IOA, a waste of money?

In the end, you should remember the Park was not built just for YOU! Parks are built to cater for all shapes, sizes, people and tastes. To cater for the diversity, they have provided a mixture of World-class attractions for all members of the family. Something, short of Disney, that most Parks could not do.

If you are so concerned about the money then I say, CAVEAT EMPTOR! Buyer beware or to paraphrase Buyer be aware! Being a member on this board, you should know what IOA was about, what rides it had and how much it was. There's really no excuse if you did your homework.

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If Lifes a Rollercoaster, I want a Flawless

You have to realize that the high price trend began with Disney and the other parks more or less follow their lead in pricing. However if you do your homework you can find a number of discounts on the gate price to any of Orlando's parks. Universal offers a lot of different deals for their parks especially if you're a resident of Florida. So when you come to Orlando ask around about where you can get a bargain price on park tickets, some are multi park tickets and the prices aren't all that bad.

Umm yall need to check the date on this. This is old.

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Lying requires 2 people.
1 to lie and 1 to listen.

You can call me Mad if you like, but I went to the Park in the Soft Openings when Crowds were Quite Low(Hulk and DD Walk Ons nearly all Day)

Anyway I had to pay a staggering $80 to get into the park, and to this day, I still think that was the best Bit of Money I had ever spent in my life, IOA Rocked and that day I went was worth every penny, Great Value I must say.

God no!

I can't believe what I'm hearing. How could IOA be a waste of money? Let's see the coasters that "they" have:

Dueling Dragons - The only dueling inverted coaster in the world. The queve line by far the best out there. The three near misses are awesome. Each side has it's highest and lows.

Hulk - One of B&M's best sitdown coaters. The 2nd half of the ride is dull compared to the first half of the ride.

Pteranadon Flyers - Haven't ridden

Flying Unicorn, The - Haven't ridden

With PF and FU, I would just go on those for the track record. Make sure you get the front for Fire and Ice on Dueling Dragons


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"Duff Man Says... Ohhhhh Yaaaaa!"
Current Favorite Coasters:
1)Raging Bull 2)Millennium Force 3)Medusa (SFMW) 4)Vertical Velocity (SFGAm) 5)Dueling Dragons (Ice)

For what it is worth...

My wife has family in the Orlando area (St.Cloud to be exact), and she likes to go down there and visit at least every other year. We were there in March of this year, so that means March 2003 will probably be our next visit.

In our last visit, we went to IOA, Sea Wrold, and BGT. Of those three parks... I would rather spend the money and go back to Sea World and BGT (even if they do not get new coasters) than go back to IOA. In my opinion, Hulk is good and Dueling Dragons is mediocre. (as for Spiderman... two times is fun, but not much of a re-ride value). At Sea World, even though they have only two thrill ride attractions, Kraken and JTA are worth the admission price alone! BGT is the same way... we spent one day there just doing the rides (coasters, water, etc) and didn't even get around to seeing many of the animal exhibits (We also missed the shows and such at Sea World as well).

Our game plan for next trip... get to BGT and of course do the coasters (at least Gwasi, Montu, and Kumba) and concentrate on the wild life exhibits. Same for Sea World... go back there and take in alot of the wildlife exhibits that we missed last time around. The other side trip will (hopefully) be to Dania Beach for the Hurricane.

As far as IOA... ONLY if they add something new (and something big) will it be enough of an enticement to get us to spend the $ and go back there again.

So, to answer the question... of the three parks that we have been too...

Sea World (yes, even with only two thrill rides) and BGT were worth the $ (enough to make us revist on our next trip). IOA, while worth the cost once, is not worth it for a revisit unles something major is added.

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"I wasn't always this cynical, but then I started kindergarden..."

IOA is the best park ever, it doesn't need a lot of coasters to be amazing, the theming is the best you will ever find and the three big coasters are my first, second, and third favorite coasters of all time. Plus, it has something for everyone, even little kids and the food is excellent. And Spiderman is the best motion simulator ride ever, it is truly amazing along with all of their shows which are really cool. It is my all time favoritte place to go, plus even their lines move steadily for rides that normally have long lines like log flumes and raft rides.

IOA is definately worth the money. SF is cheap, but it sucks. at IOA they even took my sister to the front of the line to ride the unicorn because it was her birthday. out at the other parks like SF, they hardly talk to you. SF is always dirty, hardly themed, and runs at a low capacity. IOA runs at a good capacity, is well themed, and even has a show. what normal theme park puts up a fireworks show at the end of the day? and they do this every night! IOA was worth the money and the coasters were EXCELLENT! i live in VA, and i would trade PKD for IOA ANY DAY! i dont care how many coasters PKD has, cuz i only really like 2 of them. the rest are boring after a few times. IOA is a world class park and its theming is almost as good as disneys. its clean and very efficiant.

kOrN I thought gave a very accurate appriasal of the park - I've been to many amusement/thrill parks, and to many theme parks as well. IOA has the best theming around, bar NONE - sorry Disney. What WDW did for me at the age of 5, IOA did for me at 32. Wow, that park ROCKS, even if their coaster line-up is, shall we say, a tad sparse. The rumors abound about "the sign at IOA" - I've heard B&M floorless, hyper and flying, any would be fine by me. I live in North FL, though, and the nearest woodies are BGT's Gwazi and Wild Adventures' brand-new Cheetah(which BTW has steel supports). What's up with all that beautiful Georgia pine, and why can't we get more of it to build COASTERS - there's enough houses in FL already. And our parks are more expensive than the parks up North BECAUSE they're in Florida, people are already on vacation and they'll pay whatever they have to...

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rollergator - intent on improving the "guest experience" - coming soon to a park near you

You all want to talk about a waste of money and a rip off, PGA charges $43.00 to get in! Is this park anywhere near the level of IOA or CP? Not even close(PGA should be paying people to ride the horrible Grizzly!). I'd gladly pay an extra 2 bucks to enjoy the amazing IOA, for what you get, $45.00 is not a bad deal at all.

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My Top 5:
1. Hulk (IOA)
2. X-Flight (WoA)
3. Top Gun (Paramount Canada's Wonderland)
4. Mantis (Cedar Point)
5. Batman: Knight Flight (Woa)
6. Mahantan Express (Las Vegas)
7. Magnum XL-200 (Cedar Point)
8. Dueling Dragons (IOA)
9. Superman (Woa)

This whole thread is REDICULOUS!

According to the original post, $45 is too much for 3 big coasters and one small one. Let's drop it down to $35 as a fair price.

Based on this whole POS coaster count theory, you wouldn't mind paying well over $100 to visit parks with a lot of coasters such as Cedar Point, SFMM, or PKD, right? (I'm using the original poster's extremely twisted, childish logic for this argument)