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| Ignore the partial-people - there was a lot of movement while I was taking the panoramic |
We arrived at 3:00pm for the 3:20 show. This put us near the front of the line for entry into the watery amphitheater (I guess you could call it an amphibi-theater - har, har). We ended up with perfect seats; just outside one of the "soak zones" which were marked with green benches. Good thing too - the pre-show shenanigans by some of the actors were hilarious and involved many buckets of water and several trips up into the crowd. Not to mention the numerous times jet skis would tail-whip water into the stands. The show itself was well conceived, acted, and performed, and the set was dynamic.
After the show let out we walked to the Shrek 4-D attraction, which was another 3D movie with some physical effects thrown in. It was ok. The pre-show room allowed you to have an interactive audience with a jacked-up looking Donkey. The performer was funny, but the puppet was just the wrong shape.
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| Donkey, is that you? |
We decided afterwards to go back and ride Transformers one more time using the password - it felt wrong not to ride it again when we had front-of-line access. So down the escalators we went.
After Transformers, Todd wanted to do the studio tour again, this time sitting more toward the middle of the tram instead of at the front. So up the escalators we went.
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| The good guy. I'll call him Heroborg. |
It was 5 o'clock when we got in line for the tour, and the sign out front said it was currently a 30 minute wait. It wasn't long though before we noticed that the line wasn't moving and no trams were pulling up. There wasn't much air movement in the line, and it started to become stifling. Finally trams started arriving, but by the time we got to the front of the line an hour had passed - we think one of the trams broke down out in the wild. Oh well. We got a seat in the back-left of the 3rd tram car.
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| City backlot, looking up the hill toward the tram boarding station, and beyond that the Harry Potter castle |
We rode past the sound stages, then the city backlot, and pulled into the King Kong tunnel. Peter Jackson told us to put on our 3D glasses, which we did, then the doors at the end of the building opened and we started to drive out. Uh-oh. Looks like King Kong wasn't quite ready for his close-up yet, according to the tour guide. She played a few filler clips while we drove around to the start and back into the building.
This time we pulled in, Peter Jackson told us to put on our 3D glasses, we did, then the doors at the end of the building opened up and the tram drove out. Uh-oh again. Some maintenance vehicles met us outside and our driver circled around and parked the tram parallel to the building. The maintenance guys walked up and down both sides of the tram, apparently looking for gremlins.
They finished their visual inspection and the driver pulled back around and entered the building again, with one of the maintenance vehicles following in behind us. Peter Jackson told us to put on our 3D glasses. Check. Then the doors at the end of the building opened and we started to drive out. A guy ahead of us cursed loudly and hurled his glasses at the screen. Looks like King Kong won't be making an appearance. Well, shit.
The tram pulled around and continued on the tour. Prop cars, Jurassic jungle, Hallmark Channel house, rain, flood, western backlot, little Europe, earthquake - no wait, make that a different disaster.
We drove into the subway "hot set"... and drove right back out again. Apparently no earthquake either on this trip. Groans from the passengers. Well, fuck.
The tram continued on the tour which was the same with the exception of some different bits of spiel from the guide and a few different clips on the monitors. The only other difference was when we got to the Bates motel and instead of a cardboard cutout Norman Bates himself walked out of one of the rooms. He looked stricken, then walked back in and came out carrying a body wrapped in a sheet. He stuffed it in the trunk of a nearby car, then pulled out a long knife and advanced on the tram as we drove off. Neat.
Fast and the Furious worked fine.
We finished the tour, where they did not offer any front of line passes or other compensation for the technical issues - which is really a shame since it's an hour long wait and an hour ride. I felt bad for those people who only had one shot at it and couldn't spend the time to wait again. I mean at least we had already done it once already - if someone wanted to ride again it would take another two hours of their day. Then I realized someone did want to ride it again. Someone named Todd.
*sigh*
We went to look at some souvenir Kwik-E-Mart shirts I had seen earlier, but all of them in my size had unacceptable printing issues, so I passed. I could tell Todd was really disappointed in ending they day on a low note, so we went back to the studio tour and got in line. It was 7:40pm, and allegedly the last tram departed at 8:15pm. This would be the last thing we could do before the park closed at 9pm.
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| How could I say no? |
We waited in line about 30 minutes before boarding in the same back left seats of the third car. It was night now.
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| Fingers crossed |
It ended up being a great way to redeem the prior experience and end the day.
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| Full moon over the city. The entrance to the studio tour line is down a short covered escalator to the right in the background. |
The park was closed when we got off the tram, so we made our way to the exit and drove back to the hotel. Even though the park relies way, way too heavily on projected, motion simulated "rides", presumably due to its small footprint, overall it was a good day and we had a lot of fun.
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| Goodnight Aztec Theater. Good night Cletus. |
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| Goodnight Krustyland |
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