L.A. Trip - Day 3: Universal Studios Hollywood, Part 2

We next went to the studio tour which had a line longer than Crystal Gayle's hair and a 65 minute wait.  But thanks to the magic of our one-time pass we skipped the line, picked up our 3D glasses and boarded the next tram to depart.  Each tram consists of 4 linked passenger cars, each with it's own video monitors that play various clips as you go along.  There's also a live guide leading the tour from the front tram.  We sat on the right-side middle of the first car on the tram.

City backlot at the bottom of the hill

The studio tour is a 45 - 60 minute tram ride through the studio backlots, sets, and a few interactive events.  It's the reason why we chose to come to USH.  We didn't take a lot of photos as we just wanted to enjoy the ride.  Also, it was Sunday so there wasn't a lot of production action going on.  Here's the order as best I can remember:

After leaving the station we headed down a hill and past the sound stages, including where The Voice is currently shot and The Mindy Project (which is still in production and will be on Hulu).  Then we drove through the city streets backlot, passed some production offices/bungalows, then moved on to King Kong.

Sound stages down below

The King Kong event is a long, dark, pitch-black tunnel of a building.  A short introduction by Peter Jackson played as we drove into the darkness, then we were instructed to put on our 3D glasses.  Suddenly we in the middle of a prehistoric jungle.  In very short order we were not alone as the tram was thrust into an epic battle between several tyrannosaurs and Kong.  Some giant spiders even got in on the action.

The whole experience was accomplished with 2 giant curved projection screens which surrounded the tram.  Each screen was 187 feet wide by 40 feet tall - the equivalent of 16 movie theater screens - according to the USH website.  The entire tram track was also on a gimbal and there were wind and water spray effects.  Everything combined gave you the experience of being in the center of the dangerous action, which included sliding sideways off a cliff at one point.  It was really well done and thrilling.  After the film, the doors at the end of the building opened up and we took off our glasses, allowing us to see the giant screens.  The tram drove back out into the sun and continued the tour.

We circled back around the building and drove up a hill where we passed a line of famous prop cars like KITT from Knight Rider, pedal cars from the Flintstones movies, cars from the Back to the Future films, Fast and the Furious flicks, and a gyrosphere from Jurassic World.  There was even a convincing-enough tank made from painted wood.  Then we traveled through a jungle-y section of road that had a few vehicles from Jurassic Park on each side.  Some of the windows were opaque and we could see shadows inside of different people being attacked by dinosaurs before a couple of animatronic dilophosaurus sprang out of the bushes and sprayed water on us.

Next we passed a little street and house set where a Hallmark Channel daily talk show that I've never heard of is filmed (I just looked it up and it's called The Home and Family Show).  After that we came to what appeared to be a small Mexican village set on a hill.  The tram stopped, and we had a demonstration of weather effects as it started to rain.  Then there was a sudden flood that came washing down the hill.  Luckily the flood didn't overtake the tram, and we continued on through the western backlot.  According to our guide, during the silent-film era there would be a multitude of films shooting at the same time by simply pointing down different street angles.

After the western streets came "little Europe" which subbed for many quaint and creepy European village locations including Frankenstein.  Cool.  We then drove into another large building where our guide told us a "hot set" had been temporarily vacated, allowing us to take a quick look.  Of course it was.  ;)

This was an underground subway station set.  Suddenly - these things all seem to happen suddenly - there was a massive earthquake.  The tram shook and pitched, great masses of the floor broke open, gas lines broke and fire spewed, an electrical panel shorted out and spat sparks, a section of the ceiling collapsed and a semi came crashing down from the street above, a subway sped into the station, lost control and derailed toward the tram, and a water main burst causing a flood of water to come rushing down the stairs - how will we ever survive?!  By slowly driving out of the building, of course! (Still, a pretty neat experience - nice to have physical effects instead of just projections).

After leaving this section of the tour we drove past Wisteria Lane from Desperate Housewives, then into Amity Island just in time to see Jaws eat a diver and menace first the harbor, then the studio tram after a few fireballs went off nearby.  Next up was the Chicken Ranch house, where The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas and other films/shows were shot.  The guide informed us that unlike many of the sets which are just false fronts, this one is actually fully built which allows for interior scenes to be shot there as well.

Then it was a sharp turn up a hill and we were at the Whoville set from How the Grinch Stole Christmas.  After that styrofoam wonderland came the Bates Motel from Psycho (complete with cardboard cutout of Norman Bates in the window), then on up the hill past Mother Bates's house.

Immediately after the house from Psycho - literally in Mama's backyard - was the airplane crash set from Steven Spielberg's War of the Worlds starring Tom Cruise.  And man it was something to see:  it is just as it appears in the film and the level of detail is incredible.  Definitely amazing to see!

Lastly, we drove into yet another large building and were told to put on our 3D glasses for the Fast and the Furious finale.  The Fast and Furious films are another famous franchise that I'm fairly familiar with, but not fond of.  The finale uses two large screens like the King Kong section to take the tram on a high speed (computer generated) chase through Los Angeles.  It was completely over the top and exhilarating.  I may not like the movies, but that was fun.

After the finale we drove around to the station where we started and disembarked.  It was good experience overall.

We walked back into the park and decided to try Transformers again.  It was about 1:45pm when we stepped off the escalator at the lower lot, and the ride was open with a 65 minute wait.  But not for us!

A lot more people in this area now

We walked up to the crew member out front, told him we were on the ride this morning when it broke down, and he directed us to another person guarding a long empty hallway.  We gave her the password and she let us continue.  We walked down the hallway, around several turns, and finally came out at the loading dock.  The regular line came in from the left, and our line came in from the right and had maybe 10 people in front of us.  We got on and the ride worked fine this time.  It was a fun, technical wonder, but I like the Spiderman ride in Florida better because, again, Transformers.

After the ride, we stopped so Todd could get some Ben & Jerry's ice cream.  On the way to the stand we saw an (amazingly) detailed Transformer costumed character:

Evilmatron, or something.  Hell, I don't know.

We thought about riding Jurassic Park again, but made the mistake of watching it cycle several times while Todd ate his ice cream.  Those people were just too wet.

So. Much. Water.

Instead we rode the escalator ride back to the upper lot for my treat - a Lard Lad donut!  They had giant donuts and regular sized "D'oh-nuts!" in different flavors.  As much as I would have loved a Simpsons classic pink donut with sprinkles, they only came in giant which was about the size of a small cake.  So instead I got a chocolate covered s'mores d'oh-nut, happily ignoring the CA Prop 65-mandated sign in the window that stated "Chemicals known to the state of California to cause cancer, or birth defects or other reproductive harm may be present in foods or beverages sold or served here."

Good thing I'm not planning to reproduce.  Now gimme my donut.

We split the donut at a table inside the Android's Dungeon & Baseball Card Shop (which was just a covered patio with tables).  It was not very good.  Tasted sorta cancer-y.

Coming up in Part 3:  The Waterworld stunt show and more ride breakdowns.

Waterworld