The Universal Studios Singapore (USS) is the hottest attraction in Singapore at the moment. Well, aside from the obvious Resorts World Sentosa (RWS) that houses the casino hotel there in the Sentosa Island, and the Marina Bay Sands commercial area at the Singapore city center.
Me and my friends, we paid a visit to USS in December 2010 (wow! that sounds like a long time ago :o) ...when some of the rides weren't open for public yet. Sighs~~ Despite these setbacks, we enjoyed ourselves thru-n-thru. Here's my review of our funtastic day :)
Me and my friends, we paid a visit to USS in December 2010 (wow! that sounds like a long time ago :o) ...when some of the rides weren't open for public yet. Sighs~~ Despite these setbacks, we enjoyed ourselves thru-n-thru. Here's my review of our funtastic day :)
How to get there: Going to USS means going to Sentosa Island. Make your way to Harbour Front and take either bus, taxi or MRT to Sentosa. From there, hop on the Sentosa train to gain access to the new side of Sentosa housing the Resorts World Sentosa and Universal Studios.
Another fun option to enter Sentosa is to take the cable car from Mount Faber. At that point in time, the station was just reopened after closing for upgrading works. My entourage (just the three of us actually) took a taxi to the hill and purchased tickets to the island. You can buy two-way ticket but it could be difficult to catch a taxi to go down the hill during the later part of the day. Might as well buy a single trip ticket and go home by other means of transport later. As for the ride in 'The Jewel Box'...nice weather, nice view, niceee!
We started off early, thinking we could get ahead on the line and beat the others to the rides etc. It was only about 10am by the time we reached the USS entrance, and the lines were already forming up past the Universal Studios giant globe! Good thing we already bought the tickets online, so that saved a good deal of time. It pays to check out the websites and survey the promos they sometimes give.
Tadaa! First sign we noticed was the "Welcome to Hollywood". Good atmosphere despite the hectic crowd. I could feel it, yeah! Come on, let's explore this place :)
Tadaa! First sign we noticed was the "Welcome to Hollywood". Good atmosphere despite the hectic crowd. I could feel it, yeah! Come on, let's explore this place :)
Okay, first up we've got to get the USS map so that we could plan what rides to go for. Also, keep an eye on special performances at certain times of the day. It's best if you can cover all the rides, the shows, the parades and whatever good stuff you can get your hands on! We've got to make this trip worth it, right? 7 zones to cover..here we go!
We went with the flow of the crowd and reached Hollywood zone first. There's the Pantages Hollywood Theater where we watched the awesome Monster Rock Musical. When Dracula, Frankenstein, the Mummy and their kinds sang and danced for me, I think it was a coolness galore :p When we sat for lunch at Mel's Drive-In (halal), there were the Mel's Dinettes lady dancers and Daddy O's chorus boys ready to entertain. Thoroughly felt like it was in the 60's, what with the rock n' roll music and all.
The New York zone next door was a short stretch. There was the Empire Hotel for ballroom dancing...famous during that time I guess, the New York admin building and the yellow taxicab. Lights! Camera! Action! showed how special effects were done in movies, that one okay2lah. Anyhow, we managed to catch a pose with Marilyn Monroe...so that was worth it :)
Further up, we moved on to Sci-Fi City where all the anticipated rides were. Sadly, the 2 major rides were closed to public during that time. We hung our heads and skipped Battlestar Galactica: HUMAN vs. CYLON. FYI, these were 2 separate rides intertwined within one area and would be run simultaneously as if they were dueling. Urrghh, writing about it already sent shivers to my bones! Since we have nothing else to queue for, we took a short spin at the Accelerator. Yawn, it's kid's play... Recently in November 2011, there's the Transformers ride being announced as one of the new attractions. Hhmm...I certainly need to revisit Sci-Fi City some time soon.
From the future, we retreated to the Ancient Egypt where we were greeted with mummy statues along the way. The main attraction has got to be Revenge of the Mummy, which was a great roller-coaster ride! We would've queued for the 2nd round if we're not rushing to try some other offerings. Nice one, this mummy ride. Kinda reminded me of the Scooby Doo ride at Movieworld. We would like to meet the tall Army of Anubis but it wasn't the time yet. While we were at it, we tried the Treasure Hunters ride across the street. Kid's play but not bad at all, just...slow...and...peaceful... Oh, nice view though. The Oasis Spice Cafe (halal) was nearby, just in case anyone hasn't taken their lunch yet.
We regressed some more into The Lost World. See the pattern here? :p The main ride here was the Jurassic Park Rapids Adventure which would very likely see us ended up drenched. The waiting time for this was already long and so we skipped this ride with the intention of coming back later when less people were around. How wrong we were! It was drizzling in the late afternoon that day and still the lines were as if it never moved. Probably coz since the Battlestar Galactica weren't open yet, the mass converged at the other top rides like this (me being smart, heh :p)
Anyhow, we were compensated with the WaterWorld show next door. It's a show and tell kinda thing...with bombs and water as the main subjects. There were 3 types of seats i.e. the Soak Zone, the Splash Zone, and the Dry Zone. Most people aimed for the safe Splash area but not us LOL! No matter what, the guys would move around spraying water to the audience so there's no point in hiding, right? ;-) Awesome performance!
Chilling down after the adventures, we went into the land of Far Far Away. Here, Donkey's got its own Live show, Shrek was on a 4-D Adventure and the citizens travel using the Enchanted Airways. This section is family friendly, definitely.
Madagascar was also another family friendly spot, with King Julien's Beach Party-Go-Round and A Crate Adventure (yet to be opened then). The main attractions were the stars from the Madagascar animated film.
To put cherry on top of everything else, there's the Hollywood Boulevard Walk of Fame. This was where Charlie Chaplin, Betty Boo, Marilyn Monroe (as above), Frankenstein and many others lingered around for photo session with the visitors. Definitely not to be missed!
Like any other theme parks, there were gift shops available at each zone area selling momentos related to the attractions. I'm sure by now the USS would've had additional stores and kiosks to keep enticing the visitors. Not to forget, the new Transformers ride and the missed Jurassic Park rapids, sighs. Fear not, I shall visit USS again!
We went with the flow of the crowd and reached Hollywood zone first. There's the Pantages Hollywood Theater where we watched the awesome Monster Rock Musical. When Dracula, Frankenstein, the Mummy and their kinds sang and danced for me, I think it was a coolness galore :p When we sat for lunch at Mel's Drive-In (halal), there were the Mel's Dinettes lady dancers and Daddy O's chorus boys ready to entertain. Thoroughly felt like it was in the 60's, what with the rock n' roll music and all.
The New York zone next door was a short stretch. There was the Empire Hotel for ballroom dancing...famous during that time I guess, the New York admin building and the yellow taxicab. Lights! Camera! Action! showed how special effects were done in movies, that one okay2lah. Anyhow, we managed to catch a pose with Marilyn Monroe...so that was worth it :)
We regressed some more into The Lost World. See the pattern here? :p The main ride here was the Jurassic Park Rapids Adventure which would very likely see us ended up drenched. The waiting time for this was already long and so we skipped this ride with the intention of coming back later when less people were around. How wrong we were! It was drizzling in the late afternoon that day and still the lines were as if it never moved. Probably coz since the Battlestar Galactica weren't open yet, the mass converged at the other top rides like this (me being smart, heh :p)Anyhow, we were compensated with the WaterWorld show next door. It's a show and tell kinda thing...with bombs and water as the main subjects. There were 3 types of seats i.e. the Soak Zone, the Splash Zone, and the Dry Zone. Most people aimed for the safe Splash area but not us LOL! No matter what, the guys would move around spraying water to the audience so there's no point in hiding, right? ;-) Awesome performance!
Chilling down after the adventures, we went into the land of Far Far Away. Here, Donkey's got its own Live show, Shrek was on a 4-D Adventure and the citizens travel using the Enchanted Airways. This section is family friendly, definitely.
Madagascar was also another family friendly spot, with King Julien's Beach Party-Go-Round and A Crate Adventure (yet to be opened then). The main attractions were the stars from the Madagascar animated film.
To put cherry on top of everything else, there's the Hollywood Boulevard Walk of Fame. This was where Charlie Chaplin, Betty Boo, Marilyn Monroe (as above), Frankenstein and many others lingered around for photo session with the visitors. Definitely not to be missed!
Like any other theme parks, there were gift shops available at each zone area selling momentos related to the attractions. I'm sure by now the USS would've had additional stores and kiosks to keep enticing the visitors. Not to forget, the new Transformers ride and the missed Jurassic Park rapids, sighs. Fear not, I shall visit USS again!
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