For those of you who follow my blog,
you might ask, why Universal again? Well, I explained the reasons in
my previous post, so I hope that answers your curiosity. The distance
and the affordable price are definitely the two main reasons why I
never get tired of going here.
The plan to Universal Studios was
considered to be quite sudden. It appeared literally out of nowhere.
It all started when I just got back from Davis and as I have
mentioned in my previous post, I was literally alone for four
consecutive days. My roommates are going back to their hometowns, my
close friends had their own personal plans...so that basically leaves
me alone in Pasadena. So as a way to escape from “centuries” of
boredom and loneliness, I tried to contact whoever in my major that's
available to hang out. Turns out one of my closest friends in my
major, Eunyoung, is available during the break. I first initiated
that we go to Disneyland (my childish instinct just had to kick in,
sorry) or Universal Studios.
She was drawn by the plan but she told me that she would prefer to go to Universal Studios because Disneyland was all about rides (in short, she's not an all-rides kind of person, but this statement was proven to be wrong in the latter. We'll see about that). In Universal, the rides go together with the attraction and shows to see. So in short, she preferred to go to Universal.
She was drawn by the plan but she told me that she would prefer to go to Universal Studios because Disneyland was all about rides (in short, she's not an all-rides kind of person, but this statement was proven to be wrong in the latter. We'll see about that). In Universal, the rides go together with the attraction and shows to see. So in short, she preferred to go to Universal.
We were planning to go there on Monday
since we thought there would be less people going on weekdays
compared to weekends. But apparently, the park has shorter hours on
the weekdays and especially I had to prepare for my spring break job
the next day, which would start early in the morning. Spending the
day before the break in the theme park would surely be exhausting for
me and that would be risky for me to work the day afterwards. So it
was decided that we would go on Saturday.
For your information, it would be my
fifth time visiting the park. First was back in the 90s, when I still
had no idea what was going on and how annoying the loud noises were I
heard in some of the attractions; second was in 2009, on my
runaway-from-school vacation trip; third was back in 2011 with Aymee
and Elda (you might want to read the story right over here); fourth
was on October 2012 and that was only to attend the Halloween Horror
Night (we skipped the main attractions only to go the special mazes).
On Saturday, I went to school to meet
Eunyoung, who would park her car in the school's empty parking lot
while she would be carpooling with me to Universal. When we got
there, it was 11 am. I can't say it's early since we came 2 hours
after its opening. Okay, briefly, and this might sound a little
self-absorbed, but I just couldn't believe that I made it to
Universal, and when I said this, I mean by driving. Universal is one
of my favorite spots in LA and being able to drive there on my own is
just an achievement, since I rode tour buses, took public
transportation, even carpooled with my friend. But anyway, that
doesn't matter, right? You wouldn't care, would you? Haha.
Look whom I met. PAPOY! Haha, they're minions from Despicable Me, but I just love to refer them as papoy, taken from one of their gibberish lines.
When we got there, we just had to go
straight to the turnstile and exchanged the online tickets we bought
ahead of time with the actual tickets. Maps and show schedules were
also handed out to use. For me, that map doesn't matter anymore since
I basically know which is where inside the park.
Since it was
Eunyoung's first visit, she suggested that I should pick a place
first. I suggested we might want to start with something mild first,
something like Shrek 4D, as a
warm-up.
Shrek 4D was
simply entertaining. There was a brief moment when Eunyoung and I
almost didn't get any seats, but if there weren't any seats left, the
staff wouldn't let us in. Fortunately we got two seats but that was
like in the second row from the front. Yeah. Overall, the 3D effect
was okay, but the 4D effect really nailed it (with the water and wind
effect, not to mention the tickling spiders that crawl under your
very feet).
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| Is it just me or Donkey looks drunk in this? |
After Shrek 4D,
we decided to go on the Universal's most famous Studio Tour, also
known as the main and the signature attraction of the park. If you go
to Universal, it's definitely a go-to place. Some visitors might even
suggest that you go to this attraction first to start your day.
Same
old same old, but I would never get tired of seeing the actual film
sets, stages, bungalows where the directors and producers live, as
well the interactive attractions.
The tour started!!!
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| Just had to take this picture because of Ryan Gosling |
And of course, we passed the infamous movie vehicle exhibit section.
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| Familiar with these cars? |
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Fast and Furious: Tokyo Drift's cars in action |
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| Cute dilophosaurus! |
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| Flash Flood |
One of the sets that we happened to pass by was a set from the Alfred Hitchcock's then-booming 1960 feature, Psycho. When the tram entered the set, Eunyoung and I happened to be the only ones in the tram that literally say "Psycho!!" out loud. Let me share a bit behind the excitement. Eunyoung and I had the same communication design professor back in Fall semester. Our professor was absolutely crazy about Alfred Hitchcock movies as well as Saul Bass' posters and opening titles that come with them (Saul Bass is a graphic designer that often designs Alfred Hitchcock's movie posters and opening titles). One of our assignments is to re-design Psycho poster after seeing the movie (Eunyoung's class got to design Psycho while my class got to design Vertigo, which is still a Hitchcock's movie. Anyway, even though I didn't get to re-design Psycho poster, I still saw the movie and became an instant fan.
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| Familiar with this, Hitchcock fans? |
Personally, I'd been anticipating
to see King Kong 360: 3D,
which is a part of the Studio Tour. Back in 2011, I went here with
Elda and Aymee and I was instantly blown away by the then-new
attraction. When the tram entered a sound stage whose entrance is
dressed pretty much like the Skull Island, I told Eunyoung. “Brace
yourself, this is going to be good.”
The
second time I saw King Kong,
I was still blown away. Still. I got more chance to notice how the
idea of 360 degrees theatre worked. However, it still breaks my heart
to see my all-time favorite dinosaur, the might T-rex, being beaten
by King Kong and people cheered at it.
Speaking of
cheering, I was sitting next to junior high kids and they were
screaming during the attraction. When the tram was being violently
shaken, they literally screamed at my ears, saying “I'm scared!!”
Dude, I know...
It was fortunate
for me and Eunyoung that we came at that particular time, because we
actually got to see some attractions that I missed back in my 2011
visit. Those missing attractions included the earthquake in San
Francisco subway station – which is awesome as always – and the
mummy tunnel.
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| Scarab bugs, eww |
And of
course the tour ended with the best set in the backlot yet, the War
of the Worlds movie set. I'm
never a fan of the movie and the set might look cool. The wrecks seem
so detailed and realistic, even what's even more interesting is the
chopped airplane was actually a real airplane, bought for the movie
for $60,000 only to be dressed that way. Cool stuff.
The
tour had run for almost an hour and when we got back to the park, it
was past noon. We should get something to eat before we moved on to
other rides.
Eunyoung and I walked into the front side of the theme park near the entrance where most eateries were located. After getting some seats in front of House of Horror, we went to get our meals. It was awkward how the dry ice from House of Horror was blown in our direction and it even got into our meal. Once in a while, the dry ice would come out quick and thick that it almost surrounded our table. Not to mention, the speaker located close to our table had been continuously playing Psycho soundtrack. It was like we were having lunch in Silent Hill or something.
 |
| SPONGEBOB ME BOY! |
Eunyoung and I walked into the front side of the theme park near the entrance where most eateries were located. After getting some seats in front of House of Horror, we went to get our meals. It was awkward how the dry ice from House of Horror was blown in our direction and it even got into our meal. Once in a while, the dry ice would come out quick and thick that it almost surrounded our table. Not to mention, the speaker located close to our table had been continuously playing Psycho soundtrack. It was like we were having lunch in Silent Hill or something.
 |
| Asian chicken combo meal for lunch |
Right
after lunch, I am happy to say that we were finally heading to the
most anticipated ride yet. Ta-dum...Transformers: The Ride
3D! You can say that this ride
is the sole reason I paid for the theme park. No matter how many
times I went here, I never got a chance to get on this ride. This
Transformers ride is
pretty new. It was lunch less than a year ago. I remembered going to
Universal Studios back in October 2012 to attend Halloween Horror
Night event. I stood right near the entrance to the ride while
waiting for my friend in the toilet. That night, I ended up not going
in for the ride.
It.
Broke. My. Heart. Like. Hell.
When
Eunyoung agreed she'd like to go to Universal, this ride was the
first thing that came to mind, especially the night before, Aymee
told me how awesome the ride was (she went there on Christmas break).
On the way to where the Transformers ride
was, we bumped into the directory board where it says that the wait
time for Transformers would
take up until an hour.
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| In line for Transformers: The Ride 3D |
- To be continued -
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