Originally Posted By RoadTrip During our brief stay in Orlando following our Disney Cruise we spent two days at Universal... one day at the Studios and one day at Islands of Adventure. I came away very impressed... especially by IOA. In fact I would have to currently rate it as my favorite theme park. I'll address some minor quibbles up-front. It could be cleaner... many lagoon areas contained litter that I didn't think would be present in a Disney Park. They also closed at 7PM, which I thought was RIDICULOUS given the present popularity of the WWOHP. Epcot stays open until 9PM year round... IOA should do the same. Minor quibbles aside, it is a GREAT park. The "sense of place" established on the various "islands" equaled most anything Disney has done with the exception of the Animal Kingdom, which I still think does the best job of that. It has a great attraction line-up, especially for those looking for a few thrills. The attractions I experienced were... Incredible Hulk Coaster. Good themeing in the queue, not much on the ride itself. But it was a VERY enjoyable coaster... better than anything Disney offers. Dr. Doom's Fearfall. LAME. My only real disappointment in the park. I've ridden far better drop-rides at Cedar Fair parks. Fairly rapid ascent, very lame decent. I wouldn't bother again. Spiderman. Extremely good ride combining Dinosaur-type movements with 3-D effects. Didn't quite think it lived up to some reviews I'd read though. While extremely good it wasn't the overwhelming experience I thought it would be. Rode it twice... once to see if Ann could handle it and once with Ann after deciding she could. It was her favorite attraction in the park. Jurassic Park River Adventure. I was really looking forward to this... the themeing of the entire "island" is terrific. Unfortunately when we got to the attraction it was down because of technical problems and was not expected to reopen that day. Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey. The themeing of the entire area is unsurpassed. It exceeded anything I expected even after reading all the glowing reviews. The queue leading to the Forbidden Journey ride is the most detailed I have ever seen... once again a step above anything else out there. The ride itself... what can I say? It is everything I THOUGHT Spiderman might be... times 10! Dragon Challenge. I never saw this attraction when it was the "Dueling Dragons" pre-HP, but I thought it was an effective re-purposing of an existing attraction. The queue was interesting (and LOOOONG) but not great. There was little themeing on the ride itself. It was the first time I'd ever ridden a suspended coaster and it was a GREAT coaster experience, though not as scary as I anticipated. I think many are intimidated by it though... the wait never exceeded 5 minutes during the three times I rode it. Rode the Blue side once and the Red side twice... the Red side is DEFINITELY the wilder experience. Poseidon's Fury. This was a great Special Effects walk-through show. Although I am not usually too excited by this type of attraction, I thought it was VERY well done. Overall, the total exceeds the sum of the parts. I know that reading my reviews of individual attractions it may not seem like the great park I thought it was. But experienced in total, I just couldn't think of another park I had enjoyed quite as much.
Originally Posted By leobloom >> Dr. Doom's Fearfall. LAME. My only real disappointment in the park. I've ridden far better drop-rides at Cedar Fair parks. Fairly rapid ascent, very lame decent. I wouldn't bother again. << Agreed, although the queue is actually pretty good from what I remember. >> Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey. The themeing of the entire area is unsurpassed. It exceeded anything I expected even after reading all the glowing reviews. The queue leading to the Forbidden Journey ride is the most detailed I have ever seen... once again a step above anything else out there. The ride itself... what can I say? It is everything I THOUGHT Spiderman might be... times 10! << I actually find the queue more impressive than the ride -- although the ride is outstanding, too. >> Dragon Challenge. I never saw this attraction when it was the "Dueling Dragons" pre-HP, but I thought it was an effective re-purposing of an existing attraction. The queue was interesting (and LOOOONG) but not great. There was little themeing on the ride itself. It was the first time I'd ever ridden a suspended coaster and it was a GREAT coaster experience, though not as scary as I anticipated. I think many are intimidated by it though... the wait never exceeded 5 minutes during the three times I rode it. Rode the Blue side once and the Red side twice... the Red side is DEFINITELY the wilder experience. << I believe red is my favorite side, too. >> Poseidon's Fury. This was a great Special Effects walk-through show. Although I am not usually too excited by this type of attraction, I thought it was VERY well done. << My vote for the sleeper hit at the park. Not to say it couldn't be better, but it's such a unique attraction and the water tunnel and finale manage to be surprising.
Originally Posted By barboy2 ///The themeing of the entire area is unsurpassed./// Not so fast........go to Disney Sea and check out sections of the park like Mermaid Lagoon or American Waterfront but especially Mysterious Island. Now Wizarding Potter World is a damn fine/stellar effort----the most lavishly detailed land in Orlando, I say---- but is still a notch below Mysterious Island, possibly 2 notches. IOA really is a super duper great park and I can only think of two significant detracting issues: lack of maintenance over the years and Dudley Do Right's amazingly anemic interior show scenes(I mean when you look at its colorful/highly extravagant facade one would expect the ride would convincingly 1 up Splash Mountain).
Originally Posted By barboy2 AGREED, Poseiden's Fury is indeed underrated------from its towering detailed facade to its cave queue all the way to the rotating raised emblem on the doors leading to the water vortex and ultimately to the large showroom. Something else to note about IOA: it has the coolest 'kids play area' I have ever seen with Camp Jurassic.
Originally Posted By RoadTrip <<Not so fast........go to Disney Sea and check out sections of the park like Mermaid Lagoon or American Waterfront but especially Mysterious Island.>> I should have said unsurpassed by anything I've ever seen... I've never been to Japan.
Originally Posted By davewasbaloo Mark me down as another fan of Poseidon's Fury, it was easily in my top 3 attractions at IOA. Did you try mythos RT? It is an excellent restaurant.
Originally Posted By RoadTrip <<Mark me down as another fan of Poseidon's Fury, it was easily in my top 3 attractions at IOA. Did you try mythos RT? It is an excellent restaurant.>> I wanted to, but when I got there I discovered that it closed an hour before the park closed (grrr). Another minor quibble I have with IOA... At Epcot they will take reservations all the way up until park closing time.
