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Vacation in Florida - Islands of Adventure (1 of 2)

What is Islands of Adventure?

Islands of Adventure is one theme park made up of many little themed islands. As you walk through the park you’ll jump from one theme to the next. Currently the park has 8 themed islands; they are in clockwise order from the entrance: Port of Entry, Marvel Super Hero Island, Toon Lagoon, Skull Island: Reign of Kong, Jurassic Park,The Wizarding World of Harry Potter, The Lost Continent, and Seuss Landing. And guess what? We went in clockwise order starting with Marvel Super Hero Island.


Islands of Adventure Entrance Landmark

Let’s see, how do I want to delve into this? Essentially I went to this park at least 3 of the 5 days of vacation just to cover it all. Also remember that although Florida is considered the “sunshine state” it sure does rain a lot. So what does that mean? That means rollercoasters outside along with water rides get shut down at the first sign of thunder or lightening. Which why it took so many days. Let's go diary style!


Day One - Monday


We headed to Islands of Adventure. We got there at like 8:30am, before the park even opens, so that we can get our tickets. The tickets are actually paper tickets (that you must make sure don’t get wet and that you bring with you each day). After that we get fingerprinted. So we’re inside. Keep walking and you’ll run into a fork in the road. The way Islands of Adventure is setup is like one big loop. You can either go left or right, but not straight through to the other side.


By the way: if you wear medium/long acrylic nails it’s going to be a hassle reading your fingerprint because the nails get in the way.

It’s early in the morning, but even so the lines are starting to form - starting with The Incredible Hulk roller coaster. Something I learned - after being told I couldn’t ride with my fanny pack on - was that they provide lockers for free for those riding the rides. However, I didn’t know that the first time when the attraction attendant told me I had to put my stuff in a locker. I just assumed you had to pay for them, so I left my stuff with my parents to watch as they wandered and I waited in line with my cousin. Personally, I was left unimpressed. I was expecting more drops and thrills. Instead I felt like I just coasted through a ton of loops.


Let me just say this. I could not imagine being at the park and the wait for the rides are anywhere over an hour and thirty minutes, but I’m sure it’s possible. The rides were set up to hold thousands of people so it seemed like forever getting to the actual ride. One thing I can say is unlike Carowinds where you can see the light at the end of the tunnel; you can’t see where the actual ride starts. So while you’re waiting you’re just praying that time moves fast and that you’re almost there. It was like playing a game of “Are we there yet?” with every ride.


Okay so we’re off that roller coaster. My cousin and I locate the rest of our family; apparently they had gone on The Amazing Adventures of Spider-Man ride and played in the arcade while waiting for us. Not too long after, Marvel superheroes start barreling down the streets in their gokart mobiles, and then they get out for photo opportunities. After that we’re well on our way since there’s nothing else to explore. Next we glide through Toon Lagoon, no noticeable rides except one water ride. We keep chugging on. Mind you it’s day one so we’re simply exploring and seeing what it is that we’ll come back to. Right now we’re overwhelmed by the awesomeness of it all.


Now we find ourselves passing Skull Island: Reign of Kong because the wait time was over an hour. Instead we’re all gung ho about the Pteranodon Flyers ride inside of Camp Jurassic because it takes you through the air. Low and behold it’s a kids ride that can be done with one parents. I let my brothers have this one since they still fit inside the height and weight limits.


Sidebar: Camp Jurassic is for the little ones. It’s an enclosed area that the young ones can run around on upper and lower levels and spray water at each other and etc.

Cool so that ride wasn’t for me. I move on to the Jurassic Park: River Adventure ride. Now what I haven't discussed yet is the fact that NONE of my family actually likes rides. They don’t do roller coasters and they hate drops. But me? I LOVE THEM. THEY ARE PURE EXHILARATION. So I don’t ever ask what a ride is, I just get in line and we’ll see when I get there.


And that’s exactly what I did! I hopped in that River Adventure line so fast it was like I went missing. Okay so my younger cousin joins me a couple minutes later; it’s fine because there’s hardly anyone behind me so she’s not cutting that many people. Now imagine 10 minutes have passed. You’ve moved up pretty far in the line and there's a good trail behind you. Now imagine that your family of 7 other people see you in the line because they decided this was safe enough for them to get on and they start skipping people to get to you! Y’all I bout died of embarrassment. So here we are, all nine of us, getting on our first ride together. Which we all got wet on and there was a mini drop lol. Serves them right.


My family just after we got off this ride.

After this ride we keep walking and run smack dab into The Wizarding World of Harry Potter, and I’m sorry you guys but I can’t talk about this just yet. It’s too good for it not to have its own section so we'll skim over this. That ladies and gentleman concludes day one at Islands of Adventure and honestly this blog post. It's starting to get a bit lengthy lol.


What have you done to go #BeyondYourWindow recently? Share on social media with the hashtag, comment below, or send me a private message!

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