L.A. Trip - Day 3: Universal Studios Hollywood, Part 1
Ok, this is going to be a long entry. Today we went to Universal Studios Hollywood.
This has never been photographed before, I'm sure
Woke up at 6:00am, got up at 7:15. For breakfast had a piece of an almond ring danish we picked up at Trader Joe's. We cleaned up and since it was only about a 10 minute drive to the park, we got to Universal Studios Hollywood (USH) at 8:30am.
After (Jurassic) parking...
Apparently the camera was not awake yet for this one
...we got in line to buy tickets. Although we still made it through the gate right after the park opened at 9:00, considering there were only two families in the ticket line in front of us, it was not a good start.
It seems that many people buy tickets online, or maybe discounted through work, or something. Those people still have to go through the ticket line, and have to fill out paperwork, corral and present all the kids at the ticket window, have their tickets or confirmation they printed at home inspected, and on an on. The front gate staff were not efficient at processing these transactions and took forever - you'd think they'd be used to it by now. It took 20 minutes just to process two families with pre-bought tickets. The other lines were equally short, but all seemed to have the same thing going on. When we finally made it to the ticket window right at 9:00am, it took all of 2 minutes to buy our tickets and be on our way. Oh well.
Ticket front. I was Tim, Todd was Tom.
Ticket Back. Yes, it cost $95 for a one-day adult admission. We could have paid $149 for front of line access, which gets you to the front of the line once for each ride, or $299 for a 6-hour VIP tour of the studio and park with unlimited front-of-line access and breakfast and lunch. No thank you.
Since it's built on a hill, USH is divided into two areas: the upper lot, and the lower lot. The two areas are joined by a long series of escalators and walkways that take about 10 minutes to traverse. The main draws on the upper lot are the studio tour, and Despicable Me Minion Mayhem as well as The Simpsons Ride. The lower lot has Transformers: The Ride 3-D, Revenge of the Mummy, and Jurassic Park - The Ride. At opening, the crowds split in 3 directions heading towards either the studio tour, Transformers, or Despicable Me. We chose Transformers and headed to the lower lot.
Riding the escalators down to the lower lot. The Mummy ride is the building in the lower right, Transformers is center right, and Jurassic Park is on the left. In the middle of the photo are sound stages.
The escalators from the bottom. This isn't even all of them - when you reach the top section in this photo, there's a curved walkway that goes around the hill, then more escalators going up.
If you like the Transformers (or Michael Bay) stop reading now because I may be about to offend you big time. You may be a lovely person, and I'm not one to intentionally hurt other people's feelings or insult them, but I do have my own opinions which is one reason why this blog exists. You've been warned. Ok, here goes:
I have to confess that I disliked all the Transformers movies I was forced to watch, and didn't see the last one at all. Much like the G.I. Joe movies, I think it's a dumb premise that's not worth exploring and that the movies are designed to pander to the lowest common denominator who just want to see ridiculous action and special effects no matter how inane the plot, shallow the characters, or obvious the product placement. So why ride the ride? For the multi-million dollar special effects-driven, explosion-laden, exit-through-the-gift-shop amusement park ride experience, of course. ;)
We got to the Transformers ride and there was no line - we were able to walk right on. Score! The ride is a technical wonder: 8 people sit in a computer-controlled vehicle mounted on a gimbal that careens and spins through elaborate sets and 3-D projection screens to simulate a harrowing trip through the city while chasing and being pursued by transformers. There are physical effects too like fire, wind and water that bring the scenes to life. It's a two-story ride, and at some point we went up in an elevator, but I have no idea when or how; it was all so seamless.
At least it was until it broke down.
Everything came to a stop at this construction site. The robots that were fighting onscreen gracefully disengaged and disappeared. After a minute or two a voice like the adults in a Charlie Brown cartoon came on over a loudspeaker and said what sounded like "Wah wah, wah wah wah wah, wah wah", and what I can only assume was: remain seated, we're coming to get you.
A couple of minutes more and the background was turned off
The back of the car behind us
A crew member came by to let us know they were going to have to evacuate us; we just had to wait our turn since they start at the beginning and end of the ride and work their way toward the middle where we were. He came back a short while later with the step and we disembarked in an orderly fashion. Then we walked outside through a side door and down some stairs to get back into the public area of the park.
Well bummer. But wait: while we were waiting to be evacuated the crew member told us that we would, a) get a password that would let us skip to the front of the line for this ride as much as we wanted for the rest of the day, and b) get a pass that we could use to let us skip to the front of the line one time of one other ride of our choosing. Super-score!
When he came back to evacuate us he gave us the password: "virtual insanity". "You know, like that Jamiroquai song?", he asked. He then told us another crew member would be halfway down the stairs outside and he or she would give us our one-time passes. And that's exactly what happened.
Floating on a cloud of our good luck, we walked over to the Mummy ride, which also had no line yet and we were able to walk on. "Please break down" we thought. It didn't though, and it was fun. It was an indoor ride that combined animatronics and set pieces with a tame, backwards and forwards roller coaster section. After The Mummy, we rode Jurassic Park (again with no line) and Todd got soaked.
Before the Jurassic Park boat ride
After the Jurassic Park ride, with a live-action replay in the background
Um, I think the T. Rex ate all the people in that boat
It's not the boat's splash that gets everyone wet; it's the 3 sequential sets of water cannons that shoot water in the air right before the boat passes underneath. Check out the video below.
Omg those people are so wet
We also encountered a loose raptor near the ride:
At this point we had pretty much "done" the lower lot, so we headed to the upper lot to ride Despicable Me Minion Mayhem. Exhausted from all that escalator riding, we first stopped at the Despicable Delights snack stand and got a bottled water and a "Freeze Ray Smoothie"; a dairy free frozen banana and mango flavored smoothie/whip/float/slush kind of thing that tastes like drinking a cold circus peanut. It was unusual and extremely delicious! If only I could figure out how to make it at home.
Todd and the Freeze Ray Smoothie
The drink also came with a cool color-changing straw that is purple when cold and yellow at room temperature (as shown more clearly on the deluxe paper towel backgrounds below).
Super Silly Fun Land
Pretty self-explanatory
After sitting for a minute, we decided to have lunch. The best option sounded like Cletus' Chicken Shack in the Simpsons area so we walked over. We split an order of "Chicken Thumbs" (stubby chicken tenders), and a chicken & waffle sandwich with lettuce, tomato and maple mayo sauce. Both came with fries and coleslaw.
Maybe next time, Ribwich. Today is a chicken day.
Howdy y'all
The chicken & waffle sandwich was killer, and the piece of chicken was huge. I even ate the coleslaw. The chicken thumbs on the other hand were like something you would get from the snack bar in a bowling alley.
Todd ordered a tea with his meal, so they gave him a cup and pointed him to the soda fountain which was one of those touchscreen machines that lets you pick from a ton of different flavor combinations. He got a refill during lunch, but when he went to get another one the machine refused and indicated he had used his one free refill and would have to purchase another drink if he wanted more. ?? One refill? And how did it know? Todd turned his cup over and found a white RFID chip stuck to the bottom. How sneaky. I figured out though that you can get unlimited refills of water with no cup required, so we ended up coming back here frequently throughout the day to refill the water bottle with ice cold water.
After lunch we rode Despicable Me. You pick up your 3D glasses in line, watch a pre-show, then enter a small theater where a 3-D movie plays and all the seats in the theater move. Or that's what it does when everything goes right.
First, the pre-show technician didn't know how to start the pre-show, so he picked up the phone in his little control panel and called up someone else and we all got to listen while he told the other person what messages were on the screen, and what order he was pushing the buttons. Meanwhile, we could clearly hear the movie in the other room that the pre-show sounds were designed to cover up. After a few minutes he got it going. Then when we got in the theater there was someone who didn't pick up their 3D glasses (despite the fact you had to walk past large signs telling you to do so and 2 different people handing them out), and although the attendants asked anyone who didn't have a pair to raise their hand, it seems none of them had spares ready to hand out when someone actually did raise their hand. So we waited while one of the crew ran across the theater and out into the pre-show room, then returned a minute later with a tray full of glasses.
All that, and the attraction wasn't very good - Six Flags quality, I thought - and it relied way too much on a repeated gag/sensation of roughly bumping into things. Plus, while the line was only 15 minutes long, it was in an enclosed concrete area that was extremely hot because it had no air movement. On the positive side: 3 minions, an evil minion and Gru were all outside taking pictures with the crowd.
Once was enough
We next walked back over to the Simpsons area and rode the Simpsons ride, which only had a 5 minute wait.
Welcome to Krustyland. Enter the clown's mouth if you want to ride with the Simpsons.
Apu Nahasapeemapetilon in the pre-show area.
The Simpsons Ride is another motion simulator ride where you sit in small vehicle and watch a film on a domed screen that gives you the illusion of moving. The action was pretty manic, but I love the Simpsons and loved the ride. It made Todd a little nauseous though.
Krusty spotted on the way to the studio tour
Harry Potter land opening in 2016
This will give the park some additional much needed attractions. There's some coaster track visible among the trees.
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