the courtyard, question blocks that respond to a punch, and a Bowser Jr. finale, all tracked through a band and the app. The challenges are physical rather than screen-based, which is rarer here than it should be.

Without a band, this land is one ride and a restaurant. With one, a child has structured work to do in an environment designed for exactly that, and the leaderboard is a stronger motivator than anything else at the park for a ten-year-old.

The value depends entirely on committing the time. Buy one band per child, stay an hour, and it earns its place. Buy four and leave in thirty minutes and it does not.

Skip it if: You are not spending at least an hour in the land. The bands are not worth the money for a walk-through.

Sixty seconds of gentle family coaster behind a queue that routinely runs forty-five minutes.

The Wizarding World of Harry Potter · Roller coaster · 1 min · Express · Scare factor 2/5

As a first roller coaster it is well judged. The whole layout is visible from the queue so a nervous child can see exactly what they are agreeing to, the 39-inch requirement is one of the lowest here, and there is never a moment of real force.

As a use of your day it is difficult to defend at anything over half an hour. Low capacity, an unshaded queue, and a ride shorter than the walk to it.

Ride it in the first hour or accept the trade knowingly. Hagrid's hut in the queue is genuinely well built and is most of what you are getting.

Skip it if: The posted wait is over 25 minutes and nobody in your group is riding their first coaster.

A middling show in an excellent seat: high capacity, fully air conditioned, and quick.

Upper Lot · Film · 15 min · Express · Scare factor 2/5

Judge this on its shape rather than its content. Several hundred seats, a fast cycle, a dark cool room, and a posted wait that is a countdown to the next showing rather than a queue you stand in.

The in-seat effects are well timed and the presentation is competent. Nobody has ever left this theater talking about the story.

In a park short of shade and short of seating, twenty minutes here in the middle of the afternoon is worth more than another ride.

Skip it if: It is your last hour in the park and you have not done the Studio Tour.

Trained animals doing film work in a covered stadium, and the softest landing in the park.

Upper Lot · Show · 20 min · Express · Scare factor 1/5

Unfashionable, low-key and genuinely restful. Dogs, birds and a rotating cast work with handlers who explain how the behaviors are actually built for camera, which fits this park better than it would fit any other.

The practical value is the covered stadium, the plentiful seating and the low volume, with no queue to speak of. For anyone traveling with a tired toddler it is the best twenty minutes available.

It is last on this list and it is not filler. Everything below it is either a walkthrough, a photo stop, or the escalators.

Skip it if: You are short on time and have not yet done the Studio Tour or WaterWorld.