Universal Islands of Adventure in Orlando (USA): Our favorite theme park – Road trip in Florida #6

If the travel diary to Disney parks is in vlog format (read more here), I absolutely want to show you the Universal park we visited on the blog. It is the park we preferred among the 3 theme parks in Orlando. I will explain why.

Part 1: Travel Diary
Part 2: Practical Tips

Part 1: Travel Diary

This isn’t the first time we visit a Universal park, we went to Universal Studios in Singapore (with very few tourists) and liked it very much, even if the park seemed small to us. I don’t know why we missed the one in Osaka but as we will go back there next year, it’s only a postponement.

In Florida, Universal Orlando Resort has 3 parks :

• Universal Studios
• Universal’s Islands of Adventure
• Universal’s Volcano Bay (water park)

And the shopping area, with free access is Universal CityWalk.

How we got the wrong park

We were planning to visit Universal Studios, the main park, but after leaving our car at the parking lot (26$ for the whole day), passing the security check and crossing a bridge to get to the Universal complex, we just kept going straight and ended up, without noticing it, in another park # facepalm #pastaper: Islands of Adventure. To go to Universal Studios, we would have had to turn right.

I admit that because of fatigue (2 Disney parks + 1 week of road trip in the back), I didn’t prepare the trip as well as usual, but..

My instinct always calculates better than me, and in the end it was a great choice. I don’t say this to justify the mistake, but it’s true. During this road trip, we were very lucky and sometimes it’s better to let things happen than to try to plan things I think 😀 (cf. my reflection on living in the moment)

It took us a good 10 minutes to realize our mistake when we saw that the place did not match Universal Studios ahaahahha’s map, but the ticket was already scanned and we only bought an access to a park, so there was no way to turn back.

Islands of Adventure

Hagrid’s Magical Creatures Motorbike Adventure

We follow the crowd, telling us that they know better than us where to go and we end up in a 1km long queue (I’m not exaggerating) for the Hagrid attraction. It’s a new attraction, opened just a few weeks ago, the ride is described as “unlike any other” (not like the others). But who says new says “technical problems”, despite the 300 million dollars of investment.

It is 9am (park opening time) and on the Universal application, the attraction is marked as closed. We aren’t going to spend our life here, and fortunately besides because throughout the day, we check regularly and it was reopened only at 11am and displays during all the day between 210 and 300 minutes of queue!! I think that there aren’t many “wagons”, each one contains 6 places, so it doesn’t go fast. On the other hand I saw the videos and it looks very impressive. I think that by queuing as a Single Rider, you will be able to reduce the waiting time to 2h30 (yippee)

The big advantage is that since half of the park is in front of this attraction, the others have very reasonable expectations, between 15 and 30 minutes.

Harry Potter Universe

Hogsmeade

The first thing he hits us when we set foot in the Harry Potter universe is this village with fake snow on the roofs (and stalactites). It’s huge and super well done. It’s the part to visit in the morning because in the afternoon, it’s crowded

Entering under the largest building, we even see the false owls perched high up (they work for the Post Office and distribute mail), and traces of their poop on the wood ahahhaa.

This is a fake train (just for the pictures) but there is a REAL train linking the two Universal parks (it connects Gringotts to Hogsmeade), going through the 9 3/4 platform !!! Unfortunately the train is out of service half of the day and as we don’t have tickets for the other park, we won’t be able to take this train and discover what the 9 3/4 platform looks like (sorry)

These flying brooms are robots so they move all the time. In the store, there is even the nasty book with the teeth (I don’t remember in which Harry Potter it appeared). We are spoilt for choice when it comes to the magic wand to choose/buy.

Chopsticks can be bought at Ollivander (the chopstick chooses its master like in the book) but there is too much tail, you can buy them directly at the souvenir store next door.

The park makes the purchase of magic wands almost indispensable because just across the street there are magic store windows. You just have to scan your magic wand (bought at Universal of course) in front of a point, then you make the specific gestures (with the magic formula) and several things happen:

• plants move
• a marmot fills up and waters the passers-by
• the shop windows come alive etc.

It’s too well done, and the idea is commercially ingenious.

Note: There are windows that come alive by themselves without a magic wand, look for the pen that writes by itself and the musical instruments that play themselves.

I absolutely have to taste this butter beer, which only has “beer” in its name, because it’s a kind of very pleasant sweet drink with a delicious foam. 8$ for that, JB shouts scandal. Normal, muggles can’t understand the importance of this drink.

The love potion and the potion of luck can also be bought in souvenir stores. It’s made of honey I think.

The restaurant here is huge, extremely well decorated, but still crowded.

Hogwarts (Poulard)

And here it is, the castle of Harry Potter, Hogwarts!!! <3 <3 <3 hearts hearts hearts hearts hearts hearts hearts hearts

It is really too beautiful, too big. Even JB (I say even JB because he hasn’t seen the movies or read the books) finds it too pretty and realistic. I think the same one exists at Universal in Osaka, we really have to go there.

Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey

Universal does it right and this huge castle isn’t just a decoration. It houses the “Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey” ride. Probably the best of the park (at least among those we could test). It is absolutely necessary to store the bags, hats… in short everything that can fall because there is no storage space for this ride. We have the right to free lockers only once in the park (30 minutes) and it’s the attraction that really needs it, so keep the right to lockers for that.

As we stand in line, we enter the castle, see a classroom, the corridors of Hogwarts, Dumbledore’s office and the paintings that come alive on the wall. Everything is too dark for the pictures sorry, but it’s really well done.

We are put 4 by 4 and the stress rises suddenly because I have no idea what it is all about. Why do they make us keep our stuff in lockers? We will understand later that even if there is no looping or free fall, the movements are still quite sudden, since we are going to participate in a Quidditch match, fleeing from detractors, giant spiders, a dragon, avoiding the branches of a tree etc.

There are 3D screens, and creatures (giant doll format). I can’t stop screaming and don’t understand why I’m the only one (out of the 4 people) to scream constantly. JB will explain me later that since I’m on the right, the “creatures” seem to be always in front of me, while the others only see them from the side. Seriously, being in front of the Detractors (or Dementors) (they’re huge and too realistic) scares me a lot.

At one point, I had to close my eyes because it looked like a Detractor wanted to kiss me (for those who don’t read Harry Potter, the Detractor takes the soul out of the person by kissing them, there’s nothing romantic about that).

I don’t understand how a little boy could fight these creatures. In real life, I would have screamed when I ran or blossomed. I came out of the attraction with much more admiration for Harry Potter, which I found a little nine-nine at times in the book.

Flight of the Hippogriff

Right next to it is a nice mini roller coaster that isn’t scary at all.

Puss in Boots

I haven’t done a lot of pictures with the characters, but it’s impossible to resist the charm of Puss in Boots and Kitty Softpaws. They don’t have attractions dedicated to the poor.

Jurassic Park

I love Jurassic Park River Adventure. It’s a bit old-fashioned but the ending is surprising and too much fun (even if the Americans next to me found it less good than at Universal in California).

Children will be able to fly like birds at Pteranodon Flyers (attraction reserved only for children + an accompanying adult) and another attraction is under construction in the area.

They say you can have your picture taken with a dinosaur-shaped robot and he likes to scare too much by roaring without warning (wait a little long, 30 minutes)

King Kong – Skull Island

This is my second favorite attraction in this park, and since it isn’t scary, we did it a second time. The decorations in the queue are at the top. But be careful in the queue, you are being watched… (not spoiler).

Basically, we’re sitting in a big truck and there are hyper-realistic 3D screens on both sides, and the truck is moving too. We’re really immersed in the King Kong universe and feel like everything around it is real. I like it very much!

Dudley Do-Right’s Ripsaw Falls

The decorations are too much fun (cf. the caricature of 4 American presidents of Mount Rushmore) and the very very very fun attraction with a rather high fall of the big “waterfall” – that you see on the picture (left)

Finally… when we go out we are soaked from head to toe. We were able to protect our things, putting the bag between our legs and important papers in a plastic bag. We can also dry (and dry ourselves) in giant dryers for 5$. In any case, it’s better to come with sandals because those with closed shoes have morphed well.

I really liked this attraction even if I won’t have any desire to do it again 😀

Stores & Restaurants

Just past Ripsaw Falls, there is a large area dedicated to stores and restaurants. We have lunch at Comic Strip Café, which is very little frequented. It costs less here (and we have more choices) than at Disney, $24 for two (vs. $35 at Disney).

The Minions are in the other park but we can still buy their souvenirs here.

I don’t read comics but this corner is very nice, there are conversation bubbles, you can stand underneath and pretend you’re a comic book character.

Right next door is Popeye & Bluto’s Bilge-Rat Barges attraction, but considering how people get watered for free, we’d rather not.

Marvel Universe

After lunch, I don’t feel like doing 4 loops at The Incredible Hulk Coaster. It looks violent with a twist at the exit of a tunnel + loops + water in all directions.

In the distance, we can see an equally violent attraction with a train that climbs vertically, followed by 2 loops to descend at some point, almost vertically. This is the Hollywood Rip Ride Rockit attraction at the other Universal Studios park.

We didn’t do the Fear Fall either (I don’t like the freefall feeling) but we did the Spider Man attraction (The Amazing Adventures of Spider-Man), where we are in a car and are taken from one 3D screen to another (it was very well done although not that unforgettable).

The Marvel characters are numerous, you can take pictures with them.

The rest

We are left with the universe reserved for (very small) children. It is nicely decorated but we do not know the characters of this part.

There is a Poseidon something show, quite old-fashioned and not at all up to the standard of another show we had in Singapore. So bad that it doesn’t even show up on the Universal app but only on the paper program.

After 1 hour to go around the park, and look at the details we missed, we are already too tired to wait until the sunset. A mini-show takes place every 20 minutes from the sunset in front of the castle, but to wait another 2 hours, it is above our forces, especially under this heat. We return to the hotel, without regrets.

There, I have presented all the highlights of the park. I am going to write you another more complete practical guide for those who wish to visit Universal in Florida, click here to consult it

Our next article in Florida, it’s this way

Part 2: Practical Tips

Budget

• Entrance ticket: $115/person + taxes => $122 .5/person, purchased on the official website
• Parking: 26$/vehicle. To have a place closer, you can pay 50$/vehicle. Free parking from 6pm, you can come just to enjoy the Citywalk space open for free.

This article is part of our series of Road Trip in FloridaYou can find all other travel books here:

• 3 days in the Keys (USA) : Snorkeling in Key West, Dream beaches – Road trip in Florida #1
• Wild dolphins in Naples, The Ringling, Siesta Key Beach, Dali Museum (USA) – Road trip in Florida #2
• Ginnie Spring, Rainbow Spring (USA) – Road trip in Florida #3
• The Drive In experience, the outdoor cinema in the United States – Road trip in Florida #4
• [Practical Guide] Disney parks in Orlando (USA) : Top Attractions, where to stay, Fast Pass : Road trip in Florida #5
• Universal Islands of Adventure in Orlando (USA) : Our favorite theme park – Road trip in Florida #6
• Kennedy Space Center, Hollywood Beach – Road trip in Florida #7
• Attend a rocket launch at Cape Canaveral (USA) – Road trip in Florida #8