It is hard not to plan at least a hint of Hollywood in your itinerary when you visit Los Angeles.
Hence, even I'm not a big fan of theme parks, I can't help but allocating one full day of my precious West Coast moment to "
Universal Studios". We went there early, when the park just open. Walking from the car park to the theme park through CityWalk is a pleasant experience. We did have great time doing window shopping and per-decide which shops to go after we are done with the theme park.
Before we visited the park, we imagined there will be long queue everywhere and hence we have planned our strategy very well. We have only 3 must-do in the theme park:
Transformers: The Ride-3D,
Studio Tour, and
WaterWorld.
We heard the Transformers ride in Singapore is super hot so we decided to run all the way to lower lot once we get into the park, focus on Transformers ride, and tackle the rest one by one.
To our surprise, there's no queue at all. We didn't even have to wait in the line. We walked in to the building and got on the first car we saw, and we had the ride! Well, it was actually an awesome ride. It is amazing how real the 3D technology can become. I salute to all those have contributed their effort in making this so enjoyable!
Even I am not a fan of Transformers, still, how can I not take photos of Optimus Prime? :)
Now we learn that Universal Studio is not half as crowded as Disneyland, we were so relax!! We changed our plan and decided to take a few more rides at the lower lot before we go for studio tour.
Well, in this case, I MUST go to Jurassic Park! Watching Jurassic Park in the cinema 20 years ago (yes! it was almost 20 years ago!!) is one of those memories that stay vividly in my brain. I remembered my uncle and all the cousins went to cinema in Sunshine Square for this show. It was mind-blowing then with all the computer-generated imagery. I remembered how we screamed and laughed, and I remembered how scared we were during the build-up to the appearance of the T-Rex, with the water vibrating in the glass on the car's dashboard. Oh, and that is the first time I learned the word Velociraptor, and I love the idea of having smart-ass creature as vallain in box-office movies :)
During the beginning of the ride, it is quite relaxing and I can still manage to take some nice photos of smiling dinosaur with my handphone. However, the tension built up, and I have to hold the seat so tight and shouting non-stop during the treacherous drop at the end. We ended up all wet! But loving it!
The little girl then insisted to take the mummy ride. I think it was quite boring based on my previous experience. So, while she went for the ride, I took some time to visit the NBC Universal Experience. I really think there are rooms for improvement for this little museum. The props and costumes are very limited, and I think the visitors can hardly feel connected / excited at all.
Embarrassingly, I was more excited with the stand up cutouts of the Apollo 13 crew than visiting the NBC Universal Experience.
Oh, and how can I not trying to hi-5 with Iron Man?
My favorite experience of the park is of course the
Studio Tour. Though this is my second visit, I still enjoy go behind the scene, exploring Hollywood's most famous backlot of movie studio, I still love how everyone shouts when The Jaws appear, I still cannot believe how a small Spanish town can have a flash flood in minutes, and I am still very excited to see THE DeLorean from
Back to the Future! This time, the Studio Tour experience is even cooler with the
King-Kong 360 3D. Peter Jackson made this so believable that my heart actually pounded everytime the T-Rex came near us.
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| Entrance to the coolest ride - King Kong 360 3D |
Another pleasant surprise is The
WaterWorld. Even when I was the fan of Kevin Costner, I never love the movie. But the stunts and actions that they planned in this show is great and fun! The fact that an actual small aeroplane flew in is fascinating :)
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| Concluded the visit |
Due to there were basically very few visitors on the day we visited Universal Studio, we actually finished all the rides and shows that we wanted-to and those we never-planned-to, much earlier than we expected. We then spent our time shopping for souvenirs at the CityWalk and the little girl had her first ever Taco Bell as dinner.
As if we didn't have enough dose of Hollywood, we continued our journey at
Hollywood Walk of Fame and
The Grauman's Chinese Theater, a must-do for tourist around the world. I was not thrilled since there were no actual stars at sight, but I still love taking photos with the Star Wars folks :)
Other posts for this trip:
Our initial plan was to buy burgers and hotdogs. However, I think they are not used to handle a crowd of more than 5 so we were asked to wait for another 20 minutes. Though we were not really rushing, but first of all, I normally don't believe in the locals' concept of time when I were at some super slow pace small towns. Secondly, we do want to reach Hoover Dam as soon as possible. So, at the end, we got ourselves a nice cup of cherry sundae to enjoy at the backyard :)
