There was very little of the mature adult 38 year old in me today (and for those that know me well you can stop chortling at the thought of the words ‘mature’ and ‘adult’ when referring to me :P) We made it through the entry gates into the Universal Studios theme park and I was practically skipping in excitement.

Soooo many things to see and do and all the delicious smells and the shops and the vibrant colourful buildings and the Hollywood history and every single staff member just so incredibly polite and and nice and helpful. We had spent  bit extra and purchased in advance the Front of The Line tickets and we used that advantage quite a few times. Also whenever we did have to queue for brief moments we were in the shade which certainly is a plus when the weather was as bright and warm as today.

The best highlight of the day was the nearly 15 minutes we spent riding the Transformers 3D ride TWICE. 🙂 You have to take a bunch of escalators down to the lower lot (as in 460 steps worth – I know this because when we were down there the second time I decided to burn some calories by taking the stairs back up – turns out there are 460 of them in case anyone was wondering) and as you do you see that vast and massive warehouse that contains the ride.

The ride is actually 2 stories how and most involves you and 11 other members of the public being shut in a “vehicle” called Evac and your mission is to protect the All Spark. This ride involves a lot of motion of the vehicle clearly along a track and numerous 3D screens which display the battle/war you’re involved in. It literally feels like you are in a movie with these massive robots battling around you. It is just jaw dropping and I am astounded at the advancements made in the 3D to the point where you literally feel like you are part of an adventure like that. TWO THUMBS UP!! And if we could have used the front of the line pass multiple times over I would have gone again and again!

My second most favourite 5 or 6 minutes was The Simpsons Virtual Roller Coaster ride. That was really well done right down to the olfactory senses being included in this ride – at one point Maggie Simpson (turned into a giant irradiated baby) puts the vehicle we are in into her mouth like a pacifier and I immediately noticed the smell of baby powder. Shrek ride was okay – the chair effects made it interesting right down to the feeling of air being pushed along your lower legs as you visual senses are assaulted with the image of spiders crawling everywhere.

A close 3rd (if not equal 2nd) was the hour long Universal Studio Tour showing us the production stage, the sound stages, how a set is created to look like a particular place. The guide was great and very informative.

Universal Studios is not a great place for healthy eating though I must say. And also we were glad we decided to have a snack at 11am when there were no lines because honestly the queues at lunchtime were ridiculous at all the food vendors. We finished with an early evening at the Hard Rock on the City Walk – the Caesar salad was fairly ordinary.

Tim’s blog is up to date and has more images from our Universal Studios visit today. You can visit his blog for more pictures here: http://2012usacanada.blogspot.com/

I am off to a crossfit gym tomorrow to get my first introduction to the gym practice of Cross Fit. I hope that I am up to whatever is required of me!