Theme parks are fun and exciting places but some attractions are so thrilling that they are literally not for the faint of heart. If you have a heart condition or are pregnant, it’s not recommended that you ride roller coasters or other attractions that include a lot of sudden stops or drops. Former Vanderpump Rules star Stassi Schroeder knows that Universal Studios Hollywood is serious about this as she was recently removed from a ride because she was pregnant. But he wasn’t riding Revenge of the Mummy, she was booted from one of the park's newest rides Secret Life of Pets: Off the Leash.
Stassi Schroeder took to Instagram and showed her honest embarrassment when she admitted that the Secret Life of Pets dark ride had to be stopped so that she could be taken off of it due to being pregnant. It’s a bit surprising considering that, as she says, it’s not exactly a major thrill ride.
To be sure, if you look at the safety guidelines documents for Universal Studios Hollywood, for Secret Life of Pets: Off the Leash, it says that expectant mothers are not allowed to ride. But honestly, as somebody who has ridden the attraction more than once, I cannot fathom why the rules are quite so strict. Secret Life of Pets is a simple dark ride on a slow-moving vehicle. It does rotate as well as move forward, but it does that just as slowly. There are no sharp turns or drops, it's about as low impact as you can get.
It would be one thing if Schroeder had been unable to ride Off the Leash while pregnant because she simply didn't fit in it, as the ride vehicles are not very big. Universal Parks have been criticized before for a lack of accessibility for larger guests, and Off the Leash has been singled out in that regard, but that’s not what is happening here.
Universal Studios Hollywood takes a much harder line on this than other theme parks. At nearby Disneyland Resort, none of the dark rides have a similar advisory. You can ride Snow White’s Enchanted Wish or Mr. Toad’s Wild Ride while pregnant. What’s more, Disneyland lists their policy as an advisory, saying that expectant mothers should not ride roller coasters or other thrill rides, but the language indicates they won’t stop you. Universal’s language states that expectant mothers are “not allowed” on the specified attractions, thus Shroeder being removed once it was realized there was a pregnant woman on the ride.
Upon review, expectant mothers don’t have a lot they can do at Universal Studios Hollywood, the only attractions that don’t have the same rule regarding pregnancy. are the Silly Swirly Fun Ride, a Dumbo style flying carousel, the Super Silly Fun Land, a playground area meant for younger kids and the Waterworld stunt show.
Nobody wants anything bad to happen to pregnant women at a theme park, which is why these rules exist and why they can be enforced with zero tolerance. At the same time, this does seem like a ride where the policy may not need to be enforced quite so harshly.
