LA/SanD/Anaheim triangle with no car - July 2024 Day 1 Universal Studios

[Vertigo]

Day One - Universal Studios

Weather – Cloudy Morning, then just HOT HOT HOT

One of the added bonusses for the Springhill Suites was breakfast was included. So still being on UK time in our body clocks we of course were up stupid early and had a tea in the room, showers and unpacked all before 6am!

We popped down to breakfast which consisted of the barrels of cereal that you twist the wheel to release and can never line your bowl correctly underneath, standard scrambled and hard boiled eggs, sausages, bacon and fried potato things along with a waffle maker, (which was inconveniently located in the bar on the other side of the foyer), fresh fruit, bagels and a toaster.

Coffee and tea were available in those flask things along with some soft drinks, milk cartons and breakfast bars like Nature Valley.

It suited us just fine.

We also took advantage of taking extra bagels to make our packed lunch with. They also had mini Philadelphia pots, so we had cream cheese bagels for our lunch with some breakfast bars all made and ready to go.

We had paid for early entry at Universal and this proved to be a wise choice. We got our lyft within two minutes and arrived for “rope drop” in plenty of time. But it was still very busy at the gate.

We knew that Nintendo land and Mario Kart ride was the big draw. We had been checking queue times from the UK and it never went below 70 minutes and was often 120. So we wanted early access to ensure we did it.

Of course everyone who had early access also only had it for that too, so we were marched slowly over to the huge escalators and to be fair here, nobody ran, nobody tried to get in front of the Universal staff….but we now will impart a tip for you if you ever go.

So as we approached the escalators, there was a massive logjam as you would expect. However, we saw one cast member take the stairs and only one couple followed him.

So we ducked out of the hoards, followed him down the stairs and by the time we reached the bottom we were at the very front!

We are lucky enough to be fit and healthy so I know not everyone can deal with those stairs as there are a lot of them and they are steep, but in a Theme park early entry situation, for us it was a legal queue jump move and we got in front of perhaps 500 people.

Sure enough, we got on the Mario ride as a walk on and I think we were the 5th car of the day.

It really is a good ride. Very different to anything I have ever done before. The VR headsets work really well and the game itself was good. I do have couple of reservations though. It wasn’t particularly fast considering it’s a racing game and took quite a while to work out what you needed to do!

This was partly down to the fact of it being a walk on for us there was no pre-show which does explain how do get the best out of it. In addition, we couldn’t take in the theming as we went straight through the queue line.

But no matter, we all really enjoyed it and had every intention of doing it again either today or when we come back later in the holiday to utilise our second day free.

Our last trip to Universal in Florida was blighted by the Mummy. It was due to reopen after refurbishment while we were there and it kind of did…..but only for cast members to test it! So Frustrating! It formally opened the day after we got back to the UK.

So after exploring the rest of Nintendo land – which the theming by the way is absolutely brilliant, but not much else to do there, there was no messing in Hollywood for the Mummy. We were going to be first on it this morning, so we left the bright colours of Nintendo land and The Mummy is literally right outside the exit.

We waited about 15 minutes for it to open and as expected we were first on. It was brilliant – its one of my personal favourites. I still say the Florida version is a bit better, but it’s still great. The ride is slightly different and has a couple less surprises, but as I say, its still an excellent coaster.

It was so early still, the park hadn’t formally opened so the other three walked around and did it again. I do get motion sickness, so I didn’t want to do it twice in succession. I took the bags and sat on the benches by the escalators while they rode again.

Whilst on those benches, the park had opened fully. The escalators looked like Glastonbury had just finished! Just an incredible amount of people poured in to the bottom lot and 90% headed for Nintendo land!

Early entry – well worth it. The queue for Mario never went below 90 that day.

Still taking advantage of early opening, as everyone was piling in to Nintendo, Transformers was next door so that was also a virtual walk on for us.

The other advantage of the early entry is you get a free fast pass to the studio tour before 11am. We had enough time to stop for a coffee and then make our way to the upper lot (using the escalators this time!) before heading on to it.

This ride is a big miss at Florida. I love the way it is done with the King Kong, Earthquake and Fast & Furious being part of the ride itself as individually, those rides are not that great, but it really works as part of the tour.

I only have one complaint about Universal Florida and that is there are too many separate screen rides. (In fact, have you ever noticed that Spiderman and Transformers are EXACTLY the same ride with different characters? Track is the same, effects are the same).

But here it really was enjoyable and took me back all those years to when I first went to Universal Florida and did it.

Lots and lots to see and we were allowed off at the Physco set – which was a bit scare actually as an actor was around and he produced a huge very realistic knife! (at least, I hope he was an actor….)

Afterwards, we stopped for our bagels and then knocked off most of the rides in the upper lot as queues were all manageable. Harry Potter is almost identical to Florida of course – and just as impressive.

I am an expert on Forbidden Journey and know when to shut my eyes to avoid the motion sickness!

As it really heated up, we wanted to go on to Jurassic park and hope to get a proper soaking. We made our way back to the lower lot (again, escalators) But It had appeared that everyone else had the same plan and the queue was over an hour. Our early entry advantages were now over!

But we queued and enjoyed it but didn’t get too wet, disappointingly. One rather large fellow at the front really copped it though!

By this stage we were starting to feel it and we knew we had a second day here later in the week, so we bailed out.

Got our Lyft from the rideshare area and went back to enjoy the pool for a few hours.

Wife and youngest went to the supermarket and stocked up on some things, I had a small issue with my 3 sim card that I was on the chat to the 3 team in India sorting out (bit annoying as the others cards were fine, just mine would not connect to the internet despite it having full bars).

Luckily hotel wifi was good.

It did get sorted after some jiggery pokery and turning off and on a few times. Could have done with out that hassle, but in the end it didn’t matter.

As we were all so tired we ordered dominoes instead of cooking up what we had bought and crashed about 9:30.

Tomorrow – The full LA experience

[anji]

You did well with the stairs and it's a great tip! Good day

[mrsdjh]

Good tip with the stairs!

[PoohBears#1fan]

Mariokart Bowsers challenge has a single rider line - I waited 15 minutes for it on Wednesday, posted wait time was 105 minutes.

Glad you had a great day, I think The Mummy here is much worse than Florida’s.

[Mortimer Mouse]

We've stayed in your hotel in 2022. I thought Burbank is a great location with the hills in the background and a big Walmart up the road. We actually hired our car from Burbank airport, rather than face the chaotic LAX desks straight after our flight.

Enjoying reading about your trip.