Trip Report 2004 (Days 20 & 21)
[u]Tuesday, 11th May 2004 (Day 20):</u> This began as yet another glorious, sunny day with only a few scattered clouds. There was bit of a hubbub in the morning as everyone rushed about to get ready quickly. We were splitting up into two groups once again; my wife was going to take her parents and cousin to Winter Park for the day while the rest of us (my niece, her parents and I) were going to Islands of Adventure.
My IoA party left the villa at 8:15am and followed the same route as the day before, preferring to leave I-4 at Exit #74 and using the Universal Boulevard. Once again, we opted for Preferred Parking and took the walkways to the Universal Complex. Oddly, the crowd was even sparser than the day before and as we went across to IoA, I could not help noticing that there were very few people about despite it being such a nice day. I checked at Guest Relations to make sure that no major attraction was closed, and was assured that everything was up and running. As always at IoA, we started in an anti-clockwise direction, starting with Suess Landing and aiming to do Marvel Superhero Island last. With the thin crowd, I felt confident that UEs would be available throughout the day, should we need them.
One thing that I like about IoA is how well the park is organised, perhaps better than any other in Orlando. The 'Islands' are clearly separated and marked and it is very easy to follow one's nose from one attraction to another. Moreover, the landscaping and decor is so diffrent from one island to the next so that you know exactly where you are throughout. A major plus point to IoA.
Suess Landing was deserted to the point of embarassment. There were only two other families when we arrived there and a few stragglers followed. I had promised my niece to take her on the kiddie rides and fortunately, there were just enough of us for the staff to start the rides. Cat in the Hat was actually a very clever ride and great fun, even to adults and my niece enjoyed it greatly. One Fish, Two Fish....is similar to several other rides of the genre like Dumbo, Astro Orbiter etc and if you don't mind accompanying your kids, it should be all right. Likewise, Car-Seuss-el is a Merry-go-round with Universal's characters with whom my niece was more familiar with than I was. Finally, I left her with her mother in the mini-playground 'If I Ran the Zoo' while my bro-in-law and I went around to take some photographs. From our vantage point, we got great views across the lagoon of Hulk and Doom's, which also seemed to be running no more than three quarters full as yet.
After less than an hour at Suess Landing, we crossed over to the Lost Continent and headed straight for the Duelling Dragons. My niece took one look at the twisting red and blue tracks and screamed that she would not go on those. Her mother was feeling a bit under the weather and so we left them to amuse themselves with the Flying Unicorn while my brother-in-law and I went into the castle for the big duo. The board at the entrance said that there was '0' minutes to wait and so we just walked in and through the twisting corridors. There were a few more people about here and the castle walls echoed with their laughter and repartee. We decided to go on the front rows of both coaster, starting with Ice and then Fire.
There were not enough people to fill either coaster when we arrived, but there was a queue of 8 for the first row of Ice, so that we had to wait for 2 runs before getting our places. My brother-in-law seemed a bit nervous at the prospect of a 'hanging' coaster, but I reassured him. The ride was excellent as always and the front row works extremely well for the close encounters; the thing is to watch for the other coaster approaching. After the ride we went back for Fire and this time the wait for the front row was even shorter; a slight problem was that the co-ordinator seemed to have got her calculations slightly off for the second ride because Fire somehow seemed to get to the point of the
