[USWC Fall Vacation] Day 03: Universal Studios Hollywood

On our third day in Los Angeles, Baby woke up early to prepare brekkie for us before leaving for the theme park. He is my sweetest Baby indeed!


Baby drove us to the park which is located within Hollywood and it only took us 15-20 minutes to get there from our Airbnb. Amazingly, to park at Universal Studios cost us USD30 for a 'general parking lot' tier. A bit too pricey if you ask me. Nevertheless, upon parking, we walked through the whole Universal CityWalk to the entrance of Universal Studios Hollywood!



We last visited Universal Studios Hollywood in 2016 and it’s been 7 years since we came back! We’re glad to say that most of our beloved attractions are still around, and recently, they revamped the Jurassic World - The Ride, the Studio Tour and The Simpson Ride. However, we were most looking forward to visit the relatively new Super Nintendo World to see if it was any different from it's Japanese counterpart!


Upon entering the park, we decided to do the Super Nintendo World first, as this was the most popular attraction. We planned a full day at the theme park, as the main issue with Universal Studios Hollywood is that it’s EXTREMELY popular with both local American and foreign travellers. 





We first took photos with the adorable Toad! We also met up with other characters such as Mario & Luigi, and even Princess Peach!



To save time, we purchased our tickets prior to our departure from Singapore. Apart from the general admission fee to go in to the park, we also paid a bit extra for the Express Passes. This basically gives you fast entry into Super Nintendo Land, as without the pass, there might be a risk of not being eligible for re-entry if the line was too long.


The pass also allows you to enter the fast lines for all the rides in Universal Studios Hollywood except for The Mario Kart: Bowser's Challenge Ride. WTH right, we queued for 160mins for the ride!










The Mario Kart: Bowser’s Challenge is one of the best attractions that I’ve ever experienced. Riders will put on a Mario cap headset on the ride that will let you experience the augmented reality of Super Mario World!





In my opinion, I felt that the scale of the American Super Nintendo World was slightly smaller than the one at Universal Studios Japan (USJ). However, i hear that there is a plan for an expansion of Super Nintendo World in the US to include Donkey Kong in the future!

The Super Nintendo World is one of the most literally immersive lands at any theme park, as the scenic design of the land was awe-inspiring. Super Nintendo Land was so amazing, and it felt like I was really in the game!


We managed to take The Secret Life of Pets at the Universal Studios Hollywood, this is a new ride to us, as it was released in 2021. It was a family-friendly ride where we boarded a cardboard box/ride vehicle that holds two persons. We enjoyed it very much!












We were glad that we got a table to dine at the Toadstool Café.



We had the Chef Toad Short Ribs Special and Bowser’s Fireball Challenge for our mains. 



 We enjoyed the Super Mushroom Soup, and the price we paid include the bowl, so they gave us a empty Question Block Box to put the mushroom bowl when leaving the Café!






For dessert, we shared a Princess Peach Cupcake and Mt. Beanpole Cake.

Upon leaving the Toadstool Café, we decided to do The Studio Tour first, as this was a pretty popular attraction. This ride is exclusive to Universal Studios Hollywood, cannot be found anywhere else in the world as the tour gives an insight and look to the real movie making studios and film stages in Hollywood! The ride/tour itself was about 45-60 minutes long!

With the fast passes, we waited less than 15 minutes in queue, before boarding the tram to explore Hollywood's most famous backlot in the largest working movie studio.

The Studio Tour included many cool things, such as the 3-D experience with the 'King Kong 360/3D, the encounter with the shark from the movie, Jaws, the meeting with Norman Bates at the legendary Bates Motel from Psycho, a plane crash scene from the movie, 'War of the Worlds', and lastly, a chase scene with the all new Fast & Furious: Supercharged Experience! All I can say is, the entire thing was so AWESOME!

We also took the TRANSFORMERS The Ride-3D, and it was similar with the one I rode in Singapore. In fact, it was an exact carbon copy of each other!

My favorite ride was the Jurassic World - The Ride and with the revamp it became more frightening than ever before. I love it more! OMG! The 84ft drop which was equivalent to an eight-storey vertical raft plunge was an ultimate thrill! If you ever have the chance to take this ride, be prepared to get REALLY wet!


We next entered the world of America's favorite family, The Simpsons! Downtown Springfield was very well done! The main attraction here was The Simpsons Ridea fast and realistic 3D roller-coaster!


Next, we went to check out another area which was based on the popular 'Despicable Me' seriesThe hilarious and exciting 3D ride featured the character, the characters Gru, his adopted daughters and of course, the cute Minions! I would say that this was not bad either!

This time, we skipped visiting the Wizarding World of Harry Potter as Baby is not really a fan and he gets nausea when he sits on the ride - Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey, which is located at Hogwarts Castle. We had done this ride twice ; Once on our previous visit here, and once in USJ during our recent Japan trip at the beginning of this year. Hence, we didn't really lose anything but decided to use the time for other attractions. The 3D simulator suspended roller coaster was pretty intense with sudden sharp up and down turns. If you are sensitive to simulator ride with 3D effects, then you might get dizzy as the movement was super-fast!

Instead, we took the Revenge of The Mummy - The Ride which we missed out on during our last trip. It was not similar with the one I rode in Singapore. It was way faster with more jolting twists and turns, as well as a lot of backward motion segments!



A visit to Universal Studios Hollywood isn’t only about the rides. It’s about the atmosphere and vibe too! It was an amazing experience and was a very well day spent at the park!



We drove down to Hollywood Boulevard to pick up some souvenirs. We took a quick visit to the TCL Chinese Theatre to check out the hand imprints of celebrities on the floor and thereafter ended our cold night by having a quick dinner at LA's very own In-N-Out Burger! I hard that the burgers here were delicious and cheap! Of course, don't eat fast food on a regular basis haha!


Stay tuned for my next outing, as we had our shopping therapy at the premium outlets, as well as our Clippers game at the Crypto.com Arena!

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