What an Adventure! (Universal Studios Islands of Adventure (Orlando))

Member Name: tartlette

Product:	Universal Studios Islands of Adventure (Orlando)
Date:	05/11/08 (151 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Great rides, so much fun!

Disadvantages: Prices

This is my last of my reviews of American theme parks, and I've saved the best park for last. Islands of Adventure (IoA) is part of the Universal Studios group and was built around 12 years ago (they were just building it the last time I had been to Universal). I was in Orlando with 3 friends so we were keen on theme parks with more exciting rides to offer and IoA did not disappoint.

GETTING THERE:

IoA is part of the same park complex that holds Universal Studios. As with most Orlando attractions it is fairly well signposted. You just need to get onto the I4, the main road through Orlando, and it is signposted off this. There is a ridiculous amount of parking available. Make sure you remember which character and which number you are parked in otherwise you'll be searching for that rental car for hours! Each section is named after a Universal character such as Spiderman, the Cat in the Hat and ET. The car park gets stupidly busy on the way out so try to avoid leaving at the same time as everyone else (we queued for 45 minutes just to get out of the car park!).

PRICES:

You can buy lots of different combinations of tickets for the park. We got a day pass which covered Universal and IoA. These cost us about $80 each. These tickets don't seem to be available on the Universal website itself but they are on various discount sites on the net. We needed a ticket like this as we only had a limited time and wanted to see both parks. However, I wouldn't get this ticket unless you can also get the Express Plus passes. These give you queue jump rights to each ride in each park once. These passes cost between $25 and $50 depending on which day you go on. We had to pay $50 for ours but without them there was no way we would have done both parks in one day. The queues can be over an hour on a busy day so we would have only done a few rides, while getting very frustrated!

There are numerous different combinations of tickets which include IoA, far too many to list them all here. Just remember to look around the net before you go as there are bargains to be had (you can always check the reputability of the site on a review site). Also remember that more days in a park will cost less overall so plan ahead for your trip so that you can get cheaper deals. If you are planning to visit other parks linked with Universal you can get tickets which cover all the parks (flex tickets) and these can save a lot of money. The parks linked with IoA and Universal in these include Sea World and Busch Gardens in Tampa.

OPENING TIMES:

The park is open every day (yes, including Christmas!!) of the year. The opening times vary, with longer hours in the summer and at the weekends. It is a good idea to check the website for details about the opening hours for the days you want to go.

THE EXPERIENCE:

Once we had scanned our tickets and collected our maps, we were off. IoA is made up of different 'islands', each of which is based on a different theme. We headed to Marvel Super Hero Island first.

The first ride we went on was the Incredible Hulk Coaster. This ride is easy to spot from anywhere in the park - it's the huge green one! The ride goes very fast, nearly 70 mph and goes from 0 to 40 in 2 seconds. The ride is a must for anyone who likes roller coasters. It also goes upside down 7 times. We all absolutely loved it! It is not for the feint hearted however, it did leave us feeling a little wobbly and with more than a little adrenalin running though us!

The next ride we headed for was The Amazing Adventures of Spiderman. This is a ride that involves wearing those lovely 3D glasses that make you looks attractive! It is worth it though. At first I wasn't sure what to expect from this ride, I thought the car might just pivot on its axis with a movie played in front of you, but the car moves through the ride. You are with Spiderman on an adventure, moving through a city. I really feels like you are part of it and are falling etc. The special effects on the ride are amazing and the 3D feel is very real. There are added effects, like heat when things are supposed to have exploded and water gets sprayed at you. This is a great ride for everyone, and one of the adventurous rides that slightly younger children can go on.

The other main ride in Super Hero Island is Doctor Doom's Fear Fall. I didn't go on this one as I'm not brilliant with heights, but two of my friends did and they loved it. For this one you are sitting on the outside of a tower. The ride pulls you to the top and then without warning you get dropped down the tower. You bounce back up the tower again. Any loose shoes have to be removed for this one (otherwise there would be people being knocked out by size 9s all over the place!). Again not a ride for the feint hearted with the height, although the view must be amazing from up there (not that my eyes would have been open even if I had gone up!).

The only other ride in this area was the Storm Force Acceletron. This is supposed to be one of the tamer rides but to me it looked a little like the spinning tea cups in Disney (i.e. looked like they would make you feel more queasy than all the rides that go upside down put together!).

The next 'island' we headed for was Toon Lagoon. This area has two themes, cartoons and getting very wet! We went on Dudley Do Right's Ripsaw Falls first. This is a character that I wasn't really familiar with so the story of the ride meant little to me. The ride is basically a log flume. You will get wet - so go early so you can dry off or make sure you have a change of clothes! I really like these rides, although I wouldn't be so keen if the Florida sun wasn't there to get me dry afterwards!

The other ride here was Popeye & Bluto's Bilge-Rat Barges. We thought we were wet from the log flume, but we didn't know what wet was until this ride. This ride is basically a trip on river rapids in a big circular boat. There is water from the rapids, from waterfalls and from people on the side who can squirt you on the way round! You will get absolutely drenched on this ride, but we laughed all the way round, it is huge fun! For the little ones there is Me Ship, The Olive, where they can explore Popeye's ship.

Our third island was Jurassic Park. The only ride we went on here was the Jurassic Park River Adventure. Again, this ride will get you slightly wet. The idea of this is that you are on a river cruise as a tourist to Jurassic Park, when you are taken the wrong way and the fences don't hold the dinosaurs any more. If you like the films you'll like this ride. We all enjoyed it although again, be prepared for the water!

Also in this area you can explore about dinosaurs. For children there is the Pteranodon Flyers, a small coaster where you fly over the area. There is also Camp Jurassic which is like an adventure playground.

Next onto The Lost Continent. Again we only went on one ride here: the Duelling Dragons. This is a double ride, where you can chose which coaster out of 'fire' and 'ice' you want to ride. The two sides of the ride set off at the same time and throughout the ride you feel like you are coming close to the other coaster. You supposedly come within 18 inches of each other on the ride which is a little scary! Another great coaster which we all really enjoyed. It doesn't go as fast as some but the thrill of riding so close to the other ride is great!

Also here is the Eighth Voyage of Sinbad which is a live stunt show and Poseidon's Adventure where you go through a temple, again with live effects. We didn't have time for either of these but they would be good if you have children as they have no height restrictions.

The last part of the park is the Seuss Landing. We didn't go on any of the rides here as they are really for younger children. The rides here are based on characters from Dr Seuss. Not really for us but great if you have little ones.

FOOD:

There are lots of choices for food in IoA. I can highly recommend the frozen lemonades that you can buy from various stalls from around the park. We ate in a restaurant in the Jurassic Park section of the park, the Thunder Falls Terrace. This was a restaurant that served ribs and chicken with salads. The food in the park seems to be generally fast food in nature. The food we had was quite tasty and filled a hole. The prices weren't extortionate. Each area of the park has restaurant and also stands where you can buy drinks and snacks.

SHOPPING:

Each area of the park has at least two shops. There are shops linked to the rides in the park. There are also general shops which sell Universal Studios souvenirs. There is a Christmas shop and a sweet shop near to the entrance. The prices in the shops are about average for a theme park in America, but cheaper than theme parks over here.

CONCLUSION:

If you are in Orlando doing the theme park thing then IoA needs to be near the top of your list. It is definitely one of my favourites and the rides are excellent. The adrenalin will be pumping after these rides. There is also plenty if you have little ones. The prices are expensive but theme parks always are and there are ways to make it cheaper. I'll definitely be going again next time I'm in Orlando and they'll building a Harry Potter adventure to be open by 2010 so there's another excuse for a visit!

Summary: Recommended