Arrived at Universal Studios at 5:15 PM and bought an
Celebrity Annual Pass (CAP) due to not having enough time in any one day to see
everything. This also allows free
parking and priority seating on the Backstreet Tram Tour.
So, of course, I took the tour first thing.
I was the only person in “Gate A” which is for the VIP tickets to be
used. The tour is better than what
they have in Florida. I like having
everything as one wait instead of multiple waits, as in Florida, for the
Earthquake, Jaws, King Kong, and Backlot tours.
However, I seem to remember that the tour, when my wife and I took it
about 11 years ago, was about 2 ½ hours long instead of about 1 hour as it is
now. It used to have a portion
where you got off the tram and was given a walking tour of working studios.
I miss that part. Now it seems as another part of an amusement park instead of
a studio.
After the tour, I decided to hit the “BeetleJuice’s
Rockin’ Graveyard Review” since it was nearby and the show was about to
start. This show was similar to the
one I saw in Florida when we were there 3 years ago.
It uses the BeetleJuice character along with a Dracula, Frankenstein,
Wolfman, a female Frankenstein, and a Phantom of the Opera to perform dance and
song routines. This is a loud show,
but decent.
I grabbed a bite to eat at the Carleon & Sons fast food
place. I had to pick this place
since all the others were starting to close up.
As it was, they only had a few hotdogs and pizzas already cooked and
waiting to be picked off the rack. I
selected a hot dog and fries, which ended up costing a little over $10 with a
large drink.
I left the park soon after finishing eating since I was
tired from a long day. I had flown
into Los Angeles earlier that day from Houston, Texas.
I got up and made it to Universal before 9 AM.
I had to make a convention by 12:30 PM, so it meant I would have to leave
the park about 11:30 AM. First off,
I noticed that the signs were saying the “Jurassic Park” ride had only a
5-minute wait, so I headed toward it. The
wait was more like 15 minutes, but was well worth it.
They did not have this ride in Florida when we were there.
The dinosaurs jumping out in the later parts of the ride adds some thrill
to it, though I sort of liked the nice peaceful part at the start.
Too bad they can’t have two rides – one adventurous and one calm.
The ride creators ensure you get wet due to spraying by the dinosaurs, a
waterfall you pass through, and the big wave created when the boat hits the
bottom of the drop. Make sure that
it is warm when you do this ride or you will really remember the experience.
After Jurassic Park, I went to the E.T. ride.
It also was only supposed to be 5 minutes, but took more like 15.
This ride was exactly like the one in Florida, though the queue inside
was passed through quicker since there was not a backlog of people. It is one of those rides that are nice to do, but not one I
would stand in line for an hour to do.
After leaving E.T., I went to see “The World Of Cinemagic”
which is also similar to the one in Florida.
It is a nice demonstration of the techniques used in performing special
effects. Audience participation as
actors is nice, but it was really enjoyable by the guy who took over in the last
part of the show. He didn’t ask
for volunteers; just picked people from the audience and convinced them to
participate. He adlibbed quite a
bit and made the presentation funny and well worth it.
I ate fried chicken at Doc Brown’s Fancy Fried Chicken
and it was decent food. Left the
park since it was about 11:30 and rushed back to the hotel to get ready for the
conference.
I arrived after the conference was over for the day and
stopped and saw a showing at the Waterworld.
It was about to start when I arrived, so it was very good timing.
A note on the splash zones – just because you are not sitting in them,
doesn’t mean you won’t get wet. The
only places I saw not getting wet were each section on the far ends and the top
few rows everywhere else. The
pre-show consisted of one of the characters spraying people with a hose as they
walked by (of which a dirty look seemed to stop him from trying to spray me) and
then three of the characters used buckets to throw water from the “ocean”
onto the audience. During the show,
the middle section side closest to the entrance seems to have been heavily hit
with water. I would suggest sitting
to the sides unless you want to get soaked.
The show was loud and smokey and wasn’t in Florida when we were there.
It was interesting and made more sense if you had seen the movie.
If not, then you would probably be lost.
After this show, I went to see Terminator 2 – 3D.
This show had been in Florida and seemed to be exactly the same.
I do seem to recall some extra props in the queue before the show in
Florida’s version, though I may be incorrect.
It is a good show to see 3-D affects and is a continuation of the
Terminator 2 movie. If you liked
those movies, you’ll like the use of the films and real life characters in
this show. Makes you wish for a 3rd
movie to occur. By the way, the
signs at the start of the park had said the wait was 20 minutes. By the time I arrived at the building, the sign there said 40
minutes and it was close to being right.
I then went back down all the escalators to see Backdraft.
The wait was supposed to be 20 minutes, though I think it was closer to
30. At least the weather was great.
The high today was only 78; similar to what it had been the last couple
of days. A lot different than the
95-98 I had been experiencing in Houston.
The Backdraft show begins with a talk about the movie from
Ron Howard and then a demonstration of a fire stream. At the 3rd part of the show, a demonstration of a
warehouse fire was performed with a sudden movement of the platform the audience
stands on being timed with a last great explosion.
The last demonstration was well worth the wait.
This show was not part of the Florida attraction when we were there.
Glanced through the Lucy tribute for a couple of minutes,
then decided to try to find something to eat.
I went back out to Universal City Walk, which is a
collection of stores and restaurants along a walk with people peddling stuff and
small shows going on. I stopped at
Gladstone’s and had the filet mignon and jumbo shrimp combination.
The food was good and filled me up.
The City Walk is being expanded and is supposed to be
completed sometime in year 2000.
When I entered the gate, I noticed that the wait time was
40 minutes for the “Back to the Future the Ride”.
I checked the shows that I hadn’t seen and the next one started in 45
minutes, so I went ahead to the ride. By
the time I reached the ride, the time of wait was 45 minutes.
It actually took that long in line.
It was just like the Florida version and is good as a motion simulator.
I rode it with a couple of teenage boys from Germany and a mother with
two teenage girls and one girl about 8. The
young girl was real scared about riding it and expressed this in the pre-ride
“briefing” given by Doc Brown. The
mother talked her into going ahead and riding.
Of course, the girl really enjoyed the ride and wanted to do it again.
The “Back to the Future the Ride” can be difficult on a body, though,
with all the twists and turns it makes.
Checked the board for the two shows (luckily one is outside
of the ride) and the Animal Actors Stage show was about to start in 10 minutes.
I don’t remember if this was in Florida when we went last, but it is an
interesting show of getting different animals to do certain trained responses. This started off with 3 rats running across the stage and
disappearing in hole. It included a
pony, a monkey, three dogs, an orangutan, a cat, a hawk, many pigeons, and a
chicken.
After that show, it turned out that the last show I needed
to see, “The Wild Wild Wild West Stunt Show” was starting in 10 minutes
(lucky timing). This was exactly
the same type as in Florida; even down to the pre-show with a Charlie Chaplin.
It does have funny parts, but the show should be changed up some.
You would think that over a couple of years, they would get a new
routine.
I did a little bit of gift shopping for the kids and
realized on the way through the City Walk that I had not gotten anything
specifically for my wife. Looking
around, I did notice that the “Wizardz” dinner show would be starting soon,
so I put my purchases in the car and returned to inquire about room (it does
take reservations). It actually was
not full, so I went ahead and saw it. In
the bar / wait area, they have two fortunetellers who will tell your future for
$6. Also, a magician goes through
the tables and does a small presentation that seemed really good.
He utilized balls and other small objects like coins.
Dinner consisted of a salad, an entrée (choice of steak, grilled
boneless chicken, or vegetable plate – children under 12 get chicken fingers
and fries), baked potato (with the steak and chicken), and a rainbow sherbet
desert. The show consisted of three magician acts for about 20
minutes each with a MC setting up each. The
acts were good and it was interesting trying to figure out how they did each
act. The card tricks were easy to
figure out and if you watched their hands carefully, you could see a blur of
motion as they transferred the cards. The
normal assistant in the boxes occurred and was carried out with skill and
actually scared one 5-year-old boy who thought the lady was actually hurt.
The ESP demonstration was interesting, though no one other than the
“magician” finding the objects in the crowd verified that names and numbers
off of certain cards were actually the correct ones that his psychic assistant
professed them to be. It was a good
evening of food and fun, though, so I would recommend this show.
It is not quite up to par as the magic show in Branson, MO, but it is
worth seeing.
Went back to the City Walk since I still needed a gift for my wife. Of course, I got distracted and decided to see a movie in the multi-screen theater there. After the movie, I decided to go to the retail shop of the Hard Rock Café and see what they had. Ended up getting a t-shirt for both my wife and I (might as well match…). It had a strange guy in it working the counter and handing out small catalogs for it’s online site. The guy kept up a constant stream of conversation with someone (almost everyone) in the small shop. It may be part of the “act” for a Hard Rock Café, but since I have never experienced it before, it was a little discomforting. I did find out, along with everyone else there, that he had a pin collection. This was determined when a couple of teenage girls came in with pins in their clothing and he pulls out a box and wants to trade with them.