Orlando Florida Day 5 - Universal Island of Adventure

Day 5 and we headed back up to Universal but this time to the sister park of Universal Studios called "Island of Adventure". Now this park didn't even exist when me and Tina last visited and so was completely new to us. Clearly yesterday the thrill factor stepped up a level and Universal Studios and today it went up yet another notch. Island of Adventure is amazing.

As you enter the entrance you are greeted with an immense Hluk roller coaster which is aptly painted in bright green and is really something else. From the moment you launch off you just have no idea which way you are facing or moving as you meander up, down, and round and round. Just around the corner from Hluk is the Amazing Adventures of Spiderman which is a 4D experience ride which is easily on par with the very impressive transformers from yesterday.

Then you have the Jurassic Park world which is as immersive as Star Wars and Harry Potter worlds with a nice water ride called "Jurassic Park River Adventure". But the highlight of the Jurassic Park section is the Velocicoaster which is just one of the fastest coasters you will ever go on and really leaves you taken back and re-evaluating what just happened when it has finished. However it was sooo damned good hat we had to go again.

There are also some really entertaining water rides in IOA which helped us cool off during the mid day heat. Firstly was Ripsaw Falls which gets you pretty wet. For some reason this had a massive queue but we managed to bypass this with a free fast pass ticket we picked up the previous day by getting stuck on one of the rides (briefly). The other water ride was Popeye and Pluto's one which literally drenched us from head to toe. I've never been on a water ride that gets you so wet.

We originally started our day heading over to the Harry Potter World which is linked via the train station to Diagon Alley in Universal Studios. The intention of going there first was to ride on the Hagred's Bike coaster which we were told always had the longest queue. Unfortunately the ride was down most of the morning and then the queue's just got stupid when it re-opened. So we held off until we had done everything else in the park and then I told the kids we would just suck up the queue as we really hadn't queued much all holiday and would regret not going on this ride. To cut a long story short the 90 min queue soon turned in to 2 hours due to a failure of some sort. By the time we eventually got on the ride the kids had just lost the will to live and their legs were killing them. So as great as the ride was, the overall experience had been tarnished by the lengthy queue making it hard to enjoy the experience of the ride.

Once we left the park we had a really nice dinner in the Hard Rock Cafe which was just outside the park and then found this amazing frozen yoghurt place behind Voodoo Donuts for desert which was just amazing (better than the donuts in my opinion).

Universal Island of Adventure. Didn't even exist when me and Tina last came to Florida!

Walking through the entrance and on a mission to get to Harry Potter World.

Looks like everyone has the same idea as us.

The Harry Potter train.

The Harry Potter world and Scaled Hogwarts Castle is an amazing spectacle.

Kind of weird having a snowy environment in 35 degree heat!

Unfortunately Hagred's bikes was not working early in the day!

The Hogwarts Castle.

More of Hogwarts.

After working up a sweat racing over there, it was time to turn back and find the Jurassic World.

Entrance just like in the movie.

Across the lake you can see the shear magnitude of the Hluk coaster (later my friend).

What a coaster the Velocicoaster is, pretty high as well.

When queuing you get see see "Blue" in his muzzle.

The animatronic "Blue" Velociraptor.

The entrance to the Jurassic Park discovery theatre.

Me, Tina and H with one of the vehicles from Jurassic Park.

More of the JP Jeep.

Another one of the JP vehicles with a T-Rex lurking.

Ready to experience the Jurassic Park River Ride.

What lurks the other side of that entrance.

Animatronic dinosaurs of course. Nothing by half in Flroida.

Peek-a-boo.

Dinosaurs lurking everywhere.

A large T-Rex pops out just before you plunge to the bottom of the falls and get a soaking.

More Velociraptors.

Then it was time to tame The Hluk!

What an experience.

Hluk smash.

Just a few upside down elements in this one!

Exploring IOA to find our next thrill ride.

In to Toon Town for some water rides.

A spot of lunch today in the Comic Strip Cafe.

All fulled up and Holly practices her rope climbs.

Time to get wet and cool off (again!).

As you can see there is just a little water on the Popeye water ride!

The river rapids on the Popeye ride.

More on the Popeye ride.

One impressive water ride.

What goes up.....

The two boys having fun on the water rides.

And that smile right there is what it is all about. Moments like this make the whole trip worth while.

Anyone seen Pluto about?

Luckily the centre part had a plastic cover to keep all our belongings dry.

And of course the boat tips yet more water on you.

I think Joshua got it the worst out of us all.

More smiles.

Looking over your shoulder to see what is coming next.

To think we all started very dry and quite straight faced, this changed as you have seen.

The ride is absolutely huge.

More of Toon Town.

Rip Saw Falls and we used a free fast pass which we had picked up the day previous.

Kong Skull Island was another impressive 4D experience but it left Holly a little frightened.

It is amazing that she went on the biggest, fastest, scariest coasters and yet was cared of the queuing area for the Kong ride.

On our way to the exit Holly wanted her picture taken in loads of colourful trikes scattered around the various shops and cafe's.

And more.

And more.

After a long hard day we were all really keen for a nice meal in Hard Rock.

Holly in Hard Rock Cafe.

Picture of the family outside Hard Rock after our meal.

Sassy Holly.

We had to resist the Chocolate Emporium right next door as we wanted our frozen yoghurt desert.

Souvenir photo in Hard Rock Cafe.

And another one.

And one more for luck, at least 3 of the 5 of us were happy and smiling.