Bel Air

Yet another early morning start for me today. I swear I'll need a holiday from my holiday at this rate! I was up at 5:30am, so that I could be on the road early to avoid the worst of the LA morning commuter traffic.

Fortunately, my cunning plan worked, and I hit the Freeway just after 6:30am and enjoyed a fairly smooth run the 60 miles from Anaheim to Hollywood and Universal Studios. There were expectedly a few sections that were jam-packed, and where a determined pensioner could have overtaken me on foot, but mostly the traffic flowed.

Pulling into Universal's Jurassic Parking structure just before 8am I handed my car over to the valet and watched as he handbrake turned round the corner, leaving in a trail of tire smoke. That didn't really happen, but it would have been cool, and proved that movies are documents of truth.

I wasn't due at the VIP lounge until about 9am, so I wandered Universal City walk, trying not to look like a fitness-obsessed homeless person. Eventually I got tired of waiting and rocked up to the VIP check-in about 8:45am. The gods of free food smiled and granted me entrance, and I climbed the stairs and proceeded to pack in as many free croissants, Danishes and assorted breakfast offerings as I could take before it was time for my group's VIP experience to begin at 9:45am.

Just before tour time our guide, Christine, introduced herself and ran through our planned itinerary.

We began on one of the park's marquee rides, Jurassic World. Normally the queue for this stretches back to the Jurassic era itself, but magic VIP passes in hand we waltzed past the plebs and straight onto the ride, only stopping to don our provided ponchos, because on this ride you DO get wet.

After that we had a whirlwind of lower lot rides including The Mummy and Transformers. Ancient curses vanquished and the Earth saved, again, we rode the four levels back to the upper lot and headed for Hogsmeade and Hogwarts, where we rode The Forbidden Journey and Flight of the Hippogriff. On only one of those rides did I experience it mainly as an audio event. See if you can guess which one.

Harry Potter in our rear-view mirror we just had time for some Minion Mayhem before we were escorted into the French Bistro for a very fancy, very delicious and dangerously filling buffet lunch.

Waddling out of the, all you can eat calorie frenzy it was fortunate that our next ride was the famous backlot tram tour. However, in the VIP version you ride in an actual tram car, with leather seats, individual tour guide and endless chilled bottled water. In this tram tour you also get to get off and wander some of the film sets, including a set from one of my favourite movies, Back to the Future.

The backlot tour lasted about 90 minutes, then we had time for one last ride together as a group, The Secret Life of Pets. Exiting this ride, we said our goodbyes to each other and our wonderful VIP tour guide Christine, then set off on our own way around the park.

I had to make for the valet parking, in a valiant effort to get on the freeway before rush hour.

For the first 5 miles it looked like I was living the miracle, then twenty miles of nose to tail traffic hit me in the fender and I crawled most of the way back towards Anaheim.

Arriving about two hours later I just had time for dinner at the drive in fast food outlet which is Sonic (love their tater tots and Sonic blast milkshakes!) then collapsed into bed.

One more theme park done. One more to go. Tomorrow an old favourite, Knott's Berry Farm.Read more