Day 3 of our California Trip: Universal Studios

Well this turned out a little bit different then I was planning on. As im sure most of you know who have posted pictures on blogspot. It pretty much sucks. Everytime I add another picture the page skips further and further down. So halfway thru loading pictures I gave up and put them all into a slideshow instead. Theres 50 pictures in the slideshow today so be sure to check it out. I also gave a pretty detailed recount of our day at Universal Studios. Anyways enjoy.

Day 3: Universal Studios Hollywood

Our first park we would be going to was Universal Studios. Out of all the parks this was the one I had most recently visited. That being 11 years ago when I flew to Cali for a few days with my dad and brother. I don't know what it is but I love Universal Studios. I know theres not much there and its pretty expensive now but I always have a good time when I go. Also my wife has never been to a Universal park before so I made it a priority to go to the park. To make it even better I bought a $20 off coupon per ticket from ebay.

We started the day early so we could get to the park around opening. We were staying about 35 miles away from the park and I had no clue how traffic would be so we just we left about an hour before the park opened. To my suprise the freeways weren't bad at all and we made it to the park barely after it opened. Last time I went to Universal City Walk hadn't been built yet so it was fun checking out the shops and stuff they have there.

We finally made it to the gates of the park. What I found funny is how the tickets sellers kept trying to sell us on the better tickets. For example the guy who sold us our parking pass tried convincing us to buy the "Premium" parking pass over the regular one cause it would save us a "12 Minute Walk". We laughed at this considering it took us maybe 5 minutes to walk thru City Walk. And then when we buying our tickets to get into the park the ticket seller tried convincing us to buy a front of line pass. Which we laughed about later in the day cause the park was so dead the longest we waited for any attraction was like 3 minutes. We walked onto everything in the park.

Our first attraction of the day would be non other then what Universal Studios is famous for. The Studio Tour. To our luck we got onto a tram about 2 minutes before it departed. First they drove us thru the soundstage area of the lot. I'm not sure who it was but there was some celebrity that was waving as we drove past that many of the people on the tram were trying to get a picture of. We then drove past the area that was burned in the fire. It looked liked they were re-curbing the area and getting it ready for construction again. It made me sad to think that King Kong as I remember it was now gone forever as that was one of the attractions on the Studio Tour that I always looked forward to. I also loved going thru Courthouse Square (even if it doesn't look like I remember it) since Back to the Future is one of my favorite movies. After that it was on the Collapsing bridge. Once again another classic attraction on the Studio Tour. I guess they recently did some work on the bridge and it had been closed for some time. But I was happy to see (and go over it) again just like I remembered as a kid.

After that they took us thru a new area that they have added in the last few years. First they had many of the famous movie cars thruout the year. Including The Delorian and a few others from Back to the Future, Some of the vehicles from the Jurassic Park movies, and also some of the cars from The Fast and the Furious movies. They then took us into the area where The Fast and the Furious attraction takes place. I thought this was kinda cool and really lame at the same time. basically they have 2 Volkswagon GTI's placed on robotic arms. I thought it was cool cause they kinda simulated an explosion and when the vehicles were thrown up it really looked like the explosion thru them into the air. But then it got lame cause they then started bounching around and spinning to simulate like they were "dancing" to some lame rap music. I totally didn't think that was needed but whatever.

After the Fast and the Furious thing they took us thru a mock up of Jurassic Park. I thought this was pretty well done with some of the props from the movie as well as anamatronic dinosaurs that would pop up and spray you with water. After that it was on to the area where the simulated "flash flood" happens. Once again this was exactly as I remembered and I still think its pretty cool. After the flood area we went thru the old western sets. I don't know if this was set up or not but they had some guys setting up for a stunt sequence. They said they were just practicing and actually performed the stunts in front of us. I'm not sure if it is part of the tour now but it was kinda cool.

Next it was on to the spliting of the red sea. But I guess they don't refer to it as that anymore. especially since the skull island minature used in the new version of King Kong sits right next to it. I still think the sea spliting is pretty cool though. Then it was onto Amity Island to have an encounter with Jaws. Once again this is another classic attraction they still have on the studio tour.

Next they would usually take you thru the Desperate Housewifes set but they were filming that day so they just drove past it. After which we went past Whoville and the Bates Motel where they even had an actor playing Norman Bates putting a body into the back of a car. He then noticed us and came chasing after the tram with his knife. We then went thru the plain crash from War of the Worlds. I thought this was pretty cool cause it looked so real. The last attraction on the studio tour is something to do with the mummy. It use to be the snow cave that spun around and made you feel like you were spinning around. Now its different and only spins for a little bit. I honestly miss the old attraction. All and all though the studio tour was as good as I remember it being. One thing I did miss going in though was the "Earthquake" attraction. We drove past it and could see inside but they were doing some work on it and had it closed off.

Since we were in the area we decided to head over to Shrek 4D. This was our longest wait of the day and I thought it was a pretty decent show. On our way there though we ran into Curious George and Sponge Bob on the way out. It was also nice to see Jaws is still hanging up posing for photos.

Next we headed to the new Simpsons ride. I was looking forward to this ride the most. The old Back to the Future ride was my favorite one at Universal and I was very sad when I heard it was leaving. I too am a big fan of the Simpsons so my hopes were high that this new ride would be a worthy replacement to BTTF. I must say that I was very impressed with the ride and do find it was a worthy replacement. I loved this ride. We ended up riding it twice. Just everything about it is so well done. They also have a video that plays in the ques while you wait in line that pretty much makes fun of theme parks and such as you wait. We pretty much walked on though so we didn't get to see the whole que video. We even ran into Homer, Marge, and Bart as we walked off the ride.

After Simpsons we went down to the lower lot where we first rode The Mummy ride. Once again this ride is a replacement for one that was there last time I went to Universal. That ride being E.T. I loved E.T. but I diffenitly loved the Mummy even more. Its an indoor launched rollercoaster that takes you thru high speed banking and also in reverse. It was short but fun. There was no wait for the ride so we rode it 3 times. After that we headed to Jurassic Park. This ride was pretty new still last time I went but its just as I remember. My wife didn't want to get wet so she wore a poncho but i decided to brave it without one. Lucky for me alot of the extra water features were turned off so I didn't even get wet on the ride. We also did Jurassic Park twice. We also did the Backdraft thing while we were down on the bottom lot.

We then went and watched the Water World show (after we attempted to run up the stairs instead of the escalaters I don't recommend it). The show was alright. Not as good as I remember it being but still better then the movie. We also walked around the rest of the upper lot as well and went to the Termonater 3D show. I thought this show was pretty cool. They mixed in alot of real life acting with the 3D film. I just thought that was neat. It was my first time seeing this show even though it was there last time I went. We also ran in to Shrek.

On our way out they were getting all the final things ready for the big Grenchmas thing they do for christmas. The actors were practicing for the show so I snapped a picture and then we were out. We had alot of fun at Universal and I look forward to going back next time i'm in the LA area. We ended our night by heading over to WestWood to get some ice cream sandwhiches at Diddy Reese (these things are amazing and only $1.50) and then we cruised around Hollywood and Beverly Hills. Figured we were in the area so why not. We also went to a big mall in Beverly Hills that was pretty cool. But that all for day 3. Next up is Disneyland.