This is not a drill. This is what actually happened at Universal Studios Florida on Saturday.
Race Through New York Starring Jimmy Fallon lost power mid-operation on July 18. Seventy guests were on board. The Orlando Fire Department responded with harnesses, safety ropes, and ladders. At least some of those guests spent two hours inside the stopped attraction before getting out.
Nobody was hurt. But the video of firefighters rappelling into an enclosed theme park ride to extract guests is the kind of thing that sits with you, and the firsthand accounts from people who were inside make the experience sound about as unsettling as you would expect.
We have everything from the people who were there.
What It Felt Like to Be Inside
Shayden Leite was on Race Through New York Starring Jimmy Fallon when the power went out. She talked to WESH 2 News afterward and her description of the communication breakdown inside the stopped ride is worth reading in full.
The ride “jerked suddenly,” she said, which was how guests first knew something was wrong. Then came the messaging loop. “It didn’t feel like things were being communicated in a well manner, it was just the same thing over and over again, like, ‘Hey, we’re gonna get it fixed ASAP,'” she told WESH 2 News. “Eventually it was, ‘Oh, the ride may continue at any moment,’ and then it turned into, ‘OK, we’re just gonna get you guys out of there.'”
Three stages. Fix incoming. May continue any moment. We are getting you out. That is the arc of a situation that kept getting more serious while the people inside were being told it was about to resolve.
The Orlando Fire Department confirmed the numbers to WESH 2 News: 70 people on board, all upright, in an air-conditioned space. No injuries. No medical complaints.
A TikTok video posted by @stephbuffamonte captured what the evacuation actually looked like: “Orlando firefighters used harnesses, safety ropes, and ladders to help stranded riders get off the Jimmy Fallon ride at Universal Studios on Saturday. Universal said the attraction was stopped due to a power outage at the resort.”
@stephbuffamonte Orlando firefighters used harnesses, safety ropes, and ladders to help stranded riders get off the Jimmy Fallon ride at Universal Studios on Saturday. Universal said the attraction was stopped due to a power outage at the resort. #orlando #florida #universalstudios
And then there is the comment on that TikTok that puts the whole thing in human terms: “I was in the ride they gave me 250$ gift card and free express it was like 2 hours we was stuck up there.”
Two hours. Harnesses and ladders to get out. A $250 gift card and Express Pass as a thank you for your patience. We are genuinely glad everyone was okay.
Why This Required Firefighters With Ropes and Not Just a Staff Member With a Flashlight
This question is worth answering properly because the footage looks dramatic and some people might wonder if the response was proportional to the situation.
Race Through New York Starring Jimmy Fallon is an indoor simulator experience. It is not a roller coaster with track-level access. It is a motion platform system inside a large theater building themed to 30 Rockefeller Center, the home of NBC’s The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon. The ride vehicles are elevated enclosed platforms. When a power outage takes out the systems that normally bring guests to an exit position, those guests are not standing at ground level somewhere a person can walk them out through a side door.
They are up. And getting them down safely requires exactly what the Orlando Fire Department brought: harnesses, safety ropes, and ladders.
The response was not excessive. It was the correct response to the specific geometry of the problem. Knowing that changes how you watch the evacuation footage.
What Universal Said
Universal confirmed the cause was a power outage at the resort. That statement has been consistent across the outlets that covered the incident. What Universal has not said is when Race Through New York Starring Jimmy Fallon will reopen following the Saturday incident. The attraction’s status was not confirmed as of the time of this report.
The $250 gift card and complimentary Express Pass offered to at least one guest reflect what Universal decided the situation was worth. A two-hour stay inside a stopped ride followed by a harness evacuation is well outside what any reasonable person expects from a theme park visit. Universal appears to have calibrated its response accordingly, at least in some cases.
What This Means if Universal Is on Your Orlando Itinerary
Orlando theme park trips often include both Universal Studios Florida and Walt Disney World. They are close to each other, they serve similar vacation demographics, and many families build their Central Florida trip around seeing both.
Saturday’s incident is a reminder that unexpected closures happen at any park on any day. Race Through New York Starring Jimmy Fallon may still be offline when you visit. Any major attraction at any park can go down for reasons that have nothing to do with anything you did or could have planned for.
The practical response is the same one that works at any theme park: do not build an entire day around a single attraction you have not confirmed is operational. Check the Universal app before you leave your hotel. Have a backup for the afternoon. Know where the other attractions are in case your first choice is closed.
This is not pessimism. It is the version of theme park visiting that survives contact with reality.
Were you at Universal Studios Florida on Saturday and saw the evacuation or heard about it from someone nearby? Tell us in the comments what the scene was like from the ground. And if you have a Universal trip coming up and you are trying to figure out whether the Jimmy Fallon ride will be back up by then, ask below. We will tell you what we know.
