After relaxing and taking in the sights and meeting different people (I personally ran into Lance from Screamscape and several higher ups at Paramount) and consuming food and drinks (completely open bar... bwa ha ha ha ha), it was time for our rides. A Universal Employee announced the entrance of an archaeologist who explained that we were the first to ride the fully completed version of the ride, which was quite exciting. Immediatly a flood of people moved to the entrance and qued up. We snaked through the very well themed line, approaching the boarding station. After climbing some stairs, a costumed employee asked us how many and we were assigned to row one. The vehicle itself is 4 x 4, and only 1 car per train, basically an over-sized wild mouse car. The ride also features duel-loading stations, so the capacity is pretty good as well. Our car arrived, we boarded, pulled down the lap bar... and we were off...

This next section contains Spoilers

The beginning of the ride is quite slow, very dark ride-ish. You travel through the tombs and just take in everything. A character from the video you see in the line is all wrapped up off to the side, and then all of a sudden, the Mummy busts out and does the whole 'thats it, now you're mine' speech thingy. The car accelerates a lil', twisting around until entering a HUGE room with a projection of a face ahead of you. The face talks about the possible riches (at this point, the room lights up and you see treasure EVERYWHERE) and then freaks out and Mummys come poppin' up with fire everywhere. This part is awesome, but the Mummys that fly up are not mechanical at all, they are more like statues, which I felt took away from the ride a little. The door ahead of you begins to close and you rush underneath it. The car stops suddently and bugs begin to infest the room... as this is happening, the car LAUNCHES backwards and down a small hill, only to come to another stop.

The Mummy begins talking again as the car rotates into position... ahead of you...a large lift hill. You slowly move forward, only to pick up more and more speed. On the actual hill, the car launches forward into the mouth of the Mummy, and at the top there is some of the best air time on any coaster ever! This next part is very comparable to Rock 'n' Roller Coaster at MGM, a dark coaster ride with different scenery lighting up as you pass it. Your vehicle is also equipped with speakers, so action music is pumpin' the whole time. Another spot of extreme air time is felt and you all of a sudden come coasting to a stop...

HUGE SPOILER AHEAD! SERIOUSLY! THIS ONE IS BIG!

A shadow of a ride op in a window to your left instructs you to stay in your seats until the ride has stopped, but in the middle of her talk, the Mummy SHATTERS through the glass and ignites the room on fire. The walls and ceiling burst into flames! This was awesome. The car rockets forward into a very sharp downward spiral. A short coaster segment ensues and the ride comes to an end with a short video. Overall, it really is a coaster, with some pretty awesome elements, but it was a bit short, and the coaster part after the 'surprise ending' was way too short and boring featuring nothing amazing at all. For the most part though, the coaster elements combined with the theming create a good ride.

Spoilers Over! You can keep readin'

Overall the ride was amazing, and we rode it several times before calling it quits. If you want the view / theme, ride in the front row. For the best air, go for the back. I anticipate that this ride will do extremely well in the park, given the amount of hype and the level of technology involved. Some quick specs, the ride goes around 40 mph, is about 4 minutes long, and was built by Premier.

After our rides, Alex, Patrick and I hit Citywalk for a while, enjoying the all access fun our Media Badges gave us. The evening was extremely enjoyable, and the three of us would like to thank Universal for such a great time! I took a bunch of photos, so browse through them, just be careful for the ones marked "Warning: Spoilers", you wouldn't want to ruin the ride, would ya? Anyways, thats it for now, I'm out!

For more (including photos in the photo gallery), please visit the ride's database entry.