Universal Islands of Adventure, December 2024

I’d say Universal Islands of Adventure is my favourite theme park of any of the ones I’ve been to, with maybe PortAventura Park a close second. We love Universal Islands of Adventure, it’s home to some of our favourite films and characters. We love the Jurassic Park film series, Elliott loves King Kong, and we’re all fans of Harry Potter & Marvel.

And we can’t forget Dr Seuss. Well, we can, we’re not really fans…

Yes, Islands of Adventure is an amazing looking park from start to finish. Great theming, some of the best rides in the world and an all-round great place to spend the day. We’ve been here many times across our four trips, and it’s always a must do. On this trip, we were only doing the Universal parks (IOA, Universal Studios Florida & Volcano Bay), so it was definitely a must do! We did anything we wanted to do, multiple times, and enjoyed every minute.

Feels easier to talk about Islands of Adventure in areas, so let’s start at the beginning…

Universal hotel guests get to access the park an hour before regular guests. In this time, you can walk on Velocicoaster, or head straight to Hogsmeade. For more details of EPA, see our Cabana Bay blog.

An amazing looking entry ‘portal’ area themed like a market trading port with an Eastern/Mediterranean inspiration, you pass under the ‘The Adventure Begins’ arch to let the adventure begin. Here you’ll find some great spots to grab breakfast, some gift shops, sweet shops and a year-round Christmas shop.

On our 2023 trip, the Croissant Moon Bakery was our go to breakfast spot for Bacon or Sausage, Egg and Cheese Croissants & coffee. Reasonably priced for park food at $8.50 for the croissant and coffee from $3.25

On our latest trip, Cinnabon was our breakfast spot – and occasionally for a sweet treat. Sausage/Bacon & Egg Muffins from $6.29 was a great start to the day. The mango refresher drink was also a favourite, and I do recommend the Caramel Pecanbon. Service was slow at breakfast time and tables were scarce.

I’m quite partial to a fancy coffee, so I thought I’d treat myself to a Latte from Starbucks one day. No such luck, Velocicoaster had a smaller queue.

Full table service restaurant & Bar. Never been in here, but it always looks good.

The shops on the right (as you enter) all blend into one. The year-round Christmas shop has lots of Christmas decorations, ornaments and such, and as you’d expect lots of Grinch items.

Further down is the Fudge shop, which aside from massive chunks of fudge, sold all manner of sweet treats, whilst the store ends with the Photo shop, where you can buy or pick up your photo pass and buy lanyards, hats, and some other merch items.

The main gift shop at Islands of Adventure is the Trading Co store. Here, you’ll find a bit of everything from all properties across the park, like clothing, badges/pins, plushes, toys and ornaments from Harry Potter, Jurassic Park, Minions, Marvel & Dr Seuss.

We head to the right out of Port of Entry towards Seuss Landing. We’re not big on the works of Dr Seuss, so this area is a little lost on us. Though Elliott has recently got into The Grinch films because of this trip. We have done all the rides in the area on previous visits but didn’t bother this time. Well, we did try Cat in the Hat, but it broke down, to no one’s disappointment. The area does have one of our favourite snack spots though.

The rides at Seuss Landing are aimed at the younger kids, so while Evan is tall enough for Velocicoaster, Elliott is just a fraction off Hagrid’s with a 1.2m requirement, so this area is more suited to him. Unfortunately, he’s over going on the kiddy rides and prefers a coaster.

Seuss Landing has ‘High in the Sky Trolley’ – a narrated trolley ride over Seuss Landing, ‘The Cat in the Hat’ – an indoor dark ride following the story of the Cat in the Hat. ‘One Fish, Two Fish’, this is usually the one we get on, but no one was interested this year. It’s a spinning fish ride that you can move up and down, and you may get a little spray from the water jets! There’s also the Caro-Seuss-el, a colourful carousel ride. Some good rides for the kids and especially if you’re a fan of the world of Dr Seuss. Not for us though.

It was Grinchmas in Seuss Landing while we were there, so there were several Who’s out and about taking pictures. We also saw Things 1 & 2 posing for pictures. The main meet and greet in the area was for The Grinch himself. We never saw the queue drop below 2 hours during the day, and there were people queuing from 8am on Early Park Access for the Grinch meet and greet which opened at 9am!

We though we’d check out the The Grinchmas Who-liday Spectacular. Again, not our usually thing, but we’re familiar with the story. It was a bright, colourful show with fun music and a great setup to tell the story of the Grinch in a live action performance. The costumes and make-up were great.

For food, Seuss Landing has the Circus McGurkus Café Stoo-pendous – a quick service restaurant and Moose Juice Goose Juice, for drinks and snacks.

Our favourite spot though is Green Eggs and Ham. We became quite obsessed with tater tots on our 2023 trip and Green Eggs and Ham has some tasty options: We’ve tried the Buffalo Chicken tots, Pizza tots (with pepperoni, sausage and mozzarella), and Carnitas Tots (pork, jalapeno, salsa and cheese sauce). All great tots. Prices start from $11.49 for a good portion. I’m sure we’ll be back for more.

The most pointless area at Islands of Adventure since Zeus closed in 2023. It’s pretty much just a themed food area now, with a few shops, the talking fountain and King Julian from Madagascar doing some dancing and photo ops. Lost Continent is also the extended queue line for Hagrid’s during EPA. And yes, the queue really does get to here. The area does look great though, it’s just a shame it doesn’t have any rides or attractions anymore. Here’s hoping they can do something good with it.

Food wise, we’ve previously eaten at Fire Eaters Grill, and we weren’t too impressed. This year we thought we’d try what is regarded as ‘one of the best theme park restaurants in the world’ – Mythos

Needless to say, carrying titles like Best Theme Park Restaurant, and being smack bang in the middle of a Universal theme park is going to make it an expensive meal for 4. It was a one off to say we’d been, so we didn’t mind. We ordered: Roasted Chicken, the Mythos Lamb burger, 2 kids pepperoni Pizzas, milk for the kids, a beer and a cocktail for the grown-ups. This all came to around $123, which isn’t outrageous.

The food though was a bit disappointing. The burger wasn’t particularly special, and the chicken was a bit basic. Nice, but nothing screamed award worthy. The kids pizzas, however were lovely. We enjoyed what they’d left more than our own food.

The restaurant itself does look fantastic. The theming and décor inside, with a mystical cave feel and rockwork walls, rock-carved statues all around and subdued lighting for a more ethereal feel. The staff were friendly, and we were glad we’d finally eaten there, but it just felt a bit underwhelming.

Our favourite area of the park: Hogsmeade. It just looks fantastic. What the Universal parks have done with the theming around Hogsmeade and Diagon Alley is next lever. I can’t wait to step into Epic Universe’s ‘Ministry of Magic’ portal for more of the same. It’s so immersive. The first time – or any time – you walk under the Hogsmeade arch, it’s just a ‘wow’ moment.

You’re greeted by the Hogwarts Express and the snow-topped roofs of Hogsmeade, with Hogwarts castle in the distance. Just amazing. The area is filled with shops, dining, drink and snack carts, rides, shows and more. You could easily spend the day just in Hogsmeade.

We love Forbidden Journey. The whole ride concept is great, and I’ve never seen or experienced anything else quite like it. You’re sat in a chair on a multidirectional, moving arm, transported through screen based and practical effects, following Harry and Ron to a game of quidditch that leads to Dragons, Dementors, spiders and more.

The ride is under the Hogwarts Castle model and the queue line is an experience of it’s own. You’ll see talking paintings, the greenhouses, visit the Fat Lady, walk though Defence Against the Dark Arts classroom and see Harry, Ron and Hermoine, and see Dumbledore in his office. You can tolerate hours in a queue when it’s an experience like this. Fortunately, when we were there, it was quiet every time. No more than 10 mins wait, and it probably takes that log to walk though! The ride can make people nauseous though, so be aware!

A reimagined steel coaster, Flight of the Hippogriff is a fun little ride for the younger ones to enjoy. I think Elliott was pushing 20 laps by the end of the week and even got props from the ride operators for his fancy bowing to Buckbeak on the lift hill.

It’s not one of the most popular rides in the world for no reason. Hagrid’s Magical Creatures Motorbike Adventure (which I shall henceforth refer to as “Hagrid’s”) might just be the perfect combination of rollercoaster, story, theming, audio and effects. It is brilliant. 3 launches, drop track, backwards sections, all narrated by the late Robbie Coltrane as Hagrid. You’ll see Fluffy, Skrewts, Pixies and Unicorns, and have a great time doing it.

Queues for Hagrid’s rarely have a quiet moment, but they’re never as long as advertise in our experience. During the several rides we’ve had its always been about 15-20 minutes shorter than advertised, and if you go for EPA, aim to get there early. We did and managed to get on and off in around 20 minutes, leaving us with a quiet half hour in Hogsmeade before the rest of the crowds pile in.

The Ollivander’s show is great fun, replicating the scene where Harry gets his wand. Go in and hope your kids (or you) are picked to be Harry and get your first wand (which you have to pay for if you want to keep it, but you don’t have to have the one they’ve selected for you). It’s a great bit of Potter inspired theatre.

For other shows, there is a small stage in Hogsmeade where the pupils of Hogwarts, Beauxbatons and Durmstrang perform dance and baton displays, or you can catch the Hogwarts Frog choir.

Just outside of Hogsmeade is the station, where you can catch the train over to London. You do need a 2-park pass to use this attraction. It’s lots of fun watching the Hogwarts Express come into the station, boarding and enjoying the window screen and door displays as you’re transported over to Universal Studios Florida next door.

You won’t go hungry or thirsty in Hogsmeade, there’s food and drink everywhere!

There are a few Butterbeer carts around the area serving regular and frozen Butterbeer. You can pick up the hot version (our favourite, very sickly though) at one of the small carts outside or in the Hogs Head/Three Broomsticks.

The Magic Neep is a cart selling fruit, pretzels, snacks, cold drinks and cans of beer.

We’ve eaten lunch at the Three Broomsticks in the past to thought we’d try breakfast as we were there one morning for EPA with some time to ourselves. We had 2 kids breakfasts, 1 adults full English and 1 bacon and pancakes breakfast. All were great and quite filling. Kids meals usually come with a small drink, but if you order a hot Butterbeer it’s full size.

As with all of Hogsmeade, the Three Broomsticks looks fantastic inside. Definitely worth making time for a visit. If not, pop in to the Hogs Head next door for beers, spirits, soft drinks and Butterbeer. Try the Hogs Head Brew!

Where to begin. Pretty much everything is a shop of some kind. Honeydukes sells chocolates, sweets and treats, Ollivander’s/Owl Post/Dervish and Banges for merchandise and wands, Filch’s Emporium (The Forbidden Journey gift shop) has lots of merchandise items. If you’re a Potter fan, bring lots of spending Money.

Hogsmeade has it’s own end of the evening show. A spectacular projection show over Hogwarts Castle, with images, lights and fireworks set to familiar tunes from the Harry Potter films. The show is definitely worth watching, but the queuing to get into see it and getting back out again after is a little chaotic. The show may be different through the year, but it was the Magic of Christmas version of the show that we caught.

Hogsmeade is brilliant and we love spending time here whenever we can get to Universal. Everything is a photo op, so make sure you’ve got a full battery on your camera. And you’ll need that customary picture from the bridge with Hogwarts in the background. I made a game of seeing how many different Hogwarts Express conductors I could meet. Think I got 6 or 7!

And don’t forget to buy a wand and try some spells in the shop windows and listen out for Moaning Myrtle in the restrooms. She haunts the toilets at Universal as well as Hogwarts.

I absolutely love walking across the bridge from Hogsmeade, rounding the corner and seeing the Jurassic Park gate, with its torches blazing and that epic John Williams theme playing. It really does bring a smile to my face. It’s a shame they removed the gate at the other end to make way for Skull Island, but never mind…

It’s a toss-up between Velocicoaster and Iron Gwazi (over at Busch Gardens Tampa) as to which is my favourite coaster. We didn’t get to go on Iron Gwazi this trip, but we did smash 15 rides on Velocicoaster. This amazing Intamin coaster, is themed to Juassic World, with Owan and Claire making appearances in the preshow. You’re on a dual-launched rollercoaster ride through the raptor paddock where you’ll see Blue, Charlie, Echo and Delta along the way. Definitely the best choice for EPA. While everyone went to Hagrid’s, we’d done 5 rides on Velocicoaster before 9am. One of those days, we’d had front row on the first train of the day and had it all to ourselves! A fantastic coaster.

We’re all big fans of the Jurassic Park River Adventure. We’d managed to persuade Jo to go on last year as she’s not a fan of big drops. Or getting wet. It’s a brilliant flume ride and well themed but could do with a refresh. I’m not suggesting a full retheme to the Jurassic World version in Hollywood, but fix it up a bit, add a few new dinosaurs and just modernise this classic.

Well, the children’s coaster Pteranodon Flyers seems to have been broken for months with no hint to its condition, with a possibility it might never reopen. But finally, as of writing this, it looks like it’s being tested, so fingers crossed it does reopen soon. The area still had Camp Jurassic – a children’s play area, full of pathways, caves, tunnels, slides and dinosaur fossils. Watch out for the spitting Dilophosauruses! Elliott loves Camp Jurassic.

There’s a meet and greet area where you can queue to meet either a baby dinosaur or Blue herself, which is always fun. Watch out though, Blue may bite. For photos with some non-attacking dinosaurs, there are large models of the T=Rex and Spinosaurus around. The Jeep was missing this time though.

For dining options, you’ve got Burger Digs – a quick serve restaurant, offering burgers, sides and desserts. Our favourite is Pizza Predatoria where you can get pizzas, subs, salads and desserts. Thunder Falls Terrace – we’ve never eaten here but the menu looks good, serving full meals like chicken and ribs, wings, salads and desserts. If you just want a fancy drink or a cocktail, visit The Watering Hole. Oh, and do try the Jurassic World Isla Nublar IPA. It’s a fantastic, fruity IPA that you can only get in Jurassic Park!

No trip to Jurassic Park would be complete without a visit to the Discovery Centre. Fashioned like the Visitors Centre from the first Jurassic Park film, in a great spot, looking over the lake, the discover centre, has some fun items downstairs. The Dino lab offers areas to learn about dinosaurs, fossil dig areas, the hatchery where you can watch a baby dino hatch, giant dinosaur fossils and models and you can even make yourself into a dinosaur. Downstairs is also the gift shop for Velocicoaster which is right outside, while upstairs is home to the Burger Digs restaurant and the areas main gift shop.

For theming and immersion, Jurassic Park is fantastic. It’d only feel more real if they had dinos chasing you across the park. I’d happily lose Skull Island and add more Jurassic World/Park things in. Maybe bring the Jurassic World ride from Shanghai over? Or save that for Universal Studios UK if/when that happens.

Island by name, but it doesn’t really feel like an Islands of Adventure “Island”. It’s more of a borrowed corner of Jurassic Park that they need to give back. Skull Island has one attraction ‘Skull Island: Reign of Kong’. The ride itself gets a lot of hate for not being very good, and yet another screen based ride at Universal, but we quite like it. Elliott’s a big fan of King Kong and dinosaurs, so we have to go on at least once…. if the queues short. The giant Kong animatronic at the end is phenomenal.

We usually skip through Toon Lagoon. Its themed to old school characters like Popeye, Betty Boop and other newspaper comic strip characters that I don’t know. It has 2 rides, and you’d best have a change of clothes if you go on them, as you’ll get very wet!

Popeye & Bluto’s – I had never been wetter on a theme park ride than I was getting off this in 2012 (Valhalla at Blackpool Pleasure Beach may have stolen the crown though). We haven’t had good enough weather on our last 2 trips to go on, but this water raft ride is an absolute soaker. Not only do you get bucketloads of water dumped on you and the splashes from the raft itself, but you get pelted by people using the free-to-use water cannons on the Me Ship, The Olive!

2 years on the bounce and Ripsaw Falls has been closed for maintenance while we’ve been there. No matter as it wasn’t warm enough either. It’s a log flume ride with some cartoon theming and a fast paced plunge at the end with an extra trip over another hill for a double-wet experience.

The ship is a kids play area with places to run around and slide, plus the aforementioned water cannons to soak the patrons of Bilge Rat Barges

Other than the 2 rides, Comic Book Islands has a few options for food. There’s Wimpy’s for burgers, Blondies does sandwiches, and Comic Strip Café has pizzas, burgers, salads and Asian dishes. The area also has snack counters and a few gift shops if you need some Popeye related merch.

The last area of Islands of Adventure and another favourite of ours is Marvel Superhero Island. Home to a few rides including The Incredible Hulk coaster and the 3D classic The Amazing Adventures of Spiderman, gift shops, dining options and character spots.

Hulk is a beast. Loved it on our first visit to Islands back in 2012, but since the 2015 re-track it’s gotten a little more intense and forceful. I’ve definitely greyed out on it once and had a migraine from it this time. Not that it would stop me going on again! The launch out of the top is great!

This is just an X-Men themed teacups ride. Bit of fun, nothing special.

Dr Dooms Fearfall always seems to have a slow-moving queue. It’s a pair of S&S Shot Towers that launch you high in the air! You can get great views from up there!

The exit to Dr Doom’s Fearfall leads into Kingpin’s Arcade, full of arcade games and claw machines. You can buy prepaid cards to use in there too.

We love The Amazing Adventures of Spider-Man. It’s a fun, classic Spidey cartoon adventure where you’ll see Sidey battle Dock Ock, Electro, Hobgoblin and other villains. We usually try to get on this quite a bit (especially with Express Passes in 2023) as its fun for all ages. Keep an eye out for the Stan Lee cameos. Excelsior!

For eats at Marvel Superhero Island, you have Café 4 (pizza & pasta), Captain America Diner (burgers & sandwiches), Chill Ice Cream (Sundaes & Sweet treats), plus there are other food stalls selling hot food and drink and the Marvel Character Dining experience.

Plenty of spots to pick up some Marvel themed gifts at Superhero Islands. The Spiderman Shop (and ride exit) is wall to wall Spiderman, Miles Morales, Ghost Spider, Venom and Carnage merch. The Alterniverse store has items from all Marvel’s catalogue of characters and The Comic Store and Boutique have a selection if comics, collectibles and fancy clothing options.

At regular points through the day, the superheroes converge on Superhero Island for photos with guests. You can get pics with Captain America, Spiderman, Wolverine, Storm, Cyclops & Rogue. And if you’re lucky (or unlucky) you might see Dr Doom and the Green Goblin too!

There is LOADS to see and do at Universal Islands of Adventure. Yes, there are some spots that need works and some that aren’t for us, but there is something for all ages and tastes. Whilst Elliott, at 6 years old and nipping at the heels of 1.2m tall, can’t do everything, there still something in each section that can occupy the little children: Seuss Landing, Flight of the Hippogriff. Older kids and adults have coasters like Velocicoaster and Hulk. Not a fan of a coasters? There’s Spider-Man, King Kong and just walking around the fantastic themed areas to enjoy.

World class theming and rides, great food choices, fun shows and attractions to enjoy. We’re always planning our future trips to Universal Studios, and especially Islands of Adventure!

Find full details about Islands of Adventure at the official Universal Studios website,