IOA, in my humble opinion, is the worst best theme park in the world. I say this because IOA has so much potential, but so far fails to act on that potential. This is very sad.
The theming is well done, where they chose to do it. I take a big issue with awful sight lines generated by the Forbidden Journey, Poseidon's Fury, and even Spidey. Jurassic Park seems to be the only attraction where they made a solid effort to hide what shouldn't be seen. Disney has its spots where that is an issue too, but never to the same degree. In those instances where these happen, it's either a minimal distraction, designed to be part of the theme, or seen from outside the park, which admittedly is not ideal, but I grant a bit of leeway on that one. I'd even extend that leeway to Universal. Universal's efforts to separate IOA from the real world are poor. You can see way too much of the real world from way too much of the park. I don't grant them the lack of land excuse, a quick visit to Disneyland Park will show how well the outside world can be kept from a themed environment.
My other main issue is just the general lack of things to do. If you can't do thrill rides and water rides aren't your cup of tea, your day will be pretty boring. Believe it or not, there are times where it's chilly in Orlando. On those days, water rides just aren't practical. Not only that, but walking around the park soaking wet is actually a pain in the butt to some folks, myself and my family included. I consider myself lucky I'm good with simulators, that means when I visit IOA, I can do HP:FJ, and Spidey, which are good and great respectively. I can't, unfortunately, do anything with a significant drop, which leaves out Dudley, Jurassic Park (especially heart-breaking for me, did they really have to go so tall and steep?), Hulk, Dr. Doom, and the Dragons. That means, with the aforementioned sims, I can do Cat, Poseidon, Trolley, Storm, and Hippogriff. For me, that feels like the equivalent of visiting Fantasyland, minus a couple rides. Yeah, I could do Sinbad, but after the first time, I think I've had my fill.
So, with rides being a little underwhelming, I look to environments, and IOAs are similarly underwhelming. Marvel is painted flats, Suess is interesting, but starting to look a bit run down, Jurassic Park is a nightmare of missed opportunities, and Toon Lagoon is fun for a few pictures. Port of Entry, Potter and Lost Continent are well done, overlooking the horrible visual intrusions. But as some have mentioned, they feel like a blip, and they're gone. Walking through these areas is like walking through Mexico and Norway at Epcot, yeah it looks nice and maybe there's a nice attraction involved, but you can do it pretty quickly. I can say the same about the park in general, the longest I've ever spent at one time there is maybe four hours at best, and that usually involves at least four rides on Journey and a usually at least couple on Spidey.
What bums me out is that IOA could be so much more. A little work on the visual intrusions, a few new attractions that have cross-demographic appeal (ala Haunted Mansion, Test Track, Kilimanjaro), and the park could truly be great. As it is now, it's a classy scream park with a couple masterpiece attractions, best enjoyed on a hot day. Taken toe to toe with anything at Disney, I would say it comes close to overtaking DHS, but not quite. Now, USF...that's a different story altogether. That park is way better than DHS, and I'd even say stronger than DAK. USF is the studio park DHS should be, I think it has a better chance of surpassing a Disney parks attendance than IOA. Not many opportunities have been missed at that park.
