Trip Report for Islands of Adventure
6/17
Crowds/Weather: Heavy/Sunny

Park Rating
Mike: 4.75 out of 5
Mike’s Park Comments: Islands of Adventure lived up to the hype. Having read superlatives about it by enthusiasts, I was expecting to be disappointed. However, IOA really was a fantastic theme park, nearly perfect, except for a slight lack of attractions.

I’ve never thought of myself as someone that appreciated themeing except to laugh, but the IOA themeing was actually um… kinda cool.

Same for the souvenirs and some of the irreverent humor. This is the kind of shit Cla and I really like – it’s as if they made an amusement park for geeks!

IOA is, however, lacking in attractions and Universal Studios uber cheezy crap next door doesn’t help alleviate the problem, nor does the desperately needing any kind of edge Citywalk help. It’s like nightlife with booze for 12 year olds. How fucking creepy is that?

The slight lack of a full days worth of attractions makes IOA a bit short of the elusive 5 out of 5 I will hopefully one day award a park visit. But still, this was absolutely the best park yet. I’m a believer.

Clarisse: [Clas Number] out of 5
Clarisse’s Park Comments: Universal continues to make an impressive mark on me with its eyecandy. They work wonders with themeing and it needs to because there are very long delays between the rushes of adrenaline the rides give you. The lines are absurdly long because the park is packed with people, it also takes a very long time to get from one side of the park to the other.
All of their rides and queue lines are well themed. Islands of adventure has amazingly themed sections that are set apart from each other throughout their park. Seuss Island was the most majestically themed, my description of it doesn’t even come close to explaining how detailed it is.

Seuss Island was amazing! It’s colorful & bright with visual surprises everywhere. The carousel is really spectacularly themed and decorated with Seuss like animals. There is also a ‘play space’ playground maze in this section, which is interactive. You can look in a little hole where you can see your own head imposed on a Seuss creature; presto, you look like an animal exhibit in a zoo. There’s also a Seuss creature who responds to touch on his belly and verbally invites you to play tic-tac-toe on it. There are also these pedals, which when you work on them like a step machine to make a Seuss like creature appears from below.

The parks’ rides are consistently great. However, the distance between them is too long; the lines are too long and the park is too packed to be able to explore the park satisfactorily in one day. To properly appreciate it, and to be able to reride you need to get a multiday ticket.

Dueling Dragons

Mike: 5 out of 5
Comments: Suspended, dueling B&M coasters. Ice rates about a 4.75 out of 5 while fire rates a 4.9 out of 5. Put them together, theme it in a way I actually like instead of finding embarrassing and launch them simultaneously, having them play with each other like Hershey’s Lightning Racer and you’ve got an attraction I give a 5 out of 5.

Better still, this thing is a capacity monster!

Clarisse: 4.9 out of 5
Comments: The themeing on the queues on Dueling Dragons is really cool. There are skeletons everywhere, even embedded in the floor and the walls, & are eventually posed in scenes. In one of them, a skeleton apparently has his head up another skeletons ass. They also themed the suspended coaster cars look like dragons; if you sit in the front row, you sit in his mouth!

The design of the coaster allows the coaster to interplay with each other in the most cool way. From the ride you can see the coaster races by. The Fire side is coolest cause you can see this the best. But lots a few people on the ride said that they like Ice better cause its faster, I didn’t notice a difference.

Poseidon’s Fury

Clarisse: 1.8 out of 5
Comments: My GOD this attraction is cheezy! The only reason that this attraction isn’t across the way in Universal Studios is ‘cause they haven’t made a Poseidon movie. There’s a live actor, or better described as an overactor in the attraction who sucks. I also think the only time live actors are good thing in an attraction are in haunted houses. The stupid plot of the attraction doesn’t help the actors‘ performances in it.

There are some cool effects in this multi room walk through attraction. Visitors get to walk through a tunnel that has water swirling around like a horizontal waterspout. Visitors are also indulged with a movie projected onto a waterfall, which I thought was kinda cool at the time. There are also bursts of fire and shoots of water; stuff like that always adds points in my opinion. However the attraction is so bad, that even fire can’t redeem it.

Mike: 1.75 out of 5
Comments: This attraction reminded me of the Universal Studios attractions – and this is not a good thing. Worse, this attraction had nearly no redeeming qualities, save for a cool tunnel and an interesting wall trick. But that doesn’t make up for the godawful script, acting and the jaw droppingly incoherent story the audience is forced to sit through.

Incredible Hulk

Mike: 4.9 out of 5
Comments: A much more full featured coaster then your average launch coaster, Incredible Hulk is massive fun, combining forcefulness and intensity with a smooth as silk ride experience. If I have any complaint it’s that it’s a teensy bit too short. For the perfect coaster in my head, I like my intensity turned to 11 if it’s going to be short. But this thing is pretty fantastic.

Clarisse: 4.88 out of 5
Comments: The launch of the coaster is hidden from people waiting on the platform. When you’re on the ride, the launch is exceptional because it’s unexpected and it’s themed. It shoots you out fast then loops and inverts you with sudden intensity. I greyed out on it both times I rode.

Dr. Doom’s Fear Fall

Mike: 4 out of 5
Comments: A below average shot tower gets mega extra points for the fantastic themeing the 14 year old geek in me is still smiling about. The ride itself is a bit disappointing – a combo program would be a very good way to make this ride more satisfying.

Clarisse: 3.6 out of 5
Comments: The themeing on the queue line is almost better than the ride. The premise is riders enter Dr. Doom’s lair as a volunteer to produce fear so he can destroy the fantastic 4. They express this through a loop of cartoons. The cartoons combined with my overactive imagination made me feel like I was 6. The loop is really long and includes the restraint schpiel in cartoon format, and is the perfect entertainment for the equally long line.
The ride is really just a drop tower, but it’s still fun.

Amazing Adventures of Spider Man

Mike: 4.5 out of 5
Comments: Best dark ride evah! Best motion simulator evah! Best 3D attraction evah! Here is a ride that kids will worship that’s also a lot of fun for adults. 3 cheers!

Clarisse: 4.4 out of 5
Comments: Waiting in the ride queue you’ll get to see, in different parts of the preshow cartoon. Spiderman is a dark ride in a themed car that has both sides completely blocked. During the ride, riders watch a 3d movie. The car moves along the ride track and ‘drives’ through the movie. The ride is amazing as Spidey and his foes come at you and ‘interact’ with the car. There is fire and water in the ride experience which serves to draw you into the experience. The ride is a journey as they spin and ‘drop’ you. Notable detail: pay attention to the center of the manhole cover for important information!

Dudley Do Rights Ripsaw Falls

Mike: 3.75 out of 5
Comments: Holy water ride Batman! This superbly themed, super wet, and uber fun cartoon flume made me feel like I was a little kid again. Really good stuff.

Clarisse: 3.5 out of 5
Comments: This ride is colorful, and splashy! There are animatronics of Dudley, the evil villain, the helpless chick, the sheriff and the horse; just like the cartoon I forgot all about. There’s a cute part in the ride where you see the horse lead to water, but he won’t drink.

You will defiantly get wet at the end of the ride by the spitting water the boat jumps on during the major drop. I got splashed in the face with threw me into a momentary tizzy, but you might like that. There’s also a tunnel during the ride that adds to the fun.

Popeye and Bluto’s Bilge Rat Barges

Mike: 3.5 out of 5
Comments: As good as the best rapids ride out there, plus great cartoon decorations and themeing.

(Addendum: That statement is no longer true for me. The raft ride at California Adventure I now consider the best out there; but this one is still great.)

Clarisse: 3.25 out of 5
Comments: Expect to get wet! Really wet. Even people who put ponchos on for the ride still got soaked. Thankfully there is a section in the center of the raft with a tarp where riders can put stuff they’d rather keep dry. The attraction features Sweet Pea, Brutus, Olive Oyl and Popeye in their traditional roles. During a memorable moment in the ride, the raft goes through a ‘raft wash’ where bubbles get blown on you.

Jurassic Park River Adventure

Clarisse: 3.4 out of 5
Comments: Starts off as your every day Jurassic park tour by boat, they show you the dinosaurs, as you listen to a narrator talk to you about them but then…oh no…something goes wrong!! You’ll see friends from the movie being nefarious, even with surprising water attacks. There is a mouthwatering last drop!

Mike: 3.3 out of 5
Comments: There’s some OK stuff in this flume ride, and there’s some really bad stuff. Overall it’s absolutely a cut above your average flume or shoot the chutes.

Cat in the Hat

Clarisse: 3.3 out of 5
Comments: This ride is like a mouse coaster, but the cars spin 360 degrees as it whips around turns (well, the ride doesn’t quite whip, it is a kiddy ride after all). It tells the story of the cat in the hat through the ride. The animatronics and figures in the ride are brightly colored and quite impressive.
The queue was themed well also, with details that small children and ADD adults will appreciate. Water fountains on the queue line are a good example of that. There are 2 water fountains of differing heights next to each other (child and adult). It works normally when one person drinks, but if the other fountain is used; the water level in the first fountain drops half way, while the second fountain works normally. So, 2 people drinking water at the same time can play with each other!

Mike: 2.6 out of 5
Comments: The story of the cat in the hat, retold as a dark ride and thank God without Mike Myers. Well done but slightly unexceptional. Wouldn’t it be cool if someone made one of these about an Edward Gorey book?