Islands of Adventure

Today was my first day at one of the Universal parks, Islands of Adventure.

I got the boat across from the Portofino Bay as I knew I would be doing a lot of walking in the park and made my way to Starbucks for a coffee and a muffin on Citywalk before going in.

I like the fact you have charging privileges for outlets across the whole park as you don’t need to carry your wallet, cash or any other cards. After a quick breakfast I made the conscious decision to go on the water rides early. This meant that I could dry off throughout the day.

Before going on the water rides I decided to go on Spiderman. The express passes that you get with staying at a deluxe Universal hotel are invaluable as the wait time was 30 minutes and we got on in 5. This 3D ride was better than I remembered and I would definitely recommend it as the effects are amazing.

So, on to the water rides at the Islands of Adventure. Firstly Popeye and Blutos bilge rat barges. Basically a river rapids ride. Oh my goodness, I have never got so soaked on a water ride in my life. One poor guy on the raft seemed to get soaked at every opportunity. The luck of the draw. When I got off it felt like I had just had a bath fully clothed. As I was thoroughly soaked I decided to squelch my way over to Dudly Dorights Ripsaw Falls which is basically a log flume for those who have been to Alton Towers. I got thoroughly soaked again so I decided to go on the Jurassic Park River Adventure to complete the set of water rides but didn’t really get that wet on that one. This is thoroughly recommended.

I tried to dry off and go over to Seuss Land and go on Poseidon’s Fury. I thought this would be another boat ride but it was much more interactive than that. It had a mixture of filmed and live action. Well worth going on.

Finally, I decided to try and dry off in Sinbads Adventure which is basically a stunt show. The story itself was a bit weak but the stunts and special effects were amazing. I was glad that I didn’t sit in the middle section as people sitting in this section got soaked. You have been warned!

Feeling a bit hungry I decided to go in search of lunch. I tried Mythos but it had a 30 minute wait and I was told that I couldn’t use our priority seating privileges unless the wait was over 45 minutes. Not sure why this is as it would make the wait time even worse! So, I decided to go to the Hard Rock Cafe at the entrance to Islands of Adventure. This is a massive place and the place you want to go if you like your rock memorabilia. The food was excellent but I wondered what would happen to the decor of Hard Rock in 20 years or so time. Would they still keep the Rolling Stones or update it to current artists? The food here was very good even though the service was a bit patchy.

After lunch I decided to take time out and have a relax around the hotel pool. I went to the villa pool as this was a bit quieter but still had poolside service. The lounger cushions were amazing!