Quote: When you enter the park, if you walk in a clockwise direction, this is the first area you come to. The first thing I noticed about this island is that it is loud, which sort of goes with the theme of superhero and everything seemed supersized as well. I’m not a big superhero fan but I recognised enough of the characters to appreciate the theme. There are characters wandering around area during the day who are happy to pose for photographs and sign autograph books, which seemed to delight guests both young and old (to be honest I think most of the older guests were looking to pose with Storm rather than any of the male characters!).

The attractions in this area were good, although they are more geared towards older guests. There is a roller coaster on which riders seem to spend more time upside down than the right way up. I didn’t go on it (I’m a total wimp) but my husband loved it and went on it more than once. He said that it was just scary enough to feel the adrenaline rush but not so much that it wasn’t fun. There was a ride called Storm Force Acceleration that sounds a lot better than it was because it was essentially just a spinning teacup ride, we did appreciate the tongue in cheek way that the ride announcer declared it to be ‘the best ride in the world’! Doctor Doom’s Fearfall was one of those rides that it a huge upright construction where you are thrown up and down, so that it feels like you are driving too fast over one of those little humped bridges. The final ride here, and my favourite by far, was The Amazing Adventures of Spiderman. It is a 3-D ride and you have to wear glasses, but they are the cheap card ones that fall off, which is good because you do get a little bit thrown about in the ride. There is a height restriction of 40 inches, but it isn’t scary and I thing younger fans will enjoy it as much as older ones. The ride is very clever and the 3-D thing is impressive and works well. Most importantly, it lasts a couple of minutes, so it does feel like you are getting valued even if you have had to queue for a while.

In between all of the rides, there are the expected shops and restaurants where you can buy all manner of marvel themed souvenirs of your visit.

From journals Universal's Islands Of Adventure

Quote: Universal Islands of Adventure is one of two theme parks in the Universal area of Orlando in Florida and it is the better of the two in my opinion. My husband and I have just come back from a week’s holiday in the theme park capital of the world and we had a fabulous time in Islands of Adventure which is the home, amongst other things, of the brand new Wizarding World of Harry Potter. There are six different ‘islands’ in the theme park and they are all completely different, which makes exploring them a whole lot of fun . . .

There umpteen places where you can get something to eat throughout the park and it caters for all kinds of things from snacks and quick bites to full blown meals. I didn’t think the prices were that bad to be honest – certainly much less than I thought they were going to be. We got a couple of (huge) slices of pizza and a (huge) soda for the equivalent of about £8. You are free to bring in your own food though if your budget doesn’t extend to theme park prices, although expect to have your bag checked when you enter the park and to have to wait in line to do so.

Lots of the rides (especially the ones that do loops and the like) don’t allow you to take loose items onto them, but all of these have free lockers that you can use at the ride entrance. It is an idea though to find one away from a ride entrance and leave your things there until you need them because the queues for lockers can be quite long.

The park is, for the most part, a smoke free zone although there are designated smoking areas throughout the park that can be found on the map and are clearly sign posted when you get to them. It is definitely worth getting a map as you enter because they are invaluable for planning your day to get the most out of it and to find out when the character meet and greets are.

If you are celebrating a special occasion – everything from your first visit to your honeymoon, then make sure you mention it to the front gate staff because they’ll give you a funky little badge to wear. This is particularly good for those celebrating a birthday because all of the staff throughout the park will make a point of saying happy birthday and making you feel extra special.

In terms of ticket prices for getting in to the parks, it is an absolute minefield depending on what you want. You can get tickets for just Islands of Adventure, which are about £50 for one day, although the daily price does go down the more days that you book. The best value if you are staying for a week or more is to get a pass that allows you unlimited entries into a number of parks. We paid about £150 each for a fortnight long ticket that got us into Islands of Adventure, Universal Studios and Wet n’ Wild water park. There are also untold numbers of places you can get tickets from but I would add that it tends to be cheaper if you buy them in advance.

For any more information, the Universal website is excellent; www.universalorlando.co.uk

From journals Universal's Islands Of Adventure

Quote: Once upon a time the only park that Universal had was just Universal Studios, now they have a whole other park called Islands of Adventue. The beauty of Universal is that both parks are on the same site, so if you only have one day you can hop between the two just by walking around a lake. Having said that you won't be able to do everything in each park in one day and you might feel a bit rushed. However, if you take advantage of the single rider lines and just pick your favourite rides, it is totally possible to get a good feel of the two parks.

As you enter Islands of Adventure, you'll find yourself in a market place with lots of shops and food stands. If you're interested in watching any of the shows that this park has then check out the times here at the entrance . Then walk on towards the lake, which the park is set around (plenty of photo opportunities here) and decide which way you're going to go. If you have kids then I would recommend heading right towards the land of Dr Seuss. This is a crazy adaptation of the many very popular Dr Seuss books, so if you're kids have read them then they will love this part of the park, if they haven't it's a fantastic way to introduce them to these fab books.

However, on our visit we didn't have any children with us, just big kids, so we headed left at the lake towards the Marvel section. We love the Marvel movies and so this part of the park is perfect for us. If you're feeling brave first thing, then I would hop onto the Hulk rollercoaster, which you will have walked underneath. If you get on this early you will miss the inevitable huge lines that will develop here as the day goes on. Be warned though this is a crazy coaster and rather than being gently tugged to the top as you start, you get fired out at around 60mph.....expect to scream! If you don't fancy the Hulk, then why not try the Spiderman 3D action simulator ride, without doubt the best ride in ths section. Again queues will develop as the day progresses, so either take advantage of the single rider option or get there early. Just to round off the adrenaline rush in this section then get yourself on Doctor Doom's Fearfall, a huge tower of a ride that drops you down....lots of fun.

After all that then I reckon you'll need a coffee and sit down, which you can do and wait and see if the X-Men show up (which they do quite frequently) and get some photos taken with them. Another thing that we really liked about this section was the Marvel shop, where as you can imagine you can get all of your Marvel memorabilia.

The next section round (if you're going anti-clockwise) is a cartoon section that will get you wet. The absolute best bit of advice I can give you for this section is do it in the middle of the day when the sun is out, so that you can dry off and not get cold. I also would recommend not wearing denim jeans if you want to go on these rides, because you will get wet, no matter how many waterproofs you put on. The two wet rides here are Dudley Do-Rights Ripsaw Falls and Popeye & Bluto's Bilge Rat Barges, both of which are loads of fun. There is a Popeye play park for smaller kids here so you can always take it in turns to sit with them and go on the rides.

From here you enter Jurassic Park, even going through a replica of the gates from the first movie. Everything is dinosaur based, there's a great play park for kids and a couple of places to eat. It'll probably be lunchtime when you get here so these provide a good option for a chill out section. With smaller kids you can go on the Pteranodon Fliers, that swoop over the play park, but for big kids is another wet ride...the Jurassic Park iver Adventure. I'm not going to spoil this....but it is epic and worth the wait if there is a big queue. Further round is the Jurassic Park Discovery Centre, a great place for kids to play.

The next place round is new, it was being built when we visited in 2009, but we have friends who have been since it was opened and they thought it was fantastic. The area that I'm talking about is Harry Potter Land, a complete replica of the world of Harry Potter.

The next thing that we went on is called the Duelling Dragons and seems now to be part of Harry Potter World....this is a foot dangling rip roaring coaster that sees two separate tracks and dragons coasters zip around at the same time and almost seem to collide. A brilliant rollercoaster, but definitely not one for the faint hearted!

And then to take it down just a notch there is the Sinbad Stunt Show, somewhere out of the sun to enjoy some live action entertainment. And if you like that then head straight round to the Poseidon Fury Ride, also live action and epically good fun. As you can probably tell I really liked this park and think that because it's new it is much better than the original Universal Studios, but I wouldn't pass up the original to just go here. All I can say to end this review is if you want a day of crazy rides and rollercoasters that relive your favourite movies then this is the place for you!!



From journals Fun & Games in Orlando

Quote: We went for winter break and really had a ball. The new Harry Potter section is amazing.