Universal Studios

Today, I visited Universal Studios.  I'd bought my ticket online, plus the extra for 'Front of Line' access so that I didn't have to queue as much for everything.  I'm not sure that the extra was worth it really, as it's not high season yet.  It would be a lot more valuable during the school summer holiday season probably.

The first exhibit I went to see was the Shrek "4-D" film.  There wasn't actually a queue, so the Front of Line status didn't win me any benefit for that.  The half hour film was quite good, and very funny, and quite jolty at times.


Then I wandered around the new Harry Potter special feature.  I don't do rollercoasters, so there wasn't actually any rides I could go to there, but I did have a good lunch at The Three Broomsticks in the recreation of Hogsmeade.

The snow was glistening very realistically - given that the temperature was in the 90s!

The whole place was dominated by all the shops, selling an awful lot of merchandise, from wands to gowns to quidditch equipment.  There were opportunities for young children who'd just purchased their wand (or had been chosen by their wand) to try magic spells on items in the shop windows, and most of them seemed to manage to get the spells right too and open the locks, levitate a feather etc.

Apart from the two rides, there was a performance area where I watched some mostly a capella performances by 4 members of the Hogwart's choir, with their frogs. 

Next, I went to the Special Effects show, which was half an hour long.  My Front of Line pass got me in first for the best seats, so it was useful here.  The presenters and stunt team covered all sorts of effects, and did some demonstrations.  One family were invited to the stage to redo the foley sound effects for a film clip, then another volunteer had her arm chopped off!  Then the professionals did a large fire stunt, with one of them being set on fire, running around, before being extinguished.  Finally, there was a flying stunt, with one person wearing a 'spacesuit' and being flown around the stage by his girlfriend, who had the tablet controller for the 'extremely expensive' harness and guiding system that made the flying possible.

Finally, I did the Studio Tour.  Again, since it was getting into the late afternoon, I was able to just walk up to this one too.  This was like a 4 carriage road train.  Unfortunately, the man sat me at the front of the second, so it was sometimes hard to hear the commentary due to the engine noise.  The train drove around the studio back lots where all the sound stages are and we saw lots of sets for various films that are still there, plus some for US television programmes that I've never heard of.  The ride includes a few set pieces, one being a Jurassic Park based 3-D film of dinosaurs, which again, was quite jolty and a bit splashy too, not to mention the dinosaur that was spitting at us too!  There was another which was a Fast and the Furious driving mayhem simulation.  It's amazing how they can make it feel like you're really charging along at high speed, or being rolled off a high cliff edge by a dinosaur when you're not actually moving at all.

By the time that tour ended, it was time to head back to the metro, to go along to Union Station to get the shuttle for the Dodgers game.