5 Changes That Could Improve Islands of Adventure

1. Re-theme Toon Lagoon

Many of the characters featured in Toon Lagoon at Islands of Adventure are no longer popular with the parks younger audience. In fact, many of the characters featured in this area were not that well known back in 1999 when the park opened. However, the two water rides in this area are still good attractions in my opinion and would greatly benefit by being re-themed to a more popular film or tv series.

There aren’t really any obvious intellectual properties that could replace the current set of properties featured in Toon Lagoon. One option for Universal could be to replace the characters in Toon Lagoon with characters from popular DreamWorks films such as How to Train Your Dragon and Trolls. The characters from these films are currently far more popular with the younger generation in comparison to characters such as Popeye and Dudley Do-right, which can currently be seen in Toon Lagoon.

2. Update Jurassic Park River Adventure

The Jurassic Park River Adventure has been a hugely popular attraction at Islands of Adventure ever since it opened in 1999. The huge drop at the end of this boat ride still remains to this day, one of the most exhilarating drops on any water ride in the world. However, a lot of the rides theming and animatronics now feel outdated. Furthermore, several affects on this attraction are usually not working. The Universal Park in Hollywood recently announced that their version of this attraction, the original, would be updated to fit in with the new Jurassic World films. The ride in Hollywood will get a new story line, updated animatronics and new affects will be added to the attraction. I feel that this update to the Jurassic Park attraction in Hollywood would also be a well suited change to the attraction in Orlando.

3. Refurbish The Cat in the Hat attraction

The Cat in the Hat dark ride style attraction in Seuss Landing is suitable for nearly all guests who visit the park. The attraction takes you on a journey through the famous Dr Seuss tale ‘The Cat in the Hat’. With the ride now being nearly 20 years old, it is starting to look aged and in need of a revamp. This attraction would very much benefit from a large refurbishment. This attraction would be well suited to being plussed in a similar way to how Disney have revamped classic attractions such as Alice in Wonderland in Anaheim.

4. Add a new family style attraction into Seuss Landing

Seuss Landing is the only major land that is designed with young children in mind. With one of the common criticisms of Islands of Adventure, being it’s lack of quality, well designed attractions for young children, a new attraction seems long over due. Seuss Landing would be the perfect place for Universal to build a brand new, state of the art family style attraction. This ride could be based on a variety of popular Dr Seuss stories such as How the Grinch Stole Christmas and The Lorax.

5. Convert The Lost Continent into more Harry Potter

The Lost Continent has been overlooked by many guests ever since it was reduced in size to make room for the construction of Hogsmeade. The majority of guests now just walk straight through the Lost Continent on their way to the Harry Potter themed attractions. This is a shame,  as the Lost Continent is still a well themed area which has a couple of good shows on offer. However, with Harry Potter still being hugely popular it is unlikely that this will change anytime soon. Therefore, it would make more sense if Universal used this space to expand their current offering of Harry Potter themed attractions. It has been rumoured in the past that the Lost Continent would be replaced by a Harry Potter attraction based on the chamber of secrets, so this seems like the most likely change on our list.