DAY 2: MARCH 27, 2011
Here comes the second day!
Yet it was the most exciting day ever spent in LA. As mentioned yesterday, on the second day of our trip to LA, we were to visit LA's most awesome place...and that is...Universal Studios!!!! Aka the entertainment capital of LA. I really agree with the tagline though.
I'm going to tell you this briefly. Actually, before during the trip planning, the three of us were torn with three choices of attraction to go to.
I had always wanted to go to Disneyland and Disney's California Adventure since I love Disney (who doesn't hate going to the 'happiest place on earth'?). Elda would always love to see aquarium and she preferred to go to the famed San Diego Seaworld. Meanwhile, Aymee had never gone to Universal Studios Hollywood. She had been to one in Singapore, but of course, although bearing the name of 'Universal Studios', the one in Hollywood would absolutely have a lot of difference than the one in Singapore.
In the end, it was decided that we went to Universal Studios!
Anyway, the front desk lady told Aymee, Elda, and I the direction to get to Universal Studios by public transportation. Turns out it wasn't so hard to find a way there, and things even went smoother when Elda directed the way. FYI, Elda had been to Universal Studios before using public transportation, so she still had that fresh memory where to stop and where to transit.
After munching the snack we bought last night for breakfast, we took off from the hotel and found our way to the hotel's closest Metro Rail Station, which is Little Tokyo/Arts District. From there, we needed to take a Metro train to Union Station and later switched to Metro subway. From Union Station, we needed to take the red line subway which leads all the way to Universal City, the station we were supposed to get off.
It was drizzling once we emerged from the subway station. Good thing that the subway station wasn't too far away from our destination. In fact it was right before our eyes! Well not really, since we needed to take a free shuttle right across the intersection which would take us all to Universal Studios entrance.
For the record, I went to Universal Studios on February 2009 with my parents and my dad's friends (that's when I ditched school over a vacation in the US). So the memory of the visit was still fresh in mind, except if Universal Studios added a new attraction. That's another story.
The main entrance to Universal Studios was indeed packed by a lot of people, no wonder because it was Sunday and some people might be having spring break just like us too. Fortunately, we didn't have to line up to the ticket box anymore since we already had our online tickets printed out. What we had to do was just going to the turnstile to have the online tickets exchanged with a real ticket card.
Once we got inside, we stopped by at a restaurant near the entrance to have brunch. We all had a cheeseburger and french fries.
At first, I was considering to go inside House of Horror. I had been in there before with my parents and I was scared to death. But then I remembered that Aymee and Elda had this fear on grotesque looking creatures and ghosts that either Elda or Aymee pointed out that she wouldn't be able to sleep for days after going inside the walkthrough. Well, that's a good point though.
There was also no way for me to go inside by myself unless I wanted to creep myself out (the 'monsters' in the walkthrough tend to surprise and chase a party of people away, while I was by myself, going inside alone is a big NO NO).
The first ride we chose of the day was Shrek 4D. I had never been to this ride before and I think it would be a good warming up for the rest of the day. Shrek 4D wasn't too aggressive compared to other rides. Seeing many adults lining up with their children, I was even more relieved that the ride was a light one, which wouldn't involve anything nauseating or driving our adrenaline rush.
Then the second ride was not really a ride. For someone who hadn't visited Universal Studios Hollywood yet, then the Studio Tour is a must-see. Basically we were to board a vehicle and we would be taken around the studios of Universal Pictures. At the beginning of the tour though, we were given a glimpse of the screenwriter's, directors', movie makers' workplaces that were located near the studios.
Every after the Studio Tour, I always had this temporary wish to be able to work in film industries (before choosing graphic design as a major, I was about to major in film industries, but then I dropped it). I mean, the best part of the job is, you have people passing by your workplace! Just like the one in this Studio Tour!
Ready for the "Behind the Motion Picture Adventure"
No matter how many times I'd join the tour, I still found myself very amused, Elda too! Aymee, who's a first timer, was quickly fascinated by the demonstrated special effects, like the effect used for Fast and Furious: Tokyo Drift.
We were too fascinated by the Tokyo Drift demonstration effect that we forgot to take a picture of it
The so-called Mystery Machine
One of the sets for the movie
Spiderman movie set
Spiderman movie set
The War of the Worlds movie set. Oh and the Boeing plane is REAL.
Whoville featured in "The Grinch"
The Collapsing Bridge. It's no longer functioning. :(
But then came the best part of the whole tour: King Kong 360: 3D!! Now I can understand why this new attraction was heavily promoted by Universal Pictures. It. Was. AWESOME! It didn't exist back when Elda and I visited Universal Studios before. So it was something new for us, and Aymee too. Even the three of us were really nervous when the darkness of the studio surrounded us, not knowing what would happen next.
Basically, we entered a studio with the gate decorated just like Skull Island. An introductory video by Peter Jackson, the director of King Kong the movie and the creator of this attraction as well, was played inside the vehicle. It concluded with Peter Jackson asking the visitors to don their 3D glasses and get ready for the adventure.
The entrance of Skull Island
I guess I'd let you feel the whole sensation or visit Elda's post for spoiler.
The tour continued with much more exciting attractions and sights. I was amazed by the Jaws part where the giant shark appeared right beside the vehicle when it was moving, the War of the Worlds set, and so much more. I was a little disappointed with the actor who played Norman in Psycho attraction during the tour.
Back in 2009, the actor really did come over VERY CLOSE to the vehicle, holding a knife as if he was about to kill the visitors, that I even felt a bit crept out, but this time, the actor didn't even go near the vehicle. He just walked a little bit but didn't even bother to chase it. Lack of adrenaline rush dude!
Overall, the studio tour succeeded to take our breath away. Kudos for Universal Pictures for demonstrating the movie effects amazingly. Next up, we went on to the Simpsons Ride. I didn't get to get on to this ride before, so I was enthusiastic to get on to it. I believe Elda and Aymee would enjoy this kind of ride too. At first, I was indeed very nervous because I didn't know what kind of ride it would be. I heard some people whispering that it was just a simulator, so I felt at ease.
Apparently it wasn't just a simulator. The whole line was divided into smaller groups of 8 people, and we were led to enter a small room (which reminded me of a karaoke lounge). Inside the “lounge” was a small roller coaster cart. I began to sweat out thinking the wall in front of the cart would open up and reveal a real roller coaster track.
But then it turned out to be a simulator of the Simpsons family riding a roller coaster and went through a lot of ridiculous thing, from being bounced in the air, chased by a giant ball, and many more. The roller coaster cart we were on moved according to the motion depicted in the simulator movie.
Ahhhh!!! Spoil it yourself!!! Ahhh sounds like my blog is a pure spoiler!! Haha... Just give your own opinion about the tour, cha. Cuz really I give nothing except "I close my eyes"... haha
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