E.T. Adventure
— the bicycle still leaves the ground.
Not only on a wall.
“A dark ride that has outlived almost everything around it. You sit on a bench shaped like a bicycle, give your name to a park ranger at the loading dock, and pedal Elliott home through a suspended redwood forest and out across a lit-up Green Planet. Steven Spielberg signed off on it. The studio has kept it close to the way it opened in 1990.
E.T. Adventure, on ceramic.
Each tile is finished by hand in our Knoxville studio. Artwork is slowly infused into the ceramic surface under high heat and pressure, and rests beneath a thin glossy finish. The colour lives in the surface, not on top of it.
Pick any four 4-inch tiles — National Parks you've been to, a Smokies set, the four seasons of one place. $ for a set of , cork-backed, ready to live on the table.
The place, in three passes.
E.T. Adventure opened on June 7, 1990, as one of the original attractions at Universal Studios Florida, and is now the only opening-day ride still running at the park. Steven Spielberg developed the ride with Universal Creative as a continuation of his 1982 film, sending guests on a rescue mission to E.T.'s home world, the Green Planet. The attraction sits at the western edge of the park beside DreamWorks Land, the area that replaced the former Woody Woodpecker's KidZone in summer 2024. The full ride lasts about four and a half minutes.
The ride loads from a queue themed as a moonlit pine forest, where each guest hands the attendant an Interplanetary Passport with their first name. That name is read back by E.T. in the closing scene, a touch that has held up for thirty-five years. Single-rider lines are not offered. Wheelchair guests transfer to the bench vehicle. The attraction runs on standard park hours and is included with general admission to Universal Studios Florida, currently part of the Universal Orlando Resort, alongside Islands of Adventure and the newer Epic Universe park.
Universal built three E.T. Adventures worldwide in the early 1990s. The Hollywood version closed in 2003, the Osaka version in 2009, which leaves Orlando as the last of its kind. Universal renewed the licence with Amblin Entertainment to keep the ride open through the latest park overhauls, including the 2024 opening of DreamWorks Land next door. Long-time fans treat the June 7 anniversary as a small annual pilgrimage, often arriving at park opening so they can ride it first. It has now run for over thirty-five consecutive years on the same track.