Lots of Coasters (Universal Studios Islands of Adventure (Orlando))

Member Name: frankie1984

Product:	Universal Studios Islands of Adventure (Orlando)
Date:	05/04/08 (332 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Fun and lots of rides

Disadvantages: Cost for a whole family but still worth the money

On my trip to Florida with work we had a day to spend in the Universal park ' Islands of Adventure' - it really is one of the best parks in Florida in my opinion and I'll go through what makes this park so good.
Entrance:
The park entrance is included in the pre purchase tickets you can buy in the UK before travelling to Orlando, which is the Flexi ticket. A Flexi ticket in the UK costs for an adult approximately £149 - 159 depending on who you purchase from and this will allow you entry to 6 different theme parks including this one for a full consecutive 14 days. Not bad at all really. The other parks included are the Universal studios, Busch gardens, Seaworld, Wet and wild and the new park that only opened this month, Aquatica. It will also allow you entry to some venues in Citywalk free which saves on paying for club entrance fees. If however you want to pay on the gate you can do and this will cost you in the region of £50 so really it is always best to prebook the whole lot before you go as much cheaper!
Another entrance ticket you can pay for is a VIP experience which will mean you have a guide to take you behind the scenes and get you straight onto the rides without having to queue. It is absolutely brilliant and a good way to get more time on rides so if your budget can stretch to it you'd be looking at paying in the region of $3000 - yes that's right but this is for a group up to 12 in size so if for example you had 12 friends all going and splitting the cost it's not as bad pocket wise!

Where is it?
The park is located in the Universal area where facing where city walk is which is the where the shops, bars and clubs are. The park is located next door to the Universal studios park and is withing walking distance form the Royal Pacific hotel, the Hard rock hotel and the Portofino hotel. Guests of these hotels can also take a shuttle boat around the river from their hotel rather than walking if they wish and this is free for them. The park is not far off from International Drive.
Parking at the park is at a cost of approximately $12 per day if driving to the park.
What is the park got?
The park is themed towards the movies so all the attractions are geared towards a particular film or TV series. Most of the attractions are high speed type rides such as coasters and there are plenty of water rides too. There is also a selection of rides for younger children especially in the Seuss Landing area, so even though this park is geared more towards the older visitor, the younger guests will not feel left out whilst in here. Most of the attractions are very well known names anyway and everybody will be able to spot a favourite movie or cartoon in here!
Also during the day there is plenty of photo opportunities with characters and shows too.

Attractions:
I will not go into detail about every ride or attraction as this would take too long but, will give an overview of some of the most popular ones that visitors come to experience. These are as follows:
Spiderman - This is a 3D motion ride where riders are in a carriage that moves from room to room. Each area is set up so that Spiderman can save you from the baddies! Riders where 3D glasses to experience this attraction and this is probably one of the best 3D attractions across all the parks.

Jurassic Park - A water ride through Jurassic park where riders get to see dinosaurs up close. Beware on this as you will get absolutely soaked!
Duelling dragons - This is one of the best coasters overall because of the way it has been made. Hence the name, riders climb aboard one of the two carriages that run at the same time and these run along side each other, almost as if in 'duel'. One track is blue, the other red and the main thing about this ride is that the carriages stay on time with each other so that on one of the loops that is built into it, riders will be as close as only 1 foot away from the other carriage. This is a ride where you have to try riding at the front to experience the full force of this bit!

Hulk Coaster - This is a coaster based on the film 'Hulk' and so you cannot miss this ride when you go into the park as it is the big green one located not very far from the entrance! The ride has lots of loops and turns in it and is good for those who like fast rides.
This gives you an idea what kind of rides are in the park but this is the full list of rides and attractions below not including the ones above:

Doctor Dooms fearfall
Sorm force accelatron
Dudley do right's ripsaw falls
Popeye and pluto's bilge rat barges
Pteranodon flyers
The eight voyage of Sinbad
Poseidon's fury
The cat in the hat
The high in the sky - Dr seuss train trolley ride
Me ship, the olive
Jurassic park discovery centre
Caro-seuss-el
If I ran the zoo
One fish, two fish, red fish, blue fish
Other information:
The paerk, along with it's sister park next door, Universal Studios, have events that take place every year. The two big ones that are seasonal are the 'Halloween Horror Nights' where the whole park becomes scarier! The other is Christmas season which is known as 'Grinchmas' in the land of Universal!

The park opening times vary depending on what time of year and what day it is but as a rough guide average opening times are from 9am every day until either 7pm, 8pm, 9pm or even as late as 10pm on some dates. It is best to go online to Universals website to check what time it will be open until on the day you are going to be there.
The park has a range of services which will make the trip easier for everybody and some of the services include first aid, telephones, restrooms and of the more unusual there is also a kennel to keep pets in. However, guests must return themselves to walk and feed the dog during the day as it is just kennel hire not a sitting service.

Tips:
If you are staying in one of the hotels at Universal, your room key will act as a fast pass access to the top attractions.
If you are wanting to definitely go on the major rides then do these first - make your way to one of these as soon as you enter the park as these will have the longest queues.

If you are travelling with young children and there is just two adults in the party, the rides operate a baby switch service which allows you to queue together and then as you reach the front, one of you can ride while the other waits in the room at the side with the children. Then when the adult comes off, you can switch and the other can then ride meaning you don't have to wait double the amount of time. It is a good service so make sure you take advantage of it!
Sounds daft but make sure you wear comfortable shoes! A lot of the rides will mean queueing for long periods with no where to sit and you'll be walking around all day.

Another one people forget to do is wear sun cream - the sun is pretty hot and with being outside all day you can easily get burnt - on the flip side though is that the weather can also be cold sometimes so make sure you carry a light coat or cardigan around to pop on if you need to!
Overall opinion:
This park is brilliant with lots of choice for all the family to be happy and a really good range of rides. The park is styled into different lands so each one has the rides according to that land. Because of the different lands the park has a great atmosphere as most people will have a favourite section making it fun and enjoyable. I highly recommend this park and I would say to fully appreciate all of it's attractions and shows you are probably best with at least 2 full days to explore it possibly more if you want to go on particular rides again and again!

Summary: A great park with something to suit all ages