Looking to plan the perfect day at Universal’s Islands of Adventure? Well we’ve got the plan for you. In our Universal’s Islands of Adventure one day itinerary, we’ll take you step-by-step through a full day at Islands of Adventure. The times in this post are based on an actual day spent at the park, except where noted.
This post does not go in-depth discussing the different rides. For more information, we have a Guide to the rides of Universal’s Islands of Adventure. If you are visiting on a day with Early Park Admission—whether or not you have it—you will want to read our Guide to Early Park Admission at Universal Orlando. Finally, your day may be greatly helped if you have Universal Express Pass.
About This One Day Plan
We recommend reading this post in full. But if you’d like to just jump to the minute-by-minute itinerary, click here.
Not all guests are going to spend a full day at Islands of Adventure. We advise spending a full day at both of Universal Orlando’s parks, though, and so this one-day plan is built with that in mind.
Park operations and guest patterns change over time. We always try to keep an eye on things, but we don’t live in Islands of Adventure. This plan is an example, not a promise that you will have the exact same experience.
This plans assumes you do not have Universal Express Pass. If you have Express Pass you, more or less, don’t really need a plan other than arriving early to get on Hagrid’s and Velocicoaster, which aren’t a part of Express Pass.
This plan does not assume you use child swap, which allows parents to swap supervising a child who does not meet a height requirement without waiting in line twice. If you do use child swap, your day will move more slowly as you have to wait for two people to ride each ride.
Finally, this plan will start with Hagrid’s Magical Creatures Motorbike Adventure, which is currently our recommended rope drop strategy. If that ride uses a virtual queue immediately to start the day, you’ll instead start with Velocicoaster.
Arrival and Rope Drop at Islands of Adventure
Again, we recommend reading this post in full. But if you’d like to just jump to the minute-by-minute itinerary, click here. Also, you can click here to open a map of Islands of Adventure in a new tab.
Again, if you’re visiting on a day with Early Park Admission—whether or not you have it—you will want to read our Guide to Early Park Admission at Universal Orlando.
The immediate morning priorities are: Hagrid’s Magical Creatures Motorbike Adventure and Velocicoaster, followed by Incredible Hulk Coaster, Spider-Man, and Reign of Kong. Along the way, you can add in Dr. Doom’s Fear Fall and Flight of the Hippogriff, but you’d also be fine skipping these for now if you’d like to “lock in” the highlights of the park.
Arriving at about 8AM and 8:20AM (for 9AM opens) on recent days we had no big crowds ahead of us at the turnstiles. Here’s a look at things when we arrived at 8:20AM.
By 8:30AM (30 minutes before open this day), crowds really started arriving. As a general rule we’d never get to a theme park less than 30 minutes before open, and 45 minutes is almost always recommended in case you run late and so you can get ahead of the “30 minutes early” crowds.
For more on rope drop at Islands of Adventure, click for our dedicated post. In short, the goal is to get on Hagrid’s quickly, then onto Velocicoaster. From there, you have some flexibility in trying to get through Incredible Hulk, Reign of Kong, Spider-Man, Doctor Doom’s Fear Fall. Save the water rides for later, but Flight of the Hippogriff and Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey (which we recommend saving for the afternoon) might sneak into the start of the day.
Here’s an example itinerary:
8:20AM Arrive at Islands of Adventure
8:48AM Park gates open
8:58AM Hagrid’s Magical Creatures Motorbike Adventure
9AM Official park open
9:12AM Velocicoaster
9:25AM Skull Island: Reign of Kong
9:45AM Incredible Hulk Coaster
You could check off Spider-Man and Dr. Doom’s Fear Fall at this point if they have short waits and if the waits for the three water rides (which come next) are short. Dr. Doom’s in particularly will usually be a walk-on at this point. For the purposes of this post we’re going to punt them into later in the day.
In the past we also tried to squeeze Flight of the Hippogriff into the morning, but it’s another one we’re punting into the afternoon these days.
Mid-Morning at Islands of Adventure
Okay, with that “rope drop” strategy in place, let’s talk about mid-morning, which actually hasn’t changed much over the years.
Around an hour into the day, guests are pouring off Hagrid’s, Velocicoaster, Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey, and the Marvel rides. Guests coming from Marvel check their phones and see long waits in Hogsmeade. Guests coming from Hogsmeade see long waits for the Marvel rides. So they all converge in the middle—at Reign of Kong and the three water rides—Jurassic Park River Adventure, Ripsaw Falls, and Bilge-Rat Barges.
Done with Kong already, our priority is the three water rides. There’s not much pressure at this point—these three rides are going to basically wrap up your morning whether they have 5 minute waits or 45 minute waits.
On cooler days, the water rides will have low waits much of the day. In this case, you might prioritize Pteranodon Flyers before the water rides. On swamp days, the water rides will get long waits more quickly.
Tip: I place my items in a paid locker at Jurassic Park River Adventure, keeping my cell phone, park ticket, and credit card on me in a ziplock bag. Then I come back after the water rides and retrieve my other items.
At Jurassic Park River Adventure, the posted five minute wait at 9:54AM proved wrong, and I didn’t board until 10:10AM. Ripsaw Falls followed suit. The posted five minute wait at 10:23AM ended up taking 26 minutes.
But there’s still plenty of time to close out the morning with the final water ride. At 11:09AM, I got in the Bilge-Rat Barges line with a posted wait of 20 minutes. In a reversal of my last two rides, I actually only waited eight minutes, riding at 11:17AM.
Here’s how the morning wrapped up:
10:10AM — Jurassic Park River Adventure
10:49AM — Ripsaw Falls
11:17AM — Bilge-Rat Barges
To recap the morning, we’re now through seven of eighteen rides as of 11:30AM. That is a pretty good number, particularly because they include the most popular rides at the park.
Afternoon Planning at Islands of Adventure
Now is the time where priorities come into play. Before we get to an example afternoon, I’m going to outline what we have left in this specific itinerary. More than anything, it’s just important to understand the kinds of trade-offs you’ll be making in the afternoon.
Entertainment at Islands of Adventure
There are three “streetmosphere” shows in Islands of Adventure. All three have various times throughout the day (check the app for specifics):
Triwizard Spirit Rally (Hogsmeade)
Frog Choir (Hogsmeade)
Oh! The Stories You’ll Hear (Seuss Landing)
As we have multiple rides left in both of these lands, it shouldn’t be hard to just squeeze these in before or after you visit a ride. Always confirm entertainment times for your day in the Universal app. The times in this itinerary may not reflect times on any specific day.
There are two more pieces of entertainment to know. The Mystic Fountain is a talking fountain in The Lost Continent, just outside the entry to Hogsmeade. Find 5 minutes to go chat (or watch kids chat) with the fountain.
The nighttime show is The Nighttime Lights at Hogwarts Castle—a projection show with some fireworks at Hogwarts. We’ll talk more about nighttime options at the end of this itinerary.
Characters at Islands of Adventure
There are a few characters at Islands of Adventure. You can identify them as a type of “Show” in the app. Our itineraries rarely explicitly include characters, but if they’re a priority you’ll want to fit them into your afternoon.
Remaining Rides at Islands of Adventure
This itinerary has eleven of eighteen rides left. First are five “high-priority” rides that you’ll want to strategically fit into your day. Delay these too late and you can’t fit them in. These are:
Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey
The Amazing Adventures of Spider-Man
Hogwarts Express
Pteranodon Flyers
The High in the Sky Seuss Trolley Train Ride!
Each of these five warrants a few comments. Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey is really fine at any time the rest of the day. Plan for a 60 minute wait. I’ll usually place it at peak heat so that I’m really savoring the indoor portion of the queue. I also strongly prefer and advise riding it before lunch.
The Amazing Adventures of Spider-Man often does a good job of holding long waits throughout the day. Many days, you’ll need to just settle for anything under 30 minutes.
Hogwarts Express is tricky. Remember, you need a park-to-park ticket to ride this one. As we cover more in the evening section, we recommend riding Hogwarts Express near the very end of your day (read more about it below), but this is only possible if the ride is still running then. If Universal Studios Florida closes earlier (for example, for Halloween Horror Nights) then so will the Hogwarts Express. Be sure to confirm ride closure times on your day.
Pteranodon Flyers has a height maximum of 56” (adults can ride with their under-56” children). Along with the Incredible Hulk height minimum of 54”, few families will ride both (unless you’re using child swap, in which cases this entire itinerary will need modifications anyways). As we included Hulk to start this plan, we won’t say more about Pteranodon Flyers.
The High in the Sky Seuss Trolley Train Ride! is a personal favorite. Although it could be grouped with the low-priority rides, we think it’s a cool ride and try to make sure we fit it into any day at Islands of Adventure.
The remaining six rides are “low-priority” (unless you have small children, of course):
Flight of the Hippogriff
Caro-Seuss-el
Cat in the Hat
One Fish Two Fish Red Fish Blue Fish
Storm Force Accelatron
Dr. Doom’s Fear Fall
For these rides, only visit them when waits are ten minutes or less.
Afternoon at Islands of Adventure
11:30AM is too early to start watching entertainment, in our opinion. This is especially true given Islands of Adventure’s limited entertainment lineup. We also think you should at least push lunch a little later.
Following the above discussion, there are two options:
Pick a “priority” ride and deal with the wait now, to trim that list
Knock off any “low-priority” rides still sitting on low waits
For this itinerary, we’ll go with the latter. I headed to Seuss Landing, riding Cat in the Hat at 11:44AM, and then Caro-Seuss-el at 11:59AM. Both had posted waits of five minutes.
Now is a good time for lunch, but as I mentioned earlier I advise riding Forbidden Journey before lunch. I headed back to Hogsmeade, stopping briefly to watch the Mystic Fountain. I walked into line for Forbidden Journey at 12:22PM when the posted wait was 45 minutes. I boarded at 1PM.
Lunch hour at the Universal Orlando parks can be challenging, as waits of 30+ minutes from getting in line to getting your food can happen.
There’s no perfect way to plan around this, although Three Broomsticks (in Hogsmeade) tends to have the longest lines, so you may want to eat somewhere else. For this itinerary, I’m going to allocate an hour for lunch.
If you’re in Hogsmeade, try and catch one of the shows before or after lunch. After I headed to the 2:30PM showing of Oh! The Stories You’ll Hear in Seuss Landing.
After that finished, I walked onto One Fish Two Fish Red Fish Blue Fish at 2:44PM. This leaves just enough time to catch the 3PM show in Hogsmeade.
This is the spot where I’m going to go ahead and insert three hours for Dr. Doom’s Fear Fall, Flight of the Hippogriff, and The Amazing Adventures of Spider-Man. You shouldn’t have any trouble getting theses rides done in three hours any day, and you might even also get through the other three remaining rides in that window too.
And now, evening is upon us.
Here’s a summary of this afternoon:
11:44AM Cat In The Hat
11:59AM Caro-Seuss-el
12:15PM Chat with Mystic Fountain
1:00PM Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey
Lunch + Hopefully one Hogsmeade Show at 1:30PM
2:30PM Oh! The Stories You’ll Hear (show)
2:44PM One Fish Two Fish Red Fish Blue Fish
3:00PM Other Hogsmeade Show
3:15PM - 6:15PM Flight of the Hippogriff, Amazing Adventures of Spider-Man, Dr. Doom’s Fear Fall
During that last three hour window you might also plan to see a few characters and, generally, take in the park.
Evening at Islands of Adventure
Having already noted that we’d be skipping Pteranodon Flyers in this itinerary, I’ve got three rides left to cover:
The High in the Sky Seuss Trolley Train Ride!
Hogwarts Express
Storm Force Accelatron
If there is any remaining entertainment, you might want to squeeze that in now, as the hours tend to be limited.
After some free time, I headed to Storm Force Accelatron, walking right on at 7:21PM. Then it was off to Sky Seuss Trolley Train, which I boarded at 7:39PM. Recapping:
Free Time
7:21PM — Storm Force Accelatron
7:39PM — Sky Seuss Trolley Train
Evening Rides on The Hogwarts Express (Three Options)
Now, you noticed by now that we still haven’t covered the Hogwarts Express. Well, you need park-to-park tickets to ride the Hogwarts Express. So you’ve got three options.
First, you could ride it now, then either ride it back or walk back to Islands of Adventure. That would put you in time to catch the nighttime lights on Hogwarts. You could also do this at any more convenient point in the day.
Second, you could ride it to the other park (Universal Studios Florida), and then watch their nighttime show. Our recommendation if you have two days is to use this strategy both nights, swapping nighttime shows via the Hogwarts Express. Here’s an example schedule with this strategy:
8PM — Board Hogwarts Express to Universal Studios Florida
Dinner
9PM — Universal Orlando's Cinematic Celebration
Third, you can watch the first showing of the lights on Hogwarts and then ride the Hogwarts Express. This only works if the first showing is at least 15 minutes before park close. If you confirm that to be the case, this is a good option, too, and it’s what I did on this example day.
Here’s an example schedule for this:
Dinner
8:45PM — Nighttime Lights at Hogwarts Castle
8:55PM — Queue for Hogwarts Express
Either way, this completes your day at Universal’s Islands of Adventure. Next is the itinerary without all my super helpful commentary.
Complete Example Itinerary
In case you jumped here, this is a reminder that this is a sample itinerary. It notably does not include any character interactions, so you may shuffle things around to fit those in.
While the times are mostly based on an actual pair of days at the park, slight modifications have been made to account for things like my tendency to wait until 3PM for lunch, later than most of you will.
Unless otherwise stated, times are when I boarded an attraction.
8:20AM Arrive at Islands of Adventure
8:48AM Park Gates Open
8:58AM Hagrid’s Magical Creatures Motorbike Adventure
9AM Official Park Open
9:12AM Velocicoaster
9:25AM Skull Island: Reign of Kong
9:45AM Incredible Hulk Coaster
10:10AM Jurassic Park River Adventure
10:49AM Ripsaw Falls
11:17AM Bilge-Rat Barges
11:44AM Cat In The Hat
11:59AM Caro-Seuss-el
12:15PM Chat with Mystic Fountain
1:00PM Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey
Lunch + Hopefully one Hogsmeade Show at 1:30PM
2:30PM Oh! The Stories You’ll Hear (show)
2:44PM One Fish Two Fish Red Fish Blue Fish
3:00PM Other Hogsmeade Show
3:15PM - 6:15PM Flight of the Hippogriff, Amazing Adventures of Spider-Man, Dr. Doom’s Fear Fall
Free Time
7:21PM Storm Force Accelatron
7:39PM Sky Seuss Trolley Train
Dinner
8:45PM Nighttime Lights at Hogwarts Castle
8:55PM Queue for Hogwarts Express
All Your Other Universal Orlando Planning Questions Answered
Don't be overwhelmed by Universal Orlando planning! Take a second to check out our most important content!
Just starting out? Start with our Universal Orlando Resort planning guide! If you’re considering a Universal hotel, read our Review of Universal’s Aventura Hotel!
You’ll want to know what rides the parks offer, so we’ve got a Universal Studios Florida Rides Guide and a Universal’s Islands of Adventure Rides Guide. And to know how to get on them without the long waits, read all about Express Pass at Universal Orlando Resort.
If you’d like an idea of how to plan a day at these parks, we can help there, too. Our One Day Universal Studios Florida Itinerary covers a full day at the original park, and our Universal’s Islands of Adventure One Day Plan covers that park.
Early risers always have the best theme parks days (well, we think so). Read about Early Park Admission at Universal Orlando to learn how to get an extra hour in the parks. And read about rope drop at Islands of Adventure, including getting on the brand new Hagrid’s Magical Creatures Motorbike Adventure.