Universal's Islands of Adventure
A plan, not a list of adjectives. What to sort before you go, what order to do things in, and the mistakes that cost first-timers two hours a day.
The first thing to settle about Islands of Adventure is whether your group clears the heights, because the answer changes the entire shape of the day. Fourteen attractions measure riders. Five of them - Hulk at 54 inches, Doctor Doom's at 52, VelociCoaster at 51, Hagrid's at 48 and Forbidden Journey at 48 - are the reason people buy tickets. A group where everyone is over 51 inches has one of the great theme park days in the country ahead of it. A group with a 42-inch child has about six rides and needs a different plan.
The second thing is Hagrid's Magical Creatures Motorbike Adventure. It is excluded from Universal Express Pass, has no single rider line, and posts the longest waits at Universal Orlando on most days. There is no product you can buy to fix that. You ride it at rope drop, you ride it in the last hour before close, or you spend between ninety minutes and two hours in a queue. Every other headliner in this park has an escape hatch; this one does not.
Third, do the Express Pass arithmetic before you book anything. Universal Express Pass is a paid front-of-line product sold per day, and it is included for every guest staying in a room at three of Universal's hotels for the length of the stay. On a busy day for a family of four, the nightly premium on one of those hotels can come in under the cost of buying Express separately - which makes it a hotel decision rather than a ticket decision, and one you cannot make retroactively.
Fourth, Islands of Adventure has six single rider lines - Hulk, Spider-Man, Doctor Doom's, Kong, VelociCoaster and Forbidden Journey. Disney parks have almost none. If you are two adults who do not mind being split up for four minutes, single rider is close to free Express Pass, and using it well is worth more than most paid upgrades.
Do it in the shoes they will wear, against a door frame, and write the number down. Universal measures with a fixed stick at the queue entrance and again at the platform on some rides. The gap between 47 and 48 inches is the difference between five headliners and none of them, and finding out at the front of the Hagrid's queue is the worst possible way to learn it.
The Hogwarts Express between Hogsmeade and Diagon Alley requires a park-to-park ticket in both directions, and no upgrade is sold at the station. If anyone in your group cares about Harry Potter, this is not a marginal upgrade - the train is an attraction, the two halves of the Wizarding World are designed as one place, and a one-park ticket cuts it in half.
Universal Express Pass comes free with every room at three of Universal Orlando's hotels, for every guest in the room, for the whole stay. Price that against buying Express separately for your party on your actual dates before you book a room anywhere. On peak dates for four people it frequently favors the hotel, and it is the highest-value calculation in a Universal trip.
Universal hotel guests get into a park an hour before official opening, and at Islands of Adventure that early hour usually opens the Wizarding World. That hour is the single best time to ride Hagrid's, which is otherwise the hardest ride to get in Orlando. Confirm which park and which attractions are included for your dates in the app the night before, because it moves.
Three rides here will make you wet and two of them will soak you through. Bring a spare pair of socks, a dry shirt in a locker, and a waterproof phone pouch if you have one. Ponchos handle Ripsaw Falls and do very little on the Bilge-Rat Barges, where water comes up through the raft floor.
The Hulk, VelociCoaster, Hagrid's, Doctor Doom's and Forbidden Journey all require you to put everything in a locker, including phones in zipped pockets. The lockers are free for the duration of the ride and the metal detectors at the platform are not negotiable. Wear shorts with fewer pockets and carry less.
There are two table-service restaurants in the entire park. Mythos takes reservations and is the better meal; Confisco Grille takes reservations and is far more likely to accommodate a walk-up. If your day includes anyone who needs an hour off their feet in air conditioning, book one of them at the point you book the ticket.
Rope drop
Be at the turnstiles forty-five minutes before official opening, or before Early Park Admission if you have it. Walk right through Port of Entry and go straight for Hogsmeade. This is the one hour of the day where Hagrid's Magical Creatures Motorbike Adventure is a twenty-minute wait rather than a two-hour one.
First ride
Hagrid's Magical Creatures Motorbike Adventure, standby, no exceptions. It has no Express Pass and no single rider line, so this is the only cheap way to ride it. If the ride is down for weather when you arrive, stay in Hogsmeade and come back the moment it reopens rather than leaving the island.
About 30 minutes after opening
Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey while the castle queue is still short. Do the full standby route the first time - the greenhouse, the portrait gallery, Dumbledore's office and the Defense Against the Dark Arts classroom are the reason to walk it rather than use single rider.
About an hour in
Walk into Jurassic Park and ride Jurassic World VelociCoaster in standby. It is the best ride in the resort, the queue is worth seeing once, and the wait at this hour is a fraction of what it will be at noon. Use single rider for every subsequent ride.
Mid-morning
Continue counterclockwise to Skull Island: Reign of Kong, using single rider if the posted wait is above thirty minutes. Then Jurassic Park River Adventure, taking the back row if you would rather stay dry this early in the day.
Late morning
Cross to Marvel Super Hero Island and take The Incredible Hulk Coaster, The Amazing Adventures of Spider-Man and Doctor Doom's Fearfall in that order, all on single rider. Three of the park's biggest rides in well under an hour is routine here.
Just before noon
Walk back into Jurassic Park and get in line at Thunder Falls Terrace before the lunch rush lands at 12:15. The rotisserie chicken is the best quick-service food in the park and the dining room looks straight at the River Adventure drop.
12:30 PM
Eat at Thunder Falls Terrace and stay in the air conditioning longer than you need to. This park has less indoor space than any Disney park in Orlando and the middle of the day is when that becomes obvious.
1:30 PM
Now do Toon Lagoon, both rides back to back. Dudley Do-Right's Ripsaw Falls first, Popeye & Bluto's Bilge-Rat Barges second, everything in a locker, and accept that you are going to be wet. In Florida in the afternoon this is a benefit.
2:30 PM
Send anyone who wants to dry off into the Jurassic Park Discovery Center, which is air-conditioned, free, quiet and almost always empty. Anyone with children should point them at Camp Jurassic instead, which will absorb an hour without complaint.
3:15 PM
Walk into The Lost Continent for the shade. Stop at The Mystic Fountain, which is free and will hold children for ten minutes, and use the colonnades to sit down properly rather than perching on a wall in the sun.
4:00 PM
Seuss Landing, which is now at its calmest of the day. The Cat in the Hat, the Trolley Train and Caro-Seuss-el all clear quickly in the late afternoon, and the light on this island is better than at any other hour.
5:00 PM
Take the Hogwarts Express to Diagon Alley if you hold a park-to-park ticket. The journey takes about four minutes, the film in the compartment window is different in each direction, and Diagon Alley in the evening is the best-looking thing Universal Orlando has built.
Or, if you are staying put
Shop Hogsmeade at this hour instead. Ollivanders, Honeydukes and Dervish and Banges all queue to get in during the middle of the day and walk straight in during dinner, and the wand spell-casting spots around the village are far less crowded.
Around sunset
Ride Jurassic World VelociCoaster again on single rider. The section that skims the lagoon is a completely different ride in low light, and the wait typically drops through the evening rather than building.
After dark
Skull Island: Reign of Kong, which works substantially better at night - the temple facade is lit properly and the queue's live performers have more to work with. Then The Incredible Hulk Coaster, which is the best night ride in the park.
Final hour
Go back to Hagrid's Magical Creatures Motorbike Adventure. Posted waits fall sharply in the last hour at this park because there is no nighttime show holding people in place, and a second ride is often achievable when the morning ride was not.
On the way out
Walk Port of Entry slowly rather than funneling out with everyone else. The shops here stay open past park close, the street lighting is the best in the park, and the exit crush clears in about fifteen minutes if you let it.