Universal’s Islands of Adventure

Islands of Adventure is a roller coaster paradise, so for those of you loving rides and roller coasters then you will be blown away by this park.

Islands of Adventure is a short walk – or a quick train ride on the Hogwart Express – from Universal’s original park. Basically you get onto City Walk, turn left to Islands, or right to Universal Studios – or if you have the two park ticket you can catch a full steam train – the Hogwart Express – from one park to the other from Kings Cross Station in the Studios to Hogsmeade Station in Islands of Adventure. The train ride is an adventure in itself so well worth a trip.

Where to start! Let’s start at Port of Entry – which is as good a place as any to start. Port of Entry is a little street with some shops, and a great Starbucks, a Cinnabon and a lovely bakery, the Croissant Moon, amongst other things.

Usually we say go left when you get into any park as most people go right, but this park might be the exception to the rule – going left takes you to some of the biggest and best coasters and rides, and Marvel Super Hero Island and Toon Lagoon. So the choice is yours! We’ll go left as usual, as Seuss Landing is right and that makes Mr Oh!Orlando feel like he’s drunk, so we’ll leave that ‘til last.

So left of Port of Entry and you arrive at Marvel Super Hero Island where you are greeted by The Hulk. You can hear him roaring as you turn the corner! It’s a sight to behold when you see the massive launch tube which sends this roller coaster on its way – that’s the roar you can hear on approach. Straight out of the launch tube at 40mph in two seconds, followed immediately by a loop the loop and inverted turn. It 4G’s in the turns and reaches a top speed of 67mph. This is one of best rides in the park and Mr Oh!Orlando would advise you to keep your head back against the headrest as instructed, as it does rattle your brain about a bit and he felt like he’d been used as a piñata when he got off! Also in Super Hero Island is Dr Doom’s Fearfall, and despite watching this go up and down all day most people who get on it still aren’t expecting to get the ride they get – we won’t spoil the surprise. The Amazing Adventures of Spider-Man 3D ride is also here and still fun despite technology moving on somewhat on other newer rides in the Universal parks.

Mr Oh!Orlando’s favourite bit of this Super Hero Island is meeting the super heroes – so look out for Captain America, Spider-Man, Dr Doom, Wolverine, Storm and various X-men. Many fun photo opportunities. Super Hero themed cafes, restaurants, shops and kiosks are a-plenty. Keep your eyes and ears peeled as you’re wandering around – villains can be heard planning their dastardly deeds by windows and in alley ways and there are lots of little film Easter Eggs for real Super Hero fans to spot.

On from there to Toon Lagoon. Toon Lagoon is an homage to comic strip characters such as Popeye and Bluto, Dudley Do-Right etc. The rides in Toon Lagoon generally get you wet, Popeye & Bluto’s Bilge-Rat Barges is a white water raft ride and Dudley Do-Rights Rip Saw Falls is a log flume ride. Both of these rides get you soaking wet anyway, not to mention the people standing on the bridges who have paid 25cents to soak you further with a water blaster gun! Mr Oh!Orlando would recommend a change of t-shirt and shorts unless you want to wander around all day with wet pants! There are drying booths there but they won’t get you drier any quicker than the Florida sunshine.

There’s also Me Ship, the Olive – a multi-tiered playground for younger kids. There’s also lots of shops selling some fantastic t-shirts and souvenirs and Toon inspired cafes, fast service kiosks and you can even get a burger from Wimpy’s – I will gladly pay you Tuesday for a hamburger today! (The youngsters among you may not get this reference).

Moving on you find Skull Island: Reign of Kong. Visually this is stunning theming inside and out, from the imposing gates as you enter to the planting, which makes you feel like you really are in a tropical jungle. You are riding on a 1930’s expedition to come face to face with Kong and his adversaries. We’ll let you make your own mind up about the ride itself, which is undoubtedly very clever! Mrs Oh!Orlando still prefers the original King Kong ride in the Universal Studios park, as clunky and basic as it was – it was cutting edge once, much like ourselves!

Now onto Jurassic Park. Oh what a joy this place is – we love it here. As we write Jurassic Park is under some construction and there are rumours of a new roller coaster that is completely tip top secret but being built right behind the Discovery Center in full view! But we don’t know the details, so that’s the secret bit we guess. Camp Jurassic is here, which is a prehistoric playground and also the Pteranodon Flyers, a fab flying adventure which sadly we haven’t been on in years as you have to go on with a child! How rude! Even ruder – Mr Oh!Orlando doesn’t qualify as the child. One of our favourite rides, the Jurassic Park River Adventure is the jewel in the crown in Jurassic Park. A raft adventure where you mistakenly take a wrong turn and end up trying to escape a T-Rex – we have been known to get a little wet on this ride too! Great photo opportunity at the bottom for the spectators, the riders are too busy screaming, hiding and laughing.

Lots of great themed dinosaur eateries and shops and kiosks, and if you’re up for being completely terrified give the Raptor Encounter a go. You get to meet Blue – the last raptor on Isla Nubar from Jurassic World. We met her, we were terrified, we tried very hard to be composed but failed! Great fun watching everyone else meeting her – people react very differently and if you check out You Tube for clips of the Raptor Encounter at Universal’s Islands of Adventure you’ll see what we mean.

And so onwards we go – to The Wizarding World of Harry Potter – Hogsmeade. You’ll come face to face with Hogwarts first – and we mean a massive imposing completely realistic Hogwarts Castle! Amazing feast for the eyes – you can tell first time visitors as they approach and stop dead in their tracks and stare at sight. Inside Hogwarts is the Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey ride. It is utterly fantastic – hard to explain as it’s a moving ride, but with film work used too and the game of quidditch you get involved in is great fun. Not to be missed. Even the queue is amazing – you are greeted by Harry, Ron and Hermione who cast spells and all sorts of wonderful things happen. The pictures on the wall talk to you just like in the films and you also meet Dumbledore as well.

There is also a cute mini coaster – the Flight of the Hippogriff, and as you’d expect lots of themed shops and restaurants – including the Olivanders wand shop which always has the biggest queue outside.

You will also find the Hogsmeade station where you board or exit the Hogwarts Express between parks.

Finally, the newest and probably the thing we’re most excited to ride on our next visit is Hagrid’s Magical Creatures Motorbike Adventure. This ride is going to cause some arguments because one passenger rides the motorbike and the other sits in the sidecar so you’ll probably see loads of coin flipping in the queue to decide who sits where. We think we shall have to ride it multiple times to be fair! One of the benefits of the queue for this ride is that it will eventually be a “virtual” queue, where you scan your ticket and then come back to ride later so you are not standing in a line for hours. The wait times for this ride were ridiculous in the first couple of weeks, but have settled down a little – but it is still a couple of hours wait so a virtual queue would be great. It’s a roller coaster ride into the Forbidden Forrest to find the rarest magical creatures and it looks off the chart fantastic – like you’re riding through a real film set. Mr Oh!Orlando is positively giddy with excitement about this ride. We’ll see you next year Hagrids.

On to The Lost Continent. Mostly restaurants and cafes and kiosks here – but there is The Mystic Fountain for you to have a little chat and a joke with you, and has been known to spray guests now and again! The restaurant Mythos based here has won best theme park restaurant many many times, its a full service restaurant with contemporary food and selection.

Poseidon’s Fury is also here – it’s billed as a special effects guided tour of Poseidon’s ancient temple. It’s pretty clever but it’s definitely not on our must do list – maybe to get you out of the Florida weather (be it blazing heat or torrential rain) for a little while.

And finally, Seuss Landing. This is the land themed to the Dr Seuss books and it really is visually very vivid and bright and very definitely Dr Seuss like! There’s the High in the Sky Seuss Trolley Train ride which travels round the land above everyone, and it trundles through the Circus McGurkus Cafe Stoo-pendous, which is pretty cute. It’s a gently family ride.

One-Fish Two-Fish Red-Fish Blue-Fish is like the Dumbo Ride as Disney World and you drive fish up and down using a lever – further family fun. The Caro-Seuss-el is an old fashioned carousel ride but with the Dr Seuss characters rather than horses. Mr Oh!Orlando always goes on this as she loves a carousel – Mr Oh!Orlando holds the bags.

The Cat in the Hat ride is another firm favourite of Mrs Oh!Orlando’s – not so much for Mr Oh!Orlando – this is described by him as trippy and psychedelic! It’s colourful and fun and super spinny so it’s not a good one to ride after a belly full of ice cream or moose juice or goose juice. Lots of fabulous Dr Seuss shops, character meet and greets and a playground as well.