Memorial Day Weekend
I have always been a bit lazy starting for a vacation. But once the journey starts I will be in it with all enthusiasm and the end of the journey would be marked by fatigue. This has been the case some time now. But the Memorial Day weekend vacation is something that differed in quite a few ways than my "ideal" vacation.
The plan was to go to Los Angeles, check couple of places in a day, drive to Los Vegas, spend a day and a half in LV, drive back to LA and take the flight to Minneapolis. Sounded a bit hectic, but the reality was more than just a bit. We landed in LA at 12:10 in the morning. To start with, the friend who was supposed to pick us at the airport had a production release issue and was still in office at the odd hour. He came to the airport directly from his office and went back as soon as he dropped us in the hotel. The next plan was to get ready in the morning and wait for the friend to take us to the Universal studios. Little did we know that the guy would spend the rest of the morning in his office. But the poor fellow did turn up at around 11 am and we took the "30 min" ride to Universal in about 1.5 hours as the city bustled with the long-weekend traffic.
We started our tour of Universal after some more delays at around 2:30 pm. A bit of planning inbetween the rides made sure that we covered all the major attractions there.
Shrek 4D
Pretty good if this is the first attraction that you see in Universal. Otherwise one might find it to be a dead horse after the other attractions. Also, since I had done some homework on the show, I missed the surprise element. While people were laughing or sighing when water was sprayed over their face when Donkey sneezed on the screen, I was left saying "Ok, wikipedia was right on that one"
Jurassic Ride
This was the ride for which we were in the queue for the longest time. But it was sure worth it. I was in the first row of the cruise and so had the surprises really surprise me. The dinosaurs came out of the water just when I neared them and sprayed water over me. Cool, literally. The ride ended in an awesome way with a near vertical 85 feet fall. When we came out of the ride there were pictures displayed taken during the fall.
Studio Tour
I expected the run of the mill "See this to your left, see this to your right" kind of thing. But the studio tour was very exciting. It did have the usual stuff of showing the studio, the sound stations etc. But it also had some excitement with the flash food, the tremor at a subway station, the "Jaws" shark coming out of the water near the tram, water bisecting and giving way to the tram, the dance of "The fast and the furious" robotic-cars etc.
Terminator 3D
This show was a combination of actors and animation. The 3-D animation part was especially good with the flying machines looking as if they are coming right in front of our face.
Revenge of the Mummy
After the Jurassic ride I was not expecting anything more exhilarating, but this ride went to another level. It was a high-speed rollar coaster that went both forwards and backwards. It was lasted just few seconds, but the thrill is worth....well, making me stay from roller coasters for some time.
Water World
Water World is a live show (no animations or rides). Actors perform stunts in and around water.I sat in one of the front rows not noticing the sign "Soak Zone". At 8:40 pm I could have lived without getting drenched in water. The show was good.
I guess all of us were satisfied by covering most of the rides in a short span of time. I was particularly happy that my planning had helped us in using time optimally. With this satisfaction, we left Universal heading towards Las vegas.
The plan was to go to Los Angeles, check couple of places in a day, drive to Los Vegas, spend a day and a half in LV, drive back to LA and take the flight to Minneapolis. Sounded a bit hectic, but the reality was more than just a bit. We landed in LA at 12:10 in the morning. To start with, the friend who was supposed to pick us at the airport had a production release issue and was still in office at the odd hour. He came to the airport directly from his office and went back as soon as he dropped us in the hotel. The next plan was to get ready in the morning and wait for the friend to take us to the Universal studios. Little did we know that the guy would spend the rest of the morning in his office. But the poor fellow did turn up at around 11 am and we took the "30 min" ride to Universal in about 1.5 hours as the city bustled with the long-weekend traffic.
We started our tour of Universal after some more delays at around 2:30 pm. A bit of planning inbetween the rides made sure that we covered all the major attractions there.
Shrek 4D
Pretty good if this is the first attraction that you see in Universal. Otherwise one might find it to be a dead horse after the other attractions. Also, since I had done some homework on the show, I missed the surprise element. While people were laughing or sighing when water was sprayed over their face when Donkey sneezed on the screen, I was left saying "Ok, wikipedia was right on that one"
Jurassic Ride
This was the ride for which we were in the queue for the longest time. But it was sure worth it. I was in the first row of the cruise and so had the surprises really surprise me. The dinosaurs came out of the water just when I neared them and sprayed water over me. Cool, literally. The ride ended in an awesome way with a near vertical 85 feet fall. When we came out of the ride there were pictures displayed taken during the fall.
Studio Tour
I expected the run of the mill "See this to your left, see this to your right" kind of thing. But the studio tour was very exciting. It did have the usual stuff of showing the studio, the sound stations etc. But it also had some excitement with the flash food, the tremor at a subway station, the "Jaws" shark coming out of the water near the tram, water bisecting and giving way to the tram, the dance of "The fast and the furious" robotic-cars etc.
Terminator 3D
This show was a combination of actors and animation. The 3-D animation part was especially good with the flying machines looking as if they are coming right in front of our face.
Revenge of the Mummy
After the Jurassic ride I was not expecting anything more exhilarating, but this ride went to another level. It was a high-speed rollar coaster that went both forwards and backwards. It was lasted just few seconds, but the thrill is worth....well, making me stay from roller coasters for some time.
Water World
Water World is a live show (no animations or rides). Actors perform stunts in and around water.I sat in one of the front rows not noticing the sign "Soak Zone". At 8:40 pm I could have lived without getting drenched in water. The show was good.
I guess all of us were satisfied by covering most of the rides in a short span of time. I was particularly happy that my planning had helped us in using time optimally. With this satisfaction, we left Universal heading towards Las vegas.
posted by Jammy at 8:46 AM
1 Comments:
don't tell me you did not goto "Bak To The Future" ride. It's the best in Universal, in my and many others' opinion!
Glad you had a good time!
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