LA Day 2: Universal Studios!

Well, this was a day of the holiday that I had been extra excited about since Christmas, because Robert had bought me tickets for the VIP Experience at Universal Studios Hollywood!!

We were not sure about what the traffic was like in the morning as we had to be there for half 9. So we left the hotel at half 7, just to make sure we weren't late and it was back onto the Interstate to make our way to Hollywood! Well, we were early, like an hour early, hehe! Although it did take us a while to work out where the hell we were to park. People kept sending us in all the wrong directions! I mean how hard is it for somebody who works there to point us towards the front gate?! We were to use the valet parking right at the main entrance, because this was included in our VIP experience ticket. So we got to the valet 20 minutes later... Although it was so cool just dropping the car off right next to the Universal Globe!! As we were still so early we went and explored City Walk and then headed on in to the VIP Suite! Hehe!

We were the first ones in and helped ourselves to the breakfast spread that was there for us. Robert put some bread into the toaster, followed by croissants to be heated up, however it took a while for them to come back out. Obviously it wasn't designed for croissants and the toaster had quite a bit of smoke coming out of it. It was hilarious!! Robert freaked out in case he was going to set Universal Studios on fire, but eventually the croissants slid out the bottom, black!! Haha, the kitchen area was a little cloudy from all the smoke and I attempted to waft it out the windows!! The suite smelt like burnt bread for the rest of the time we were in there!! Haha, it was so so funny! So anyways after the other people from our tour had arrived and our tour guide Doug came in to greet us, we were away and then onto our tram, which would be taking us round all the studios!

So our first stop on the tour was around Sound stage 44, which is the set of Parenthood, a hugely popular American drama. This is called a "Hot Set", because it is actually used to film from and we got to walk right into the "house"! It was so interesting to actually be looking around and learning so much about how its made etc! Very interesting learning all the tricks that they do to make it seem like an actual house!

We then went into a huge warehouse where all the sets and props are made! Robert loved this part as of course he is a joiner (carpenter) and after seeing lots of things they were making exclaimed that he wanted to stay and work there and "how do you get a job working here?!", hehe! We then went onto the Backlot, which is a huge outdoor set, with loads of different sections, where thousands of films have been made! It was awesome to be able to walk around them and to recognise some of the streets and areas from films!! It was amazing!

Recognise this from Back To The Future?!

We then got back onto our tram and were taken to an amazing King Kong 3D experience! The whole tram was moving and there were huge dinosaurs trying to eat us, but of course King Kong saved the day! Afterwards we were taken to see some cars used in famous movies and then we went into see a little show about how crash scenes are really filmed! 

We then went into a mini Jurassic Park and got sprayed at by naughty dinosaurs who had escaped their cages! We also travelled through a Mexican looking village, where we were shown how the weather is controlled on a set (including flash floods!!) and then ended up in a Wild West type set, which was awesome! 

After a look around there and being told all about how they made the doors certain sizes to either make the actors look taller or smaller, we ended up in Amity Island, which is of course famous for... Jaws! Of course the shark himself came over to say hello!

We then got onto the set of Desperate Housewives! Now I loved Desperate Housewives and thought it was a brilliant show, so I was so excited when we rolled on up onto this street! It was totally like what you expect and looks just exactly like what it does in the tv! 

Gabrielle's House!

We got to see "the Who's" set from the film The Grinch and then we turned the corner and we were at the motel from Psycho! I have such a funny video of our tour guide Doug totally putting me in it and trying to set me up with the baddie, Norman Bates! Unfortunately, it won't load (sad face), but basically we see Norman Bates putting a body in his car and then he sees us and starts to come over! So then he brings out a knife and Doug is chatting away to him and he then says "Oh here's Jennifer, look she wants to go home with you!", so then he starts walking to me and the driver pulls away! Hehe, Robert then does the whole "I'm watching you" hand signal and Norman starts to laugh, along with everyone else! So funny!

We were then taken onto the War Of The World set, quite a famous film with Tom Cruise as the star. Robert loved this set, as it is a plane crash scene, with a real Boeing 747 plane! Robert was full of questions, asking Doug all about it! It was an amazing sight! There are also houses up on the hill, whose windows look out onto the scene every day!!

We also got a sneaky peak at the Jurassic Park set, which is behind the huge plane! We then drove past the huge blue screen, that has been used for so so many famous movies and let me tell you the screen really is just so big, it has a huge pond in front of it!! We then went to the last part of the studios tour and went into the prop warehouse! This is where the set designers go in and pick out all the furniture and items needed to make their sets look real! Every single thing imaginable is in that warehouse! It is huge!! E.T. is even in there!! After having a look round it was time to say goodbye to the tram and off we went into the theme park!

The theme park itself is amazing and the rides are even better!! Doug firstly took us to the Jurassic Park water ride, which was so good and was also so glad that we had been given ponchos, because we would have been soaked! Then we were taken on the Transformers ride, which is an awesome 4D simulator ride!! Then before we were taken for lunch it was the Mummy rollercoaster! So much fun! We were then led up the "Star Way" and up onto the rest of the park! We got taken to this awesome buffet for lunch, which had mini doughnuts, just like The Simpsons ones!

After lunch, at about 2pm, we all met back up with Doug at the House of Horrors! Now unbeknownst to me, this was a walk through full of men dressed up as your worst nightmares waiting to jump out at you! So I headed on in and as we are taken to the front of the queue wasn't really sure what I was letting myself in for (as I am terrified of things like this!)! So I made sure Robert was behind me holding onto me at all times and was almost holding onto one of the other guys from our tour in front!! Honestly I must of been such a picture!! Haha, screaming my head off, trying to work out where they were hiding!! At one point, a guy jumps out from behind a curtain and then Robert decides it would be funny to give him a fright back! So he waits a couple of seconds and just as the guy is coming out again, Robert is up in his face shouting boo back at him!! Hehe, I can see it being hilarious now, but at the time I just wanted to get out of their and was wanting Robert to hurry up!! It felt like it went on for ages though and at one point I asked a steward if it was nearly over, in fact I almost cried it at him!! "Is it nearlyyyy ooovvverrrrrrr!?!?!" Hahaha, and he said yes, but he lied! There was still about 5 more scenes filled with monsters to go! Honestly when I saw a streak of light up ahead of me, I was totally overjoyed!! Haha, so funny looking back on it!

We were then taken to all the awesome shows! Waterworld (we got to stay at the end and talk to the actors and also got to see the sea plane be put back into place!), Special Effects Stage and then Universal's Animal Actors (again we got to stay at the end and meet two of the animals, they brought out a very clever dog and a Capuchin monkey. We got to get our photos with them and the little monkey touched me, it was just so amazing!!)! We then got taken onto the Simpsons ride, which is just so so good!! Honestly, so funny and you walk in not knowing what to expect, its amazing!! Lastly we said goodbye to Doug, as we went into Shrek 4D! Doug was such an awesome tour guide, so funny and full of knowledge about films and the sets! Here are some photos of our time in the theme park!

We had just the most amazing day and we went into the shops and bought some goodies, which I will show you in  haul! I would most definitely say that the VIP tickets were so worth it and it was just fantastic! If your going to Universal Studios Hollywood, I totally recommend the experience! 

We left the park and headed over to the City Walk once again, to get our dinner! Let me tell you it was so so busy, since we were there in the morning!! After noticing the Abercrombie &Fitch shop, that was just so nicely placed there, there was no stopping me buying some really pretty tops! And that was the end of our very long, but completely amazing day!! We got some ice cream and then picked the car back up and headed back to the hotel!

One of the best days of our holiday right there! Thanks again Robert for getting the tickets!! Also I am sorry if that post was really long! Hopefully you didn't mind I just wanted to fit it all in!! Hehe. 

Love, Jen x