3. Triceratops Encounter

Opened with Islands of Adventure in 1999, closed in 2003 and briefly reopened in 2010, Triceratops Encounter was the first theme park attraction to allow visitors to handle and interact with audio-animatronics. Located in Jurassic Park, where the back story is that all of the dinosaurs are completely real, Triceratops Encounter allowed park guests to witness a Triceratops undergoing its semi-annual veterinary checkup.

The vet tech performed  a variety of exams on the dinosaur, carefully explaining to the gathered crowd exactly what he or she was doing. Then the tech would invite members of the crowd to the railing to pet the Triceratops. The highly advanced audio-animatronics had sophisticated reactions to touch including blinking their eyes and even muscle twitches.

Sadly, the constant touching and interaction took a heavy toll on the audio-animatronic dinosaurs, requiring frequent maintenance. In addition, it was simply impossible to give everyone in a large group the opportunity to pet the dinosaur while moving crowds through at a reasonable rate.

2. Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey

Universal stunned the world when it obtained the exclusive theme park rights to Harry Potter, but equally impressive was its successful bid for the exclusive rights to create a track-based ride using KUKA robot arm technology. Walt Disney World has a floor-mounted KUKA attraction, the Sum of All Thrills, inside Epcot’s Innoventions, but it pales in comparison to Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey.

Designed for industrial use, primarily in the automotive and aerospace industries, KUKA robot arms have 360-degree independent motion. With 6 axes translating into 6 degrees of freedom, the programmable robot arms represent the next generation in ride vehicles. On Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey, visitors swoop, drop, spin and even lay flat on their backs as the track-based ride travels through giant set pieces, impressive audio-animatronics and massive film screens. The result is a previously unheard of level of realism.

1. Harry Potter and the Escape From Gringotts

The most recent addition to Universal Orlando’s long line of groundbreaking attractions, Harry Potter and the Escape From Gringotts is at once a track-based steel roller coaster and the next generation of such attractions as The Amazing Adventures of Spiderman and Transformers: The Ride.

The ride motion is quite a bit less intense than that of Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey, and the height requirement is accordingly lower. Nonetheless, the highly impressive combination of film screens, full-size props, roller coaster tracks and motion simulation combine to provide an eye-poppingly immersive experience.

Universal Orlando has long been known for its groundbreaking technological advances. With the global appeal of the Harry Potter franchise, and parent company Comcast committed to ongoing development, the future looks bright for the “Little Park That Could.”