Mom Street USA | One Day Park Strategy: Universal Islands of Adventure - Chip and Company Podcast Radio Network

Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:05):
Welcome everybody to Mom Street, USA. My name is Jackie
aka Wish's Mama. And on today's episode, we've got a
hub episode because we are continuing our one day park
strategies and today we're talking about our second Universal park.
So we've got our good friends Duck and Jess here
to impart their wonderful universal knowledge of which I have

(00:25):
very little, so I desperately need them here to help
me because we are talking about Islands of Adventure today
in this series that we have started. So this is
park four of seven that we are hopping into today.
But before we hop into it, Duck and Jess, how
are you doing on this wonderful day today?

Speaker 2 (00:44):
Doing pretty good?

Speaker 1 (00:45):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (00:45):
I think we're both excited to talk about Iowa because
we've spent quite a number of hours in Iowa. This
is probably like our between the universal parks are most
visited for like theme park purposes. If we're counting a
that's a totally different ballgame. But yeah, so like for
park park stuff, I think we've spent quite a bit

(01:06):
of time over in Iowa. So yeah, I'm really excited
to talk about it. I really enjoy Iowa.

Speaker 1 (01:11):
Yeah, we've got some good stuff. Now that being said,
we're kind of just going to jump in and here's
here's the deal with this series. And we've said this
before and we'll say it again. This is just it
is what it is. Our goal is to give you
our best possible strategy for going to whatever park it
is we're talking about today, happens to be Islands of Adventure.

(01:33):
We're going to give you two different attacks to this,
one with using the express pass at Universal and one without.
That being said, if there is something on our list
that you're like, I don't want to do that cool, awesome,
just skip it and move on and continue on with
the itinerary that we provide for you today. That also

(01:54):
being said, we're not going to hit every single thing
that you could possibly do in the park. This is
like the high lights, right, this is you've got one day.
How can I make the most of that day in
the park. So you'll hear us talk about, you know,
thrill rides. If you're not a thrill ride person, then
skip them and move on. You might hear us mention
you know a show or a character along the way.
If that's not you, then just skip it and move on.

(02:16):
So you kind of have to have a little bit
of a lay of the land before you listen to this,
just so you know kind of what attractions are good
for you and your group and which ones you're like, Nope,
we're gonna skip that. All that being said, we did
a whole deep dive series on Universal just a few
months ago, so scroll back if you are a total

(02:38):
newbie too, Universal, that's totally cool, so am I. So
I needed that as much as anybody, So scroll back
to that. It is available in our archives wherever you
are listening to us now, so that way you can
familiarize yourself with Islands of Adventure before you listen to this,
because you really do need to have some base knowledge

(02:59):
because we're not going to go in to like super
in depth detail about any of the attractions or anything
like that. So that's my best suggestion to you before
you listen to what we've got to tell you today.
And with that, I'm going to let Duck and Jess
take it away, because, as I have said, and we'll
continue to say, they are our Universal experts over here,

(03:19):
so we are going to let them have at it,
and I'm just here to listen, just like the rest
of you. So Duck and Jess, let's hear what you've
got to share with us for Islands of Adventure.

Speaker 2 (03:29):
Very excited to impart all of our knowledge. Finally, all
those same park tickets have a purpose caring help. So,
like Jackie said, we're gonna run this pretty similarly to
how we've been doing the rest of the series. So
we'll start up top with just like some general information.
Some of it might be a little bit repeaty from
our previous Universal episode because some of the same principles

(03:51):
hold true because of just the nature of the way
that they run their parks. And then we're going to
run into a tentative idea, tenerary and some suggestions with
an express pass and then without an express pass. The
express pass this one that we're doing just like our
other one. There are two types of express passes that
are offered at Universal. There is an unlimited one, which

(04:14):
is literally what it sounds like. It's like, I'm gonna
hop in this express pass and I'm gonna ride Velocit
coaster fourteen times in a row. There is no limit
or retraction, you know what.

Speaker 3 (04:25):
I'm sure someone out there recommend.

Speaker 2 (04:28):
Not me, not me personally, as much as I love
that coaster.

Speaker 3 (04:31):
No, No, I can mows it down is like three
or four times in a row, and we had a
count rock.

Speaker 2 (04:36):
I'm I'm I'm rapidly aging. This is not good.

Speaker 1 (04:41):
So uh yes.

Speaker 2 (04:42):
So there are two different versions, which is the Unlimited
Express and then the Standard Express. The Standard Express is
one express pass basically one front of the line type
pass per attraction. We're going with the more limited one.
We're going with the standard as we're giving this advice
because the Unlimited can get pretty pricey, although that is

(05:04):
offered in some of the higher end resorts as part
of the package, so that is something as you're considering
to price out. Like Jackie also said, we have like
I don't know, a thirty seven part series on Universal
or something talking in depth about like the different ticket
options and the parks and what they all offer. So
that is definitely something for you to look into as
you are planning your vacation ahead of time. Okay, so

(05:26):
with that little bit of preamble send, we're gonna get
into a little bit more of the actual details for
IOA so rope drop for anybody who doesn't know, that
is right at park opening. It is literally physically a
rope that drops, right, I mean really it's like one
of those little like like the red carpet, you know,

(05:46):
I'm talking about this, the little stanchions.

Speaker 1 (05:49):
As the Universals still do actual ropes for theirs.

Speaker 2 (05:52):
So they do them as if Yeah they do, but
it is not like dropped. But they do have. You
see them in malls when there's like the zigzag pattern
of lines though.

Speaker 1 (06:03):
Yeah, that's like a stanchion style kind of Yes, fascinating
because I don't think any of the Disney parks actually
have a physical rope anymore.

Speaker 2 (06:11):
So I don't. So we've seen it when we've gone
in summer. They may not do it all the time,
but then they need to funnel people. You can see
they have cast member team members.

Speaker 1 (06:21):
We saw it got a couple of years ago.

Speaker 2 (06:23):
Yeah, yeah, but not I'm talking about for also for Universal,
same idea though, where they'll kind of funnel you through
the areas of the park that are going to be open.
Right in Ioway's case, they're really going to open Haggard's
and Velosa Coaster for those early morning hours and that's
really you know, so they have team members there checking

(06:44):
your card key because that early morning access is given
to resort guests, so as long as you have that
card key, you can go through. And then they do
have the physical rope as a barrier that they will
open and let you through if you are eligible to
enter the park itself. So yeah, they do because they
kind of corral you. And then they still have it,

(07:05):
which is a little surprising. I didn't think I still would,
but the last three times that we went with early
entry they had them. So I kind of love that.

Speaker 1 (07:14):
I wish Disney would bring that back, just because like
that terminology is kind of like lost on so many
now because it's like it used to be the literal
physical rope, like I can recall previously. You know, they
literally would walk you down the walkways in the parks
with the rope to enter you. So okay, anyway, but
I digress. What do we need to know about when

(07:35):
to get there for rope drop for IOA.

Speaker 2 (07:37):
So we gave this advice last time, and this holds
true that you were going to want to get there
between a half hour and an hour before your earliest time.
That is generally you are allowed to get in at
eight am if you are a resort guest. And it
is nine ish for anybody else who was staying off
property or an annual pass holder or what have you.

(08:00):
We give such a dramatic range because it's really hard
to tell time of year, what attractions are going to
actually be open, how busy it'll be, et cetera, et cetera.
So if you are going, you can kind of get
a feel, you know, even how busy your resort is
or how many cars are in the parking lot, right like,
you can kind of guess if it's going to be
a busy time of year, if it's Christmas, if it's
a summer break, something like that. So those instances, you

(08:24):
were gonna want to get up and get your butt
there pretty early, at least an hour before, so seven
ish a little after, and then you know, if it's
a slower time, if it's just like a random Wednesday
in the spring, you're usually good to just do the
half hour early to get in there and to start
knocking some rides out. So we also have I do

(08:47):
just want to touch on it briefly. We talked about
it in the last episode, so I won't go through
it as in depth, but for city Walk, city Walk,
for anybody who doesn't know. That's like the nightlife district.
It's like a separate almost like a like a Disney
Springs type situation with a lot of entertainment. There's movie theaters,
there's restaurants, et cetera. If you have only one day,

(09:08):
we do not really recommend spending too much time in there,
but you do have to walk through it if you
are coming from off property. So if you are ubering
in or you are parking in the parking garage, your
security checkpoint will be just before City Walk and you
will walk through City Walk and then you'll go left
to go to islands at the venture.

Speaker 1 (09:29):
Totally related but unrelated question, where do the buses drop
you off?

Speaker 2 (09:33):
So the buses will drop you off there is that's
a good question.

Speaker 1 (09:38):
There's a spot in the parking garage.

Speaker 2 (09:39):
So there is a spot.

Speaker 1 (09:40):
That's what I was thinking. So even if you're taking
the resort buses, don't you still come in at the
parking garage?

Speaker 2 (09:47):
Yeah, you do, but and it's a little bit different
than how they do it at Disney, for like the
security screening, right, so like you get screens. I'm just
really what I'm thinking about is like Magic Kingdom I
guess it's not that different. So, yeah, dumps you in
the parking garage. It's a little different for a while,
but I think I've gone back to the parking garage now.

Speaker 1 (10:06):
That's what I was thinking as I was like, and
I thought that when I was listening to the other
episode when I was editing it, I was like, blesses
go man. I was like, wait a minute, where do
the buses drop you off? And I was like, wait,
I think they drop you off with the same spot. Okay,
we're good. That was all just wanted some clarification for
my own brain on that.

Speaker 2 (10:25):
Yep, totally fair. Yes, there is there's a little special
area in the parking garage that they'll will drop you off.

Speaker 3 (10:31):
Exit you're taking like the boat or walking like you
end up going through a different checkpoint and you'll end
up like coming out closer to either USF or IOA,
depending on which side of the property your murder is on.

Speaker 1 (10:44):
So you'll walk all the way through your city walk, gotcha? Okay? Cool.

Speaker 2 (10:49):
So the other thing to note throughout the discussion is
that Iowa has many more attractions that are like e
ticket type attractions than USF did, Right, So there might
be some harder decisions that need to be made. However,
we are going to keep referencing the two Big Ones,
which is Hagrids Magical Motorbike Creature Adventure or something like that.

Speaker 1 (11:12):
It's the longest name. It's got the longest name. It's
too many.

Speaker 2 (11:18):
It is like a panic at the disco song, or
call it boy song.

Speaker 1 (11:21):
Hagrid's Magical Creatures Motorbike Adventure. That's it.

Speaker 2 (11:26):
So all seventy of those words. So there's Hagrids and
then there's Veloca Coaster. So those are like the two
true blue big attractions. They are both coasters. So if
that does not interest you, there are plenty of other
things to be done, right, There's the Amazing Spider Man,

(11:47):
which is like it's like a motion simulator ride, but
it's a little less violent the most motion simulators I've found.
There's a billion things to do over in the Jurassic
Park area. There is additional rides within the hair Potter area.
Of course, there's Sou's Landing, right, so there's a trillion
other things. Yeah, but we are going to talk. We

(12:07):
are sort of going to build these schedules around the
two Big Ones because that is for folks who are
theme park folks generally going to be the big draw
is those two rides that this really comes more, it
becomes more impactful. When we're talking about the non express
you were going to be crisscrossing this park much more

(12:28):
so with USF we were kind of able to just
send you in a circle. Pretty logically. It is simply
not going to be this way at Iowa. There are
so many different attractions that are so like they're just
diagonal to each other, right, and there's no direct route
so you kind of have to go all the way
around to get to them. It is just it is

(12:48):
just the way that the park was constructed. So it
can be a lot more walking if you do not
have Express and you are determined to hit as many
rides as humanly pods. So just something to keep in mind,
there's a lot more crosscrossing, a lot more walking if
hitting everything is your big goal. Right, we'll talk about
it more later, but you know, if you have your

(13:10):
top couple, that's less of a sticking point with the
way that Ioway is designed. But just just a heads up,
there's going to be a lot more running back and
forth with this one.

Speaker 1 (13:22):
Yeah, don't love that about just the Universal parks in general.
Now Green It's some of the Disney parks are not
much better. Right, if you look at the map of
like a Hollywood Studios, it's terrible, right, it's terrible if
you're trying to get from you know, rock and roller
coaster to a Rise of the Resistance, absolutely horrendous to
get there. However, Universal really didn't. I don't know, I

(13:44):
feel like there wasn't a ton of thought put into
that other than oh, we want pretty water in the middle. Okay, yeah,
but now your people are like, do it literally lapping
the lake that you put in the middle of your park.

Speaker 2 (13:56):
It was much more. It was designed almost as the
larger sibling of USF, So they took those same design
principles of water in the middle, loop it around, make
like a random bridge across two sections in the back
of the park before some of these extensions. Right, So

(14:18):
when Hagrids used to be a set of coasters called
Dueling Dragons, that was the big attraction. So we had
one big attraction in the back. And then of course
the Incredible Hulk has been there I think since opening,
so that was the other big attraction. And that was
in the front, and then you other kind of had
like these other like disparate things connecting them through these

(14:38):
different lands, right. I think also what hurts it is
the fact that a whole section is gone, right, the
Lost Continent, it's gone. So when you are trekking from
Seuss landing all the way back either into Jurassic or
into the Harry Potter section, it feels like a trillion
mile walk because there is no longer a land with

(14:59):
a track in it. Break up that walk, right, So
I think that's also I think some of the design
stuff it was designed for when the park was simply
different and it's much more difficult now. I would really
love they just put an island with some bridges coming
off of it in the middle. I think that would

(15:19):
be a welcome update, But just based on the design
of the park, I simply don't think that they will.

Speaker 1 (15:25):
Yeah, you know, the hub and spokes layout of theme
parks works for a reason, and I think that Universal
has the spokes but not the hub, So we're just
kind of stuck going from spoke to spoke instead of
being able to crisscross a little bit more efficiently. I

(15:47):
don't know, I mean, no matter what, you're still going
to get caught going across the park, right, I mean,
even at like Magic Kingdom, that is literally the epitome
of a hub and spoke park, you still have to
trek crisscross and you still get up you know, twenty
thousand steps and when you're there during the day minimum, however,
it's a little bit easier to navigate and you don't

(16:09):
feel like you're constantly going in circles when you have
the ability to make a more of a straight line
path ticket where you're trying to go. So I digress.
It is what it is. We'll figure it out, right,
That's what we're here for. We are here to help you,
help us. We'll all figure it out together.

Speaker 2 (16:27):
That's it. We're all aboard the struggle bus together, guys.

Speaker 1 (16:30):
That's the move it's so true about. All right, So
we are going to talk first about using express pass correct, yes, yes, okay,
So where what do we need to know? Tell us Jess, So.

Speaker 3 (16:46):
Again, this is if you do have the single you
standard express pass and again Victor rid people, So this
is you know, kind of the focus of the recommendations.
If you are not throw ride coaster people, you can
skip over some of these recommendations. So the morning at
Tenerary between seven and eight, you're gonna want to arrive
at the park, so like we said earlier, you know,

(17:08):
arriving about an hour early half hour to an hour
before your earliest like entry time. So if Haggard's and
the Lost Coaster are on your list, you'll want to
head off to the right. With early entry, you kind
of get funneled through Sous's landing and the Lost Continent area,
and then you end up rip rip Yeah.

Speaker 2 (17:29):
As Victoria and our chat just said, the Lost Continent.

Speaker 3 (17:31):
Is lost, and then you have kind of the choice
from there to go off towards the right to the
Harry Potter section to ride Haggards, or off towards the
left to go to the Loosta Coaster. If Haggards is
a priority for your party, or even something that you
think you might want to ride, we honestly recommend making
that your first stop. The line tends to get very long,

(17:52):
very quickly, even during the early entry hours, so definitely,
you know, see how long that wait is, you might
have to just eat your express pass right now on it,
or you can maybe sneak in a ride without it
and then maybe get on it again later, but probably not.

Speaker 2 (18:09):
Which I do. Just want to interrupt a really quick chess.
Hagrids now accepts express. For a very long time, it
did not and as of May of twenty five, so
I don't know five months ago, I don't know numbers
as of a few months ago. Six okay, I was
pretty close. It's actually pretty good for me on the
fly math. But yeah, so it now accepts express, And

(18:34):
it also depends on when you were getting into the park.
The early morning entry you can't use express. So if
you were getting there and you were thinking that it's
just like a touch too long, maybe turntail head back
to Velosa Coaster, or just get something to eat really
quick er, just like wander around for a couple of minutes,
and then as it gets closer to that like official

(18:55):
opening time at nine or so, then you can pop
in the line and you burn the express if you
want to.

Speaker 1 (19:02):
Now, Hygrids also has a single rider line. However, that
single rider line can also get extremely long and will
not be open during that early entry time, so that's
another option if your group is able to utilize the
single rider line. Depending on ages and all that good stuff.

(19:24):
But keep that in mind as well, that that line
can be very very long.

Speaker 3 (19:29):
So Haggards is like a two seat across situation, so
it's very rare that I think like they end up
with a single writer needed. So that's why it does
sometimes take just as long to get through the single
rider line.

Speaker 2 (19:42):
I will also say during the peace, I know it
is extremely untypical of the single rider line, but when
we have gone over the summer, they have had the
single writer open line even for the early morning express
or early morning hours, so it is really uncommon. I
don't think that they do this all the time, but

(20:03):
I think when their ticket numbers hit over a certain amount,
they're like, we just got to get this going. But
I do agree with the I just want to you know,
third that the single writer is Hagrid's is truly a
unique situation, and it is I don't want to say
generally not advise, but just be prepared. The single writer
may not be faster than any of the other lines.

Speaker 1 (20:22):
Yeah, all right, so we've we've gone towards Hagrid's. We're
making a decision. What do we need to do after that?

Speaker 3 (20:29):
Yes, so if you choose to ride hagrids. Then after that,
your next bet is to go over to Vlasa Coaster
ride that you can typically get on it, especially this
early in the morning without using your Express pass. Of
Lost Coaster is a pretty high capacity ride, so it
typically you know, will have lower weight times throughout the day,
So definitely try to get in some rides without your

(20:50):
express pass. Now you can maybe even write it again
if you want to.

Speaker 2 (20:55):
Which we totally have.

Speaker 1 (20:56):
We have.

Speaker 3 (20:56):
We just gone right back on.

Speaker 2 (20:58):
We've been I think we wrote it three times in
a row once and we were all like in through
the queue on the ride and done with those three
rides in forty five minutes. I mean, like it is
shocking how quickly there people through there.

Speaker 1 (21:12):
So that would be our recommendation.

Speaker 3 (21:14):
If you've done Veloca Coaster once and don't want to
do it again, or you don't want to do it
at all, then we recommend continuing back on to the
rest of the Harry Potter section where you can ride
the two rides that are in there, which is the
Forbidding Journey Castle ride and then Flight of the Hippogriff
and so kind of doing haggards of Velosa Coaster will
probably put you somewhere around the ten to eleven am mark,

(21:37):
depending on if you had the early entry or not.
So then from there ride the other Harry Potter rides.
Flight of the Hippogriff is one we would recommend if
you have like young kids who are like maybe this
is their first roller coaster that they can do. It's
really like if you ride it as an adult, it
is just a terrible chiropractical adjustment. It is not a
good time for like a grown adult.

Speaker 2 (21:57):
It is a very cute coaster. I just do not
know that I can physically go on and it can.

Speaker 3 (22:03):
Yeah, it's totally fair, one and done if you're an adult.
So just if your express past, just get through, do
it for the for the cuteness, and then go about
your day. Maybe get some ice for your knees and
take a rest, and then you could also have some
breakfast if you wanted to before doing the Harry Potter rides. Typically,

(22:25):
like the Castle ride has a lot of screens. It's like, uh,
it's the animatronic ar right, You're on the arm and
it's like thank you. Yeah, so yeah, you get flipped
around quite yes, and it does tend to make duck
a little motion sick. So if you are somebody that
is kind of sensitive to things like that, we don't
recommend eating before riding those rides. Maybe wait till after,
get some lunch early rather than doing like a breakfast beforehand.

(22:47):
But if you can handle it, go for it.

Speaker 2 (22:49):
More power to you, not power to you.

Speaker 1 (22:51):
Yeah, I think Forbidden Journey is one of the like
top motion sick concerns when it comes to universal rides
just general, So just keep that in mind. Do also
keep in mind that these we know, we understand that
those Harry Potter areas are super immersive and a lot
of people like that's their jam, that's their favorite thing.

(23:12):
You can go through the queue and then just bail
out before the ride, so like if you want to
see all of the details and all of the everything
in there, go through the queue and then just let
the cast member know towards the end, like hey, I'm
not riding, and they'll show you exactly where to go
to chicken exit they call it, quote unquote but to
exit out. So that way you can just you know,
not endure the motion sick aspect of that, but you

(23:36):
are still welcome to go through that queue. If that's
something that you're like, Hey, you know, my family wants
to ride, I don't want to ride. I'm gonna stay
in the queue with them and then just bail.

Speaker 2 (23:45):
Yep, totally fair, exactly, no shame and dipping out, Yeah
for sure.

Speaker 1 (23:51):
Okay, so after we've hit through the Harry Potter area.

Speaker 2 (23:56):
Let's recommend you continue on into the Jurassic area to
then get lunch. So there's a trillion options in the
Jurassic Park area. I mean they're really I mean they're
all generally safe options. Right. There's like, I think a
pretzel stand in there. There's a little pizza place, and
then there is where we will usually eat, which is

(24:17):
called Thunderfalls Terrace.

Speaker 1 (24:19):
You can't miss it.

Speaker 2 (24:20):
It's in the giant building that looks like the giant
building in Jurassic Park, the Welcome Center. That was the word,
not the Giant building, the Welcome Center, thank you, thank
yeah sint it whatever. It is technically a giant building,
so exactly, it's on the second floor up there. It's
just a quick service place, right, I think they do,

(24:40):
like you can double check the menu, but we usually
will just get like some quick chicken fingers and fries
up there. So this, if you're following along with our itinerary,
this will put you at a slightly earlier lunch. Even
if you were able to do Hagrid's Veloci coaster and
then into the Castle or anything else in that area,

(25:01):
this will still put you about eleven thirty and twelve.
So it's like starting to get into when people are
looking for lunch, but still on the earlier end of that.
And that is I think I'm sure you know we've
all said it at some point through this whole series,
which is please, please, please try to eat at oft
times if you can. Yeah, it will, It will save you,
It really will. So if you can go early and

(25:23):
wait late for different you know, for dinner or whatever,
that's the way to go. There's tons of snacks, and
we said it in an earlier one. You can You're
more than welcome to bring in snacks, right like emergency cheese.
It's are always welcome and universal. So if you do
not want to continue on into the Jurassic Park portion yet, though,
you can instead turn around and head back towards the

(25:43):
Seus's landing area. We especially recommend this if you have
kiddos who need to get like post lunch wiggles out right,
like we all know, kids, it's exciting. They maybe got
like a little too much juice for lunch and it's
over from there, right. So, because this Sou's Landing area
really is is the area that's like most child friendly

(26:03):
with all of the attractions in there. There is Circus
mcgirkis Cafe, which, on top of being fun to say,
is also like a solid quick service location, so you
can pop in there, have some food and then knock
out a couple of the things that are in sous Landing.
The weights in sous Landing generally they yet it generally
do not get above like fifteen ish minutes. Maybe a

(26:26):
touch higher if it's like a really really busy time,
but they are it's like pretty reliably low weights. And
there is like you know, like a carousel and a
little like play area so kiddos can get a little
bit of energy out. If you did choose to go
to the Jurassic there's also Camp Jurassic for the same effect.
There's a little playground it's dinosaur themed. If you need

(26:47):
to just let a little kiddo run around while you're
digesting your chicken fingers. That is a okay. So once
you have had your lunch some delicious, delicious chicken fingers,
perhaps a pizza, you know, let's and if you want
to get really crazy with it, this is going to
stick you around twelve thirty to one thirty, depending on
again how busy it is, how long you were taking right, Like,

(27:09):
we like to take a slightly longer launch when we
have express because it lets us like sit and cool
down in the air conditioning and maybe miss some of
that like real heat of the day, you know, for
the times of year that we go. And then you
can either hit up a few things in Jurassic, which
we do recommend. There's a bunch of cool stuff in there.

(27:31):
We particularly love the Jurassic River Adventure. There's also a
little it's like a cross between a show and a
meet and greet, the Little Raptor Encounter, which is extremely fun.
And again, like we said before, if you have kiddos
who need to run around, there's Camp Jurassic, which is
a really good spot. There's also Teodon Flyers which is
the like child exclusive. You can only get on there

(27:54):
if you have a small child. It's basically just like
a little it was like a like a bike ride
above that area of the park. So that's it's like
a pretty cool, unique thing where kiddos get to see,
like they really feel like they're flying on a dinosaur basically.

Speaker 1 (28:10):
So Tranda on Flyers. What else is in that Jurassic
area that we may have missed?

Speaker 2 (28:16):
Other than Taranda on Flyers, you can also do the
Jurassic River adventure like I just mentioned, which is their
splash Mountain is maybe how I'll put that. That's that's
perhaps the closest equivalency I can give. I should give
no more details. We love that ride. It is very fun,

(28:39):
so if you are once you've done a couple of
things in Jurassic it also has a great atmosphere. I
really love it in there in the welcome center, there
is also like little activities on the ground floor, like
as if you are truly in the welcome center for
Jurassic Park, So that's like a fun little activity and
also you can hang out in air conditioning for a
couple of minutes. It's pretty great. But once you were

(29:03):
done in that section, continuing on within like the Circle
of Ioa, you would then come next to Kong Skull Island,
which has a single attraction. It is perhaps generous calling
it an island, but they classify it as an island
onto itself. So like in the most technical sense that

(29:23):
is true, Kong is I'm gonna call Kong a one
and done for us, And I think for most people,
I've never met anybody who is like a Universal fan
who's like, you gotta ride Kong three times when you go,
like it is a motion simulator ride. You're in a
jeep and it is rough riding. So if you've never
done it, I recommend doing it once. It's a pretty

(29:45):
cool ride. But just like, burn the express pass and
move on. There's there's don't linger here, don't wait, just
use the express and go. Yeah, So once you're.

Speaker 1 (29:54):
Done with.

Speaker 2 (29:57):
Getting bounced around in Kong's jeep, then move on to
Toon Lagoon is the next area. So there's two rides
in Tuon Lagoon there is Popeye and Blueto's Bilge Rat Barges.

Speaker 1 (30:12):
Very difficult to say that is what is what these
names universal.

Speaker 2 (30:17):
Again like it got these were all named in the nineties,
is what happened? Right Like this is this is a
very nineties theme park in the in the most loving
way possible. They've done a lot to update it, but
there are still remnants. So yeah, so there's that, which
is like a rapid style ride, right, you're like in
the circular boat situation and you kind of get rocked

(30:38):
around and splashed and whatnot. And then there is Dudley
do Wright's Rips off Falls, and that is a log
flume for people who really actually just wanted to go swimming.
You are, that's the best way, but you are going
to get soaked on this ride. It is merciless. It

(30:59):
is that you truly might as well just have dove
in a pool. It's crazy. So if you're not super
into getting soaking at that exact moment, which yeah, I
was to say, which we are not.

Speaker 1 (31:13):
I'm not a water rod person.

Speaker 2 (31:14):
I don't like being like then dripping wet walking around
a theme park. That's not my vibe. This is also
one you can come back to later in the evening.
A lot of people will just do this as their
last thing on the way out. You know you do it,
or you know you don't have to. We usually skip it,
but we do like walking through uh Toon Lagoon because

(31:35):
it is just a just a fun themed area that, like,
I know I was joking about it being from the
nineties or whatever, but like it is truly like a
fun remnant of when theme park design was thought of
a little bit differently. And it is also fun. Like
there's little photo ops in there. There's usually like a
couple of different character photo ops h Popeye and Olive

(31:58):
Oil will meet regularly, so there's us a little playground
in there on uh me ship the Olive Oil. I
think it's called from Popeye. So like it's just very fun,
which is very I think nostalgic for people our age
and older. I don't I don't know that a lot
of children are like, like know who these people are, Like,
oh my god, Dudley, do right right? Zero clothe even

(32:22):
for your Fraser movie. I don't think. I don't think
there's enough children who are aware of it.

Speaker 1 (32:27):
Once we decide that we're not getting drenched, uh huh,
where are we headed next?

Speaker 2 (32:36):
So once you don't want what socks, We're just gonna
move on through. The next area is the Marvel Superhero Island,
which I know might confuse some people. They are technically
legally allowed to use these Marvel characters east of the Mississippi.
That's the rule. So there are a bunch of shocking

(32:57):
characters that show up, So you get like Captain America
and Wolverine and miscellaneous members of the Fantastic Four and
the Hobgoblin and Storm and like everybody. It's just one
random characters. So yeah, they do have the rights to those.
Surprising as it is, it is technically only here on

(33:18):
the East Coast. So this seems like the only non
Disney Marvel section with these heroes that ever will be,
which is like a weird quirk and I just love it.
It's just so, isn't it like that?

Speaker 3 (33:29):
For like ever? Yeah, right, will never expire for universe.

Speaker 2 (33:33):
I believe it is in perpetuity. I believe that's true.
Anna and the Chad just put it perfectly. It's like
the comic book versions, right, So it is very specific
iterations of these characters that they are permitted to have.
So it's like comic costume Wolverine. It's not Hugh Jackman Wolverine, right, So, like.

Speaker 1 (33:51):
It's just wise Disney can have Guardians of the Galaxy
because it's not a blanket Marvel MCU contract agreement.

Speaker 2 (33:58):
Right, it is very specif it characters in very specific instances,
and there is a parade where they are all on
four wheelers and we talked about day and it's because
it is so shocking, like I couldn't have written a
comedy bit better. Well, I'm talking Jess is facing me,

(34:21):
my back is to the window, and I'm talking about
how these characters are like able.

Speaker 1 (34:25):
To be used by and in the background the driving
by run by slowly on their four wheelers.

Speaker 2 (34:34):
It was so it was so funny.

Speaker 1 (34:38):
Oh my gosh, that's amazing this, Like I could not.

Speaker 2 (34:43):
Have scripted a better moment. It was just amazing that
like slowly and you can like hear like the Doppler
effect right, like it's slowly getting louder as they're passing by.
It's just incredible. It's just amazing.

Speaker 1 (34:55):
I love this.

Speaker 2 (34:56):
Okay, So if you want to catch a very interesting parade,
they run that a couple times throughout the day to
just see your favorite superheroes on four wheelers for fun
with us. They all have a sick custom pain jobs.
They're like cool four wheelers. It's just not what you'd imagine.

Speaker 1 (35:14):
Yeah, I don't know that I would ever. Yeah, I
don't know that I would ever picture that. So, yeah,
sounds great anyway.

Speaker 2 (35:22):
Yes, moving on, so this will back to the itinerary.
This should place you like three point thirty four ish.
You can grab food at the cafe that's right there.
I think it was Captain America thing. I think it's
Fantastic four themed, and then there's like a Captain America
portion to it whatever they're calling it nowadays, there is

(35:42):
a singular cafe in there, so if you are really
feeling food, like maybe you decided to eat later rather
than early, now would be a good time to just
pop in and grab something quick, or if you want
a late and delay dinner until later. There is an
Anian's pretzel cart which has really good pretzel that is
also within the land. It's right across from the exit

(36:04):
of Spider Man, I believe, so that is like a
good a good quick snack to just hold you over
if need be.

Speaker 1 (36:11):
I feel like we talk about pretzels in every Universal
episode now because.

Speaker 2 (36:15):
They have amazing deals with Anians. I think it's also
like in perpetuity, Anians can just exist in Universal.

Speaker 1 (36:22):
It's crazy. I love it. I love it.

Speaker 2 (36:25):
So we're pretzel people, It's true. I like a snack
you like a plastic cheese moment, So what's not the love?
But within the land, when it comes to like actual
things to do in the Marvel Superhero section, it is
there's the Big Three, right, so there is the incredible
Hulk Coaster, which is literally impossible to mess from anywhere

(36:46):
in the park. There is the Amazing Adventures of Spider Man,
which I mentioned earlier. It is like a motion simulator
ride with some three D glasses. If you are super
duper sensitive to motion, this might be a no go.
I am pretty sensitive to motion, and I'm totally okay
on this, and I think it's because you're really like
moving through space with a little bit of motion simulation

(37:07):
screen to it, so that for me that helps. If
that's also good for you, then this is a great ride.
I love it. And there's also Doctor Doom's Fearful, which,
if anybody has ever been on like those old school
parachute tower rides where they bring you up and drop you,
it is like that, but inverse, because you go really
fast going up and then they slowly drop you back down.

(37:28):
It's kind of like a reverse Tower of Terror almost
right where they pull you up really quick and then
they slowly lower you like halfway, and then they pull
you up really quick, and that's like the motion.

Speaker 1 (37:39):
I didn't realize it was inverse. I always assumed it
was the standard tower.

Speaker 2 (37:45):
Yeah, and I think every I think everybody does. And
that's like the trick of it, right, because they inverted
the expected like ride experience.

Speaker 1 (37:54):
Yeah, fascinating now real right now. I do want to
clarify if in case anyone is wondering, as we are
going through these, you guys are suggesting that express passes
are being used for all of these as we are
going through. Correct, So when we're hitting things like these

(38:14):
three rides in the Marvel area, these are with your
express pass.

Speaker 2 (38:19):
Correct.

Speaker 1 (38:20):
Just wanted to make sure that we remembered where we
were for ourselves and for the listening audience.

Speaker 2 (38:25):
Way seventeen sidebars at this point. That's so fair. I
will say Doctor Dooms very rarely has a long wait
because it's a really high capacity ride and a lot
of people don't like the drop tower style rides, so
it does not have a very long I think the
longest I've ever seen was maybe ten minutes if that, Like,
it does not take very long, But that's also one

(38:47):
like if you just simply don't feel like waiting even
for like the next car to arrive, basically right, like,
you can just use your Express and burn it and
be down with it and you can always go back
on in reasonable time. Spider Man can get a can
have a very long wait. So the one thing that
I will say is if it is extremely hot out
and you have to pick a ride to be sort

(39:09):
of like you it's in your top and you know
you're gonna have to wait, I would nominate Spider Man
to be the one that you wait at because it
has great air conditioning and it's like fun little like
almost like interactive bits through it. It's not like a
Peter Pan in Magic Kingdom where there's like fully interactive,
but there's like little voice clips and you can hear

(39:30):
Jonah Jamison calling Peter Parker, and you can hear like
the villains trying to hatch their plan as you're going
through it. So there is a little bit of storyline
to the queue. And it is great air conditioning. So
if I have to nominate something for you to wait
in a line for, it's not like forever, but it
can get you know, a little on the on the

(39:51):
higher spectrum of waiting. I recommend Spider Man, I really do.
It's like a nice comfortable queue to be stuck in
if you have to pick one.

Speaker 3 (39:58):
Let's say you're a comic nerd. There's like all kinds
of little Easter eggs and stuff throughout the queue too,
so that's fun to look out for.

Speaker 2 (40:04):
So mm hmm, I just turned into like that Leonardo
DiCaprio pointing meme, wor I'm with that one. It's over there,
and then sets from that.

Speaker 3 (40:11):
Time, I'm constantly yelling something at me.

Speaker 2 (40:12):
I'm like, okay, You're like.

Speaker 1 (40:13):
Sure here, whatever you say, Darlin.

Speaker 2 (40:16):
Yeah, I'm like, oh my god. And then this is
the date from this crossover, and you're like, whatever, sweetie short.

Speaker 1 (40:24):
I love this. Okay. So we've hit the three inside
of the Marvel area. Where what's our next plan?

Speaker 2 (40:32):
So I actually will have one more caveat. Depending on
the time of day that you are going through this,
we do not recommend going on the Incredible Hulk if
it is extremely hot out or it is like if
it's summer and it's like.

Speaker 3 (40:47):
One piece afternoon sun is like directly above you in
the sky, Like, don't do it.

Speaker 2 (40:52):
Come back later, come back later, because it gets very
hot in that queue. Now, the que goes pretty fast.
It's another high capacity ride. It can be anywhere between
like on the on the medium end, like thirty minutes
up to we've seen like I'm gonna say, like an
hour and change, So it can be a pretty long wait. Actually,
I think the longest that we've seen it be was

(41:13):
like almost two hours during like real peak summer season.
So it can. It doesn't happen often because like I said,
it's a very high capacity ride, but prepping for the
worst case scenario gets hot in there. On top of that,
it is a launch coaster. It launches you into the sun,
and if you are like poor Jess, you are going

(41:36):
to like gray out.

Speaker 3 (41:38):
Yeah, like she like border way, I never have an
issue on any other ride, like this is not a
thing anywhere else, but something about the launch on Hulk
and then just like staring right at the sun like
it is I just I can't do it.

Speaker 2 (41:52):
Yeah, so we if this is severely dependent on time
of day and what other planes you have going on, right,
maybe you can't double back to hit Hulk later, and
so it like it's now or never. It's okay. The
express goes pretty quick as long as there's no mechanical issues,
but it gets really warm in there. I think the

(42:14):
longest we've waited for express on Hulk was a half
hour because there were some mechanical issues and it will
shoot you straight into the sun, so like maybe just
close your eyes, like totally, totally. It's just like once
you get past the launch, you're okay. And and in
fact you are not the only person that I've heard
that from. I routinely hear this, even fad like big
coaster people like us. So if you can wait and

(42:35):
ride it at night, I think you're gonna have a
more comfortable experience and the waight times drop significantly. I
think it's usually like a twenty five minute wait, usually
after like six o'clock ish. So you go through that's
with or without express, like you can go through really quick.
So if you can avoid being blinded, we highly recommend it.
But if there's simply no choice and it's now or never,

(42:57):
don't skip the Hulk. If you're a coaster person, it
is fun coaster duly noted. Yeah, so listen, I know
that's crystal information for you. In particular, yep, big coaster
head over here, all right, you ready?

Speaker 3 (43:12):
Yeah, So that kind of puts you around dinnertime, around
five thirty or six o'clock. So you can either head
to like the Port of Entry area, which is the
entrance to Iowa, or you can grab some food, or
you can do what we recommend and head over to
Seus's landing. You can go to Circus mcgirkis for some
food and then you know kind of hang out in there.

Speaker 2 (43:36):
Port of Call has a couple of food options. We've
never eaten there, not because I'm like, oh my god,
get away from me, but the choices there, I don't.
I would I would classify them as more friendly for
adventurous eaters because there is like several different fusion areas.

(43:56):
There's a Starbucks if you just need like a quick coffee,
that's not a few usion situation acts, just a Starbucks.
So like that is always a good option if you
need just like a quick caffeine hit. But that's why
we are recommending, like just continue on to Circus mcgurkus
if you are not interested in like a sit down
fusion situation. I think that then continuing on.

Speaker 3 (44:17):
Yeah, yeah, we tend to eat very like not bland
in theme parks, but we tend to stick with like
the safer options.

Speaker 2 (44:24):
Oh child, Yeah, like chicken fingers, yes, pullies.

Speaker 3 (44:31):
So spend it over and from the issues at times.
So you've gotta you gotta do it, you gotta do
that's it. Yeah, So, however you choose to eat at
theme parks, but yeah, so then heading to Sue's Landing
Circus mcgurkus has very safe options for dinner.

Speaker 1 (44:48):
And then this is really.

Speaker 3 (44:50):
The cleanup time, you know, kind of like we said
with studios. But if you have kiddos and you skip
Sou's Landing before, this is definitely a time to kind
of explo are all the rides in there, especially the
very unhinged Cat and Hat Dark ride.

Speaker 1 (45:05):
Listen, listen. That ride is adorable. It is no we
love it, but it is very unhinged.

Speaker 2 (45:11):
It's crazy.

Speaker 1 (45:12):
I mean, it's just it's it's it's what you would
expect putting your immersing yourself into the cat in the
Hat story. I love it. It's it's adorable. It's like.

Speaker 3 (45:22):
Every time that hinged is a is a compliment.

Speaker 2 (45:25):
Here to be clear, it's not like, oh my god,
never go on this this is the worst. It's you
have to experience this, It's just crazy.

Speaker 3 (45:34):
Yeah, all right, yeah, so ride the Unhinged ride. There's
also like the little carousel in there. There's like a
couple of cute little rides for kiddos in there, so
that is something to do. And then really now it's
time to like slow down, do some shopping. If you
haven't you know, used your Express pass on something throughout
the day, go back and you know, burn through the
Express pass. But really, I think with IOA, you you

(45:56):
kind of really have to use Express for most of
the day to get through everything, just because there is
so much more to offer here than at studios. But
you know, again it's towards the end of the night though,
so even if there's something you use Express on and
maybe now the line is a little bit shorter, you know,
you can go back and do that. Or if you,
like us, chose to not go swimming, you can go

(46:18):
back to the to do an area and go on
those rides, you know, as you're heading out of the park.
And then for kind of nighttime entertainment, Universal is not
super big on it. It's they're getting there and then
adding a lot of things but the only kind of
nighttime thing that they have here is the production show

(46:38):
on the Harry Potter Castle, so it's not always running,
but if it is, definitely head over there.

Speaker 1 (46:43):
If you're there.

Speaker 3 (46:44):
At Halloween time, I think they have something like Chris
Bright or at Christmas. At Christmas time they have like
a special winter like show. So if you're there at
that time of year, awesome.

Speaker 1 (46:57):
Right, Okay, So I think that kind of for the
most part wraps up are with Express day. So let's
move on now to talking about if we do not
have Express because I think this is a little bit
trickier for a one day strategy. So what do we
need to know without Express?

Speaker 2 (47:17):
Yes?

Speaker 3 (47:18):
So right, yeah, So, like you said earlier, definitely you're
going to be doing a lot more cresscrossing across the
park without express passes. It is probably not gonna be
possible to hit every single ride in the park. So
like with USF, we do recommend kind of picking your
top three must dos, focusing on that and then everything

(47:38):
else is gravy. So you again curss crossing back and forth.
Iowa is also a much bigger park too, like we've
kind of been talking about, so and it is you know,
kind of that big circle, so there's not really a
lot of like easy cutthroughs to get around, so you
kind of do have to like go around in circles
or like make a half circle then go back to
the other half circle to get to the other side

(47:59):
of the park.

Speaker 2 (48:00):
Rout and round we go.

Speaker 3 (48:02):
Yeah, and then again, like it's also harder to give
exact timing of things just due to the fact that,
again you don't have those express passes, So you might
get stuck in a three hour line for haggards if
that's really something that you want to do, and then
that kind of throws off the whole timing of your day.
So again, like we mentioned in the last episode about USF,
the app is going to be your best friend when

(48:23):
you're doing this without express passes. It's really going to
be your guide, kind of setting alerts, keeping an eye
on the times on the app, and definitely like if
you see an attraction that you really want to do,
drop below forty five minutes, definitely head you know over
there and hop in line as soon as you can,
cause you might not see a line that low throughout
the rest of the day. And then without express the

(48:46):
general you know, kind of move would definitely be to
knock out one and two of your big three as
fast as possible. So if that's you know, Velocit Coaster
and Haggard's head right there, hop in on those lines,
get those done and over with and then you can
kind of go about the rest of your day and
kind of hit in number three if you can, or
you know, if it's got too long of a line,

(49:06):
you know, maybe kind of hit some of those other
things that do have shorter weights and then go back
to that kind of towards the end of the night
we're close to closing, you know. Kind of same with Disney.
Once you get if you get in line and the
park closes, they will let you stay.

Speaker 1 (49:17):
In line until you get on the ride.

Speaker 3 (49:19):
So maybe save that really big ticket that has a
very long line for the end of the night, But.

Speaker 2 (49:24):
Don't wait until the eleventh hour, because there are times
where they will be like, we know we close it
eight at nine o'clock, but we are cutting the line
at eight forty five.

Speaker 3 (49:32):
So yeah, they don't wait too long.

Speaker 2 (49:34):
Yeah, don't wait too long. But like towards the end of.

Speaker 3 (49:36):
The day, if you make it into the line, you
will stay in line, So make it before they cut
off the line.

Speaker 2 (49:40):
It's not gonna just start ripping people up. We're close.

Speaker 1 (49:43):
Get out of here.

Speaker 3 (49:45):
I know you've bet hair an hour, but you gotta go.

Speaker 2 (49:47):
Yeah, right to the front. Sorry, park is closed. Shutter
the games in front of you.

Speaker 1 (49:52):
Oh my gosh. Now I will ask because I know
at Disney there are some rides that like can be
questionable as as like downtimes and like breaking down. Are
there any of the big rides at Iowa that you're like, oh,
they're questionable. Maybe don't wait till the end of the
night and do it in the morning because you may

(50:13):
or may not run into a down issue. Hagrids Okay,
that's what I was thinking, but I wasn't certain.

Speaker 2 (50:20):
Just death drops like a drag queen. It's unbelievable. Hagrids
likes to go down like nothing I've ever seen before.
I get it. There's a trillion moving parts. It's a
very complex coaster. I understand why it goes down so much.
But Hagrid's goes down with such frequency that, like if
somebody looks at it wrong at eleven o'clock, it's not

(50:41):
coming back up until three, right, Like they've gotten much
better as the attraction has been opened for a number
of years, just like anything, right, Like, I feel like
they kind of I feel like the same way about
Tron right where when Tron first opened, that thing was
down like you wouldn't believe. But as the engineers who
work on it and the maintenance staff kind of like

(51:02):
got to know the quirks about the ride and whatever
and have like a good action plan in place for
i think common break points and maybe things to avoid
or whatever, or like easy fixes for things. It's the
fixed times have come up quicker, but it still goes
down with fair frequency. So like really truly, Hagrid's is

(51:28):
the one that we have to say, if it is
of interest to you, just especially without express go right there, Yeah,
power Walk, get your butt back there, because it's also
in the back of the park. So that's the other
that's the other difficulty. We're not seeing those crazy four
hour waits for Hagrids like there once was, where it's
like all the way through to Sous's landing is the

(51:50):
line for Hagrids. We're just not seeing that anymore, which
is very nice, right.

Speaker 1 (51:55):
But still it is sorry, that's you know how to.

Speaker 2 (52:01):
But still we're seeing enough of like a long enough wait,
partially because of how often it goes down, all right,
So that is that's a fair thing to ask. I
think Hagrids is really the only one that I would
say goes down often enough to cause a potential problem
and sort of you want to get that done first
thing in the morning, and then everything else really stays

(52:23):
up pretty good. But lost the coaster knock on wood,
that nothing changes, you know, it's just a podcast episode
comes alright, but the last pester stays up pretty well,
and when it does break down, it's it's like a
pretty quick turnaround time in our experience, perfect, especially if
you're going right to it first thing in the morning.
Like most of the time, it's like a nice it's
a nice cooperative dinosaur in the morning.

Speaker 1 (52:47):
Love that so so you love that for us, Hagrids.

Speaker 2 (52:49):
Is the problem child. Everything stays up pretty well perfect.

Speaker 1 (52:54):
That is good to know, because like I figured there
had to be one, because I feel like every park
is that way to an extent, especially when you've got
multiple big rides. It's like, eh, let's figure out which
one is the questionable one. When it comes to that,
so perfect, all right.

Speaker 2 (53:09):
So many moving parts to them, right, Yeah, a lot
of like rit show scenes that are interconnected to timing
with the coaster, and there's there's just so much to it,
whereas the other coasters in the park don't necessarily have
that component. So yep, Hagrids is the problem child.

Speaker 1 (53:23):
Hooray, So yes, duly noted, write that down. Go there first,
that is what it is. So speaking of first, what
we need to know before we actually get to go
to Hagrids for our non express itinerary here, what do
we need to know about the morning at Iowa.

Speaker 2 (53:41):
Yeah, so it's non negotiable that you need to get
there early. If you have the early entry, the hour
should be safe, right because like that's fine, you get
you get your early entry. If you do not have
that early entry, you need to be there raring to go,
maybe even more more than an hour, maybe even an

(54:01):
hour and change an hour and fifteen if it is
the busy, busy busy season like the holidays or like
summer break, because you are then competing to get onto
Haggards or whatever. Your number one attraction is not only
with everybody else in your area, but everybody else who
is already in there for the early entry, right, And
that's a little bit less of a concern if you

(54:23):
have Express because you can always come back later or
burn that Express pass now and be done with it.
But if you do not have Express and one of
those really big, top tier attractions are on your list,
you were going to want to be able to be
in the front of the pack who were entering at
any given time. That is one hundred percent the advice
that we have for you. So once you've emotionally prepared

(54:44):
to just camp out overnight or bright and eye away,
don't actually do that.

Speaker 1 (54:51):
Don't don't.

Speaker 2 (54:52):
I can't prove anything. No one can prove it was
me snorkeling in that lake at three am. Okay, there's
no evidence. So once you were in the park and
you've got you scanning your your corraled in your appropriate
area wherever that may be, you were gonna want to
run to whatever your number one attraction is. Please don't sprint,

(55:14):
just a nice power walk, but you were going to
head right to yeah, just like a nice like you're
like you're in the Olympics of power walking.

Speaker 1 (55:22):
Like the mall, the mall walking a nice small walk pace.

Speaker 2 (55:26):
Yeah, so if you are again, like we were just
saying before, Hagrids is on your list, go right there.
Velosa Coaster, like we said earlier, usually has fairly low
ish weaight times for the first hour or so. Right
it's a manageable line. So we usually wrote, like we said,
recommend be line to Haggard's. If it's even a thought

(55:49):
in your mind that you want to get on this,
go right there. Once you are done with that, you
can head over to Veloca Coaster if that's of interest
to you, or if it's not, it might also be
good idea for you to knock out the Castle ride
that's right there Forbidden Journey if that's of interest to you,
because early in the morning that is also like a
like a people eater ride that moves pretty quick, and

(56:10):
since it's been open for a little bit, we have
seen those weights drop too, especially first thing in the morning.
So if those are like your top ish, then go
ahead and just knock those both out right away, and
then if you're interested, head back to double Back a
little bit and head to Velosa Coaster. We are assuming
again these are very very deeply rough guesstimate times because

(56:33):
it's nearly impossible to predict accurately. So we're thinking, let's
say you get on Haggard's first, you get through the queue,
whatever you were all done, this will stick you near
eleven ish. If you did Veloca Coaster first, you're gonna
be on and off that pretty quick. You'll be on
and off by ten at the latest. And I think

(56:54):
that's even a generous estimation because like I, like we
said before, it's a very high capacity ride. You're gonna
be in and out pretty quickly. This is probably the
time too. If you're like closer to eleven, you're gonna
want to maybe think about lunch, which is crazy because
you just rode one singular maybe two rides. But again,
you were going to want to eat it off time.

(57:15):
So if you can wait until later, have a snack
if you can. If you are like firmly like I
need to eat an actual meal because I camped out
overnight in front of IOA, then you know that this
would be the time to go pop in and grab
something to eat again before the long waits for food.

(57:35):
It seems a little heinous to be eating so early.
Not for me. I love eating early, but for a
lot of people that don't feel that way. So this
is the time to grab that lunch, so you beat
that lunch rush and can pop in another line while
other people are eating lunch. Like we said earlier, maybe
you knocked out that secondary Harry Potter attraction. Maybe you
didn't after you've eaten. I would not recommend doing that,

(57:58):
So maybe just just just get that for a little bit,
cross back when the line seems to be dropping. But
the other thing that actually might not be the worst
idea if you didn't eat is crossing over to go
do the Hulk right, so that way you get sort
of the big three coasters immediately done. We have done
it before. It kind of is a bomber to have

(58:21):
to sprint up and then down through the park. It's
not ideal, but this is like one of the easiest
ways to guarantee if you are a coaster person, that
you get on those big three coasters immediately and then
you'll you will probably have them knocked out before launch.
Given the general wait times, even without express you will

(58:44):
safely within that four hour span probably be able to
knock out all three of those, if not maybe bleeding
over a little bit into the early afternoon. What may
also be a good option is if you hit up
Haggard's and Veloca Coaster and then head right on over
to Spider But with Spider Man, it's a it's air condition.
Who doesn't love a nice little air condition after just

(59:06):
sprinting throughout this park to get to where you're going.
But also like the weights in the morning prior to
lunch tend to be a little lower than in the
afternoon when there's you know, people were able to wrangle
their kiddos and whatnot. So just keep an eye on
times that you're gonna hear this refrain, especially when you
don't have express. The app is gonna be your best friend,
so keep an eye on times. If it's forty five

(59:28):
or under, just hop in that line even on your
way over to Hulk, so you know, a good A
good path might be sprint up to Hagrids, sprint down
to Velosa Coaster, power walk because it's a thousand degrees
down to Spider Man, and then hit hit Hulk right.
It is a lot of movement if you are dead
set on hitting everything as quickly as possible. Otherwise you

(59:51):
can do what we had mentioned before, just hit the
first two whatever those may be. If you want to
go Hulk immediately, if you want to go Hagrids, whatever
those are, hit those two and then slowly make your
way throughout the park and just keep an eye on
those times and hop in line with whatever seems to
be a low weight that is of interest of you,
and then wait for your third main attraction until after dinner.

Speaker 3 (01:00:13):
So now that you've had some early lunch or breakfast
or what have you and kind of ridden some of
your you know, kind of top rides, we recommend kind
of moving over to the Marvel area of the Draska
Park areas if you kind of waited until later in
the afternoon for that lunch. Again, depending on where you

(01:00:35):
land to right if you're closer for the Marvel area,
you can head over there and grab some lunch at
the Captain America Diner that again has your like chicken
fingers and hamburgers and all of those kind of standard options.
They also have like milkshakes and stuff if you're into that.
Or you can head to Jurassic Park, which, like we said,
is kind of our go to for you know, lunch

(01:00:56):
options because they do again have the chicken fingers and
things like that. There's pizza, there's all kinds you know,
save food options for any picky eater, So definitely kind
of head that way if you're still needing to have
lunch and didn't already do that early lunch, so after that,
definitely check on the wait times again. Again, the app
is your best friend. If waight times are high and

(01:01:16):
you have kids with you, again, this might be a
good time to head to Sue's Landing because the kiddos
can kind of run around.

Speaker 1 (01:01:21):
There's rides there for them.

Speaker 3 (01:01:22):
The weights are usually not very long, even during busy times,
so it might be good to just kind of head there,
get some click rides in while you know, wait times
are long and you're waiting for things to kind of
drop on some of those other rides.

Speaker 1 (01:01:34):
If you don't have.

Speaker 3 (01:01:36):
Any kiddos and you know the aren't interested in Sue's
Landing otherwise, we highly still recommend doing the Cat and
the Hat ride, but we understand it might not be
everybody's cup of tea. So if you're still looking for,
you know, some other rides to do more thrill rides
kind of things, definitely, you know, do that criss crossing
see what the lowest weight times are. Jurassic Parks river

(01:01:57):
Ride is definitely something to consider at this time. And
again if it's like afternoon super hot. It is a
water ride, so it's a nice way to cool down,
but not quite as dramatic as does the durand or
not someone swilling.

Speaker 1 (01:02:11):
Isn't it diving into.

Speaker 2 (01:02:12):
An Olympic pool while you were on a log flume.
You will get you will get wet. I would say
it's probably equivalent to Splash Mountain.

Speaker 3 (01:02:19):
It's not you get wet, but it's not Yeah, it's
not buckets of water. Not terrible, right, So nice way
to cool down in the afternoon heat. Or you can
go on Doctor Doom's Fearful in the Marble Island, or
do the Spider Man ride if that's not too long
of a wait either, so kind of a chance to
knock out some of those other rides. Like we said,

(01:02:41):
afternoon generally not a good time to do Hulk. This
can get pretty long lines, you know, as we said before.
It is also like it tends to like go down
but then quickly come back up, which I think tends
to make the line a little bit longer.

Speaker 1 (01:02:54):
So and again, I had a.

Speaker 3 (01:02:56):
Blackout on it when it's super hot out and it's
like super brights on in the middle of the afternoon,
So this is one to maybe wait until later on
in the day to do. But definitely some of those
other rides in the Superhero area, you know, are something
to hit up during this.

Speaker 1 (01:03:12):
Time and something just to be reminded of. And we
talked about this at USF as well. Is yes, you
need to have your top three rides, but then you
also need to rank your next probably five at least
for IOA, just so you have an idea of what
five rides you're looking at, where am I at geographically,
what makes sense on that list to go to next,

(01:03:34):
like to give yourself some sort of guidance as you're
going through, because it will be even worse if you
don't have that and you're just going strictly off of
wait times when it comes to running crisscrossing across the park.
So you really need to have your primary list of
your top three that we talked about that's gonna be
Hagrids in Velosa Coaster and probably the Hulk or something

(01:03:57):
like that. But that next five rides is really important
too because it will help save you at least a
little bit of walking and a little bit of the whole. Again,
I'm going to do this. What do you want to do?
I don't know what do you wanna do? What do
you think we should do next? I don't know where
we at? What should we go? What's near us? All
of those questions can be solved if you just take
ten minutes with your group, or if you are the

(01:04:20):
designated person, like I am always the designated person when
it comes to my my you know, my trips with
my family, Like, Okay, here's our next group of rides
that we're going to try and hit. Do that save
yourself sometime?

Speaker 3 (01:04:33):
And again, no, we kind of left out some rides
as we're talking, because that's kind of how we would
do a Universal Day without express past. But if you're like, nope,
I love water rides and like WD rights and all
that stuff is like high on your priority list, then okay,
maybe forget the Spider Man ride and you know, kind
of focus on those instead. But you know, this is
kind of our best advice on what to really hit

(01:04:58):
if you want to hit major, you know, key attractions
and you don't have those express passes where you could
maybe go around and do everything.

Speaker 2 (01:05:05):
I will just say you do not have to rope
drop Dudley. I just want to be fairly or not.
I just want to be clear.

Speaker 3 (01:05:12):
That was not what I would saying.

Speaker 2 (01:05:13):
I'm excusing you. You're one hundred percent right. You're a
hundred percent right because we are we said it before.

Speaker 1 (01:05:19):
Just just said now this is constructed.

Speaker 2 (01:05:21):
Based on what we are interested in, because this is
the easiest for us to give you a framework to
work off of. But like, if you do not care
about the incredible Hulk Coaster, don't don't stress. There's plenty
of other things in that area that you could swap
it out for or whatever. Your rank would be one
hundred percent well.

Speaker 1 (01:05:40):
And you can easily fit in. You know, we talked
about we've already talked in our itinerary about walking between
Jurassic and Marvel. Well, if you're doing that, you're passing
by some other things that you could also include in
your itinerary if that's what your group wants to do. So,
if you want to go on the water rides on

(01:06:00):
your way from the Jurassic area towards Marvel, there's your
chance to do it, you know, So that's really why
you have to do that research to figure out what
makes sense for your group. Now that all being said,
if you are like lost and you're just like I
don't even know, I'm not sure, send us a message.

(01:06:23):
We are here to help. We've said this with all
of our other episodes. You know, I specialize in a
lot of the Disney itinerary stuff. Duck and Jess are
great when it comes to universal So please just send
us a message. We will help guide you based on
your group's dynamic, because it is really based on who
you're traveling with, how old they are, do they like

(01:06:43):
throw rides, do they like water rides? What ipe? Do
they like? All of those questions. But if you answer
those for us, we can give you a custom itenerary
that will work for your group. So send us a message,
send us an email Momstreet usat gmail dot com. We
will help you. Okay, let's continue now, what about okay,
so we're at dinner time now ish right?

Speaker 2 (01:07:04):
Yes, okay, so this will bring you about to dinner again.
This could be a little bit earlier, this could be
a little bit later. It just depends on kind of
what you're doing and where you are and how hungry
your group is. Right, I get angry very quickly.

Speaker 3 (01:07:18):
It's like it's hobblers and I'm assuming you're in a
beanbar because it's so hot you don't want to eat it.
But then you like are yes, overly hungry, so then
you start to like go crazy and you're like, oh,
maybe I should eat something, but like, yep, assuming kiddos
are like, I'm not hungry. I just want to go
run and have fun. You kind of get the same
way as an adult too. I'm not just saying you
meet it.

Speaker 1 (01:07:35):
I was gonna say why why yes, just calling you out.

Speaker 2 (01:07:38):
I also get over stimulated like a toddler. Thank you
for noticing.

Speaker 1 (01:07:43):
No, one hundred percent.

Speaker 2 (01:07:45):
Is just so much going on, and especially if you're
there for one day, you want to fit in as
much as you can, but like, please, please, please make
sure that you're scheduling, even if you are like it's
a ten minute sit down to just shovel fries in
your face. Make sure you're make sure you're getting air conditioning,
make sure you're hydrating. There is so much that's happening,
and it is so easy to overheat or just like

(01:08:08):
even get overwrought and like that kind of stuff can
ruin a day. So just always every couple hours or so,
just like take a check in be like have I
been drinking enough water? Have I been eating enough? This
is just like general theme park guide, right, like have
I been in air conditioning enough? Especially in the Florida Park.
So you know, just general PSA that even though you
may only have one day in the park, taking care

(01:08:29):
of yourself at that park is still very very important.
And just to like go with that same advice of
what you were giving before, Jackie, of picking your next
list of attractions, I would also say, when you have
no express pass, the pick a place in every land
that you know that you and your party will be
able to eat. That way, you don't have to make

(01:08:50):
that decision when you are hanging up and you are
hot and you are grumpy. You already know, okay it
is time for us to eat. I know I can
go to Circus mcgurgrass. I know I can go to
the Pizza Fari. I know that I can go to
where you know, wherever it may be. Once you know
your areas, then when that hunger hits or wherever your

(01:09:11):
timing will take you you know exactly where to eat.
You're like, Okay, I'm close enough to marvel Land. I'm
gonna go grab a quick chicken finger situation in there,
and then I'm gonna be able to get back to
it rather than like, right where am I I don't
know what it is, I don't know what food options
are in here. I see a pretzel cart. I'm just
gonna grab something right Like it takes over. I keep
saying the pretzel cart because they have a thousand of

(01:09:33):
them in here. But if it's just so easy to recommend,
but you know what I mean, So it just takes
off as much planning as you can do ahead of
time to reduce the friction of the decisions in the park.
That is the great things to pick. So picking your
top attractions, picking your next couple of attractions, say five
or so, and picking the places that you know that

(01:09:53):
you and your party will eat, then you're you're gonna
have smooth sailing because you can make informed decisions throughout
your trip.

Speaker 1 (01:10:01):
Absolutely one hundred percent agree. Okay, So after we have
made our informed decision for dinner and we have enjoyed
our dinner, that we didn't have to stress out about
because we made that informed decision.

Speaker 2 (01:10:13):
You made some informed decisions, you sat in a little
air conditioning, you're ready to go. This is again what
we call clean up time, right, This is you're checking
weight times and seeing what's lowest. Maybe you are chancing
walking back to Hagrids and hanging out back there for
a little bit because it went down earlier and you're
seeing if and when that weight will drop. Right. This

(01:10:34):
is sort of like when it's a good idea, if
you didn't get on that third option, or maybe you
even want to try for a reride, just sort of
hang out in the area of that attraction and check
the weight times, check in with the team members, sort
of get a sense and a feel because the we
said this last episode, but the number board of how
long it is the weight actually is will update faster

(01:10:56):
in real time than on the app. So it's a
little hard to do at Iowa than it is at
USF simply because of the size of the park and
the number of attractions that are, you know, of interest
to most folks attending the theme park. So if you
can kind of hang out in the general area of
what you desperately want to do, a ride of after dinner.

(01:11:19):
That's a safe thing to do, right, So it's either
the extra traction that you didn't ride, maybe it's a
re ride if you have gotten your fill. This is
also time for shopping or atmosphere or just sitting down
and people watching for a little bit. Right, This is
our time, as we say, like the cleanup time to
really take in and enjoy the theme park, because that's

(01:11:41):
you're still in a theme park. As fun as all
the rides are, you should still be able to slow
down and take a moment and really enjoy you being
in the park.

Speaker 1 (01:11:49):
I love that. Okay, So I think hopefully we covered
most of Iowa again without the Express. There were just
things that we left off of that list, So do
your best to make it make sense geographically based on
what is on your list if it's something that was
not on our list whenever we just gave you that

(01:12:09):
whole rundown.

Speaker 2 (01:12:10):
The one thing that we didn't bring up a ton
of though, was the character meet and greets. There's not
a billion of them here, but pretty much each land
will have something of some sort. So if that's of
interest to you, or you have kiddos that are like
Super or even if you yourself are just like into
character meet and greets, Marvel has the most of them.

(01:12:32):
They'll rotate them through frequently. There's always there's Spider Man,
there's various members of the Fantastic Four, there's Storm, they'll
have Hobgoblins, so like there's a quite a variety over there.
But each land will have something. So if that's of
interest to you, that's also something to just check and
throw on your itinerary. The other thing that I'll say

(01:12:54):
is these like extraneous things like the Castle light show
or even some of the meet and great or like
the little Raptor encounter situation that we talked about in
Jurassic Always always always check your app day of because
there are times where they're just not going to have
it right. They might not be running it for whatever reason.
It could be weather related, it could be season related. Right,

(01:13:15):
if it's like a slower season, they may not offer
every single thing as often as they do in a
high season or at all. So have these things in
mind as an option. But with those sort of like
team member dependent, weather dependent type of things, don't bank
on it for your trip. So they're good to be

(01:13:36):
aware of, but don't maybe make it necessarily your number
one must do priority lest you be disappointed.

Speaker 1 (01:13:43):
Yeah, that's a good to note because we did talk
a little bit sort of about characters earlier, so that
is a good note to make. Love it. Any final
thoughts stuck in Jess about IOA that we haven't talked about.
I think we covered most of it, but anything else
we should know about one day away.

Speaker 2 (01:14:01):
I think I feel pretty good about what we covered.
I think truly those lists. Reducing the friction of your
day is the best thing that you can do. Have
as much planned out ahead of time as possible, and
always remember you're in a theme park to have fun.
Right things happen. Sometimes you gotta pivot plans. Sometimes the

(01:14:21):
incredible Hull cast to take a nap and you're not
gonna be able to get on it right like it
just happens. Things are out of your control. Be flexible
and always have plans A through Z.

Speaker 1 (01:14:31):
So love it perfect well. Thank you guys so much
for joining us for this episode of Mom Street USA.
This is again episode four of ours seven of the
one day park strategies that we are providing to you.
So if you if this is the first one you
have listened to. We have already covered USF which we
already talked about. We have also covered Magic Kingdom and

(01:14:53):
Animal Kingdom over at Disney. Up next will be Epcot,
so Epcot will be next on our list. We'll Epcot,
we'll hop back over to Epic Universe and do that
to wrap up the Universal side and then end with
Hollywood Studios over at the Disney side, which is we'll get.

Speaker 2 (01:15:11):
Through this together, I promise.

Speaker 1 (01:15:14):
Yeah, it's it's going to be It's gonna be fun.
But make sure that you stay tuned for those that.
Also being said, we are going to be making some
kind of graphics going along with these itineries that we
talked about, just to give you kind of a visual
to be looking at. So if you're someone that is
a visual person, the first half of those graphics are
coming very soon over on our Patreon account, So if

(01:15:36):
you have not found us over on Patreon, the link
to that is in our social media buiers. We are
at mom Street USA on all of our social media's
and on the Patreon account as well, so those will
be over there as well as our unedited versions of
our episode, which this one had some good tangents on it.
So you might want to hop over there and see
what you may have missed. But that is also lives

(01:15:58):
over on our Patreon, as well as some exclusive kind
of sneak peak looks at what we're going to be
talking about coming up very soon over on our Patreon.
We're going to have to start planning our holiday Christmas episode,
so that is coming up just around the corner, it
feels like, which is insane to say, so stay tuned
over there if you've got some input. I know so

(01:16:21):
many of our wonderful mom Street community members have been
here for all of the Christmas episodes that we've done,
and all of the crafting and the fun that we
have had over there for those, so stay tuned for
more of that to come over on our Patreon account.
But for now, I think that puts a nice little
bow on IOWA and we will see you on the

(01:16:41):
next episode of Mom Street USA. Bye everyone, Bye bye,

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Mom Street USA | One Day Park Strategy: Universal Islands of Adventure

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