[villages07]

Avista... I was there on Friday 6/25 with my visiting sister and her 13 yr old granddaughter. I went ahead and bought the $150 (with taxes) FL resident annual pass for both parks - Islands of Adventure and Universal Studios.

It's worth it to buy the ticket for both parks.

It was hot there, but enough air conditioned and covered areas to find relief from the sun and heat. No rain that day, which was helpful. Also, there are a couple of rides in "Islands" where you can get pretty wet...refreshing but makes you feel grubby walking around afterwards.

It was very crowded but we got on just about all the rides/exhibits that we wanted to. Worst wait was 45 mins, best was instant on.

Many of the rides have "single rider" lines which get you on much quicker (i.e. they won't guarantee to keep your party together on the same seat, but, you usually end up on the same run of the ride). Kinda like seat fillers at the Oscar.

We walked through the new Harry Potter exhibit and rode the secondary roller coaster, but, the wait to get into the main castle ride was hours long. The 'village' is absolutely gorgeous...you feel like you are on the HP movie set.

We got there about 10am and stayed until 8:30pm.

If you stay at a hotel in the park, you can get the priority passes to bypass some of the lines.

This is the first time I had been to Universal. I have been to the Disney/MGM a couple of times. I thought Universal was much more fun. First time I have been on a 'real' roller coaster in over 20 years.

Anyway, overall it was a fun day with lots of stuff to see and do.