As seen in movies

During my LA visit in the weekend, I went to Universal Studios in Hollywood. The park opens from 9am to 8pm on that day, Universal Studios has a different park hours on different day, it is best to check the park hours before getting there. The website is informative enough to show all the relevant information needed for visitors, from park hours to attractions, parking info to driving direction. Most importantly, the website provide easy navigation.

Reaching Universal Studios around 9am, we headed straight to the parking location. 2 types of parking is provided, preferred parking $20 and general parking $11. Of course us, young people opt for the cheaper but further parking and leave the nearer parking spaces for older people. We're considerate :P

Greeted by a big Christmas tree as we walked out from the parking lot

Walk pass this open-air-dome-shaped roof...look at the cloudless California sky...

We have to walk pass shops, which is called the Universal Studios City Walk, to reach the entrance of Universal Studios. Because Altera is a member of some fan club, as employees, we were entitled for discounts for tickets. Instead of paying $64, we get it for only $48.99

The pack of 5
(I always prevent myself from posting photos of other people in my blog, fearing that they might not like their faces on the net...I'm gonna make it an exception this time :P)

Nice statue...but...

...look again...and spot the difference...I mean the statue, not me

Got it? Here's another one of the same statue, yea, a fake statue that is
Nice make-up...I couldn't tell if he's a fake statue or not if he didn't move, not even when it's close-up

The park is divided into an Upper Lot and a smaller Lower Lot. Attractions are clearly stated in the park map provided when we enter the park. The map shows the location of the attractions and a short description of what it is. Signboards are also seen throughout the park, showing directions. One useful digital board I see shows the wait time for various attractions, this made it easy for visitors to decide which attraction they should go to which doesn't need long waiting /queuing time.

The first brave thing we did was to take on a wet challenge, the Jurassic Park ride, which is not a very wise decision...

...some more opt to sit in the front row

Going up the ramp...wet and free fall awaiting...

Great ride I would say, came out with wet pants and wet sleeve, it was so so cold!! Before the plunge, we get to see dinosaurs of various species...

This Brachiosaurus looks very real because of the created mist and the sunlight from a right direction

Also in the park is the small fellow, hrm...don't really know what's the name of this species though.

Fighting for popcorn

With partially wet pants, we proceeded to another type of scary ride, Revenge of the Mummy.

The ride goes at high speed in a very dark tunnel, and then goes backwards. It's a short but fun ride, a must for Universal Studios visitors. For this ride, free locker is provided for a one hour time limit for you to keep your bags temporarily while you take the roller coaster. The locker uses finger prints to identify individual, I would say it's 'high tech' for something that is free (for one hour).

Have you watch the movie 'Backdraft' before? Well, I haven't...

Here in Universal Studios, they explain what is the meaning of backdraft and demonstrated using real fiery fire, can feel the heat on our faces.

And then, there is this Studio Tour where you take a ride in the scene/sets of TV shows and movies. Practically, you can see the whole world in this small area.

Some old village which gets flooded

Can be a scene of museum entrance or Europe architecture

One of the houses seen on Wisteria Lane in Desperate Housewives. This is Susan's The Solis' yellow house. (*update 11/18: thanks to anonymous commenter for correcting my mistake)

Also seen from this tour is the devastated broken plane from The War of Worlds and many other familiar scene from various Hollywood movies

Other than the 2 nerve-wrecking ride and the studio tour, some other interesting attractions worth mentioning includes the Animal Actors featuring well-trained animals, Fear Factor LIVE, Terminator 2 in 3D, live motion picture with stunts in Waterworld, Shrek movie in 4D and the scary House of Horror where you take a tour into the horror house and there are live monster to scare the hell out of you.

Photo taken during the Waterworld show, the plane actually fly over from behind the wall and landed in the small pool...i'm amaze how they manage to bring the plane to a stop

Although Universal Studios is not a very huge park (at least not as big as Disneyland), I truly enjoyed myself. We were able to cover all the attractions in the park in one day, the queue was bearable even though it was the holiday season, maybe because of the displayed 'wait time' for each attraction, we can plan which to go first and which to leave for later.

As usual, a traveling post ends with photo collection.

For more photos, go to my online album: Universal Studios Hollywood
(The link might be invalid after some time if my online storage gets full)