Universal Studios Massive Picspam
I had a blast at Singapore's Universal Studios theme park last Thursday - even more so, since we very nearly didn't get in. Seriously. Apparently, the park had limited tickets for each day (to keep the place from overflowing at the brim), so when we got there at lunchtime, we were greeted by the incredibly exciting marquees, "TICKETS SOLD OUT FOR TODAY." I could've unleashed a flight of dragons upon the place. Fortunately, my Singaporean aunt, being a casino gold card holder, managed to get her casino contact to arrange for us to get two tickets into Universal Studios.
Massive picspam follows. Proceed at your own risk.
Universal Studios Singapore has seven themed zones, arranged around a large, (probably) man-made lake.
HOLLYWOOD
Our first view of Universal Studios: Hollywood Boulevard, complete with Walk of Fame.
There's no shortage of snack booths scattered all over the park, each with its own unique design.
The Pantages Hollywood Theatre seats 1,500 people, and is currently showing Monster Rock ( a rock-and-roll style revue) which, unfortunately, we kept missing.
Look, it's Mel's Drive-In from American Graffiti! Barely visible to the left is a white 1958 Chevy Impala. Further in are a black '55 Chevy, and...
... this terribly cute '32 Ford Coupe. Its carplate says, THX138. How sneaky of you, Mr. Lucas.
NEW YORK
"Little Shop of Horrors" started playing in my head when we turned the corner into New York. I have no idea why.
(The buildings to the left are actually a front for Lights! Camera! Action! Hosted by Steven Spielberg, whereby a sound stage is "struck" by a major hurricane. Don't stand in the front row if you don't like getting wet).
The New York Public Library, complete with its lions. To its right is...
The GE Building at Rockefeller Centre??
(The sign above the door reads: "Wisdom and Knowledge Shall Be The Stability Of Thy Time" - Isaiah 33:6).
It's perfectly natural to contemplate the city from the back of a large stone lion.
There's just so much to see in Hollywood, and not just on the main street where all the shops and attractions are. Turning down a corner, you feel as if you've stepped into a Time Warp.
It amuses me that the little sign right under "Wharf Arcade" says, "Do Not Enter" - a sign flagrantly ignored by everybody and their brother. ;)
The wharf, which goes partway around the lake at the centre of the park. Can you smell the fish?
I love how far they take things to inject the place with a properly New York feel.
Did I mention I love this place? This reminds me of that gigantic warehouse raid mission in Mafia 1, which culminates in you sending a train crashing through a warehouse door. (Also a reminder that I play way too many games).
Around the corner from the New York Public Library is Sci Fi City. I'm not surprised at its location. Really, I'm not.
Presumably, this is where robots shop for gears and oil, and fancy upgrades. Too bad it doesn't read Playbot.
There were a whole bunch of these costumed fellows on stilts, walking around Sci Fi City.
Probably the crown jewel of Universal Studios Singapore's themed rides: the world's tallest duelling roller--coasters, so named because it consists of *two* roller-coaster tracks twisting around each other - one suspended (Battlestar Galactica: Cylon, blue track) and one seated (Battlestar Galactica: Human, red track). The former features inversions and different loops and rolls; the latter has no inversions, but reportedly goes at greater speed and subjects passengers to higher G-forces. The Cylon coaster will be opening at the end of the year; the Human one opened in March, but a technical glitch (a problem with the braking system, I believe) caused the ride to be shut down one week after opening; it's scheduled for re-opening later this year.
Despard, if you're in Singapore at the end of the year, would you like to ride the Cylon coaster with me? (Even if I'm probably the only person I know who manically *laughs* their way through a roller-coaster ride).
A bored Cylon stands guard outside the ride.
While the Egyptians were well-known for their irrigation technology, they also made the world's first roller-coaster. Its purpose, however, was to deliver souls to the afterlife in 4 minutes flat1. The whole joyriding thing only came several thousand years later.
1 In case no one got that, it was a joke reference to the No. 9 train in Grim Fandango.
Anubis, looking somewhat disgruntled - which is perfectly understandable, since he's up to his waist in hardened concrete.
You can't see it, but right behind me on this pavilion is a towering obelisk. I took a picture of it, but the illusion was quite ruined by all the power cables criss-crossing it.
There's a story to this one...
This is the entrance to the indoor roller-coaster Revenge of the Mummy (think Space Mountain), which is based on the Mummy movie franchise. It's marketed as a "psychological thrill ride" because it plays on your innate fear of heights, speed, darkness, insects (scarab beetles!!) and death. Or at least, dead warrior mummies. And fire.
I went in with eager anticipation. My aunt, who hadn't the foggiest notion what she was getting herself into, followed me in. The trek to the coaster leads you deep into a badly lit excavated tomb (the lights go out almost completely at places - which really gets you in the right mood), complete with artifacts, crates, skeletons (of failed explorers?), and another large statue of Anubis. I don't know what my aunt was expecting, but any ideas she might have had about this being a weird, eerie version of It's A Small World (the first part of the ride brings you past a half-mummified man who warns you to find the Book of the Living and kill Imhotep before Imhotep sucks his soul out, and a treasure room filled with riches and warrior mummies that suddenly leap out from a redly glowing pit) probably evaporated the moment the car plunged through a rapidly closing doorway to crash into a wall, causing a flood of scarab beetles to scatter out from the cracks. The car then slides backwards (I really didn't see *that* one coming) before hurtling forward and upwards into what I can only describe as "a dark hell filled with fire, malevolent warrior mummies, and a psycho mummy priest". Which, in my book, spells out "Massive F-U-N", but in my aunt's book, spells "ABSOLUTELYHIDEOUSTORTURETHATCARYSUBJECTSMETO!!!!". She came out of the building rather badly shaken, and with a deep prejudice against all the other rides in the park. (She also hasn't stopped telling people back home about the horrors I put her through, by OMG sticking her in a coaster car that went UP, DOWN AND BACKWARDS! ROFL).
Did I mention I went on it twice?
THE LOST WORLD
The fourth zone is The Lost World, which is divided into two areas: Jurassic Park and WaterWorld, both based on the movies (obviously).
Here there be Dinosaurs...
Just outside the park gates is a Tyrannosaurus rex having a fun run-around-the-eggs with...
a fierce-looking Spinosaurus, who is actually a big softie at heart because he lets little kids lounge on his great big feet.
Not surprisingly, Far Far Away land is right around the corner from Jurassic Park...
While Shrek's hut (complete with moat!) likes just outside the castle walls. The little red sign to the left of the hut reads: WARNING. OGRE OUTHOUSE AHEAD! (Probably an utterly terrifying prospect if you have even marginally functional olfactory nerves).
Madagascar, the last of the seven zones, features a proliferation of beautiful tropical greens, an immense baobab tree...
... and this poor sap, who got lodged in it.
Madagascar: A Crate Adventure is scheduled for opening next year.
Thanks to MmeBahorel, I had a massive schnertzfit when I saw this sign. *facepalm*
The ship from Madagascar, probably with Marty, Alex, Melman and Gloria in those crates.
And... that led us right back to Hollywood Boulevard, and straight to the shops.
One parting shot:
Rodin's Thinker sitting a little way off from the entrance to Universal Studios, still wondering where the hell he put his clothes.
Massive picspam follows. Proceed at your own risk.
Universal Studios Singapore has seven themed zones, arranged around a large, (probably) man-made lake.
HOLLYWOOD
Our first view of Universal Studios: Hollywood Boulevard, complete with Walk of Fame.
There's no shortage of snack booths scattered all over the park, each with its own unique design.
The Pantages Hollywood Theatre seats 1,500 people, and is currently showing Monster Rock ( a rock-and-roll style revue) which, unfortunately, we kept missing.
Look, it's Mel's Drive-In from American Graffiti! Barely visible to the left is a white 1958 Chevy Impala. Further in are a black '55 Chevy, and...
... this terribly cute '32 Ford Coupe. Its carplate says, THX138. How sneaky of you, Mr. Lucas.
NEW YORK
"Little Shop of Horrors" started playing in my head when we turned the corner into New York. I have no idea why.
(The buildings to the left are actually a front for Lights! Camera! Action! Hosted by Steven Spielberg, whereby a sound stage is "struck" by a major hurricane. Don't stand in the front row if you don't like getting wet).
The New York Public Library, complete with its lions. To its right is...
The GE Building at Rockefeller Centre??
(The sign above the door reads: "Wisdom and Knowledge Shall Be The Stability Of Thy Time" - Isaiah 33:6).
It's perfectly natural to contemplate the city from the back of a large stone lion.
There's just so much to see in Hollywood, and not just on the main street where all the shops and attractions are. Turning down a corner, you feel as if you've stepped into a Time Warp.
It amuses me that the little sign right under "Wharf Arcade" says, "Do Not Enter" - a sign flagrantly ignored by everybody and their brother. ;)
The wharf, which goes partway around the lake at the centre of the park. Can you smell the fish?
I love how far they take things to inject the place with a properly New York feel.
Did I mention I love this place? This reminds me of that gigantic warehouse raid mission in Mafia 1, which culminates in you sending a train crashing through a warehouse door. (Also a reminder that I play way too many games).
Around the corner from the New York Public Library is Sci Fi City. I'm not surprised at its location. Really, I'm not.
Presumably, this is where robots shop for gears and oil, and fancy upgrades. Too bad it doesn't read Playbot.
There were a whole bunch of these costumed fellows on stilts, walking around Sci Fi City.
Probably the crown jewel of Universal Studios Singapore's themed rides: the world's tallest duelling roller--coasters, so named because it consists of *two* roller-coaster tracks twisting around each other - one suspended (Battlestar Galactica: Cylon, blue track) and one seated (Battlestar Galactica: Human, red track). The former features inversions and different loops and rolls; the latter has no inversions, but reportedly goes at greater speed and subjects passengers to higher G-forces. The Cylon coaster will be opening at the end of the year; the Human one opened in March, but a technical glitch (a problem with the braking system, I believe) caused the ride to be shut down one week after opening; it's scheduled for re-opening later this year.
Despard, if you're in Singapore at the end of the year, would you like to ride the Cylon coaster with me? (Even if I'm probably the only person I know who manically *laughs* their way through a roller-coaster ride).
A bored Cylon stands guard outside the ride.
While the Egyptians were well-known for their irrigation technology, they also made the world's first roller-coaster. Its purpose, however, was to deliver souls to the afterlife in 4 minutes flat1. The whole joyriding thing only came several thousand years later.
1 In case no one got that, it was a joke reference to the No. 9 train in Grim Fandango.
Anubis, looking somewhat disgruntled - which is perfectly understandable, since he's up to his waist in hardened concrete.
You can't see it, but right behind me on this pavilion is a towering obelisk. I took a picture of it, but the illusion was quite ruined by all the power cables criss-crossing it.
There's a story to this one...
This is the entrance to the indoor roller-coaster Revenge of the Mummy (think Space Mountain), which is based on the Mummy movie franchise. It's marketed as a "psychological thrill ride" because it plays on your innate fear of heights, speed, darkness, insects (scarab beetles!!) and death. Or at least, dead warrior mummies. And fire.
I went in with eager anticipation. My aunt, who hadn't the foggiest notion what she was getting herself into, followed me in. The trek to the coaster leads you deep into a badly lit excavated tomb (the lights go out almost completely at places - which really gets you in the right mood), complete with artifacts, crates, skeletons (of failed explorers?), and another large statue of Anubis. I don't know what my aunt was expecting, but any ideas she might have had about this being a weird, eerie version of It's A Small World (the first part of the ride brings you past a half-mummified man who warns you to find the Book of the Living and kill Imhotep before Imhotep sucks his soul out, and a treasure room filled with riches and warrior mummies that suddenly leap out from a redly glowing pit) probably evaporated the moment the car plunged through a rapidly closing doorway to crash into a wall, causing a flood of scarab beetles to scatter out from the cracks. The car then slides backwards (I really didn't see *that* one coming) before hurtling forward and upwards into what I can only describe as "a dark hell filled with fire, malevolent warrior mummies, and a psycho mummy priest". Which, in my book, spells out "Massive F-U-N", but in my aunt's book, spells "ABSOLUTELYHIDEOUSTORTURETHATCARYSUBJECTSMETO!!!!". She came out of the building rather badly shaken, and with a deep prejudice against all the other rides in the park. (She also hasn't stopped telling people back home about the horrors I put her through, by OMG sticking her in a coaster car that went UP, DOWN AND BACKWARDS! ROFL).
Did I mention I went on it twice?
THE LOST WORLD
The fourth zone is The Lost World, which is divided into two areas: Jurassic Park and WaterWorld, both based on the movies (obviously).
Here there be Dinosaurs...
Just outside the park gates is a Tyrannosaurus rex having a fun run-around-the-eggs with...
a fierce-looking Spinosaurus, who is actually a big softie at heart because he lets little kids lounge on his great big feet.
Not surprisingly, Far Far Away land is right around the corner from Jurassic Park...
While Shrek's hut (complete with moat!) likes just outside the castle walls. The little red sign to the left of the hut reads: WARNING. OGRE OUTHOUSE AHEAD! (Probably an utterly terrifying prospect if you have even marginally functional olfactory nerves).
Madagascar, the last of the seven zones, features a proliferation of beautiful tropical greens, an immense baobab tree...
... and this poor sap, who got lodged in it.
Madagascar: A Crate Adventure is scheduled for opening next year.
Thanks to MmeBahorel, I had a massive schnertzfit when I saw this sign. *facepalm*
The ship from Madagascar, probably with Marty, Alex, Melman and Gloria in those crates.
And... that led us right back to Hollywood Boulevard, and straight to the shops.
One parting shot:
Rodin's Thinker sitting a little way off from the entrance to Universal Studios, still wondering where the hell he put his clothes.