In addition to the Disney Parks, we spent two days at the Universal Parks. There are two theme parks - Universal Studios and Universal Islands of Adventure.
There is also Universal City Walk, which is a set of streets and shops outside Universal that include restaurants, Hard Rock Cafe and retail shops.
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| Universal City Walk |
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| The entry to Universal Studios and the Universal Globe |
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| Restaurant |
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| The Universal Studios Globe |
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| Us by the Universal Globe |
Universal Studios
Universal Studios was the first of the Universal Parks we visited (on Sunday 26th). The first thing we saw was the iconic Universal globe and then the big gates:
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| Stock Photo of the Entrance |
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| Map of Universal Studios |
Coming into the park you enter into Production Central:
Production Central
Production Central is the first area inside the park, it hosts the Hollywood Rip Ride Rockit Rollercoaster that makes an impressive sight over the buildings as well as the Despicable Me Minions ride and the Shrek 4D show.
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| Production Central and the RockIt over the top |
Despicable Me Minion Mayhem
The kids (ok and adults) love Despicable Me and particularly the Minions so this was a definite ride to do, but the lines were always terrible. On average they sat about 90 minutes to 120 minutes. We skipped it on the first day due to the lines and then rushed in early on the second day, only to find out that the ride was having technical difficulties and was closed (pity as we would have been near the front of the line). Instead we headed off to catch Transformers - The Ride 3D which also had long lines. We got on that quickly and then Despicable Me was running again but we ended up waiting almost 90 minutes to get on it.
The ride was a simulator ride with a moving platform that had the viewers turned into minions and bounced around within Gru's laboratory. The ride was pretty cool, but it took so long to get on it that I don't think we enjoyed it as much as we could have. At the end there was a photo-shoot with the minions that Tomas loved.
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| Despicable Me Ride |
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| Despicable Me |
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| It was a nice touch that they were growing BANANAS outside the ride :) |
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| Here we are meeting the minions |
Tomas was sitting there saying "Bellooo, Banana!" while we waited in the line, so one of the minions came over and high-fived him.
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| Minions |
Hollywood Rip Ride RockIt
This was an amazing roller coaster with cork-screws, loop-the-loops and a huge vertical rise. Tomas and Cameron both decided they wanted to go on it but Alana and Kris decided to sit it out. The ride was awesome, but the design of the seat and the central lap-restraint made it unlikely that I'd have the option to have any more children...
The riders were able to choose a song to listen to during the ride and then it rises 51m purely vertically and then begins. It has a speed of 105 km/h and goes for just over a minutes and half.
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| The First Drop |
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| The cork-screw loop-the-loop |
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| Still looping and corkscrewing |
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| The start of the ride - the vertical rise (the circular loops are just design - the rise is vertical |
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| Cameron on the ride |
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| A really awful picture of me on the ride with Tomas |
Shrek 4D
Kris and I have always loved Shrek - in fact our wedding song was "It is You (I have Loved)" by Dana Glover from the Shrek soundtrack - so this was one we definitely wanted to see. It was a 3D movie with added visual effects (smoke, water spray, bumping of the seats) that followed a Shrek story of Lord Farquaad
returning as a ghost and trying to capture and kill Fiona (by dropping her off of a waterfall) so she can join him forever. It was a fun show and even better, when we walked into the gift shop they were playing our song :)
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| The Show Entrance |
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| Prop posters in the queue |
After the ride we managed to meet Shrek in a character meet and greet. The actor playing Donkey was awesome - he sounded and acted like Eddie Murphy and talked to us about Australia, Dream World Queensland and joked around really well.
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| Meeting Shrek |
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| Meeting Shrek - PhotoPass |
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| Meeting Shrek |
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| Meeting Shrek |
Transformers - The Ride 3D
This ride was out of action for a large part of the first day and then had a long wait time, so we hit it early on our second day. This was one of the moving car rides with a 3D movie that interacted with the ride - dropping it off buildings, spinning it and jerking it around. The story followed a transformer called Evac (who was our ride) at first trying to escape from NEST building (the All-Spark housing facility and then getting involved in a battle between Optimus Prime and Megatron. The ride was pretty cool and the interactions between the movie and the ride felt really smooth.
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| Restricted Area |
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| The Ride |
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| The Ride |
There was also a meeting area where photos could be taken with Transformers. They had three that they rotated between - Optimus Prime, Megatron and Bumble-Bee. The characters swapped every ten minutes or so, but the next one was out within a couple of minutes. Each character posed and interacted with the crowd, including acting when leaving and entering the area.
Megatron Arrives
Megatron Leaves
Bumble-Bee poses and Leaves
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| Posing with Megatron |
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| Posing with Bumble-Bee |
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| Optimus Prime Poses |
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| Bumble-Bee leaves (jamming to "Enter Sandman") |
We also got some professional shots taken with the characters:
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| With Bumble-Bee |
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| With Megatron |
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| With Optimus Prime |
New York
Heading through Production Central, you reach the New York section. This area housed the Revenge of the Mummy ride as well as a few music shows. There also was originally a Twister ride and a Disaster show here but they had recently been closed.
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| New York and the side of the Mummy Ride |
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Revenge of the Mummy
This was another 3D move and moving car ride. It reaches a speed of 72km/h and has steep turns and some very nice fire effects. It follows the story of Imhotep's curse and the escape from the tomb. There are scenes were scarab beetles flood the area, soldier mummies
and a burning roof.
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| Ride Entry |
Our PhotoPass gave us some decent stock photos of the inside of the ride:
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| Imhotep's face on the tomb |
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| Imhotep |
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| This was our ride photo |
When we were waiting to get our ride photo we overheard someone saying "Look at the lady in the pink - she is trying to hold those two kids in the ride.." I did notice that but the first thing I noticed was the freaky smile on the lady in the bottom left.
San Francisco
Heading across the top of the park and around the lake, the next area is San Francisco. There were no rides in this area but some interesting dockside buildings and some nice views of the lake.
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| Looking out over the lake |
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| The stage for the Cinema Spectacular Show |
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| Dockside Buildings |
Hollywood
This section is to the right of the Production Central just inside the main gates. The area houses the Terminator 2 3D ride (we skipped this as the kids weren't quite old enough. The area also housed the Horror Make-Up Show and then lead towards the Simpson Land and Woody Woodpecker's Kidzone.
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| Make-Up Show |
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| Posing in Hollywood |
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| Stock photos of props in the Make-Up Show |
Woody Woodpecker's Kidzone
This area was in the Southeast corner of the park and housed lots of different rides and play areas for kids.
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| Pop-Eye and Olive Oil ride by |
A Day in the Park with Barney
We managed to skip this area before we had to dip our heads in cold water - it was a play area with Barney the Dinosaur:
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| A Day in the Park with Barney |
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| I love you, you love me.... |
Curious George Goes to Town
This was a Curious George play area with water sprays and buildings for young kids to play on:
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| Curious George Goes to Town |
ET Adventure
This was an ET ride that took you on a bike ride through the ET world. We didn't get up
going on it due to limited time, but we got some stock photos with our PhotoPass:
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| Ride Entry |
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| ET having a creepy spaghetti shower from a guy in a pineapple??? |
Fievel's Playland
This was a playground for kids with oversized equipment (it's listed as Mouse-Eye view):
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| Fievel's Playland |
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| Fievel's Playland |
Sponge Bob Storepants
The kids liked this Sponge Bob themed shop - I did like the name:
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| Sponge Bob StorePants |
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| Inside the store |
Woody Woodpecker Nuthouse Coaster
This was a kids roller-coaster. I was a little surprised that the kids wanted to ride this one after being on the thrill coasters, but they were keen and since there was no line they rode it three times in a row while Kris and I had a breather.
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| Woody Woodpecker's Nuthouse Coaster |
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| Rollercoaster |
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| The kids on the coaster (first carriage) |
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| Kids on the coaster (first carriage) |
World Expo - Including Simpsons
This section consisted of the Simpsons Town and a Men In Black ride.
It was pretty cool to walk through Springfield and we ate lunch in Krusty Burger and Moe's Tavern.
Back To The Future
One of the small features in World Expo was the DeLorean from Back to the Future. It didn't need roads so it was behind a chainlink fence to stop it from escaping.
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| The DeLorean |
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| DeLorean |
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| Us posing by the DeLorean |
The Simpsons
This area was a lot of fun and it was cool to see a lot of the iconic buildings:
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| First view into Springfield |
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| Bumblebee Man's Tacos |
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| Lard Lad Donuts |
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| Krusty Burger |
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| Duff Beer Brewery |
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| Posing outside Lard Lad with Chief Wiggum |
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| More posing |
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| Tomas poses at the scene of a major car accident |
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| Jebidiah Springfield |
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| Tomas misinterprets "Pose in front of the statue" as "hit Cameron in the stomach" |
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| And then they actually posed |
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| Moe's Tavern |
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| Kwik-E Mart |
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| Duff Man |
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| Simpsons Sideshows and Flags |
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| Food court - Flaming Moe's and Krusty Burger |
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| Luigi's Pizza, The Frying Dutchman and Cletus' Chicken Shack |
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| Lisa's Teahouse of Horror |
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| Krusty Burger and Curly Fries |
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| Tomas enjoyed the burger |
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| Alana and Barney |
The Simpsons Ride
This was a simulator ride through Springfield - unfortunately I missed this one as Cameron decided he was busting to
go to the toilet after 30 minutes in the line and just before we hit the entrance. Kris, Alana and Tomas enjoyed it and Cameron and I stood in the rain from a thunderstorm and waited.
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| Outside the ride |
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| The Ride Entry |
Kang and Kodo's Hurl and Twirl
This was a standard spinning ride in the Simpsons area:
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| Kang and Kodo's Hurl and Twirl |
Men In Black (MIB)
The Men In Black ride was another target shooting ride through an alien infested town. It also resulted in one of the worst photos of me ever - I was on super-attentive mode trying to beat Cameron's score (and I did, woohoo!) and an alien jumped up just as the picture was taken, resulting in what we call the "Do Not Want!" face (after an internet meme):
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| Burn it with fire! |
Kristine and I had a huge laugh afterward, wondering what the other people in the car with me would be thinking if they got their photo..
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| Alana |
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| Cameron |
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| Tomas |
The reason we were riding separately was the overall wait time was 60 minutes, but the single rider line was 5 minutes - simple decision there. They use single riders to fill up cars with only one space left, so you get on pretty fast.
The Wizarding World Of Harry Potter
This area was split over both Universal Parks, with the Hogwarts Express train running between them. The Train required a park hopper extra option on the tickets and fortunately we had this so we were able to jump across.
The first area we encountered was:
12 Grimmauld Place
This was Sirius Black's house, where the Order of the Phoenix hid. We got some good photos of the kids outside. There were plenty of other couples who took photos outside the other doors on the street - I'm not sure who they were planning on visiting:
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| Anyone home? |
The Knight Bus
Just across the road was the Knight Bus with Stan Shunpike the conductor:
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| Fountain and Knight Bus |
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| The Knight bus |
Diagon Alley
I thought the entrance to Diagon Alley was really cool - it was not signposted and instead was a solid red brick wall with a path behind it. You could walk around and enter into a themed area for Harry Potter:
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| Walking to Diagon Alley |
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| The Entry to the Alley |
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| Fountain at the entrance |
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| First look at Diagon Alley (and the crowds) |
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| Quidditch Supplies |
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| Weasley's Wizard Wheezes |
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| Further down the road with Gringotts in the background |
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| The Gringotts Dragon |
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| House-Elf Placement Agency |
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| View left of the Alley from in front of Gringotts |
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| Sweets |
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| Museum of Muggle Curiosities |
Ollivanders
We got to visit the famous Ollivanders Wand shop. Alana and Tomas went in very excited by Cam wasn't super interested. However when we got inside the shop he was picked to get chosen by a wand, and got to try a variety of wands before one 'selected him'. He was super excited after this and changed his outlook on Harry Potter.
(Parent note: The cynical side of me says the choosing was based on the fact we had three kids - originally we had agreed we would buy one wand to share, but once Cameron was picked he was desperate to buy his wand and this started the "It's not fair!" arguments. In the end Kris and I decided that it was a holiday and bought three wands (for a princely sum of US$160).)
There were two types of wands, some were just props, but others contained an infra-red system and allows 'spells' to be cast around the park, like causing it to rain, causing feathers to rise and opening a book. The kids loved these and loved the map they got to find the places, but the crowds made it really hard to do many of the spells and often there were lines which took away the magic of being able to do it yourself as you were just repeating same spell you'd seen for the 700th time.
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| Entering into Ollivanders |
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| Cam gets picked for a wand - the light was really low, hence the blur |
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| Tomas' Wand |
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| And the Ollivanders Bag |
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| Casting a spell |
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| Casting a spell |
Alana gets Wingardium Leviosa to work
Cameron makes it rain
Tomas gets a spell to work
Harry Potter and the Escape from Gringotts
The main centerpiece of Diagon Alley was Gringott's Bank with the awesome dragon on the roof. It housed a ride
"Harry Potter and the Escape from Gringotts". The ride always had a long wait time, but it was really cool - another 3D car ride in which your started touring Gringotts and ended up involved in Harry's theft of the chalice from Bellatrix's safe and their subsequent escape. During the ride you encounter the dragon, the armoured guards, fall from the tracks and get attacked by Voldemort. It was a pretty fun ride.
The animatronic goblins in the entry room were amazing and looked realistic - unfortunately all of our photos came out blurry.
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| Outside Gringotts |
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| Goblin |
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| The Gringott's Dragon |
Inside the ride we had our photo taken for our security passes:
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| Security pass for Gringotts |
King's Cross Station and the Hogwarts Express
Universal Studios housed a replica of King's Cross Station that was quite plain and lead to platform 9 3/4. It was a fun little excursion and we ended up catching the Hogwarts Express between the two parks both forward and back. On each ride there are projections on the window of the Harry Potter world as well as voices and shadows of Harry Potter and his friends walking around in the train. The experience is different depending on the way you go.
From the top
of the Dragon Roller-coaster, you can see the train actually just runs on a metal track through the backlot, but it was good fun. However, after riding it both ways we found it was quicker to just walk between the parks as the lines were usually quite long.
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| King's Cross Station |
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| Platform 9 3/4 (and the queue - this is once we got to the platform, we'd be lining up for 20 minutes prior to getting here) |
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| Harry Potter didn't follow the rules about not leaving his bags unattended. I hope the bomb squad don't have to detonate Hedwig |
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| Hogwart's Railways |
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| Platform 9 3/4 |
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| Ready to fend off any Death-Eaters that might appear on the train |
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| Avadakka- Avadakka (I know that's not the spell, but that's how Tom says it) |
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| And present wands... - Check out Tom's serious face |
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| The Train arrives |
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| Hogwarts Express |
We took the train over to Islands Of Adventure in the mid-afternoon and spent some time there (on Sunday). We made it through most of the west side of the park and then caught the train back just before the parks closed so we could find our way back to where we'd planned to meet our taxi.
On Monday we came back to Universal Studios and rushed to Minion Mayhem (but as I mentioned earlier it was closed) so we rushed to do Transformers and then Minion Mayhem when it opened. The line for the train was over half an hour so we walked between the parks and then stayed in Islands of Adventure until near closing time, when we walked back to Universal Studios and caught a few shops before we caught our ride back at 5:30pm to have dinner at the resort.
The next post will describe the second park - Universal Islands of Adventure.
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