gatorchomp83 Posted April 22, 2007 Posted April 22, 2007 Me and a couple friends were in Orlando for the Billy Joel concert at the Arena (now the Amway Center or whatever, ) and decided to make a side trip to CityWalk/Islands of Adventure before heading back to Tallahassee. We had actually not initially planned to go to IOA at all, but just meet up at CityWalk around noon for some beers, lunch and just hanging out. About 3pm we decided to head into the park and paid our $65 for 3hr of riding. I had not been to the park in nearly 4 years so I was pretty excited to get back and see how things had changed. Overall, the longest we waited was 20min for Ice Dragon because it had temporary downtime. In the 3 hours we were there, we got in about 6 rides on Hulk, 1 on FearFall, 3 on Fire and 2 on Ice. We also spent some time just exploring the park and having drinks. It was pretty much a relaxing day after a long night before at the concert. The park, in my opinion from the short time we spent there, seemed to be in pretty good shape. The operations were decent, and the crowds were light. Onto the pictures! (As an aside, coming from someone who has never read or seen anything of Harry Potter, I reallllly hope that Universal NEVER turns Lost Continent into a HarryLand. I think that would be a terrible idea...) Hard Rock still looks great NBA City. We did not stop in for a shot Still the 'Most Technologically Advanced Theme Park in the World'? The Lone Palms Airport bar. They made some money off of us... Jimmy Buffett even stopped by in his personal plane to have a drink with us The Double Towers of Torment we did not ride Ripsaw, but it looked GREAT. Patrick and Natalie at one of the many beer stops we made throughout the day. Ice was running a lot better than it used to, IMO... But Fire is still #1 in my heart Me and Patrick...Poseidon was either closed or we missed the last showing this day...Either way, it was a bit of a letdown. Money Shot Zoom Zoom Zoom Me, Natalie, Patrick and some random dude on our last Hulk ride Going on nighttime at Universal My lonely beer at the Lone Palm Airport bar CityWalk at night
gatorchomp83 Posted April 22, 2007 Author Posted April 22, 2007 Yeah, Ripsaw looked really good. Either they just gave it some good refurbishment, or it's aging really well.
WillMontu Posted April 22, 2007 Posted April 22, 2007 I know they did a major overhaul of the ride around this time last year. Also, I'm on the list of people who don't like the idea of the Harry Potter transformation, although the park has added very little since opening (a Roller Skater, a flat ride, and finally opening the Seuss Sky Trolley) BTW: How did you get permission to get the on-ride shots?
easytoremember Posted April 22, 2007 Posted April 22, 2007 Wow those were some great looking pictures! Islands of Adventure is such a great park, I never get tired of it. I, along with everybody else, think HarryLand would completely ruin that section of the park. I really like the fact that they had at least one non-comercial section of the park, and it really adds to the park. Harryland would become dull and irelevant within 5-10 years by the time it was built.
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