Sunday, June 19, 2005

cK Goes To Universal Studios

A Seasons Pass to unlimited fun, food, and rides!

I couldn't believe that I even got up after coming home at 7am from Arjun's impromptu party. I got dressed and commuted to the Universal City station on the Los Angeles Metro. I bought a day pass - ($3) which I think is the biggest bargain in all the cities I've lived in. For that price, you can ride the system unlimited until 2am.

Anyways, I arrive at the bottom of a hill where a shuttle bus, tram thing comes and picks everyone up. I think I waited about 5 minutes until one came along.

Once I got to the entrance, I just walked on through with my Season Pass and walked towards the Studio City Tour. There were a few attractions that I did not get to see during my first visit here, and this was one of them. I planned that today I was going to see everything that I didn't get to do before.

This backlot tour is very similar to the one that is in Orlando's version of Universal Studios, but I think that the Hollywood one is much bigger and is still very active in television and film daily. There are so many faux backdrop cities such as New York, London, the old west and even Mexico. My favorite part was when we were in the area of where they shot "Back To The Future". It was Hill Valley! I have always wanted to see this! I took a picture of the clock tower - that was struck by lightning to generate the 1.21 Jiggawatts that makes Time Travel possible....


Some other mentionables on the tour was where a scene of the movie, "War of the Worlds" was shot. That was just trippin!! It was wayyyy too real.. and just the idea of what is happening in this scene was scary. Here are some of the pics that I got with my camera-phone:


There were other things that I did see on the backlot tour, but those were mainly the highlights. Well, for me that is. I was walking around and was getting a little hungry. I noticed signs that were posted stating: "ALL YOU CAN EAT FOR JUST $19.99! ALL DAY! ALL YOU CAN EAT AND DRINK"

So you know I had to check this out. I thought about it. If I were to eat one meal at the park, it would cost me about $8, right? So I went to one of the restaurants there. This one was called, "Mel's". I picked up a chicken sandwich, some onion rings, a soda. The total came up to: $12. So I figured I might as well get the all-you-can-eat-day-pass. It comes up to about $21. After I ate, I was wondering if I wasted my money, because I was full. Only time will tell.

The next attraction I went to see was SHREK 4-D. You might be wondering, "4-D???" Yes. It IS in 4-D... but I cannot tell you how or it will give away the whole show. It is however a 3-D movie. It was very entertaining. I enjoyed it.

There was this audience tour called, "Special Effects Stages" that took you through the different ways Hollywood creates the effects in its movies. It was interesting and the hosts were quite entertaining. I also went to the "Backdraft" tour, which was a stage that was educating us about the dangers that firemen go through regularly and how intense it was when they were filming the movie with the same name.

After that, I was hungry and thirsty again. So I stopped into "Louie's Pizza". I got a fruit cup, a slice and a bottled water. I showed my special all-you-can-eat-bracelet, and that was it! No money needed. The total value of my food items was about $6.

The weekend I went was the opening for the FEAR FACTOR LIVE attraction. Where, it is just like the show, except they cast people from the audience to participate in the stunts! I don't know if they actually win a big monetary prize at the end, but they must get something!

It started off with a 'kids' Fear Factor where they had about 3 kids up on the stage, and told them to eat some chocolate covered bugs. The kid who ate all and swallowed would win. So all the kids do that, and one of them wins. His prize: A Fear Factor keychain. The other kids also get a Fear Factor keychain. Kinda takes the fun out of being the winner.

There was no more for the kids, now it was onto the adults. Everyone who appeared as a contestant had to go in for casting prior to the show at another end of the park. You can make an appointment online, or just come in that day. So all the people come out. Some of these people were serious. Like they came in with the attitude that they do crazy stunts all the time and this show would be a pushover. Then, you had some people who are just in it for fun.

FIRST STUNT: The contestants were put up high above the stage, and to hold onto a bar. Kind of like gym class. The top 5 people to hold on the longest will qualify for the second round. That was it. Nothing fancy added to that.

SECOND STUNT: The contestants were tied by their hands to a corner. Once they untie themselves by spinning around, they have to run over a rotating platform to a tank filled with swimming eels. Inside the tank are flags with your number on it. You take a flag back to the rotating platform and hang it up. After hanging up all 3 of your flags, you then procede to drink a smoothie that was created with: crushed worms, seafood surprise, spoiled milk and mystery meat. The top 2 to finish would advance to the third round. Now, I wish I had pictures of this because it was very entertaining. The only thing is that I got kinda skeptical about the ingredients in the smoothie.

THIRD STUNT: The two remaining contestants were strapped on this turbine thing where the more the spun it, the more electrictical shocks they would get. The electricity generated in their spinning was measured by a meter on the stage. The person who spun the fastest without slowing down and reaching the red line first would win. Or so I thought. The contestants remaining was this really pretty girl who looked like she had a tv presence. The guy looked like a guy that would regularly go to the gym, just to keep in shape. During the stunt, I could see that the guy was spinning like crazy. He wasn't slowing down at all, yet the girl was winning. I was watching very carefully too. She was not spinning as hard and as fast as the guy, and slowed down many times. She even stopped once. But for some reason, her electrical levels were red lining and she won. I really left there thinking that was fully set up. Here are the pics I took:


After 'Fear Factor Live', I ate one more pizza slice and a fruit cup. It was well worth it. As for the other rides at the park, I did them previously in May so I didn't go them. "Jurassic Park" and "The Mummy" are my fav rides there, just in case you were wondering.

Well, here are the remaining pics from June 19th's day at Universal Studios Hollywood: