2010 Best Theme Park Attraction: Revenge of the Mummy vs. Haunted Mansion

March 29, 2010, 12:25 PM · The second round of the 2010 Best Theme Park Attraction Tournament continues with a contest from the Best Themed Ride bracket.

You can click the links or pictures below for a full description of each ride, along with comments from other Theme Park Insider readers.

3. Universal Studios Florida's Revenge of the Mummy
(Round One: Defeated Popeye & Bluto's Bilge-Rat Barges at Universal's Islands of Adventure)

Universal Studios Florida's Revenge of the Mummy

vs.

6. Disneyland's Haunted Mansion
(Round One: Defeated Universal Studios Florida's Men in Black Alien Attack)

Disneyland's Haunted Mansion


Please tell us in the comments why you voted the way you did.

Wanna know the best way to keep up with the tournament, so you never miss a vote?

Next up: From the Best Roller Coaster bracket, 1. Millennium Force vs. 8. The Beast

Replies (24)

March 29, 2010 at 1:08 PM · These two are so close that I have to use your pictures to make the choice. In the picture of Mummy are a row of lockers to store bags. When you want to ride Mummy, MiB or Rip It, Ride It, Rockit, Universal likes to extract more money from your wallet by forcing you to store your bags. Therefore, I'll go with the bags fly free choice of Haunted Mansion since they are so close.

If you ride in the busy season, you do not have enough "free" time.

March 29, 2010 at 12:45 PM · Haunted Mansion in a close vote. One of my favorie themed attractions. It is good from start to finish. My favorie Disney attraction.
March 29, 2010 at 12:46 PM · Universal gives you 3 hours to store your stuff while you ride rides. Unlike everyone else.
March 29, 2010 at 12:48 PM · I had to credit the Haunted Mansion with the slight edge for sentimental reasons.

@Wes - the lockers are free of use for a long enough time to ride and return.

March 29, 2010 at 12:51 PM · where are all the disney people at? Haunted Mansion is getting beat like a red-headed step child. I guess Disney aint got it like that anymore.

P.S wes doesnt know the lockers are free, LOL, what a NooB!!!

Mummys the WORD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

March 29, 2010 at 12:50 PM · They make you store your bags so you don't lose your stuff. Especially on the coasters, it's really hard to retrieve items that have been lost.

They let you have a locker based on the wait time of the attraction. If something were to happen and you were inside longer than the locker time, you can just talk to a locker attendant and they will usually wave the fee.

My vote went to the Mummy. I enjoy the theming and it's an all together fun ride.

March 29, 2010 at 12:52 PM · Tough contest, but all "dark ride considerations" being equal (which, IMHO, they are) I gotta go with the coaster.
March 29, 2010 at 12:53 PM · Have never been to Disneyland so cannot compare the Mummy to the Haunted Mansion at Disneyland. From seeing videos on tv.. much different set up than Haunted Mansion Disney World which is my all time favorite :)
March 29, 2010 at 12:55 PM · spoke to soon!!! Disney is woopin' now
March 29, 2010 at 1:09 PM · Revenge of the Mummy is far and away the more innovative and thrilling show.
March 29, 2010 at 1:16 PM · No contest... Haunted Mansion is just more well rounded... sure it's not a thrill ride, but I'll ride either HM a million times for every one times I ride either Mummy. HM just brings a great show for everyone.

Does the Florida version have the black light skeletons when you go in reverse? If it does, that's horrible. At least it has the false unloading area and a better ending than the Hollywood one.

March 29, 2010 at 1:24 PM · This was a no-brainer for me. I do enjoy Revenge, but, and I hope this is the last time I have to repeat this, I can't get over some of the cheesy effects.

The Imhotep animatronic is great. The fire ceiling is great. The fake ending is great. And yet, with all those amazing effects, they ruin the illusion with mummy cutouts, strobe lights, and glow paint. The stationary attacking guards are also lame. To me, those elements are as bad as a dancing Yeti.

The Haunted Mansion has its cheese, too (those screaming pop-up ghosts are irritating), but I find it much more enjoyable overall.

I agree with Wes that the lockers are a nuisance. Are they really necessary on Mummy? Rip Ride Rockit, sure, but Mummy? I also can't forgive the loading system. On separate visits, I have witnessed entire groups in the singles line being loaded into empty rows of the carts. That's unacceptable after waiting in the standby line for over an hour.

March 29, 2010 at 1:30 PM · Two tremendous attractions. Love them both. However, if someone were to tell me that a ride had to be destroyed and I could only keep one, I would irrevocably pick the Haunted Mansion. Better theming. Better story.
March 29, 2010 at 1:35 PM · The Mummy blew my mind the first time I rode it, and the second, and the third... It just never gets old. The mix of roller coaster and various effects is incredible.
March 29, 2010 at 2:09 PM · I thought that this was an easy call for Mummy, but Raul's criterion is swaying my decision toward Mansion. That's a great way of asking the question.
March 29, 2010 at 2:23 PM · The coaster element of Mummy is tame, short and aside from the initial launch, feels like a rip off of Rockin' Roller Coaster. The fire, and the one Ihmotept animatronic are cool if and when they work. And the story is weird and a strectch

The Haunted Mansion just blows my mind everytime with its effects. The pacing, the detail and the execution are flawless. PLus, the lines for HM are always shorter not because it is less popular, but because it is way more efficient ride. Universal puts efficiency second to cost and style.

This year, Mummy already looks like the bad cheesey, the bad tacky versus its wow power last year. HM will always be breathtaking, graceful and elegant.

March 29, 2010 at 2:40 PM · Haunted Mansion is a Dark ride classic!

I also very much do not like the Mummy! Expensive Dark Ride that looks cheap. Mansion uses cheap material and makes it count! I like Raoul's anylasis. I would rather keep Mansion over!

Mummy has more innovation over Haunted Mansion? They invented the omnimover for the attraction (actually adventures in inner space, but you get my point!). They couldn't even change floors on the USO Mummy because of the King Kong attraction there before. The HM has a room thats really an elevator!

March 29, 2010 at 2:36 PM · The actual roller coaster part of Mummy is lame. It's like a bad version of Rock'N Roller Coaster with neon mummy faces. As for the dark ride aspect, only the Ihmotept and the fire are cool. Everything else looks tacky, even when it works. Plus the ineffeciency of Mummy is a turn off. And the story is a stretch.

HM has great at the moment you see it in the distance. The line is creepy, not tacky, and the ride is smooth and flawless with effects that will never look old. There are too many things to see that it keeps us riding over and over. The ride moves people through quickly without losing a beat, staying elegant, graceful and a force to be reckoned with.

Mansion will always be a classic, the Mummy already has lost its steam.

March 29, 2010 at 2:36 PM · Both are great and a hard decision. I chose Mummy just barely but Haunted Mansion never gets old and has great detail and charm. RotM though mixes thrills and theme in a good way. Both are deserving, although I'm surprised at the blow out.
March 29, 2010 at 3:08 PM · Tough choice, but I had to go with the Mansion. I prefer the one at WDW, but Disneyland's Mansion is still a classic attraction that has really stood the test of time -- 40 years and counting. It provides complete immersion in the world of the supernatural.

As for Mummy, it's a must ride any time I go to Universal, and it deserved to go far in this tournament.

March 29, 2010 at 3:53 PM · The themed queue, the Imotep figure, the bug room, the AMAZING launch in the dark, the false ending with the fire pan.

Mummy's a much greater thrill than the world-weary, popping chicken old mansion.

Of course neither is as good as the Jungle Cruise.

March 29, 2010 at 4:30 PM · This loss is a tough one to swallow. Of all the attractions in Orlando, the Mummy is one of my favorites. It just proves how important social media is to an online contest. With Universal's support Mummy won the whole thing last year, without it, well, the Mummy will lose to a classic. No shame in this loss, I guess.

You Disney fans better show up to support this attraction in later rounds and not abandon ship when some other, lesser coaster comes along to spoil the fun!

March 29, 2010 at 4:40 PM · I noticed that the Haunted Mansion / Disney fan club sites I swamped to get voters out have finally taken heed and are directing traffic to this site via Facebook. While promoting the Mansion, they also asked their fans to vote for It's Tough to be a Bug and other Disney attractions.
March 29, 2010 at 4:42 PM · This is a shocker for sure, but I think that last year's contest was a bit pushed by different rules and very legal vote stuffing where we found out CP really can put its fans in a frenzy. I am afraid is a lessor of two evils last year. Now, the Haunted Mansion will be defended by me in the future.

Still, I wonder why there is the bit of blowout. I seem to have noticed that with most every contest brought up!

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