Uber Florida Trip Part Three: Islands of Adventure 6/8-6/10

For the first time in 5 years my family made a trip down to Florida, we spent 1 day at BGT and 1 day at SWO, 2.5 days at IOA/Universal and 7 days at Disney. I will be writing 7 parts, and this is the third one and will cover Islands of Adventure.

Day 3-5 Universal Studios and Islands of Adventure We stayed at the Hard Rock Hotel for the sole purpose of getting Universal Express (the rooms and service however were amazing and could stand on their own without the parks). For those of you who don’t know guests staying at any Universal Hotel can show their hotel keys and enter the Universal Express line without having to get a voucher as much as they want. Due to this, I was able to ride about 30-40 rides a day and visit both parks each day (the third day we were only there in the morning). I highly recommend everyone do this at some point. The longest wait I had was 15 mins and most of the time I waited less then 5. Side note, sorry for the delay my life has been a little busy, all right now on with the trip report:

The Incredible Hulk-10+ rides, 0-15 min wait, Score 9 (out of 10)

This ride was struck by lightning on June 7th so it was out of commission the 8th, thus the reason I did not ride this as much as other attractions at Universal. I really want to love this ride, it has a fantastic first half but after the second vertical loop this ride may as well be over with, the ending is too slow and drawn out. The ending kills any chance of this ride going anywhere near my top ten.

The Amazing Adventures of Spiderman-20+ rides, 0 min wait (every time, folks you really need to stay on property :)), Score 10

This is the best simulator ride out there, period. I was worried this ride may have aged, but it did not. All of the effects were working, and the integration of practical and CG effects are seamless. This ride is going to be with us for a long time.

Dudley Do Right’s Ripsaw Falls-5 rides, 10 min wait, Score 8

This ride was down for renovation the first time I went to IOA so I was naturally very excited to ride this one. Yes the animatronics are cheap and cheesy, but so is the subject matter so I think the cheap look works perfectly here. Fun ride, excellent flume but Splash will always be better.

Popeye’s Bilge Rat Barges-1 ride, no wait, Score 6I really don’t understand why people think this is the best rapid ride ever, in my eyes it will only be an average one.

Jurassic Park River Adventure-3 rides, no wait, Score 9

I love dinos, I love Michael Chrichton Books, I love big boat rides, so not surprisingly I love this ride.

Dueling Dragons-4 rides, 0-10 min wait, Score Ice-8.5, Fire-9

Fun rides, I prefer bigger inverts but these are still fun, especially fire.

The Cat in the Hat-3 rides, no wait, Score 8

This ride can compete with Disney’s Fantasyland dark rides.

All right that’s it for this edition, look out next time for the one and only Magic Kingdom! *** Edited 7/5/2004 3:51:02 AM UTC by Touchdown***