Mike and Sam Go West! Day 10 - Universal Studios

[soarinfan]

Mike and Sam Go West!

A Holiday Extravaganza

Please click the images below to watch Episode 10 and Episode 11 of our Holiday Vlog!

I had been looking forward to this day ever since I left USH last in 2012! I'm a big fan of Universal Studios because its more of an immersive experience, and Sam is a big fan too so it would be mad not to pay a visit - plus again it was all paid for as part of our Go LA Card - really useful bit of kit!

It was an early start again because Sam & I really wanted to get the maximum amount of time out of today, so we had to get there for as near to opening as possible. The drive from Hollywood is fairly quick and easy, and within about 15 minutes we were queuing up for the car park booths to pay our fee. We opted for the much cheaper parking in the parking garage as opposed to the insane prices to park right next to the front gate - for the sake of the 15 minute walk through City Walk I'll keep my harder earned cash thanks!

The plan was to head to the Lower Lot for the first part of the day in order to do the rides which get the silly queues sometimes first. For those of you unaware of how USH looks - it has an upper and lower lot - the difference being essentially a few hundred feet of cliff face. You go on a huge escalator down to the lower lot. When I came last time the escalator back up was broken - hideous!

First up was my favourite ride in the park - Revenge of The Mummy! Although the theme of the ride is essentially the same as in Florida, the track lay out is very different which is a nice change. I still can't decide which version I prefer but Sam definitely prefers the Orlando version (naturally!). We then hopped onto Jurassic Park and then back onto ROTM again to dry off (as we became suitably soaked!).

Next up was the original Transformers ride. Its as good as identical (as far as I can tell!) to its younger brother in Orlando. I had recently found out the ride is actually spread over 2 levels, and your car is moved up to another level during a certain scene - so I was on the look out for that (but as this was Sam's first ever ride on Transformers she didn't want to ruin it so stayed glued to the screen). I couldn't believe it - the internet was true! It does go up to a 2nd floor!

On leaving the ride there was a gigantic talking Transformer standing outside which you could queue up and have a picture taken with which Jade & Jake did whilst we watched on. I decided to grab a quick Starbucks as we hadn't really had breakfast (Vanilla Bean addict right here! ) before we went into a small exhibition on the lower lot which has become a huge amount better than before...!

The original Delorean from Back to the Future! I've seen many "originals" before but this is really the only one I actually believe in - on the basis it was filmed round the corner on the Universal backlot! So amazing to see. It was surrounded by loads of other props and artefacts from other movies from over the years which just complimented it, but I couldn't keep looking away from it - it was awesome!

Because we had gotten there for the start of the day we had pretty much done everything down in the lower lot now, so we headed back up the huge escalator which (thank god! ) was working. The Special Effects Stage show was just about to start and I remembered it being really good last time so it would be rude not to go in and watch. The show is a bit different to the Horror Make Up Show at Orlando, because although it contains a little bit of that it is really all about the whole world of Special FX/Green Screen/CGI and stunts etc.

I filmed the entire thing if you would like an extended look at it, so just click the image below to watch

The show brought it to about lunch time, and as we had planned to go on the Studio Tour afterwards we thought it would be a good idea to eat now. Jade & Jake wanted to eat at Krusty Burger, and I couldn't face another burger so we headed back down to the Panda Express in the lower lot to feast on some wonderful Chinese food. Horror spread through us as we went to open the door to find it LOCKED! Panda Express didn't open until 1pm! What sort of restaurant in a theme park opens after what is generally considered lunch time?! Not like they provide afternoon tea! So we had only two choices really. Head BACK up the escalator again (already pretty hungry and its a long trip!) to Krusty Burger, or go in the place next to Jurassic Park which sells - you named it - burgers. So Jurassic Park burger it was. I did however buy this awesome muffin to make it all that bit sweeter...

After lunch we headed back up to the Upper Lot to get in line for the Studio Tour, but the queue was literally insane - 240 minutes it was peaking at as today was the opening day for the Fast & The Furious segment on the tour - forget it! Thankfully they were handing out some special fast pass kind of tickets for free to people to come back later which we took advantage of - I had to ride it but there was no way I was going to waste 4 hours baking alive queuing for it! So we headed to the Minion Land instead.

As you can see from Sam's attire - she loves the Minions. Almost on a Disney level! So she loved it here. We went straight to Minion Mayhem which is again almost a carbon copy of the Orlando ride but it was a little less rough being a newer ride system. It had a bit of a queue which was a little on the warm side but we entertained ourselves with Sam making and copying minion poses as you'll see in the video - I think we also decided that our first child will probably be called either Bob, Kevin or Stuart...

Shrek 4D was definitely next on the agenda because we needed some shade and air con - the sun was really beating down and you could tell we were slowly burning alive! The queue line was right next to the new Wizarding World of of Harry Potter that is being built, so it was cool to peek through the gaps in the fence to see it taking shape - although still about a year off I'd say as a lot of it was rubble, though turrets and houses were popping up!

Following on with the sit down agenda - next up was Waterworld which was only a few minutes from loading in when we exited out of Shrek 4D. I love this show as its quite high octane and featuring actual actors rather than theme park actors which is always a bonus. I saw this show last time I was here, but Sam & I also saw the show in Osaka (unfortunately the entire thing was in Japanese but at least now she could get the gist of it in English! ).

Again, filmed the whole show which can be watched by clicking the image below

The Simpsons was next up as we still had a fair bit of time to kill before our improvised fast pass for the Studio Tour. I do like The Simpsons ride because I love The Simpsons, but Back to the Future was awesome and it was great to ride it again over in Japan - I'd love to ride it again in America but I bet it will never be!

We came out of the ride and into the Kwok-E-Mart and I saw this shirt. Without doubt my favourite line ever spoken in The Simpsons and it just had to be purchased - I didn't even look at the price haha! Sam loved it when I emerged from the store and it has since made is debut over in Orlando which drew a lot of comments from team members . After a quick ice cream it was time for the Studio Tour, where we bypassed still the huge queue and joined a tram within about 10 minutes - perfection! The Studio Tour is pretty cool, taking you through the backlot, a 4D King Kong section and lots of other snippets from Universal's history, including Disaster/Earthquake and Jaws, plus lots of sets where some of the famous films were made - unfortunately we didn't get to the see the clock tower from BTTF which was a real shame, but the rest of the tour was pretty cool. The Fast and the Furious section we actually had to queue in for about 10 minutes to get in whilst still in the tram - it was good but it was all CGI (the main part of the experience) which was a bit of a let down.

Jade & Jake had had enough of rides for the rest of the day, so headed out to City Walk to find something to eat and drink. We headed back down to the lower lot with the intention of going on the Mummy ride again, but the queue was fairly lengthy so we decided not to bother. We had a meal booked at the Hard Rock Cafe and it was starting to get dark and head towards dinner time, so we filed out and started the long trek through City Walk - it really is right at the far end from the park!

Dinner tonight was the Twisted Mac & Cheese - love this stuff! Sam had her kids meal again with no spice and it seemed to go down a treat! The meal was fairly quick as we were both fairly tired and wanted to get back to the villa. I always purchase a Hard Rock shot glass at new Hard Rocks that we go to, but we were convinced the ones they had on display said the same as the one I had bought on Hollywood Blvd the other day, which said Hollywood - it wasn't until we got home that we saw that the glass we had bought actually said Los Angeles - fail! Thankfully a friend got one for me a few weeks ago on holiday to fill in the gap in the collection - fail saved!

Anyway, we met up with Jade & Jake and headed home. Another fairly early morning planned for tomorrow so we were off to bed after having another awesome day!

Thanks all for reading Day 10. Day 11 sees us head down south to Newport where we met up with my pal Luke who lives there, and we attempted to flying! Please like and subscribe to the YouTube channel if you're enjoying the vlogs and trip reports - loads more detail is in the videos than the trip report!

[dismamx2]

Another great day! You were lucky to be given a fast-pass for the studio tour, it's a horrible queue/line for the ride but worth it for the tour. I can't wait to see the Fast & Furious section next year & Harry Potter

[dozy]

looks fab

[florida girl]

Great day. We are off the USH in October and can't wait, 100 minute wait though for the Studio tour 😟 seriously debating getting the fastpass as OH doesn't like long lines.