Best Rides in Orlando

As a 16-year old who lives about five minutes from Universal Orlando, I’ve been lucky enough to take lots of roller coaster rides. My dad is a travel writer, and let’s just say he’s a wimp when it comes to riding rollercoasters. That’s probably the main reason he recruited me to write about the coasters my friends and I think are the most awesome.

Fast and Furious

My favorite is the Incredible Hulk at Islands of Adventure at Universal Studios Orlando, which is the ultimate fast-and-furious ride. The first thing you notice are the big nets under the ride—the kind the trapeze artists use in the circus—that catch flying cell phones, wallets, keys and other things that fall out of riders’ pockets when they turn upside down. There are tons of rollovers, corkscrews, dives and twists on the ride, which gets up to 67 m.p.h. I remember one ride when I lost my cell phone about two weeks after I got it, and my parents weren’t very happy. The people at Islands of Adventure checked the net, but they never found it.

 

• The Incredible Hulk is the epitome of fast and furious at Universal Studios Orlando, so cling to your accesories because they'll be flying too.

Courtesy of the Orlando/Orange County Convention & Visitors Bureau, Inc.

Two Corkscrews and a Loop on Top

If you want something not quite as scary, the Dueling Dragons at Islands of Adventure is not as fast as Hulk, but it’s still a great ride. There are two coasters, the Fire Dragon and the Ice Dragon, that are locked into some sort of duel or race against each other. Three times during the ride, riders come within 18 inches of the other dueling dragon, but it actually seems a lot closer than that. Both coasters go up to 125 feet in the air and reach speeds of 55 m.p.h. There always is something exciting happening with several inversions, a zero-g roll, a cobra roll, two corkscrews and two vertical loops.

Airborne Aerosmith

Over at Disney World, the Rock’N’ Roller at Disney-MGM Studios theme park is a really cool coaster because you get to hear some great tunes while you ride. The “theme” of the ride is that you’re visiting a recording session by the rock band Aerosmith. My dad tells me they were big in the 70s and 80s. Anyway, the coaster is designed to look like a limo that chauffeurs Aerosmith around. The start of the ride is unbelievable. The limo (coaster) goes from 0 to 60 m.p.h. in about three seconds and for a little bit more than three minutes it seems like you’re in some out-of-control, speeding limo. During the entire ride, Aerosmith’s hit “Sweet Emotion” is playing loudly in the speakers of your coaster car.