Island of Adventure TR 3/12/09 with Photos

[Arizonaguy]

So I visited Orlando, FL on a whim with a friend of mine and decided to hit up Island of Adventure. We arrived at the park at about 9:30 am. We had totally forgotten that it was Spring Break weekend. There was a mob of people headed out of the parking garages towards the park. Luckily a lot of them were going over to the Universal Studios side of the complex. After paying $75 a head for a one day/one park ticket, we headed on in.

First off, I have to say the theming in this park was very nice. The first thing we hit was the Incredible Hulk Coaster. The wait was about 45 minutes for this coaster and the entire queue was inside which made it nice. I'd say the coolest thing about this coaster was the lift launch. The first part of this coaster was fun, but I was a little disappointed in the 2nd half of the ride. Over all, still liked it. Would do it again.

After that we headed for Dr. Doom's FearFall for a quick ride. Nothing major. Just a Space Shot, no turbo drop. The queue was all inside as well and dark which made it a little annoying at times.

Once we were done with the space shot, we headed over to ride The Amazing Adventure's of Spider-Man 3D ride. This ride was absolutely incredible. I would say this is absolutely the best 3D ride I've ever been on. The effects were very cool and realistic.

After Spider-man, we headed off to the back of the park towards Jurrasic Park. We rode the Jurrasic Park River Adventure which was on of the taller, and longer Shoot the Chutes ride I've been on. That last drop is pretty tall and steep. Luckily, we didn't get soaked so I was happy about that and the little kid that was sitting next to me was so scared that he hid behind me on the last drop. LOL The on ride photo was hilarious.

We stopped over at The Burger Digs for some lunch after that. 2 grilled chicken sandwich baskets and one large soda = $22.50. We thought they had a great set up in regards to the ordering the food but when it came to getting the orders filled, it was absolutely time consuming. The menu consisted of a Cheeseburger combo, Grilled Chicken Combo, and a Boca Burger...that's it. They had a lot of these baskets ready but they were just having a hard time getting the orders filled in a timely manner. Oh well. We ate, it was decent and then we headed off to Dueling Dragons. On the way over to Dueling Dragons, we passed the new Harry Potter attraction that is under construction for 2010. It looks like it's going to be pretty cool.

So yeh.....Dueling Dragons. Yet another dark queue. It seemed kinda medival that it almost reminded me of the old Dungeon Drop queue at SFAW with the exception that the Dueling Dragons queue was about 20 times longer than the Dungeon Drop one. So as we're in line, they announce that the Fire side is down so we wait around for Ice. Very cool coaster. (no pun intended) Once we were done with the Ice side, we were headed out and the Fire side opened up. Fire is definitely my favorite. Out of the two coasters, it seemed to pack a little more of a punch than the Ice side. Needless to say, two great coasters unlike an other B&M inverted.

We headed over to Poseidon's Fury to see what that was about. It was kinda neat but I thought it was going to be a ride. It was just a show with Pyro and water effects. It was cool but I'm glad I didn't wait a long time to see it.

So anyways....that pretty much ends the day of rides. We walked around and took in the scenery and views of the park. We did a little shopping and headed out at around 4:00 pm.

Over all, great day. We had a really good time and are anxious to go back soon to visit the other parks.

[Stacy]

Beautiful photos, Arizonaguy! Thanks for the trip report... sounds like you had a great day, all things considered!!

[Arizonaguy]

Originally Posted by Stacy

Beautiful photos, Arizonaguy! Thanks for the trip report... sounds like you had a great day, all things considered!!

Thanks Stacy. Yeh....we had a great time. It's a very nice park and I recommend it to anyone. I also got to add the 3 coasters to my coaster count.

[natelaug]

Every time I go to Florida it just makes me glad that we don't have to pay nearly $100 just for one day at a park here in Texas

[Arizonaguy]

Originally Posted by natelaug

Every time I go to Florida it just makes me glad that we don't have to pay nearly $100 just for one day at a park here in Texas

Yeh....tell me about it. :-D I don't mind paying a lot at a park like Busch Gardens but a lot of the parks in Florida have their coasters spread out amongst different parks like Disney has a few at Magic Kingdom, Epcot, and one at Animal Kingdom. If you want to get them all in, you have to pay to get into all the parks. We could have had the 2 park pass at Universal for like $10 more but we didn't have enough time for it. In any case, I'm glad I was able to add a few coasters to my count.

[Brandon]

Looks like you had a good time!

I completely agree on the $100 thing. We went 2 or 3 years ago and ended up going to DMGM Studios & IOA. The tickets for MGM were insane, everything had a 4+ hour wait, and the test track was being redone. I don't think I've ever felt so ripped off after leaving a park. We went to IOA the next day and granted it was still expensive, it was much much much better. I also thought the same about the Hulk and liked Ice better.

[GMonkey]

when you went thru poseidons fury did they still have the water vortex on or was it off? The Vortex was the only reason I would see that show

[Arizonaguy]

Originally Posted by GMonkey

when you went thru poseidons fury did they still have the water vortex on or was it off? The Vortex was the only reason I would see that show

Humm.....where they had the water and fire fight? If yes, yes they had it on.

[GMonkey]

Originally Posted by Arizonaguy

Humm.....where they had the water and fire fight? If yes, yes they had it on.

when you walked between rooms there was a tunnel it usually has this water effect that shoots water around the wall of the tunnel, it was recently rumored they were going to do away with it part of Universal's going green initiative

[Arizonaguy]

Originally Posted by GMonkey

when you walked between rooms there was a tunnel it usually has this water effect that shoots water around the wall of the tunnel, it was recently rumored they were going to do away with it part of Universal's going green initiative

Hummm...I remember walking through that tunnel and I don't remember. If it's something major and eye opening, it must have been done away with because I don't think I noticed it.