Making Movies

Our main reason for coming to LA was to visit the theme parks and the first one on the list was Universal Studios. Tracey and I are regular visitors to this park - Tracey visited last in 1987 and I in 1975 (I was a very, very small baby) - needless to say there have been many changes.

The main reason you go to Universal Studios is for the Studio Backlot Tour and that was first on our list of things to do. I have to say I was starting to have queue withdrawals but we all got a good fix at Universal. It wasn't as fantastic as the ultimate queue we went through in New York to go to the top of the Queue Building (aka the Empire State Building), personally I still have wonderful dreams about that queue, imagine building that beautiful building just to house a queue!

Anyway the Universal Studios Backlot Tour Queue wasn't too bad and it wasn't long before we were on board and moving. They took us through various studios where various shows were being filmed - like Parenthood, House, CSI, Bones to name a few - and showed us how some special effects were created. A few recognisable highlights were the Jaws set, King Kong experience, the flooded street, Wisteria Lane from Desperate House Wives, robot cars from Fast and Furious, western streets, European city streets, an earthquake in a subway, and the parting of the waters. A couple of these I recall from my last visit.

The King Kong one was exceptionally good, they locked the 4-car train thing we were on into a set of gimbals and bounced us up and down and sideways as King Kong was battling a dinosaur around us like he did in the most recent King Kong movie.

All up the tour lasted for about 45 minutes and was really good.

BUT! The rest of the park is pretty much on par with Movieworld on the Gold Coast. Don't get me wrong it was a good amusement park and had some good rides but would it be worth flying 13 hours across the Pacific to go to if it didn't have the Backlot Tour ... probably not ... which means it is a long way to go for a 45 minute tour. Apart from that point it is spotlessly clean and lots of people there to help you if you look lost. The rides we liked the best were the Jurasic Park one where you float along being stalked by various dinosaurs before you drop down a big slide and get wet. They also have a couple of shows based on movies and the Waterworld show would be the one we liked best.

I have attached some photos showing the highlights.

Tomorrow we hit Disneyland!

BLOG NOTE: Our wonderful holiday comes to an end on Thursday but since we fly out at about 8.30pm we still have a full day which I won't get to write up until we are back in Sydney so I'll try to do that as soon as possible. I also have to write up today's (Wednesday's) Disneyland day which I will try and do tomorrow sometime. We land at about 6.30am on Saturday morning if you want to come and join us for the welcome home celebrations.Read more