Hi, everyone. I'm just back from my first trip to Islands of Adventure, and I thought I'd post my experience.
We (myself, 25, and my friend Staci, 28) left All-Star Sports at Walt Disney World on the 7:10 am Mears shuttle to IOA ($7 one way, $12 or $14 round trip.) We knew the park didn't open until 9, but we didn't know how reliable Mears would be and didn't want to risk it with the 8:10 shuttle. We picked up one other family at another hotel and were off to IOA.
One thing I should probably mention is that both Staci and myself had all of our luggage with us. This brought the attention of just about everyone, from the Mears driver to fellow tourists to the guy working the gates at IOA. Staci was going to the airport straight from IOA, and I was checking into a different hotel before going to the airport the next day. The person I had spoken to on the phone assured me that we would be allowed to store our luggage at the lost and found. Security walked up and down the lines (which weren't that long at all) outside the gate and did a really thorough check of our luggage. Upon entering the park about 5-10 minutes before opening, we were greeted at the Lost and Found at Guest Services, where a nice lady helped us fill out a form and store our luggage--totally free! We then joined the other people waiting for the attractions to open.
Everyone rushed at 9 to Spider-Man, where we had a less than 5-minute wait. Before the park had opened, I worried about lines, and whether or not we'd get to do everything before Staci had to leave at 4 to catch a Mears shuttle to the airport. I bought a book of 5 Express passes for about $16. More on that later. After Spider-Man, we decided to walk around the perimeter of the park, stopping to do any attraction we liked, planning on a culmination at Hulk, which I felt I needed to build up to. Next up was Dudley Do-Right. I think we might have been the first riders of the day! Several cars in front of us were empty. We had a car to ourselves. What a fun ride! Not as good, thematically or visually, as Splash Mountain, but still fun and definitely a better splash. We got totally soaked. We then headed on to the almost deserted Jurassic Park, which I thought could have been a little longer but which we enjoyed nonetheless. I thought the T-Rex at the end was very cool. Lucky for us, the Bilge-Rat Barges were closed, or we'd have been even wetter!
Moving right along, we hit the Flying Unicorn (cute, packs a little punch, very short), followed by my first outside upside-down roller coaster ever, Dueling Dragons. It was a lot easier to take than I thought it would be, and the line was less than 5 minutes long. I think it took longer us to walk through the empty queue area than it did to ride the ride. After trying the ice side, we immediately jumped back in for the fire side. I wondered aloud why I had two buckles on my seat. The employee told me it was because someone had fallen out of that seat, and they wanted to make sure it was extra safe! Ugh. Not something to tell a worrier. Eventually he told me it was for people with a larger upper body. How about a bigger seat, then, for those of us with larger, um, lower bodies?
Both sides of the ride were immensely enjoyed.
At this point, it was about 10:30. We then did all three Seuss Landing rides (the Cat in the Hat was awesome, the Caro-Suessel was cute, we managed to get wet on One Fish Two Fish despite our following the rules), did some shopping, and returned to Marvel Super Hero Island for a ride on Magnetron, or Stormamajicky, whatever it's called. It seemed kind of lame even in comparison to Disney's tea cups--and the contrived plot was really unnecessary.
Finally, I was ready to ride Hulk--or as ready as I'd ever be. It turned out to be a great ride, one that I'm glad I did. Once again, there was virtually no line. After that, it was bbq chicken pizza at Cafe 4. I also had a really good blue and red Captain America Jello Sundae thing. At this point, Spider-Man, Wolverine, Storm, and some other Super Heroes arrived on little ATVs to sign autographs and fight bad guys and sell merchandise and stuff.
After lunch, we used two of our Express passes to ride Spider-Man again. We caught about 5 minutes of the Toon Lagoon Beach PArty Show, but there's just so much dancing Beetle Bailey we can take. Then we headed over to The Lost Continent for two more rides on Dueling Dragons. First, we did the front row thing, waiting less than 15 minutes for the honor of staring into the eyes of an oncoming coaster, which was really great. After our near-miss experience, we headed to the regular line of Fire, which was also great. The only problem was, towards the end of the ride, I got an intense pain in my head--like a lot of pressure was being applied. I decided I'd had enough coastering for the day and decided to take it easy from then on.
After that, we caught the Sinbad stunt show. I think everyone in the park was at that show--I'm not sure where all those people were the rest of the day! The show was, um, okay, really really lame. The plot made very little sense. I stopped following it after a few minutes and just enjoyed watching things blow up. IT was entertaining enough, and got us out of the sun and into some seats. For that luxury in a theme park, I'd watch the cast of Facts of Life changing tires.
We then tried to get back on Cat in the Hat, but, alas, it was out of order. We headed for another trip on the X-Men tea-cup weather-changer thing. Staci decided she wanted to try Dr. Doom's Fearfall, but I decided I like my head in one piece and didn't want to push it. She rode while I used an Express pass on Spider-Man again. She loved it, and wanted to go on again, so she did. There was almost no line for it. Afterwards, I convinced her that we should use the 2 remaining Express Passes for another spin on Spider-Man (I REALLY liked that ride), and by then, it was time for her to leave. Since I'd done just about everything in the park, and certainly everything I wanted to, I headed out with her at 4 and got a cab to my hotel for the evening, the Wyndham Orlando, which I got on Priceline for $32. (The cab cost $8). I was really glad I had cancelled my room at the Hard Rock Hotel, since the only reason I had reserved it was for the all-day Express Pass.
The Wyndham was a very nice place. They did charge a $4-a day resort fee, but I wasn't about to complain with the cheap price I'd gotten for the room. I swam in a very nice pool, ate ice cream at a very nice on-site ice cream shop, and slept in a very nice room. I definitely recommend this place for a Universal vacation. I understand they have free transportation to the park, too.
Well, that was my day at IOA. Sorry if the report isn't too detailed; I'm mainly writing it because I can't fall asleep.
We (myself, 25, and my friend Staci, 28) left All-Star Sports at Walt Disney World on the 7:10 am Mears shuttle to IOA ($7 one way, $12 or $14 round trip.) We knew the park didn't open until 9, but we didn't know how reliable Mears would be and didn't want to risk it with the 8:10 shuttle. We picked up one other family at another hotel and were off to IOA.
One thing I should probably mention is that both Staci and myself had all of our luggage with us. This brought the attention of just about everyone, from the Mears driver to fellow tourists to the guy working the gates at IOA. Staci was going to the airport straight from IOA, and I was checking into a different hotel before going to the airport the next day. The person I had spoken to on the phone assured me that we would be allowed to store our luggage at the lost and found. Security walked up and down the lines (which weren't that long at all) outside the gate and did a really thorough check of our luggage. Upon entering the park about 5-10 minutes before opening, we were greeted at the Lost and Found at Guest Services, where a nice lady helped us fill out a form and store our luggage--totally free! We then joined the other people waiting for the attractions to open.
Everyone rushed at 9 to Spider-Man, where we had a less than 5-minute wait. Before the park had opened, I worried about lines, and whether or not we'd get to do everything before Staci had to leave at 4 to catch a Mears shuttle to the airport. I bought a book of 5 Express passes for about $16. More on that later. After Spider-Man, we decided to walk around the perimeter of the park, stopping to do any attraction we liked, planning on a culmination at Hulk, which I felt I needed to build up to. Next up was Dudley Do-Right. I think we might have been the first riders of the day! Several cars in front of us were empty. We had a car to ourselves. What a fun ride! Not as good, thematically or visually, as Splash Mountain, but still fun and definitely a better splash. We got totally soaked. We then headed on to the almost deserted Jurassic Park, which I thought could have been a little longer but which we enjoyed nonetheless. I thought the T-Rex at the end was very cool. Lucky for us, the Bilge-Rat Barges were closed, or we'd have been even wetter!
Moving right along, we hit the Flying Unicorn (cute, packs a little punch, very short), followed by my first outside upside-down roller coaster ever, Dueling Dragons. It was a lot easier to take than I thought it would be, and the line was less than 5 minutes long. I think it took longer us to walk through the empty queue area than it did to ride the ride. After trying the ice side, we immediately jumped back in for the fire side. I wondered aloud why I had two buckles on my seat. The employee told me it was because someone had fallen out of that seat, and they wanted to make sure it was extra safe! Ugh. Not something to tell a worrier. Eventually he told me it was for people with a larger upper body. How about a bigger seat, then, for those of us with larger, um, lower bodies?
Both sides of the ride were immensely enjoyed.
At this point, it was about 10:30. We then did all three Seuss Landing rides (the Cat in the Hat was awesome, the Caro-Suessel was cute, we managed to get wet on One Fish Two Fish despite our following the rules), did some shopping, and returned to Marvel Super Hero Island for a ride on Magnetron, or Stormamajicky, whatever it's called. It seemed kind of lame even in comparison to Disney's tea cups--and the contrived plot was really unnecessary.
Finally, I was ready to ride Hulk--or as ready as I'd ever be. It turned out to be a great ride, one that I'm glad I did. Once again, there was virtually no line. After that, it was bbq chicken pizza at Cafe 4. I also had a really good blue and red Captain America Jello Sundae thing. At this point, Spider-Man, Wolverine, Storm, and some other Super Heroes arrived on little ATVs to sign autographs and fight bad guys and sell merchandise and stuff.
After lunch, we used two of our Express passes to ride Spider-Man again. We caught about 5 minutes of the Toon Lagoon Beach PArty Show, but there's just so much dancing Beetle Bailey we can take. Then we headed over to The Lost Continent for two more rides on Dueling Dragons. First, we did the front row thing, waiting less than 15 minutes for the honor of staring into the eyes of an oncoming coaster, which was really great. After our near-miss experience, we headed to the regular line of Fire, which was also great. The only problem was, towards the end of the ride, I got an intense pain in my head--like a lot of pressure was being applied. I decided I'd had enough coastering for the day and decided to take it easy from then on.
After that, we caught the Sinbad stunt show. I think everyone in the park was at that show--I'm not sure where all those people were the rest of the day! The show was, um, okay, really really lame. The plot made very little sense. I stopped following it after a few minutes and just enjoyed watching things blow up. IT was entertaining enough, and got us out of the sun and into some seats. For that luxury in a theme park, I'd watch the cast of Facts of Life changing tires.
We then tried to get back on Cat in the Hat, but, alas, it was out of order. We headed for another trip on the X-Men tea-cup weather-changer thing. Staci decided she wanted to try Dr. Doom's Fearfall, but I decided I like my head in one piece and didn't want to push it. She rode while I used an Express pass on Spider-Man again. She loved it, and wanted to go on again, so she did. There was almost no line for it. Afterwards, I convinced her that we should use the 2 remaining Express Passes for another spin on Spider-Man (I REALLY liked that ride), and by then, it was time for her to leave. Since I'd done just about everything in the park, and certainly everything I wanted to, I headed out with her at 4 and got a cab to my hotel for the evening, the Wyndham Orlando, which I got on Priceline for $32. (The cab cost $8). I was really glad I had cancelled my room at the Hard Rock Hotel, since the only reason I had reserved it was for the all-day Express Pass.
The Wyndham was a very nice place. They did charge a $4-a day resort fee, but I wasn't about to complain with the cheap price I'd gotten for the room. I swam in a very nice pool, ate ice cream at a very nice on-site ice cream shop, and slept in a very nice room. I definitely recommend this place for a Universal vacation. I understand they have free transportation to the park, too.
Well, that was my day at IOA. Sorry if the report isn't too detailed; I'm mainly writing it because I can't fall asleep.
