Sharon's Trip Report Day #4 About This Page:

[sltrawick-Former PassP. Member #175]

Monday – June 18th – Day #4:

Well, today is our day to go to Island of Adventure. I’m not sure if I’m going to like this park because I’m not a big roller coaster fan. Well, we get there (and let me tell you, it’s a bit of a walk from the parking garage to the City Walk…they do have people movers, but people just stand there and don’t move on them, so why do they call them people movers…lol!!!).
Well, the first thing Cameron and Chris go on is the Incred. Hulk….wow, what a roller coaster. They loved it. Be prepared though, because you start up an incline and before you get to the top, they shoot you out like a rocket. Cameron said he wasn’t prepared for that one. But he loved it.

Then we went on Spiderman….awesome. Let me just say this, if the line is outside the door…don’t wait because you have a long winding road (so to speak) once inside. It’s a 3-D ride and spider man actually jumps on the hood of the car & and it’s like he is there. Too cool!

Next we headed over to the Dudley Do Right log flume….wow, that was an intense ride…I mean intense. It’s steeper and much, much faster than Splash Mountain. (I had decided after doing this ride, Splash Mountain would be a breeze for me since I had never gone on SP before). After I got off that ride, I said “never again…never again”. But you have to do it at least once.

The next ride was the family water raft ride……YOU WILL GET SOAKED! The one tip that I can give you for this one is if you have anything on you (physically on your body….it will get wet). I had my Universal tickets in a plastic pouch….that is how wet you will get. No matter were you seat….you will go under a waterfall, have water poured on you or squirted on you. That is the first time I even went on a ride like that, that we were totally wet…there wasn’t a dry piece of clothes on my body or on anyone’s body for that matter. (Now I know why I saw a lot of people in the park wearing bathing suits)…YOU WILL GET WET! They make it on this ride so everyone…not just one person gets wet. Water rushes in and the rapids are big and come into your boat and on your seat. Kali Rapids (at AK) is a baby ride compared to this one.

Well, we had most of the park done again by the time it was lunchtime. We ate at the resurtant inside the Jurassic Park Discover area. Upstairs is the food part and down stairs is an interactive area for the kids. They loved it. The food was actually pretty good too.

Make sure that you see the Aladdin Show…well worth the wait. Very entertaining. Also…..make sure you go up and say Hello to the water fountain in front of the Aladdin show….it talks to you (there is a camera and a guy who will actually talk to you….it’s soooooo funny & he does other stuff too, but don’t want to give it away! )

We were done with the park at around 2:30 and we decided to leave and go back to the camper and go swimming.

Around 6:30 we decided to go back to IOA because I had my All access card to use at Hard Rock Café, plus I was meeting Cheryl (from our boards) there too. We were a bit late in getting there, but Cheryl and her son were out there waiting for me. It was soooo great to meet her. I wish I could have talked to her more….but the waitress would not seat us until all the party was there and wouldn’t take anyone else behind us….so I didn’t get to talk to her much. I wanted a picture with her…but didn’t get a chance too.

Hard Rock was good. Kayla had the kid’s chicken fingers and they were in the shape of guitars…cute! I gave my all access card to our server and told him I have a 10.00 credit on it. And he said he had never seen this card before. He did give me the 10.00 off though.

Well, by the time we were done eating a big, huge storm was coming up on us and coming up fast. If you know anything about Florida lighting storms…you know to seek shelter fast. Well, like I said…it’s a bit of a walk to the parking garage…..wind blowing…no rain yet…..bolts of lighting. We get on I-4 to head back and the rain hit…wow….huge drops too.

Got back to the camper (thank goodness no damage….like I said…it was a big storm). But we had several branches from the trees on the top of the camper and all over the place.

Tomorrow is supposed to be our “relaxing day”…yea right. Blizzard Beach and Whispering Canyon.

[tikibird]

Hi Sharon,

Thanks for writing this - I am enjoying it.

GOOD tip about Islands of Adventure and putting your tickets in plastic before riding. I didn't do this last year, and our tickets got drenched. Fortunately, they still worked this year to get into the parks(we had one day of "hopping" left on them), but they did not work well with the Universal Express system.

[sltrawick-Former PassP. Member #175]

My son had a hard plastic holder (like you would put business cards in) and I thought that would be perfect for our UN tickets since they are paper.

I have to say, I have never been on a water raft ride (even at a water park) that I got completly soaked and everyone else in the boat too. No 1 person is singled out...everyone gets wet.

[Mr.Grumpy]

I hate thunderstorms!!!! Glad to see there was no damage to your camper!

I really need to cross over to the darkside and check our Universal! [img]images/icons/shocked.gif[/img]