What a day it was. Just a shout out to all the kiwi's out there suffering after the catastrophic earthquake. Our hearts and prayers go out to you. Our transport to the Universal Studio Theme and Tour was one of those Big Black Utility Vehicles that you see the FBI get around in when there gonna do a drug bust. It was pretty big inside and comfy. This is Steve's dream car he would love to have if he could get one back home. We got there nice and early and its F**ken cold. This cold weather is coming off the snow capped mountains they reckon. The place before you enter the studio tour is setup like a outdoor mall. There are a shit load of shops. We took a quick walk thru the shops. i managed to grab myself a $5 beanie to keep my head warm. Then we made our way to the gates of universal studio. We got some photos of the big spinning globe and the welcome gate. Just a tip for anybody planning on coming here in the future, make sure you at least get a front of the line pass. The amount of time it saved us waiting in lines is amazing and that was on a slow day there.
The first show/tour we did was the actual studio tour. There are some quite amazing sets on this tour. They take you through an old western set and a Mexican town set. Then they show you how they simulate a raining day and even a flood on the set. The most amazing part of the tour was the 3d King Kong set. The graphics and the way they simulated the fight between King Kong and a couple of t-rex's were amazing. I probably should'nt say anymore but for the people out there who might not get to see it, basically you drive into a dark set thats surrounded by 3D screens. It simulates a trip out to King Kong island. T-rex's start to attack the tour bus which is simulated by the tour bus being shakin violently. Then King Kong brings on his Donkey Kong to those T-rex's and they shake the bus and spray water to simulate your in the middle of the fight. Now maybe im a twisted freak but i was laughing as the girls were getting freaked out by the whole thing. It was easily the best part of the tour and the best use of 3D i have seen so far.
We continued on the tour and we saw the set "Wisteria Lane" famous for Desperate Housewives. We also saw the crashed 747 set of War of the World, the set of Jaws, the lake they fill up to film various water scenes from Pirates of the Caribbean to Apollo 13. The tour was quite informative and its a headspin to see where they filmed all of the famous scenes. After the tour we decided to try the new The Simpsons Ride. I had read some really good reviews on this ride so i was pumping it up. When we got in, thanks to our fast pass we went into a room with a single Roller coaster cart in it. I didnt quite know what to expect. The ride is basically another 3D setup. The cart goes up into the ceiling and a hatch opens. next you see the simpsons go on a roller coaster at Krusty's theme park and sideshow bob is trying to kill them. The ride simulates that you are on the same roller coaster as the simpsons. This ride is pretty much in the same vane as the King Kong. The use of 3D in this ride is great and when the cart moves you feel like you are apart of the show.
When we finished the ride we headed off to The Mummy's revenge ride and the Jurassic Park ride in the lower part of the park. The mummy's revenge ride was nearly abit of a worry because of the seat restrictions. Luckily everybody fitted into the seats. The ride itself was short and intense. One second you are catapulted from the start point and next you feel like you are dropping 30 foot. All i could hear was the girls screaming and laughing and myself constantly laughing and yelling SHIT!!! It was all over pretty quick like less then 2 mins. I loved it
Jurassic park the ride was pretty cool. Its a roller-coaster boat setup and you get to go through the Jurassic park set with robot dinosaurs moving around and spitting water at you. The Drop at the end was pretty breathtaking. You end up getting wet from the splash at the end. It was a pretty good ride and its getting abit old now but its still good.
After the ride we tried the hotdogs there. They were pretty good. We then continued around the park. We did the haunted house tour, which i thought was quite funny because i was behind everybody as they were all getting scared by the actors in the room. I couldnt stop laughing as K&K kept getting scared. We safely made it through the house and then had some lunch . Next we did the terminator 2 3D show. The show started off with a little presentation from cyberdyne.Then some live actors posing as John and Sarah Connor crash the presentation and then liquid terminator tries to kill them. You wouldnt guess who comes to rescue them. Yes Arnie comes and saves John and then they go into the future in a 3D movie. The effects were pretty cool. After the show we headed to the Shrek 4D show. This was probably the most disappointing of all shows but it was probably because of where we sat on the back row.
The final show we did was the special effects show. This show ran through all the types of effects that are commonly used in movies. Its pretty trippy when you see the old optical effects they used to simulate somebody on top of a building or the little models they used for cities and vehicles. Also it was interesting to see CGI in action.
The one way these theme parks sting ur wallet is by offering souvenir photos of urself on or during the ride. The photo's are sometimes good and they actually do capture the moment but..... The photo's cost at least $25 for 2. being the suckers we are we have got at least 4 of these photo's on various rides around the place. the price we pay for memories
After the theme park we jumped a taxi to the Beverly centre and did some shopping in the big Macys outlet here. The girls were looking for clothes and steve was looking shoes. We didnt find anything so we decided to try our luck with the Citadel Outlet. The girls got some clothes from Torrid ,Steve got some clothes from Casual Male XL and i got Motion sickness.$400 later we got back to the hotel and got some dominos for diner. So ends day 4
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