Universal Studios Hollywood

I started the day by relaxing by the pool at my lovely hotel in West Hollywood, and had some lunch there as well. Thankfully, the weather is back to normal again - warm and sunny!

Later, I went to a different hotel - the Magic Castle Hotel in Hollywood. Since my first visit to California in 2011, I have stayed at this hotel a lot of times and it's one of my favorites. For one, they have free ice cream, snacks, and soda! What else do you need?

After spending a little time at the hotel, I went to Universal Studios- this time the one in Hollywood.

I did the studio tour which is a bit different from the ones at the other studios, such as Sony and Warner Bros. While Universal is a huge lot with many TV and movie productions, it's also a theme park like Disney, with rides and shows. So the studio tour only passes by a small section of the actual lot, and it's more focused on entertainment - for example letting you experience a scene from Jaws and King Kong.

Several key scenes from Back to the Future were filmed at Universal, but unfortunately, this tour didn't pass by that specific area.

In the Halloween season, they have a themed event called Halloween Horror Nights. It features haunted houses, 'scare zones', and special live shows. I attended that after the 'regular' park features closed.

Each of the haunted houses has a specific theme. This year, for example, they had houses themed after Poltergeist, Jason from Friday the 13th, and the popular horror movie Terrifier.

When you enter a haunted house, for example the Poltergeist one, you walk through rooms that look like scenes from the movie, with actors or animatronics reenacting key scenes from the movie. Since it is a Halloween event, it is set up to be quite scary, with loud noises, gruesome scenes, and actors jumping out from the dark, dressed as characters from horror movies.

Since it is in Hollywood, it is quite well done, and the theming and the actors are amazing.

I tried 5 of the 8 haunted houses, the 'terror tram' where you walked through areas themed after movies made by the company Blumhouse, and a live stunt show based on The Purge.

One of the haunted houses featured new music by Slash from Guns N' Roses, made specifically for this event, which was really cool.

Overall it's a pretty fun event, but it is also very crowded with long lines, so I didn't get to see and do everything there.Läs mer