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Product Reviews
Universal's Islands Of Adventure®
Around every bend is another epic adventure. Around every corner awaits another once-in-a-lifetime thrill. Take an unforgettable journey through the uniquely themed islands of Universal's Islands of Adventure®, where the world's most cutting edge rides and attractions challenge all your senses. Here, timeless myths, legends, children's stories, cartoons and comic books come to life right before your eyes. Join the battle of good versus evil above the streets of Marvel Super Hero Island®. Get splash happy with your favorite cartoon characters in the water rides of Toon Lagoon®. Come face to face with the dinosaurs of Jurassic Park®. Venture through the mists of time as you experience the epic adventures of The Lost Continent®. And step right into the pages of the children's books of Dr. Seuss in Seuss Landing™. Also, visit The Wizarding World of Harry Potter™, a state-of-the-art attraction that brings the magic, characters, and stories of Harry Potter™ to life in ways never before imagined.
Note: As per park's policy, children 10 and older will be charged adult entrance fees. For children between 10 and 12, an adjustment will be made to your onboard account to reflect the adult ticket price. For children 2 and under, only need to purchase a transfer ticket if they wish to be seated on transfer. Lap children 2 and under, will pay no transfer charge. Some attractions have a minimum height requirement. Transfer time is approximately one hour each way. This tour includes admission to Universal Islands of Adventure® and round-trip transportation from Port Canaveral. Please note that seasonal park hours may apply. This tour returns to the pier and will not be available for guests disembarking or with a back to back sailing. HARRY POTTER, characters, names and related indicia are trademarks of and © Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc. Harry Potter Publishing Rights © JKR. (s11) Marvel Super Hero character names and likenesses: TM & © 2011 Marvel © 2011 Universal Studios. Jurassic Park River Adventure ® Universal Studios/Amblin. All Popeye characters TM & © 2011 KFS, Inc. TM Hearst Holdings, Inc. Dr. Seuss properties TM & © 2011 Dr. Seuss Enterprises, L.P. All rights reserved.Universal elements and all related indicia TM & © 2011 Universal Studios. © 2011 Universal Orlando. All rights reserved.
Average:
(5 Reviews) 5
Rating Snapshot (5 reviews)
5 stars
4
4 stars
1
3 stars
0
2 stars
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5 of 5(100%)customers would recommend this to a friend.
Customer Reviews for Universal's Islands Of Adventure®
Review 1 for Universal's Islands Of Adventure®
Overall:
Fun:
5
out of
5
Adventurous:
4
out of
5
Family Oriented:
5
out of
5
Cultural/Educational:
2
out of
5
meKiki2
Date:January 10, 2013
Fun
great way to spend the day with family - made easy with transportation as part of excursion (although very expensive). not enough time for the park if this was your first time (but it wasnt for us so it was perfect)
1 of 1 people found this review helpful.
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Review 2 for Universal's Islands Of Adventure®
Overall:
Fun:
5
out of
5
Adventurous:
5
out of
5
Family Oriented:
5
out of
5
Cultural/Educational:
4
out of
5
Stacyishot
Location:Albany, NY
Party size:5
I traveled with:Family
Cruise Date Month:November
Cruise Date Year:2011
Favorite activities:Adventure
Favorite port:Nassau, Bahamas
I want to go here next:Europe
Date:July 4, 2012
Totally worth it!
I experienced this excursion the Tuesday after Thanksgiving 2011. I mention this because it was the perfect time to go. The weather was dry, in the low 80s/high 70's and there were NO LINES. Even for the Harry Potter Forbidden Journey. I went on it three times and each time was phenomenal! The entire Hogwarts experience was amazing, I felt like I was in the books. Also, the Spiderman Ride is a must do, absolutely amazing! NCL did a great job with organizing the thousand or so cruisers heading off to various excursions. I had plenty of time to go on all the rides and browse the shops in Hogsmeade. Great shore excursion!
6 of 6 people found this review helpful.
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Review 3 for Universal's Islands Of Adventure®
Overall:
Fun:
5
out of
5
Adventurous:
5
out of
5
Family Oriented:
5
out of
5
Cultural/Educational:
3
out of
5
Anonymous
Location:North Jersey, New Jersey
Party size:2
I traveled with:Other
Cruise Date Month:March
Cruise Date Year:2011
Favorite activities:Adventure
Favorite port:Port Canaveral, Florida
I want to go here next:Bermuda
Date:February 17, 2012
Greatest Excursion
This was an amazing day. Exceeded all exceptions and then went beyond. Bus ride was comfortable with a friendly driver. Once there it is easy to get in and explore and make your way to what ever you wanted. We had to wait to get into harry potter world since it was so full but when we came back at our ticket time we went on all the harry potter rides in less than 3 hours. The roller coasters had a wait time of less than 5 minutes and so we rode it multiple times. Everything about Islands is great. The different themes bring up different memories of past movies and shows while keeping it fun and thrilling for us (21,23). We are going back again this year on our upcoming cruise. Highly recommend this to anyone seeking an Orlando excursion.
11 of 11 people found this review helpful.
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Review 4 for Universal's Islands Of Adventure®
Overall:
Fun:
5
out of
5
Adventurous:
5
out of
5
Family Oriented:
5
out of
5
Cultural/Educational:
2
out of
5
bluelagoon
Location:Connecticut
Party size:1
I traveled with:Family
Cruise Date Month:February
Favorite activities:Family oriented
Favorite port:St. Thomas, U.S. Virgin Islands
I want to go here next:Panama Canal
Date:February 13, 2012
Great day (Feb 6, 2012)
Images for this Review
(click to see full-size image)
(Website is buggy and won't let me enter 2012 as the cruise year.)
I booked the excursion for my daughter and me to be able to relax on the bus and not deal with renting a car ourselves. Main objective was to see all we could of Wizarding World of Harry Potter, even if we didn't get to the rest of the park. Take note of the park's closing time. We were there the first week of February, before school winter breaks began, and closing time was 6pm for the rides and 7pm for the shops and restaurants. That meant we had 5 active hours for seeing the park. You can find out closing time either on the Universal website or by calling the shore ex people at NCL.
It worked out beautifully. We walked off the ship, boarded a coach bus, and were at Universal by 1pm. We received our admission tickets while on the bus. They were good for either of the Universal parks, but not both (there wouldn't have been time for both anyway). Fast Passes are available for purchase, but we waited to see what the lines were like. Note: Fast Pass is not accepted at the Forbidden Journey.
We entered Islands of Adventure, circling to the right to reach Hogsmeade. You can also circle left - entrances are on both sides, but if you are headed straight to Hogwarts Castle and the Forbidden Journey ride, it's closer to the left side entrance.
We had NO lines -- no waiting at all, for any of the rides. Walked right on Forbidden Journey and the Hippogriff coaster and the Dragon coaster. The only thing with a wait was Ollivander's wand shop show, and that was no more than 15 minutes. It's a 6 minute show and about 30 fit in the shop at a time. There are lockers at the entrance to Hogwarts to store all bags - they won't let you ride wearing a backpack, but a waist/fanny pack is ok. It's free for the length of time you need to ride FJ. Since there was no line, there was no wait for a locker. Going on an off peak week made all the difference in the world. We went through the castle twice to have time to admire the decor. We strolled through the stores and had a delicious lunch at The Three Broomsticks. The butterbeer and frozen butterbeer are to die for! In 2 hrs time we'd seen everything we wanted in Potter world and then explored the rest of the park. If you like water rides, be prepared with a poncho or wear a bathing suit - you WILL get wet. Spiderman was closing down Feb 7, 2012 for a month for them to make improvements.
At 6 when the rides closed we did some shopping, got a snack of dippin' dots, and boarded our bus. There was one leaving at 7:15 and the other left at 8pm. An hour ride back to the ship. Worth every penny.
17 of 17 people found this review helpful.
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Review 5 for Universal's Islands Of Adventure®
Overall:
Fun:
5
out of
5
Adventurous:
4
out of
5
Family Oriented:
4
out of
5
Cultural/Educational:
3
out of
5
Shifty24
Location:NJ
Party size:2
I traveled with:Other
Cruise Date Month:June
Cruise Date Year:2011
Favorite activities:Adventure
I want to go here next:Hawaii
Date:June 12, 2011
Worth it for Harry Potter alone
I'm submitting a review on here because I was skeptical about getting to the park on time, and having enough time to see every attraction I wanted, especially Harry Potter. Like a lot of you, I booked this excursion exclusively for Harry Potter, and NCL did a great job of getting us there with enough time to see everything.
The ship docs at 12pm, and at 12:10pm we were out to the port, getting to one of the 4 buses for the Universal Studios excursion and on our way. The ride took about an hour or so, and we received a ticket good for either Universal Studios park (so make sure you know which one you want to go to.. Islands of Adventure is to the LEFT), as well as a return boarding pass for your bus. The bus had 4 trips back, at 7:15, 7:30, 7:45 and 8PM at night.. we got into the park at about 1:30, which gave us 6 hours to see everything.
As soon as we got dropped off we made our way into Islands of Adventure to The Wizarding World of Harry Potter, and although it was very, very busy, I advice going straight to the Forbidden journey first. Here's a really good tip: Don't bring any bags. If you have children, try to take cargo shorts with a lot of pockets for a camera, wallet, and maybe a snack (the food is expensive inside the park but the snack food is reasonably priced)... this will save you a TON OF TIME at the park, since you have to wait on line for a locker for your bags before you get on most of the rides. The Harry Potter wait limit was about 45-90 minutes all day, but the 90 minute wait was only for people waiting for a locker.. if you didn't have any bags, you could walk past that gigantic line you see and go straight onto the waiting line. It's the best possible way to see everything in the park.
Another tip is to get the Fast Pass, but to book it early. If you go to the Islands of Adventure website, you can purchase a Fast Pass for a specific date at a very reasonable price.. we booked our cruise that left on June 4th back in January, and I bought my fastpass in January for Monday June 6th (the date of the excursion). It cost $19.99 per person, with 12 dollars for shipping.. and when we got to the park the FastPass was $59,99! You can still see everything without it, but if you want time to explore Hogsmeade, all of the shops, as well as all of the other islands, then it's totally worth it. With the FastPass you get your own separate line, and we skipped 60 minute lines for Jurassic Park and Spider-Man and literally walked RIGHT ON. I'd say all in all it cut about 2-3 hours of waiting time right out of our trip. Without it, you can still see everything int he park, you just won't have enough time to wait in line for butterbeer, wait in line for the Hogsmeade stores, etc.
Overall, the trip was really well organized and got us to the park with a good 6 hours or so to explore. The Wizarding World of Harry Potter was amazing, and the wait times were normal, and less then what I was anticipating. I would totally book this and remember, leave your bag/strollers on the ship!
66 of 66 people found this review helpful.
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