(no subject)
We're back from Universal Studios. All in all, it was a very enjoyable weekend. We went on pretty much everything, though the park's really not that big. Still a whole lot of fun though.
Here are the rides/attractions that we went on:
Back to the Future - This was godawful. It was kind of like Star Tours, if you were to add in a whole lot of bad acting and several swift kicks to the stomach. They also didn't bother with sound-proofing the area, so you could hear everything going on in the next room.
The Mummy Returns - This was their most recent attraction, and it also wasn't very good. This was in part due to the fact that they used video screens for most of the experience, in lieu of actual models. Video screens = not as real. I did like the mummy hands reaching out of the ceiling, but that was because they were models.
Backdraft - This was where the park started to get good. The first few rooms just dealt with Ron Howard talking about how the movie was made (eh), and then everyone got shuttled into a room that they set on fire and had lots of explosions (hurray!)
Jurassic Park - The best ride in the park, IMO. They had a gigantic T-Rex head that smashed through the ceiling at one point and tried to eat you. There was also a tiny dinosaur that shot a stream of water straight into my eyes. I thought I had ducked it, but no, he had a friend. Bastard.
Studio Tour - The second best ride in the park, though it was really more of a tour. They basically drive you around old movie sets and explain how the clock tower from Back to the Future was also used in Night of the Living Dead and Spaceballs and What's Eating Gilbert Grape. They also had some pretty funny simulation experiences. "Oh no! It's an earthquake! Watch as the tour bus shakes!" "Oh no! The water main broke! The whole room is flooding!" Stuff like that. There was also another animatronic dinosaur near the Jurassic Park set. It shot water into my eyes. AGAIN.
Universal House of Horrors - I've been to Knott's Scary Farm a bunch of times, so I'm fairly jaded when it comes to horror mazes, but this wasn't bad at all. They had a sequence where the silhouettes of zombies claw at you from behind a wall, and it was quite effective. The people in front of us completely freaked out.
Waterworld - This was miles better than the movie. Of course, getting poked in the eye with a sharp stick is miles better than the movie, so that's a moot point. It was basically a huge live action show where cheesy-looking guys in mullets rode around on jet skies and shot fake machine guns at people. That may sound corny, but it was actually pretty enjoyable.
Terminator 3-D - Now this was professionally done. It had the same actors from the movie, done on 3-D film with a huge curving screen, and then combined it with live action. The Arnold look alike drove straight into the screen at one point (ooh), through what I'm assuming was a secret panel.
Shrek 4D - This was a whole lot of fun. It was basically the same idea as the Terminator ride, but done with Shrek. I particularly liked the three little pigs shouting at you in German to free them. It made me want to watch the movies again, which was probably the intention.
And that was that. The front-of-the-line passes weren't necessary at all, but they were free, so I’m not going to complain. We also went to Santa Monica and a few other places, but I’ll write about that later.
Here are the rides/attractions that we went on:
Back to the Future - This was godawful. It was kind of like Star Tours, if you were to add in a whole lot of bad acting and several swift kicks to the stomach. They also didn't bother with sound-proofing the area, so you could hear everything going on in the next room.
The Mummy Returns - This was their most recent attraction, and it also wasn't very good. This was in part due to the fact that they used video screens for most of the experience, in lieu of actual models. Video screens = not as real. I did like the mummy hands reaching out of the ceiling, but that was because they were models.
Backdraft - This was where the park started to get good. The first few rooms just dealt with Ron Howard talking about how the movie was made (eh), and then everyone got shuttled into a room that they set on fire and had lots of explosions (hurray!)
Jurassic Park - The best ride in the park, IMO. They had a gigantic T-Rex head that smashed through the ceiling at one point and tried to eat you. There was also a tiny dinosaur that shot a stream of water straight into my eyes. I thought I had ducked it, but no, he had a friend. Bastard.
Studio Tour - The second best ride in the park, though it was really more of a tour. They basically drive you around old movie sets and explain how the clock tower from Back to the Future was also used in Night of the Living Dead and Spaceballs and What's Eating Gilbert Grape. They also had some pretty funny simulation experiences. "Oh no! It's an earthquake! Watch as the tour bus shakes!" "Oh no! The water main broke! The whole room is flooding!" Stuff like that. There was also another animatronic dinosaur near the Jurassic Park set. It shot water into my eyes. AGAIN.
Universal House of Horrors - I've been to Knott's Scary Farm a bunch of times, so I'm fairly jaded when it comes to horror mazes, but this wasn't bad at all. They had a sequence where the silhouettes of zombies claw at you from behind a wall, and it was quite effective. The people in front of us completely freaked out.
Waterworld - This was miles better than the movie. Of course, getting poked in the eye with a sharp stick is miles better than the movie, so that's a moot point. It was basically a huge live action show where cheesy-looking guys in mullets rode around on jet skies and shot fake machine guns at people. That may sound corny, but it was actually pretty enjoyable.
Terminator 3-D - Now this was professionally done. It had the same actors from the movie, done on 3-D film with a huge curving screen, and then combined it with live action. The Arnold look alike drove straight into the screen at one point (ooh), through what I'm assuming was a secret panel.
Shrek 4D - This was a whole lot of fun. It was basically the same idea as the Terminator ride, but done with Shrek. I particularly liked the three little pigs shouting at you in German to free them. It made me want to watch the movies again, which was probably the intention.
And that was that. The front-of-the-line passes weren't necessary at all, but they were free, so I’m not going to complain. We also went to Santa Monica and a few other places, but I’ll write about that later.