Marvel Super Hero Island is my second favorite island after Wizarding World of Harry Potter in Orlando’s Islands of Adventures theme park. It seemed like we were stepping through the pages of popular comic books with their Super Heroes and Villains. Here we found amazing theme sets of Spider-Man, X-Men and Captain America among others, as well as some great rides.
This island offers 4 rides and some of them are incredible:
1. The Amazing Adventures of Spider-Man. This attraction underwent an upgrade in March 2012, which enhances nearly every aspect of the ride experience. This attraction is the first ever combination of moving, motion-based ride vehicles, 3-D film and live action. While waiting for the ride, we walked through the offices of the Daily Bugle newspaper, where “fragments” of the story were displayed. Then, we entered the vehicle with 3D “Spider-Vision” glasses handed to us. The ride itself was a state-of-the-art 4K high definition film and 16-channel audio system which made us feel like we were in the middle of the action. The images were so crisp, we were able to see the stitching on Spidey’s gloves. During the ride Spider-Man jumped on the roof of our vehicle, and the vehicle responded accordingly. Throughout the attraction, 3D characters appeared to punch, kick and pummel our car into spins with fire and splashes of water. In short, the story was about the diabolical villains of the Sinister Syndicate, who have stolen the Statue of Liberty and Spidey was going to save the day. We followed right alongside the web-slinger, careening and crashing through the streets of New York’s scaling skyscrapers and plummeting to the pavement below in a simulated 400-foot freefall.
2. Dr. Doom’s Fearfall Ride. Doctor Doom’s Fearfall has two towers that each stand 200 feet tall. We were offered an open air car at the base of the towers. During the ride we were thrown 150 feet up and down faster than the force of gravity. The story is that Doctor Doom created a diabolical device to extract every ounce of fear from the body, so that he can use it against the Fantastic Four. According to the official IOA website, the initial launch at the beginning of the ride uses more thrust than a 747 jet engine and accelerates faster than the space shuttle. This ride is similar to the “Big Shot” ride on the top of the hotel-casino Stratosphere in Las Vegas, but the latter appears much more dramatic to me.
This is how the Big Shot ride in Vegas looks like at night.
The closer look of the Big Shot ride during the day.
The Big Shot ride is located on the top of the Stratospere hotel-casino in Las Vegas, which Dave and I visited last year in December.
3. Storm Force Accelatron Ride. I didn’t find anything special about this ride. The ride is similar to the teacups attraction found at many other amusement parks. The story is that Professor X has recruited you to enhance Storm’s weather control abilities against her battle with Magneto. You climb aboard round teacup-like pods (seats up to 5) and you spin yourself around. The faster you spin, the more energy you produce for Storm. Ultimately, Storm wins and Magneto retreats. There’s also a cool rock sound and other lighting effects. I heard that Storm Force Accelatron is best experienced at night, because the strobe, lights, and fog effects are enhanced greatly in the dark.
4. The Incredible Hulk Roller Coaster. This is my favorite ride of Marvel Super Hero Island. The ride emerges from a tube, then the train goes through a complete inversion 110 feet off the ground and accelerates to 60 mph as it passes through rollovers, corkscrews and fog-enshrouded tunnels. The G-forces are quite intense. There is a mid-course freefall. It feels like the train stops unexpectedly and momentarily takes another sharp dive down. Visible from almost every area of the park, this green imposing structure is built directly over trafficked areas of the park. One of the rides loops actually goes under the bridge between Marvel Superhero Island and the Port of Entry. The Incredible Hulk Coaster shoots you out of the gate, going from 0 to 40 mph in 2 seconds flat. Dave and I did this ride 3 times, thanks to our express passes, and enjoyed it every single time!
Here are some pics of Hulk’s Car.
The view of The Wizarding World of Harry Potter island from the Hulk roller coaster.
The Lost Continent Island is actually the least “theme park” like area in Islands of Adventure. It resembles somewhat of a Renaissance Fair, where the guests can travel through the mystical sections. This island is not based on any kind of character, book, cartoon or movie. It’s just…mythical. Unfortunately, aside from some really cute architecture there isn’t much to do in this area. The section with the rides of this island was shut down and replaced with the Wizarding World of Harry Potter, so there are no more rides offered. At the time, when we visited AIO (October 2012), the main attractions in the Lost Continent were Poseidon’s Fury: Escape From the Lost City, a walk-through attraction, and the Eighth Voyage of Sindbad, which is an open-air amphitheater show. We attended only Poseidon’s Fury.
The entrance to The Lost Continent.
Here are some pics of The Lost Continent architecture.
Poseidon’s Fury – Special effects are combined with live-action in this walk-through attraction. We were touring the remains of Poseidon’s ancient temple. After warnings to leave the temple were ignored, we found ourselves trapped right in the middle of a fierce battle between Poseidon, the ancient God of the Sea, and his enemy Lord Darkennon, which has nothing to do with the mythology. During a visit to this mythical world we faced massive fireballs, lasers and a 95 MPH water vortex tunnel. It was an explosive undersea adventure!
Next post will be about the rest of the Islands of Adventure.