There was a time when Disney was Disney, and Universal was Universal. Then, Islands of Adventure changed everything. Opening in 1999, the much-heralded second gate at the redesignated Universal Orlando Resort at last dispensed with “beige backlots” and “boxy soundstages” in favor of a park built using Disney’s own formula… with a dash of something twenty-first century.
Simultaneously the most and least “Disney” park since Disneyland itself, Islands of Adventure was a mold-breaker. Eschewing blockbuster movies to instead bring to life timeless, intergenerational stories; building unheard-of, IP-centered lands; co-mixing immersive environments with bare steel coasters; brandishing technology as a weapon in the theme park wars, and embedding it in next-century dark rides and shows…. This park was often big, loud, fast, vibrant, and in-your-face.
Except when it wasn’t… After all, Islands of Adventure opened with Universal’s first seeming intentional investment in the unsung heroes of theme park lineups: hidden gems – the kinds of experiences that reward exploration and build-out both a park’s capacity and its mythologies.
So today, we’ll take a tour around the exceptional stories of Islands of Adventure to highlight some of those “secret spots” or thoughtful design details; the kinds of attractions, nooks and crannies, and unexpected surprises you can only find between E-Tickets. We hope you’ll have at least one item to add to your Islands of Adventure “scavenger hunt” after reading about these off-the-beaten-path extras you may never have thought to explore…
1. Lovebirds
The perfect first stop on a tour of hidden gems and secret spots at Universal’s Islands of Adventure must be in Port of Entry. Stylized as a seaside traders’ market that’s harmoniously shared by all corners of the globe, the eclectic village is littered with domes, minarets, pagodas, temples, sandstone, windmills, and more. Port of Entry is exotic, charming, and warm.
That also goes for its quaint details. Guests could spend hours taking in the land’s humorous vignettes, world-building signage, and hidden nooks and crannies. Each serves as an example of how if you go the “extra inch” often enough, eventually you’ve gone the “extra mile.” To that end, one of the sweetest extra inches is the kind of “hidden gem” you need to either search for or stumble upon.
Roosting on a stone cornice beside a copper downspout, eagle-eyed visitors will spot a pair of white doves warmly nuzzled together. We won’t spoil the exact location (it’s a fun “scavenger hunt” item for couples to find on their own) but the lovebirds’ presence is evidence of Universal Creative’s designers thinking big with Islands of Adventure by thinking small. The fact that the lovebirds exist and have remained happily coo’ing for two decades isn’t just a good reminder that true love exists; it’s a great indicator of what makes Islands of Adventure as lovingly adored as many Disney Parks.
2. Navigators Club
Speaking of Port of Entry, after passing under the second of the island’s fabled ancient bridges and into its waterfront “hub,” you may notice an interior courtyard wedged between a thatch-roofed hut and the Croissant Moon Bakery. Blocked by a teal iron gate embellished with fleur-de-lis, this interior courtyard is subtly marked by a bronze shield of a tilted globe ringed by a laurel wreath reading: “Navigators Club – 1671.”
You’d be forgiven for assuming that the “Navigators Club” is merely a facade like any number of false storefronts or “stairs to nowhere” along Main Street, U.S.A. But it’s not. The good news is, the Navigators Club is real, and it does occupy the second story of Port of Entry! The bad news is, despite the obvious brilliance of a Port-of-Entry-set rebirth of the Lost Legend: The Adventurers Club or a breathtaking, adventure-themed Club 33, this is not that. Rather, the Navigators Club is a somewhat bland, boring corporate event space that can be rented for company meetings or catered buffets.
Still, the rare opportunity to stand along the second story of Port of Entry is pretty cool, and visitors can access the space. Some bloggers report that the gate is often left propped open precisely because the Navigators Club is open and accessible, it just feels like urban exploring since it’s empty and unmonitored. We’d recommend at least asking the host at the nearby Confisco Grill if you’re allowed entry. After all, one of the Club’s coolest features is access to the land’s iconic bridge and its views across the lagoon, which will get you noticed quickly by security if that propped door wasn’t meant as an invitation.
At least during the pandemic, Universal opened the space as overflow Confisco dining exclusively to Annual Passholders. It’s one of the rare times the resort has really used the space in any guest-facing way at all, much less granted mass, quasi-public access. Naturally, we’d love to see the Navigators Club actually become something – even if it’s just a Preview Center for coming attractions or an exhibit space exploring the park’s history. Even in its current state, though, it’s a secret spot that even seasoned Universal visitors are unlikely to have stepped into.
3. Meteor Impact Site
Perhaps cajoled by Disney’s continuous emphasis of how important “story” is, Universal Creative developed one for Islands of Adventure. The park’s rarely-spoken backstory is incredibly convoluted and contrived, trying to explain why so many dissimilar intellectual properties all came to inhabit “islands” in one physical place. Frankly, it’s fourth-wall-breaking, very unnecessary, and a lot less fun than just enjoying the park’s wild juxtapositions and “jump cuts” between dissimilar lands. Still, remnants of each land’s part in the tale remain…
Long before Disney’s Marvel Cinematic Universe turned Marvel characters into grounded heroes inhabiting our world, Marvel Super Hero Island invited us to visit theirs. It’s a comic book metropolis that’s stretched-and-skewed; sketched-in; purposefully two-dimensional and hyper saturated with comic-book colors, frozen mid-frame like a freshly-inked panel. Just across from the entrance to the Modern Marvel: The Amazing Adventures of Spider-Man, you’ll find the impact zone that created this island. Represented by six pointed yellow spires erupting from the ground, this is the place and the moment where a massive meteor struck the Earth – the reason that so many heroes and villains have coalesced in one spot.
The impact site’s six pillars are embedded in concrete stylized as comic book smoke with yellow force lines erupting out from the center. Similarly, energy crackles out from the site, with surrounding planters exploding out from its force, themselves shapes like concentric clouds. In fact, the massive smoke released in the strike has apparently cascaded down toward the park’s lagoon, with its frozen comic plumes literally spilling out over the water, which guests can walk on, littered with physical debris. Many guests probably never connect the strange sculpture in the city park with a meteor strike, and even fewer recognize it as part of the land’s “backstory,” but when viewed from the air, the effect is pretty awesome.
4. Toon Lagoon Trails
Even though it’s convoluted at times, it’s clear that there’s essentially one “main path” that encircles Islands of Adventure, acting as the central street of each area and depositing guests reliably at each E-Ticket along the way. However, one of the most sensational elements of the park is just how “off-the-beaten-path” guests are permitted to get. Many of the islands have their own waterfronts, often accessed by just exploring and finding them! At Port of Entry, it’s a rocky peninsula where guests can hear arriving and departing submarines beneath the water; in Seuss Landing, it’s Sneech Beach; in Jurassic Park, it was the contemplative terraced walk of the Discovery Center (which has now evolved into a hotbed of activity since it’s the energized entrance to the Jurassic World VelociCoaster).
Toon Lagoon’s seaside walk, though, is an attraction in its own right. Accessed crossing onto Popeye Island and heading toward “Me Ship, The Olive,” you’d have to be pretty adventurous to stumble upon the unmarked access to the water. There, guests walk along winding and cascading docks filled with references to classic comics and cartoons, eye-rolling dad jokes, custom-built props (“Plymouth Rock,” anyone?) and fantastic views across the water.
The trails of Toon Lagoon gained some extra foot traffic during the construction of the VelociCoaster given that they provided exceptional views of the steel behemoth. Now that it’s open, guests will likely continue finding their way down to the waterfront given that the docks just happen to end right where trains come flying out of the coaster’s second launch and into its iconic 150-foot-tall top hat maneuver. Still, if you haven’t ever made the trek, be sure to swing by and visit this wonderful unsung walkthrough.
5. Camp Jurassic Caves
Camp Jurassic is an area that far too many visitors to Islands of Adventure walk right past. It’s easy to see why. The area is certainly part of the “elaborate playground” genre populated by Tom Sawyer Island, Animal Kingdom’s Boneyard, or California Adventure’s Redwood Creek Challenge Trail. Like all three of those, it’s a mix of climbing nets, slides, props, and caverns. But Camp Jurassic is an experience in its own right, with thematic rockwork, torches, lagoons, rainforests, and waterfalls that’ll leave even the snoodiest Imagineering purists tipping their hat. It’s easy even for adults to get lost in the sprawling, multi-level Camp.
Specifically, though, the mini-land also contains an incredible, multi-story system of interconnected caves and caverns. In-universe, these are meant to be the amber mines where Jurassic Park scientists retrieve preserved dinosaur DNA from mosquitoes trapped in amber resin. Inside, guests will find a cool and colorful system of volcanic vents to explore.
There are geothermal grottos, surprise geysers, intricate root systems, an “echo chamber,” rope bridges, and other surprises all hidden inside. About the only thing this area needs is a Disneyland-Paris-dragon-style animatronic of a Hadrosaur sleeping under a waterfall inside. Put another way, if you’ve “only” stuck to the main path in Jurassic Park, make a side trip to Camp Jurassic and you’ll see a secret spot that you won’t believe you’ve missed.
6. Hogsmeade “Public Conveniences”
It’s difficult to pick a “hidden gem” in the Wizarding World, since very little is hidden there. While Diagon Alley is packed with sideshows, surprise walkthroughs, and even secret spells that aren’t on the map, Hogsmeade is much smaller. In fact, about the only “secret spot” the land had was the back patio of the Three Broomsticks, built on a quiet arm of the Great Sea across from the tropical jungles of Jurassic Park. Of course, the arrival of the VelociCoaster in 2021 turned that “escape” into a bit of an odd contradiction, since a steel roller coaster now screams across the otherwise quiet respite.
So if you’re looking for respite from the hustle and bustle of Hogsmeade, about the only place to take a moment for yourself is in the “Public Conveniences” housed in the snow-capped Scottish village. However, even the restrooms of the Wizarding World aren’t entirely quiet. Famously, the Hogsmeade restrooms are haunted by the ghost of Moaning Myrtle, who relocated from the second-floor girls’ bathroom in Hogwarts proper. As you do your business, don’t be surprised if you hear the spirit wailing or whining as she invisibly floats up and down through the line of stalls. It may not exactly be a “secret,” but it’s one of the subtler aspects of the Wizarding World.
