Islands of Adventure : Review Part One

Part One  |  Part Two |  Part Three

During April this year I was lucky enough to be away in sunny Orlando, Florida, and after a $4.99 breakfast buffet at Sizzlers and a walk along International Drive and Universal Boulevard, I started my two weeks of theme park visiting in the Universal CityWalk, heading in one direction, to Islands of Adventure!

Known for having some of the most revolutionary and amazing rides in the world, this theme park was at the top of my list of parks to visit throughout my stay in Orlando, and I definitely wasn’t wrong to think that.

Going past the Islands of Adventure lighthouse and through the park gates shortly after 10am, it is fair to say that even just one hour later than the parks opening time was not early enough to get round the biggest rides of the park before it gets busy, and on my list the biggest ride I wanted to go on was without a doubt the Harry Potter ride in the Wizarding World of Harry Potter.

However it seemed to be the first ride on everyones list, as the flow of excited people moved like a wave past the Seuss Landing and The Lost Continent lands and straight to the end of a queue to get into the Harry Potter land. Yes that’s right! A queue to get into a section of a theme park! Something I have never seen before, people were given cards at the end of the queue with their time slot for which they would be allowed to enter the Wizarding World of Harry Potter later that day! It was kind of overwhelming the amount of people queueing and waiting just to step foot in the village of Hogsmeade, I could barely keep my excitement for the days events hidden, but luckily for me my family who had turned up a bit earlier already got me a ticket to get into the land at 10.30, so after a short wait we got past the barriers and were able to step foot into the world of Harry Potter.

After seeing so many pictures before, during and after the land was built, it was a surreal moment to actually be standing in the same place I had been researching too much many times before. The attention to detail is really quite unbelievable, from the amazing themed shops to having Moaning Myrtle speak to you in the restrooms, it really was amazing and just being there with thousands of excited children and adults, in a world that you have seen in your head reading the books and on the screen in the films, is a feeling that can only be described as “magical”.

Excited and raring to making all this queueing and walking count, our attention was quickly drawn to the first ride of our day, Dragon Challenge. Although we were heading to the main Harry Potter ride, with A queue time of 5 minutes, we couldn’t turn down the ride previously known as Duelling Dragons. The ride had new themed queue to match it’s Hogsmeade surroundings, with Tri-Wizard tournament posters, floating candles, Ron Weasley’s flying car and Hagrids hut just to name a few recognisable memorabilia from the movies.

We walked through the queue, picked the blue dragon, and walked straight onto the ride. What makes this ride so unique is not just the fact its two inverted roller coasters racing each other, but the near misses during the ride which literally brings riders’ feet within inches of riders on the other train. The ride was a great thrill to start the day with and get our adrenaline pumping even more for the fun we were going to have today.

After exiting the ride and walking past a few long queues to get into shops (yes not only do you have to queue to get into the land, but the shops as well), we headed towards the Hogwarts castle itself, to ride Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey. I tried to keep most of the ride a secret for myself before going to Orlando, with my only knowledge of it being the fact you are seated in a robotic arm, and after riding it I am so glad that I didn’t ruin it for myself watching YouTube videos of it the ride.

I did however watch YouTube videos of the queue line (what a loser I am), but it is a pretty amazing themed queue, which was a good job as we had to stand in it for over an hour and a half! which turned out to be not only the longest queue of the day, but of the whole holiday! So after going through the Hogwarts gates, past the lockers, that are locked and opened using your finger prints (so cool), and into the Hogwarts dungeons, we walked past recognisable memorabilia such as the Mirror of Erised, before going back outside and into the Green House.

Back into the castle, riders will get to see talking paintings on the walls, Dumbledoors office, with a hologram Dumbledoor welcoming you and the Defense Against the Dark Arts classroom, with a hologram Harry, Ron and Hermione, who tell you about a Quidditch match you they’ll sneak you into before Ron casts a spell which goes wrong and causes snow to fall in the room. The last main point of interest to see after this (apart from the Dawn French talking painting of course) is the Sorting Hat, before you turn a corner and are about to board the ride.

It was a long time queueing and worry’s started sinking in that maybe it would ruin the ride for me and wouldn’t live up to my already high expectations, but how wrong was I to start thinking that! You board the “enchanted benches” of 4 per bench, which is moving along a conveyor belt, constantly moving, which gets riders on and off the ride pretty sharpish. Towards the end of the conveyor belt, you start to hear Hermione who casts a spell on your bench and you begin to levitate and the ride from then on is just a masterpiece.

I don’t want to explain the ride in too much detail after that to leave it a surprise for you like it was for me, but I will tell you that the ride mixes segments of film projected on wrap around screens and real sets with audio animatronics, which when combined together just makes an absolutely amazing 4 minutes of ride time. I was absolutely blown away, and would have loved to seen my face riding it the first time as I seemed to just be in awe for the whole ride, thinking “how is this working”, “oh my god this is so cool”, and I was even pretty terrified of some parts of the ride, which are pretty dark and spooky.

After visiting numerous theme parks on my holiday and riding many different rides, Harry Potter and The Forbidden Journey was for me the best ride of the holiday. Its unbelievable use of new technology and theming from the castle and queue line to the end of the ride is flawless. Its a fantastic experience for children and adults and  really is a magical ride which cannot be experienced anywhere other than Orlando, Florida.

However there was still a lot more rides to get done at Islands of Adventure, so I had to leave behing Hogsmeade and after that incredible start to the day, I knew that there was going to be even more thrills and wonder moments to come.

Part One  |  Part Two |  Part Three