Another non-Disney day/Universal Studios

[Luv2Roam]

Thursday, May 31st:
We were still at the Anaheim Desert Inn. So we had to drive from there to US. It was not that bad of a drive. We allowed ourselves plenty of time. Mileage-wise it was probably between 30 - 40 miles. It took close to an hour to get there. Traffic around LA interchanges is heavy and VERY sluggish.
When arriving at US, we had to pay to park ($7 -- I think). For an additional fee, you can park Priority Style. ($12) Basically meaning you park darn near at the curb entrance. We did.
I don't recall the exact park entrance fee. (Can you tell I wasn't the one shoveling out the money?) But it was steep. Then, we recalled the past times of hearing people say Disney is high $. Disney is a bargain over US. (IOHO) Plus for ADDITIONAL $, you can buy the VIP treatment. (front of the line) For $125 a PERSON, you can get the royal treatment with tours, etc. (We opted for the basic entrance.)
The only time the front of the line would have saved any time at all was at Back Draft. And then maybe 10 minutes.
US $ was high and the attractions and rides are not near in number as Disney. We were even more disappointed to learn some attractions/rides were not even offered, except on weekends. (But the weekday fee did not appear to be lower.)
We were glad we went because:
1) I LOVED seeing the Psycho house and the Bates Motel. Which is right beside a Whoville House! I did enjoy the back lots tour.
2) Terminator 2 3D is GREAT!!! We wish Disney would do something even close to that! It makes Muppets look PRETTY LAME!!
3) Their water ride is GREAT! I enjoyed the Grizzley Rapids in DCA. But US' Jurassic water ride is very, very cool! Riders WILL get DRENCHED! Great fun!! Felt refreshing on a hot day! I loved this ride! I couldn't get DH on it a second time though.
Lunch was a lesson. We ate cafeteria style. I had a cheeseburger, coke and piece of cake. (Very filling -- too much food really.) DH had a desert, drink, side of mashed potatoes and cheeseberger. $26+ (cough, cough) The drinks are huge. ($3 a piece) We could have shared one and been fine.
The gift store prices at US seemed less expensive than Disney. The US downtown area is very nice too. I would have loved to see their 3D IMAX. The 3D feature was Haunted Houses. But there was only one daily showing at 2:30. We missed it by half an hour. DARN! (We have a 3D IMAX here. If you get a chance to see any IMAX in 3D, go for it!!)
We left at 3:00 and had seen and done all. Nothing like DL where we could have spent several more hours and still not felt like we covered it all.
It took us over an hour to drive through the even heavier LA traffic, back to the Desert Inn. Chicago traffic looks pretty good now!
CA US is something to do once, but that's it for us. After experiencing Disney, US just doesn't compare on details. US is more high tech, but just doesn't go that extra stretch on most attractions that Disney usually does. I would like to visit US in FL some time though.
Upon retuning to our room (thinking we were going to have a relaxing night) I found out the mystery pin was on sale at the DTD pin cart! Off we raced!!!!!!!!! We got 'em! What a great vacation!!!!!!!!
Hours later, we munch on a cheese pizza, chill out, while waiting for our laundry to finish in the hotel dryer.
We fell into bed exhausted, but happy.

 

[kazzie]

Great trip report.
I picked up some invaluable information from you for my October '02 trip!

Karen

 

[Luv2Roam]

One thing worth mentioning~
Universal has their act together for their rope drop.
Rather than the mad, mad, Disney-like marathon-- US had three staff members who escorted guests at a regular pace to the attraction of their choice. Each staff member announced what attraction/ride they were leading and each held a big sign of the attraction/ride emblem. So even if a guest could not hear, or could not understand, they really could tell where you were heading.
It was very fun, yet professional and orderly. Completely unlike Disney. (For once that was good .)

And also a big plus, lines were rare at US. The ONLY time we waited was at T2 3D and Back Draft. We were the first group in T2 3D. (First showing was a half hour after the park opened.)
With Back Draft, guests move into three separate large rooms. We just had to wait about 10minutes until the "shift" before us moved on to segment two.

It was somewhat crowded, but they really are good at keeping the pace going smooth..... We could have gone through almost any attraction over and over with waiting in between.

AND they were selling light weight ponchos for guests entering the water ride -- ONLY 75 CENTS each!!!!! (We went for the wet look that day though.)

 

[pnelson]

You said some attractions were closed midweek?? Can you tell me which ones? Since we will be going on a Wednesday in September, I'm worried about shutdowns?

 

[Luv2Roam]

USH had a few kids stage shows that only ran on weekends. One was Shrek Live! I forget what the others were. There were more, but just don't recall now what they were. Just seems like we kept seeing a Sorry, this attraction only open on weekends sign.
Maybe the week day/weekend hours will change once school is out. The main attractions, except Cinemagic, were open. If I were to go again on a week day, I would call ahead and see what was closed. We just thought it was shabby that the prices seemed to be the same as weekend passes, but not everything was open. It would have been more understandable if the attractions were down for some reason. But they were just not even planned to be open during the day.
I really wanted to see Cinemagic. While we were there, it was open only on weekends. (Featuring Nutty Professor, Back to the Future and Alfred Hitchcock Presents)

Additional USH thoughts:
The Mummy Maze is called "Chamber of Doom". Yeah, right.
If you have been on the Peter Pan ride at DL, you pretty much have been on USH ET ride. Very same thing. Except I thought Peter Pan was better.
We saw one show of WaterWorld. And that didn't go off as planned. Some of the effects did not work at all. But it was still entertaining. We often walked by The Blues Brothers while they were performing. They were good. But once when they were leaving the stage, they were announcing it was because their equipment wasn't working.
When you see how much smaller (fewer rides/attractions) USH is than DL/DCA or WDW, you will wonder how that much can go wrong or be closed.
It was nice to visit and I am glad I did. But I wouldn't pay the entry fee to return.
While we were there, for an extra $12 a person, we could have bought a yearly pass. But we knew we would not be returning in a year's time.

 

[GeorgeY]

Thanks for the info on US hollywood. When we drove by it on the 101, I felt it pulling me in, but we kept driving. I guess we'll wait until the next trip when the kids are older to try it.

George

 

[Marla Hellwig]

Thanks for your thoughts and posting!