harddrive
Earning My Ears
- Joined
- Apr 25, 2016
Day 12 – Universal Hollywood
So today was our first park day in LA, and because we wanted to end our trip with Disney, it meant that today was our Universal day. We were up nice and early and waiting out the front of the hotel just before 7am to catch our bus. Traffic is insane in LA, and especially in peak hour! It took us about 2 hours to travel to Universal, but luckily our driver kept the ride interesting by pointing out interesting sights and locations along the trip. We even got to see the Hollywood sign!
We arrived at the park around 9:15, just after they had opened.
After taking a couple of pics we made our way straight to Hogsmeade to see Hogwarts, and to ride Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey.
The ride queue was very detailed, especially once you were inside and walking around the halls of Hogwarts. There were also plenty of interactive pictures on the walls too! The ride was fun and had some good technology used in it, but like Escape from Gringotts, we thought it was too overhyped. And Steve (not being a fan of spiders) did not enjoy coming face to face with Aragog and all the other spiders!!
After returning from Hogwarts we toyed with riding Flight of the Hippogriff, but the ride was down, so we decided not to wait for it. We instead made our way down the StarWay to the lower lot to get through the rides down there early in the day before the crowds picked up. We started with The Mummy, which was very similar to the one in Orlando, but still fun. Up next was Transformers 3D. Neither Steve or myself are big fans of rides that rely too heavily on 3D, and although this one was done well, it just wasn’t that memorable for us. Our last ride down here on the lower lot was Jurassic Park. Having ridden this ride at Universal Singapore I was looking forward to it, and it didn’t disappoint. It was a lot of fun and we managed to not get too wet after the last big drop!
After making our way back up the StarWay we decided to jump in line for the Backlot Tour. The line was already about an hour long when we joined, but we didn’t mind the wait. The tour was a lot of fun and very informative. It was cool to be able to drive through all of the backlots and see sets for different movies and shows we enjoy. The only downside of the tour were the King Kong and Fast and Furious sections. Whilst these 2 bits were fun, we didn’t think that they really fitted in with the rest of the tour, it would have been better had they been extended and turned into their own attractions. I guess we will have to wait until we get back to Universal Orlando to experience the full Kong attraction!
Lunch was next on our list as we were both feeling quite hungry! We got our staple food for the trip, burger and chips, and they were actually quite nice. After lunch we hit a few more of the shows and attractions on offer at the park. First up was the Animal Actors show, which was a bit of fun and was great to see how well trained all of the animals were. Next was Despicable Me – Minion Mayhem. It’s a nice family centred attraction, but once again was another 3D ride, which were very quickly growing old for us.
From here we made our way to The Walking Dead attraction. It is very much a huge change of pace to the rest of the rides and attractions at the park! Steve jumped quite a few times as we were walking through it which was amusing to watch There was a group in front of us that spent most of the time screaming whenever someone would get remotely close to them.
After this we had a look in a few of the shops to kill time before seeing the Water World show. It was great to have a chance to sit down inside the amphitheatre! The pre-show entertainment of soaking audience members was great, and luckily we were far enough back that we didn’t get wet! The show itself was quite fun and very high energy. The stunt actors were giving it their all, and there were some impressive stunts and pyrotechnics used throughout the show.
To cool down we each grabbed an ice cream sundae after the show, before checking out the last show in the park, the Special Effects show. This one was once again quite enjoyable and had plenty of humour, also it was inside so Air Conditioning!!!
After the show finished we still had a bit of time before our bus came to take us home, so we went back to Hogsmeade to have a look around and also to see the wand experience at Ollivanders. Steve ended up buying himself a wand after the show, and in the candy store we got some treats for people back home, and Steve got a chocolate frog.
After boarding the bus it was time for another long ride back to our hotel in Anaheim, around 1.5 hours, but it was great to see LA at night. There were so many lights everywhere!
When we made it back to the room we were both exhausted from the day, so we just grabbed some room service for dinner before heading to bed.
So today was our first park day in LA, and because we wanted to end our trip with Disney, it meant that today was our Universal day. We were up nice and early and waiting out the front of the hotel just before 7am to catch our bus. Traffic is insane in LA, and especially in peak hour! It took us about 2 hours to travel to Universal, but luckily our driver kept the ride interesting by pointing out interesting sights and locations along the trip. We even got to see the Hollywood sign!
We arrived at the park around 9:15, just after they had opened.
After taking a couple of pics we made our way straight to Hogsmeade to see Hogwarts, and to ride Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey.
The ride queue was very detailed, especially once you were inside and walking around the halls of Hogwarts. There were also plenty of interactive pictures on the walls too! The ride was fun and had some good technology used in it, but like Escape from Gringotts, we thought it was too overhyped. And Steve (not being a fan of spiders) did not enjoy coming face to face with Aragog and all the other spiders!!
After returning from Hogwarts we toyed with riding Flight of the Hippogriff, but the ride was down, so we decided not to wait for it. We instead made our way down the StarWay to the lower lot to get through the rides down there early in the day before the crowds picked up. We started with The Mummy, which was very similar to the one in Orlando, but still fun. Up next was Transformers 3D. Neither Steve or myself are big fans of rides that rely too heavily on 3D, and although this one was done well, it just wasn’t that memorable for us. Our last ride down here on the lower lot was Jurassic Park. Having ridden this ride at Universal Singapore I was looking forward to it, and it didn’t disappoint. It was a lot of fun and we managed to not get too wet after the last big drop!
After making our way back up the StarWay we decided to jump in line for the Backlot Tour. The line was already about an hour long when we joined, but we didn’t mind the wait. The tour was a lot of fun and very informative. It was cool to be able to drive through all of the backlots and see sets for different movies and shows we enjoy. The only downside of the tour were the King Kong and Fast and Furious sections. Whilst these 2 bits were fun, we didn’t think that they really fitted in with the rest of the tour, it would have been better had they been extended and turned into their own attractions. I guess we will have to wait until we get back to Universal Orlando to experience the full Kong attraction!
Lunch was next on our list as we were both feeling quite hungry! We got our staple food for the trip, burger and chips, and they were actually quite nice. After lunch we hit a few more of the shows and attractions on offer at the park. First up was the Animal Actors show, which was a bit of fun and was great to see how well trained all of the animals were. Next was Despicable Me – Minion Mayhem. It’s a nice family centred attraction, but once again was another 3D ride, which were very quickly growing old for us.
From here we made our way to The Walking Dead attraction. It is very much a huge change of pace to the rest of the rides and attractions at the park! Steve jumped quite a few times as we were walking through it which was amusing to watch There was a group in front of us that spent most of the time screaming whenever someone would get remotely close to them.
After this we had a look in a few of the shops to kill time before seeing the Water World show. It was great to have a chance to sit down inside the amphitheatre! The pre-show entertainment of soaking audience members was great, and luckily we were far enough back that we didn’t get wet! The show itself was quite fun and very high energy. The stunt actors were giving it their all, and there were some impressive stunts and pyrotechnics used throughout the show.
To cool down we each grabbed an ice cream sundae after the show, before checking out the last show in the park, the Special Effects show. This one was once again quite enjoyable and had plenty of humour, also it was inside so Air Conditioning!!!
After the show finished we still had a bit of time before our bus came to take us home, so we went back to Hogsmeade to have a look around and also to see the wand experience at Ollivanders. Steve ended up buying himself a wand after the show, and in the candy store we got some treats for people back home, and Steve got a chocolate frog.
After boarding the bus it was time for another long ride back to our hotel in Anaheim, around 1.5 hours, but it was great to see LA at night. There were so many lights everywhere!
When we made it back to the room we were both exhausted from the day, so we just grabbed some room service for dinner before heading to bed.