SP 13: Back to the Studios - Pt 2

Previously: 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 Transformerswould take up until an hour.

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Screw it. I could barely sleep last night because of the high anticipation of Transformers.

The directory board never lies, and when I said it, I mean it, because the line really took almost an hour. The line went through endless rooms, before we finally came to a narrow basement where the loading station was. YEEAYY!!

OMG, I'm not kidding, the ride was FUDGING AWESOME!! It wasn't as short as I expected so the long wait really pays off. It was totally unexpected. I thought it would be like a normal motion simulator ride where the cart just stayed there and the technical arms did the job. But no, it was a dark ride, like the one you commonly see in Disneyland, unless there were no traditional animatronics, but instead, we were taken to rooms full of giant screens and each screen has its own narrative. And of course, everything was in 3D...no, 4D! Considering there were some special effects happening, stuff like warm heat, water effects, wind blowing sort of thing. But I was completely left speechless. I've never seen such technology in any theme park rides before. The idea was not as complicated, but combining the idea of 4D motion simulator and dark ride is just GENIUS.

SP 13: Back to the Studios - pt 1

So I mentioned that I did some trips during my 3 week spring break, right? I did go to San Francisco, then Davis as well as Cupertino. The last and the latest trip actually didn't take miles away to go to. Yep, Universal Studios is just ten miles away and approximately 20 minutes of drive, and I went there over the weekend with my friend, Eunyoung.

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.

SO SPENT

Just wanted to share this to other Star Wars fans out there. Today's the biggest day of our most beloved franchise!!!
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Today was probably the most exhausting day of the week, but it's really worth it because I spent almost 4 days of isolation after I got back from Davis.

"Trick or treat till the neighbors gonna die of fright..."

Note: Han told me she didn't want to reveal her face on social media, so I replaced it with a Pikachu. Hope I pretty nailed it :D
Hey guys! It's been a while since I last posted in my blog. Feel so ashamed now for abandoning this blog for too long. The thing is, I have now transferred to an art school, after finishing my GE and major prep in De Anza College. Many things have occurred for these past few months since I first settled here, in Southern California. I will cover about what's been going on in my daily life later. Anyway, for now, I'd like to share a little experience slipped in the middle of my ever-so-busy-and-monotone art student's life. My new roommate, Han, whose craziness reminds me of Elda's at some points, happens to like horror/thriller genre. She first told me about this event in Universal Studios Hollywood called Halloween Horror Night. Sounds big, doesn't it? Basically this event has run from September 7 until Halloween itself, which is going to be on October 31.

From L A with ♥ pt. 4: I'll be back!

Previously: 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.

It was a fun ride I admit, but the after-effect was kind of brutal. Elda and I felt nauseous while Aymee felt extremely fine.

As a result to that, we all had to rest for a while. Following our nauseous feeling, we decided to see an attraction that was more relaxing and didn't involve any graphic or motion effects. We chose the New Special Effect Stage. The show was super funny! I'd seen this before but this new version of the show was even much more exciting!

Moving on...it seems like we had got on to every rides on the lower lot, and now it was time for us to descend to the lower lot! There weren't much attractions to see down there, with only three attractions. Two of them are realistic rides, not 3D/4D movie or simulator like we did before. Aymee determined to get on to Revenge of The Mummy Ride but Elda and I were still getting over the nausea, so we decided to wait for Aymee.

Here's what we did while we waited for Aymee.

Elda was an avid fan of Egyptian mythology, so she was ecstatic to take picture with 'Anubis'.

Anubis was being nice to Elda...but wait till you see what he was being to me

See? OMG he pulled my hair. Mean.

Shortly after Aymee got out, the three of us went on to the next ride which was located right across the Mummy ride. It was Jurassic Park: River Adventure! I vividly remember what the ride was like.

Universal Studios was just opened that morning back in 2009 and my parents and I were the first riders. Yes, just the three of us on the 16-people-capacity seats. It was like a private ride! When the boat plunged down, I could only hear the sound of my panicky mom screaming (my dad wasn't fond of screaming in thrill rides) and I was too numb to scream.

Anyway...back to the topic. This time, it was different. So glad that finally I got to feel the sensation of this thrill ride with 16 people on board. Compared to the Mummy ride or any other adrenaline-rush-triggering rides, this one was more relaxing. Why? Because we basically just got on to this yellow boat and entered Jurassic Park. We were even offered by the sight of the animatronics dinosaurs. I was even accidentally sprayed with water on the face by an animatronic velociraptor.

The drop wasn't as bad as I thought it'd be (and I got to hear a lot of people screaming this time!!!). Aymee gave a tip to reduce the free-fall feeling, which really helped! And the drop turned out to be not really high as I thought. As a result, I came up with a plan to try this ride again (getting addicted to it), but then there were still many rides to try so trying Jurassic Park again would be a waste of time.

Before getting back to the upper lot, the three of us bought some snacks to munch first.

Next up, we were back to the upper lot to catch with Universal Studios' famed Waterworld show. The show was awesome! Too bad we didn't get to sit on the soaked area. We had anticipated on getting splashed or wet in Universal Studios today that even we brought a substitute shirt.

We also realized that we hadn't taken a picture together with cast character. So when a dracula character passed by, we immediately asked him to take a picture with us together. The cast character's skin literally glittered under the sunlight. I tried not to mistake him as Edward Cullen in disguise.

The last attraction of the day was Terminator 2: 3D. It was the last show of the day and the line was long. Look at what Aymee and I were doing in the line.

Okay, even though we weren't recommended to wear our 3D glasses before the show, we tried them on and see how they looked on us.

Since Elda didn't get to go inside, I decided to share the story here.

We then entered a room that turned out to be the pre-show room. A newsticker controlled by a computer greeted us, making an impression as if a line of text appeared on it was talking to us. But things were getting even more annoying when the text began to intimidate us, saying “You suck!” when we didn't cheer out loud. Aymee complained. “We're being bullied by technology!” After all, that's what Terminator story is all about, where in the future, humans will be controlled by machinery and technology.

A lady then came up and introduced herself as Kimberly Duncan (a real person). At first she appeared as a nice lady everyone would put their trust on. She said a lot of 'super' words in every ten seconds.

Kimberly introduced herself as a representative of a fictional company featured in Terminator movies – a company which promised to offer humans with various advanced technology to make real life feel so easy. In the middle of the company's promotional video, suddenly a woman appeared on it and interrupted the video.

She was Sarah Connor, who asked everyone in the pre-show room to not believe in the company's offer since it would gradually destroy the mankind. The company was said to sabotage human life with all the offer. Meanwhile, Kimberly was panic and she tried to call the security to capture Sarah who appeared on the video. Finally we were led to believe that Kimberly was actually one of the “bad guys”.

The main attraction was uber cool! It involved 3D movie, simulator effect on our seats, and also live show with real casts appearing on the stage. An actress who played Sarah Connor and an actor who played John Connor, popped up and pointed the gun at Kimberly. The cool part also involved when the Arnold Schwarzenegger character on the screen “magically” appeared on the stage followed with a plume of smoke (of course, it wasn't Arnold himself who appeared live on stage).

With all the advanced technology involved, it was so far one of the most impressive shows we saw in Universal Studios.

After the show, we met up with Elda again and we decided to do a little shopping now. In the end, I bought a fridge magnet for my mom.

The clock showed 8 pm and we suddenly realized that the last shuttle to Universal City station would take off that time. We hurriedly went to the shuttle stop and caught the last shuttle back to the subway station.

Since it was too late for us to have dinner around Hollywood area, we decided to go back to Little Tokyo and see what we could have for dinner. We ended up having dinner in Kouraku. Elda and I had curry rice while Aymee had a bowl of ramen.

What was interesting is, we all got to communicate with the Japanese lady who served us. Elda spoke some Japanese words fluently. Aymee also said a fluent “Arigatou gozaimasu.” I tried myself as well :). The lady was amazed by our amateur ability!

Then we went back to the hotel and bought some Japanese snacks from the restaurant for our breakfast tomorrow.

Thank you Universal Studios Hollywood for the wonderful experience!!!!!! XD

<< Part 3 • • Part 5 >>

From L A with ♥ pt. 3: Light, camera, action!

Previously: Before we headed to our hotel, we went to Marukai Market to buy a galon of water for our days ahead. Also, we dropped by Mitsuru cafe to grab Imagawayaki and Shrimp Balls for night snack and breakfast.

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

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.

<< Part 2 • • Part 4 >>