Attraction Review: Islands of Adventure

I could literally talk to anybody forever about how incredible this place is. I’ve not even been to many theme parks, but you don’t have to, once you’ve been here you know you’ll probably never find a better one. This has been Trip Advisor’s number one Theme Park for god knows how many years in a row, so it isn’t just me who finds this place special.

So what makes up the best park in the world? Does it have to be a collection of unbelievably wild rollercoasters that go 200mph and have 18 flips in each one? No. In fact Islands of Adventure has just one rollercoaster, the rest are all themed rides or 3-D. It’s the variety of rides that makes this place, there’s something to fit every need of the theme park lover. Something for everyone if you like, and everyone will enjoy everything as much.

Every single ride or attraction that we did here wasn’t only good, but incredible. There was not one bad single feature here, everything delivered above expectations, even the lofty ones. The themes alone make this place so cool, the Marvel section, Jurassic Park section, add in other stuff like King Kong & Cartoon world it just fits together so perfectly. For the Harry Potter lovers you have Hogsmeade and the breathtaking adaption of the infamous castle.

Okay here we go quickly: Dudley Do-Right’s Ripsaw Falls is the best water ride I have ever been on, and water rides are my favourite…I don’t think I’ve ever been so wet. The Spiderman & King Kong rides are both fantastic, a real good showcase of what a 3-D ride can do. The Jurassic Park river adventure is one of those rides that it just classically fun, I think we went on it the most out of all in Orlando. Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey is awesome too and takes you around everything in Hogwarts…including the Forest (sorry Spider haters). Even the Adventures of Poseidon show is really good fun to watch and the features in it are very impressive.

Then you have what everybody comes here for. I purposely left it until last because it is just the best. The Incredible Hulk coaster may very well be one of the best rollercoasters in the world. The loops are huge, for people scared of heights..the ascent has cover round it so you can’t look down, you’re fairly happy and then BOOM. You’re off and before you can work out how far up you are, you’re already half way round. It literally is that fast. The acceleration is ridiculous…think Jeremy Clarkson’s face in the Ariel Atom on Top Gear fast. I went on it once. That was plenty. The feeling of being terrified and in awe at the same moment is a feeling not many other rides in the world can give you.

There is a reason this park is so highly rated. It just ticks all the boxes you want for a day out. The even better part of Universal is the fact you can quite easily just skip between both parks, if you do it by the Hogwarts Express it’s even better! Universal as a whole beats Disney on just about everything. There are only two things in my opinion that Disney does better. First is how effective the Disney app is to the Universal one…which is a bit rubbish to be honest. The second is Disney’s Memory Maker. Universal has its own photo pass but the main stuff you get are just the ride photos. Disney pretty much has a photographer at every single good photo spot, almost one every 100 yards. Universal does have them, but nowhere near enough. I think outside of rides we had just three photo spots. The fact those are my only criticisms says enough.

Rating – 5 Stars