IOA Advice

My Dad and I are planning on going to IOA the beginning April, what are some things I should know before we go, which rides get long lines, those sort of things. I know that I personally want to ride Hulk, Dueling Dragons, Spiderman 3-d and Jurassic Park when I am there so I need all the help I can get to make sure that I get them in. Any advice is appreciated, Eric

Make sure to ride Dueling Dragons, The Hulk, Spiderman, Jurassic Park, and dont miss The Adventures of Sindbad stunt show. Very entertaining and funny.

And dont forget to eat at Mythos!

Are you staying onsite or offsite? It may be too late now, but if you can find an onsite hotel for a good price, take it. The room keys act as an unlimited Universal Express pass. Ride the Flying Unicorn until your belly hurts!

Be there before opening as they often open the gates early!

Run right to Hulk, then do in order, Spiderman, Doom, Cat in the Hat, Dragons, Jurassic Park, Dudley, Blutos...then the other stuff that you want...maybe single rider a few things if it's busy or use Universal Express.

Elissa "EAT AT MYTHOS" Alvey

Thanks for the help, I think we are staying off site. We will go Hulk, Spiderman, Doom, Dragons, Jp and then ride whats rideable.

Hey, Im goin down again in April. April 8th through 15th to be exact. What are the LIGHTEST days to go to the park on?

Someones gotta know...

I can only stress it so much, and many people have already said it. The biggest thing to remember about Universal is this:

"The early bird gets the worm"

We were just at IOA last weekend. We got to the park a bit after 8:30, and the gate was open and rides were running. We rode all the major rides (except the two water rides, as it wasn't warm enough to get soaked) by 11:30. Our longest wait was for One Fish Two Fish at fifteen minutes. You MUST get to this park early to take advantage of the shorter lines. After lunch at Mythos (which everyone visiting IOA should do), all the lines were MUCH longer as the park population had swelled to what you'd expect on a Saturday.

It sucks to get up so early in the morning, but it's worth it when you can get on most of the major rides with almost no line...

dt

Thank you to everyone that has helped me, I have a few more questions I need some help with. It will only be myself and my father so I need to know the best ways of carrying things around. Since this is most likely the only chance we'll get to go to IOA we really want to bring cameras and buy On ride phots, souviners, etc. Should I bring a back pack to hold our items in during the day and place in the station as we ride or is that a bad idea. Any help with this deliema will be greatly appreciated.

Eric "It's tough to hold things when it's only two of you there" Gallagher

All of the rides where they do not allow you to bring carry-on items have free lockers at the entrance. I would never leave ANYTHING on a platform. I just don't trust people enough. If you're going to spend an entire day there takd advantage of the "package pick up" where you can buy stuff (I believe even your onride photos) and pick them up later in the day.

Elissa "I try not to bring too much stuff as it just slows me down!" Alvey

Wow, that package pick up is awesome, we will definately have to consider using that and just keeping our cameras in my zip up shorts pockets. Thanks for the help, I don't like carrying things around either but when it's only two of us what are ya going to do .

Eric "Looking at the Ioa pics on the site" Gallagher

Definately ride Dueling Dragons!

Anyways, enough being bias. Try to avoid taking a bag to Universal.. period! I know the free lockers are nice and they have cool fingerprint technology, but they can be a pain in the butt when it's busy. At Dragons we have 4 sets of lockers, and on the weekends there is always a mass of people hovering around waiting to get stuff out and put things in.. it can be time consuming, esp when you want to ride!

Try to avoid the park on Fri/Sat.. it's bearable and by then Dragons and Hulk will have their 3rd trains so Dragons will be able to run 6 if we have to.. which is an amazing sight to see.. mass chaos so wait times for the major rides should be pretty low... although early April shouldnt be that busy regardless.

Eat at Mythos!

Eric

While I would rather not have to have a bag, I have to bring one since it is only me and my dad. I am writing all of the tips and advice I get in Word and I am going to print it out and bring it with me. I have a few more questions, do all three coasters (Hulk and Dueling Dragons) have On ride photos, I assume JPRA has lockers if it doesn't please let me know, will I need to hold on the hand rests for JPRA (Congo Falls PKI bounces you preatty bad) or does it have lap bars since it is 80ft* tall. I really want to try and get half of my camera's pictures of rides and half of me and my dad, is it hard to get someone to take our picture and is it hard to get photos with the superheroes (I really want one with Rogue :shock: and Dr. Doom ). I am hoping that I get to have a great time at IOA as it has been one of my biggest dreams to visit and I am just exstatic that I am going. If anyone here works at IOA let me know which ride you work and when I find out the date we'll be going I will try to say hello (That will be awesome, I'm from Kentucky so this is a big trip for me).

*I am not sure what JPRA's height is exactly but I think it's around 80ft

Alrighty.. let me see here.

Hulk has an onride photo.

Dragons doesn't.

JPRA does.

anddd.. that's about it for onride photo's at IOA.

JPRA does have lockers right where you enter. The lockers are cool. They use your fingerprint to rent them.. but make sure you take note on how long they are free for when you are renting them. Each attraction is different. Because we MAKE you put your stuff in a locker, if you go above the alotted time, feel more than free to go to the greeter at that attraction and we can open it for you.. without you having to pay. Too bad I'm moving and am only seasonal now or i'd just meet up with you at Dragons and let you put ure stuff in there all day.

Just ask anyone to take your picture! I used to take pictures of people in front of the Dragons for like the last half hour we were open! I would always get so bored at greeter during the last hour that I'd beg people to let me take their picture. haha.

PsychoPuppet (Dave) and Coasterbabe (Lisa) both work at Dragons so you can prob get in touch with them! Lisa doesn't work there too much now.. she's actually at the new water coaster at Typhoon Lagoon but I'm sure Dave will do whatever he can.. too bad I'll miss ya.. I'll be back in good ol' PA.

Eric

Thank you for your help as always, I can't wait to get there, I love marvel comics so I am going to be in bliss at Super Hero Island! Dueling Dragons is my number one most wanted to ride coaster so I will most certainly be riding it as many times as possible. I have seen a couple of pictures of Dr. Doom's fear fall and they're all from the enterence, does any one know of any sites with pictures from the queue/station, also, do both towers launch or is one a drop shot? I haven't been on an S&S tower before so this will be my first and it is themed to Dr Doom how cool is that!

The best website I've seen for IOA is..

www.universal-excitement.com

has tons of good pictures AND videos.. I wouldn't look too much though. Leave some surprises for when you come down.

Eric

Thanks for that site, it has excellent pictures and information!

Definately ride Dueling Dragons!

 

Try to avoid the park on Fri/Sat.. it's bearable and by then Dragons and Hulk will have their 3rd trains so Dragons will be able to run 6 if we have to.. which is an amazing sight to see.. mass chaos so wait times for the major rides should be pretty low... although early April shouldnt be that busy regardless.

 

Eric

Well according to a staff meeting we had this past Wednesday, one of our projected attendance for next Saturday is about 34-39,000 (or the Saturday after). Also I remember them saying that we will be getting our third trains back later than expected.

Although since Stitch is going in early April, I don't forsee much of a problem as far as facing overbearing crowds at IOA. I'll see what I can gather from a lead.

Definately DO NOT bother getting the express ticket that you have to pay for - we thought this was a complete waste of money and occasionally we were waiting for around 30 mins anyway. Just stick with the free exrpess or regular queuing!

 

Well according to a staff meeting we had this past Wednesday, one of our projected attendance for next Saturday is about 34-39,000 (or the Saturday after). Also I remember them saying that we will be getting our third trains back later than expected.

 

Although since Stitch is going in early April, I don't forsee much of a problem as far as facing overbearing crowds at IOA. I'll see what I can gather from a lead.

I'm going on the 25-29... if they don't have the third train on Hulk, it's going to be chaos. But, I've never seen Dueling Dragons with all three trains running, and I go about this time each year. Dueling Dragons usually keeps the lines moving pretty well with just two trains on each track.

Will I need to hold on the hand rests for JPRA (Congo Falls PKI bounces you preatty bad) or does it have lap bars since it is 80ft* tall. *I am not sure what JPRA's height is exactly but I think it's around 80ft

I haven't had this question answered yet so I needed to bring it back up

You don't need to hold on. You get some nice floater air but nothing major and it is very smooth. I usually am hiding under a jacket or article of clothing and just use my feet to brace myself for impact at the bottom.

Elissa "I Love Vekoma Rides!" Alvey

Thanks for letting me know, I love the air time on Congo Falls but it man hurt slamming into the hand rests, so an 80 ft floater into a hand rest would hurt I have a question, did Intamin make Jurassic Park's boats/track or was that done by another company.

I'm going on the 25-29... if they don't have the third train on Hulk, it's going to be chaos. But, I've never seen Dueling Dragons with all three trains running, and I go about this time each year. Dueling Dragons usually keeps the lines moving pretty well with just two trains on each track.

Well I don't know about the Hulk as I work at Dragons but I think they should have all their trains. Today we had a 75 minute wait with four trains on and it really wasn't too busy. Suprisingly, we received our trains back so we could very well be running six trains for these next two weeks since we will be very busy, especially on the weekends.

^ 75 minutes? That's crazy- I've never seen Dueling Dragons over 15-30... maybe I'll actually have to use my hotel express pass on it... there was never any use for it before then at Dueling Dragons.