Universal Studios Hollywood Rides

Introduction

For November Break we went to Universal Studios. I was very excited because it was first time going to Universal. I was especially excited for “The Wizarding World of Harry Potter” because I am a huge fan as well as my sister. There were lots of rides and I really enjoyed my time there. Here is an explanation of each of the rides we went on while at Universal.

Flight of the Hippogriff

This ride was a fast but short ride. It was a full roller coaster unlike all the other in universal that use screens and are virtual. There was a mechanical Hippogriff near the beginning of the ride that was quite impressive. This ride was also my sister’s favourite ride and she went on it about 10 times in the 2 days we were there.

The Forbidden Journey

This ride was one of the two faster and scarier rides at universal. You must put all your stuff in a locker as you do go upside down a few times. In this ride, you follow Harry Potter through the various classrooms and halls of Hogwarts. You experience a Quidditch match and help Harry get the Golden Snitch. This ride was a great experience especially since I am a big Harry Potter fan though it was quite scary and even though my sister is a Harry Potter fan, she said she never wanted to go on this ride again since it was so scary.

The Simpsons Ride

This ride among many others at Universal was a virtual roller coaster. In this coaster, you and the Simpsons are chased around Springfield by Side Show Bob. Even though it is a virtual ride it could be a bit scary for some people. On a scale of 1 – 10 I would rate this ride around a five since it is so similar to all the other rides.

Kung Fu Panda

In this ride, you help Po deliver a special delivery to the emperor. You are thwarted by a villain who has obtained the Ming Hammer. Po fights back against the villain and his minions. You travel to the spirit world where the fight continues. Finally, you come out of the spirit world and arrive at the emperor’s palace where you find out that the special delivery was Po. This ride is aimed towards a younger audience which made it somewhat boring. Also, it is only about a two and a half minute show and takes a while to line up for.

Studio Tour

The Studio Tour is one of the main attractions at Universal Studios. You tour the backlot of Universal and get to see all the soundstages and sets used in various movies and TV shows. Some of these shows/movies include The Good Place, Jaws, Despicable Me etc. There is the 4D experience of King Kong where you get to see King Kong protecting your tram form two fierce dinosaurs. You get to see how them make a crash seen for a movie. They show one if the sets from Jaws and see one of the mechanical sharks they used in the movie along with some fire. You see all the vehicles used in the different movies. You pass that Bates Motel and see Norman there stuffing some one into the car. He then sees everyone in the tram and chases after us with his knife out. You finish off with the Fast and Furious Supercharged where you are under the protection of Hobbs and his family but being chased down by Shaw because one of us has information. I was quite disappointed because the finale didn’t work when we did do the Studio Tour. Since we were so disappointed that we missed out on the finale we decided to do the tour a second time hoping that it would work and luckily it did. It was great to see the sets of all the different movies with my own eyes.

The Walking Dead

This attraction is a maze where the are people who jump out and scare you. The staff send you in groups of over ten so if you’re in the back it really isn’t that scary because they scare the people in the front. Overall, I didn’t really enjoy this attraction because there was such a long line up to get in.

Despicable Me

You find yourself in Gru lab as you are about to be turned into minions. It just happens to be the anniversary when Gru adopted the kids. Agnes has a gift for Gru and wants to give it to him, but he is to busy because he needs to train us as the new minions. The girls want to help Gru by training us for him. We then goo through the training course but some bad moves and we end up in Gru’s trash compactor. Gru then saves us and brings us to a surprise anniversary party. One minion accidentally activates the machine that turned us into minions, and it turns us back to humans.

Jurassic Park

This new ride is a water ride where you tour the park and see the mosasaur, stegosaurus and many more dinosaurs. Everything is ok until the indominus rex escapes. You come across the massive creature and try and get away from it as fast as possible. When running from it you forget Owen Grady’s message to stay calm and fall off a 94-foot tall cliff to finish off the ride.

The Mummy

This ride was the other ride where you needed to put all you stuff in a locker. This ride was so fast, but it was also disappointingly short. You come across many ghastly creatures including the one the ride is named after. So that you can remember your experience with the Mummy there are some people dressed up so that you can take pictures in front of the big sign that says “The Mummy”.

Transformers 3D

In this ride you travel into battle with the Autobots against Megatron’s and the decepticons. You travel inside an autoboot and try and help them defend the Allspark. Autobot scout Bumblebee helps save you from the wrath of the decepticons several times. Along with seeing Bumblebee you also encounter Optimus Prime and Megatron.

Conclusion

Overall, I enjoyed my experience at Universal Studios except that there were less real roller coasters and more virtual ones than I expected. Other than that, I think going to Universal was really fun.