Universal Studios Hollywood (Review)

I've decided to do a whole separate post on my day at the Universal Studios Hollywood, because it was honestly one of my favourite days of the trip. I absolutely loved the theme park and I cannot believe that I'm saying that. 

Internal Transport 

The journey to Universal Studios Hollywood was a bit of a nightmare. I had originally booked a bus transport but then it got cancelled due to lack of interest and I couldn't find any alternatives from Santa Monica, so I ultimately ended up getting an Uber / Lyft in the morning. He ended up driving past me lack 3 times to pick me up, and then dropped me off at a staff only entrance at the park so I had to walk another 10 minutes back in the direction we'd just been. 

Once I got to the right entrance, it was better as the shuttle bus service took me right to the front of the queuing to get into the park, and it was there the globe waited for me! It honestly took my breath away a little and felt very surreal to actually be there and see it. 

Welcome and Queues

On arrival, the queues did look quite big but it honestly didn't take that long. It was very organised and there was lots of cubicles to scan tickets. I think from start to finish was probably less than 5 minutes, and it could have been even quicker but I was initially in the wrong queue. 

Once through ticket checks and security, you're greeted by the most magical filming sculptures and welcomes into the village area with the cutest buildings, bringing all the vibes. The park was slightly set up for Halloween. Some of the areas were off limit, but others had incorporated Halloween into the theme park, even during the day. 

Water World Show 

My first stop of the day was the Water World show. I overheard that there was a show which it is based on, but it stopped years ago and I've never heard of it. I was honestly amazed when I saw it. I was incredible, mind blowing and action packed. I still don't know how they did it but it was surprise after surprise, even having planes fly out, landing just in front of me. The only downside was that I did get squirted quite a lot with water, which was a surprise for my, but at least I didn't have an entire bucket thrown on me like some people. 10/10 would recommend! If I had time, I would have gone back again. 

Harry Potter World 

The number place I wanted to go was the Harry Potter. It felt so magical seeing it in person and I loved walking through Hogsmeade and seeing the Hogwarts express. There are a lot of the little shops open to the public to really immerse yourself in the Harry Potter experience. I would have loved to have bought a wand to do the magic experience, but it was so expensive and only really useable in this one location so I decided it wasn't worth the  cost. 

Hogwarts felt much bigger scale than Harry Potter Studio Tours in the UK and it was very impressive. I loved all the additional pieces they added with the cars and Hagrid's home and vehicle of choice. 

The big selling point for me was the Harry Potter show. I did think it was going to be more like Water World with seating and a stage, but instead it was just a corner of the courtyard and featured a sequence based on the Goblet of Fire. There was one Hogwarts student who acted as the speaker of the Triwizard Tournament, introducing the Durmstrang Institute from Northern Europe and the Beauxbatons Academy from France, who each did a short dance sequence. It was very quick but so much fun! 

I then did both of the rides. The first - Flight of the Hippogriff - was supposed to be a family friendly rollercoaster, so I decided to start with that. Before queuing I did make sure I fit in the ride as sometimes I've seen people get to the front and turned away, so I thought I'd be safe. Honestly, it was the worst ride of the day. The queue was the longest, and the rollercoaster was fast, went almost upside down and had turns. I was so glad when it was over. 

I ended up going to the second - Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey - after speaking to the staff, who told me it wasn't a rollercoaster and I absolutely loved it so was so glad I did. I went in the single rider lane, walked right to the front twice, and enjoyed the ride straight away! I then went to the Kung Fu Panda which was a fun and silly alternative too. 

Studio Tour

I then moved onto the Studio Tour. I actually thought this was a literal tour and was quite surprised it then turned into a ride. It was very cleverly done, but at the same time quite a shock. I loved that this was included in the ticket price, but feel like they should warn people. The whole experience took about an hour, but queuing also took about an hour. It was so frustrating because they could have easily fit so many more people on each of the buses but it was very badly organised. 

There were a few components of the tour. They had a live guide, but the guide was interacting with a pre recorded guide as well. It was cleverly done with different pre-recorded parts and included snippets of movies that were recorded on the plot so we could see how the filming came to life. We drove through different filming lots and studios. My favourite was driving through the "The Good Place" set which still looked great! 

There was also two 4D experiences where we stayed on the buses but drove into different studios to experience different "rides". One was a King Kong and the other being Fast and Furious. It is important to note that depending on studio schedules, some parts of the tour are closed or skipped due to ongoing filming. 

Other Rides

I started by wanting to finish the Upper Lot rides but after walking around, they all had quite long queues 

Walking down to the Lower Lot was so much further than I had anticipated. It was down 2 longggggg escalators and also quite a walk but it was so much fun once down. I first wanted to explore so I headed to Super Nintendo World which was exciting and immersive but very busy. I was surprised there was only one ride in the area, which also had a long wait and the single rider queue was temporarily closed so I decided to go back later. Sadly, despite going back multiple times throughout the day, it never went below 60 minutes and the single rider line never reopened. 

Instead, I went back to the main area and headed on what it described as the big rides. I was a little nervous for them all but they were all mainly video experiences rather than rollercoasters so I thought I would be alright and I was. I did the Transformers 3D, Revenge of the Mummy and Jurassic World. The latter was both my favourite and least favourite. The best because of the immersive dinosaur experience, and the worst because I got soaked at the front and it was a big drop at the end, but I've been on similar rides before with the boat drops and knew I'd be okay. 

I then moved back to the Upper Lot to finish with some of the more kiddy rideas. I did the Secret Life of Pets one which was a very fun experience, but more so for children for sure. I managed to take lots of pictures and videos because it wasn't scary at all. The Minions ride was really good and fun, but so frustrating and I wouldn't have done it, if I knew how long it was going to take. We were originally advertised a wait time of 30 minutes and it took over 2 hours from start to finish with no explanation, which is why I ended up sadly missing out on the Mario ride which I was really looking forward to as it was a driving experience. 

I ended the day with the Simpsons ride, running to it and being one of the last to ride before closing the queue. The queue again was over an hour long and took forever to get through and although it was good, it's not one of my favourites and because of the set up, I do feel like you miss lots of parts of the experience which is a shame.

Overall

Hopefully you can tell that I absolutely loved every second of being there. I would absolutely love to go back and their tickets actually did include a buy one day, get a second day free, but unfortunately because I was so far away, I couldn't utilise it sadly. 

I did find it frustrating that the single rider lines were almost all closed as this was one of the benefits of travelling solo. I only got to use 2 of them. Likewise, that people who were travelling together, still used the queues. I kind of think you should get an additional wristband if you only buy one ticket for this reason. 

Finally, the biggest frustration was that the opening times on my ticket weren't correct and so I arrived 10am and had to leave at 5pm I think. When it actually opened at 8am and I didn't have access to the Halloween Fright Night which I thought I did.