Hey everyone i'm back sharing my latest Trip Report. My family was able to accomplish our goal a couple weeks ago by attending all the US Disney and Universal Theme parks within the same calender year. You may recall I posted my Florida recap earlier this year in this section. Anyways our Southern California trip was a huge success as we spent 3 days at the Disneyland Resort Parks and 2 day at Universal Studios Hollywood. We also took it easier on this trip by planning plenty of none park days to relax by visiting other local areas such as Newport Beach and Hollywood. Below is what we did on each day of the trip so you will know when to expect each report:
Day 1: Travel, The Grove, Universal Studios Hollywood
Day 2: Newport Beach
Day 3: Disney California Adventure
Day 4: Disneyland
Day 5: Universal Studios Hollywood, Westwood
Day 6: Downtown Disney, Knotts Christmas Craft Village
Day 7: Disneyland Resort Park Hopping
Day 8: Beverly Hills
Day 9: Downtown Disney, Hollywood, Travel Home
Anyways please be patent as I put this together as if you read my previous recap you will know that my reports are very picture intense and also very detailed in writing. So they take alot of time to put together and it will take many months to full complete the recap. With that said thanks for reading and feel free to ask any questions you might have. I figure those who regular post on an Orlando based site may be very interested to see what the West coast has to offer. This time around I will be posting smaller updates more frequently instead of 1 huge update every few weeks. Enjoy.
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Day 1, Part 1: Travel, The Grove, and Universal Studios Hollywood
Our trip this time started out the way that many of our previous trips have. By waking up very early to catch an early flight. As you may recall for our Florida Trip last April we elected to take a later flight as we didn't know how quickly we could get out the door with an Infant. With Daniel being older now though we figured we could probably get going pretty quickly. Plus since we were looking at less then a 2 hour flight to LAX compared to our 7 Hour Plus flights to Orlando we wouldn't spend our whole day traveling. So the sooner we left the Sooner we could start playing.
By 5am Kiera and I were awake and getting ready to leave. We got ready for the day and got the final things packed. Kiera then feed Daniel a little earlier then his normal morning feeding in hopes that he would stay asleep on the flight. While feeding Daniel I went down into our crawl space to shut off the water to our house. With cold weather and snow expected at home while we were gone we didn't want to chance pipes freezing or any other damage happening to our home. Unfortunatly Daniel didn't fall back asleep as planned after feeding though so Kiera decided to go ahead and get him ready for the day as well so we wouldn't have to once we got to California.
At nearly 6:30am the car was finally loaded and we were on our way to Kieras parents house. Kieras Mom was kind enough to wake up early as well to drive out to the Airport with us and then drive our car back to there house so we wouldn't have to pay the Airport parking fees. We have never flown out on a Saturday before so we had no idea how busy the Airport would be. I wanted to be at the airport before 7am. We got there shortly after.
Those that read my Florida recap might recall that we have a Southwest Credit Card. So thats the airline we would be flying on once again for this trip. With our Southwest Rapid Rewards Points we only had to buy 1 ticket. A ticket that we got for less then $200 round trip. With how cheap the flight was and also getting a cheap rental car (i'll get to that later) it literally was cheaper for us to Fly to California then it would have been to drive. Plus we got 4 extra days basically out of it (the drive from Salt Lake is around 13 hours. We would stretch the drive over 2 days each day instead of driving strait). And with a child who gets somewhat car sick it confirmed flying to be the best option.
We were very suprised that there was practically nobody at the airport this early in the morning. We walked in and right up to the bag check in. We had to provide the nessicary identification for Daniel to fly free as a lap child and before we knew it we were on our way to security. As with check in there was no wait for security ether. Other then the pain it is to send all our crap thru the x-ray we were able to get thru very fast. We had plenty of time to kill before our flight. So we decided to grab some breakfast. Which we grabbed from the newly opened Popeyes Chicken in the airport. I had a chicken biscut sandwich and thought it was pretty good.
Since Daniel still hadn't fallen back asleep yet and finally having room to let him release some energy we got him out of the seat and let him run around a little bit. Yes the last time I report Daniel was barely rolling. Now he is not only walking but he has discovered the ability to run. So he is all over the place these days. And it was no different as he ran all around the Terminal. As Daniel ran around (with me in toe) Kiera went to gate check our stroller and car seat. To our suprise and happiness our flight was not full (something we've never really got to experiance on our Orlando flights) so we were able to take the car seat on the plane with us and let Daniel have his own seat. We though this was great as it would mean he would likely sleep the whole flight.
The time finally came that we could start boarding the plane. Traveling as a family we typically could use Southwests Family Boarding between the A and B groups. But that wouldn't be nessicary as we got a number in the mid A group. Before long we were on the plan and buckling in for our 8:35am Flight. We found a row of seats towards the front half of the plane and would soon be on our way. Sure enough as soon as the jet engines fired up and the plane started to roll backwards it quickly soothed Daniel to sleep.
We expected Daniel to sleep the entire flight since he didn't get nearly as much sleep as he typically done. But about half way into the flight he woke up. And stayed up the rest of the flight. Which turned interesting when he wanted to get of the seat and run around. Which of course he couldn't lol. He never got too out of control and mad as he found he enjoyed looking out the window. He also liked playing some of his learning games on the Kindle Fire. We soon passed over Las Vegas which is pretty fun to look at from 35,000 feet in the air.
The time flew by and we were soon making our decent into the Los Angeles Area. It was completly covered in clouds. I didn't think it was suppose to rain today but I guess I could be wrong. Daniel started to get upset when we had to put him back into his seat for landing. We also think his ears were starting to pop too from the altitude change so he likely wasn't liking that much ether. We were soon on the ground and made our way to our gate passing some very large planes from other airlines that we don't get in Salt Lake. Seriously flying to California from Utah is great. I loved having such a short flight.
We quickly got off the plane and retrieved our stroller and then started making our way to the baggage claim area. It was very evident how much larger the LAX airport is then SLC and even MCO and TPA in Florida. It was much busier then Salt Lake was when we left. We soon found our way to the baggage claim where we were somewhat suprised to find our bags basically being the only ones on the turnstyle still. I guess many people coming to LA from Salt Lake only taveled with a Carry on bag.
With our bags in hand we made our way outside to find the Rental Car Shuttle Bus. This was another thing odd about LAX is that no Rental Car Lots are located onsite at the Airport. Each company has shuttles on a loop to take you out to the Rental Car lots located a couple miles away. We waited only a few minutes before the National/Alamo Car Rental Shuttle showed up. We booked our Rental car this trip thru Alamo so thats where we were heading. We got on at the first stop and it takes a while to get out to the Lot as the shuttle will stop at all 7 stops and wait a couple minutes for anybody looking to get on. Finally though we made the rounds and were on our way to the Lot. Daniel really enjoyed being able to see out the front window of the shuttle as thats a new view he hadn't really seen before.
This would be our first experiance ever renting a car with Alamo. 2 months prior I had booked a Compact car thur Budget using a Costco Discount. I was very glad I did as a couple days later all the Rental Car rates skyrocketed. I never thought it would get that cheap again. That was until literally 2 days before our vacation. It was this day that I decided to check rates again (as I had not yet paid) and found I could get a Mid Size Car thru Alamo for about $10 cheaper then what I had booked with Budget. I decided to give Alamo a chance and Cancelled the Budget Rental. You can't go wrong getting a Larger vehicle for a cheaper cost.
I will admit that Alamo has made a big fan out of me. When you walk in to rent your car you do not have go to a desk or wait in any lines. Alamo has rental kiosks that you can get your rental from. You just walk up, punch in your confirmation number, scan your credit card and drivers licenses, choose to accept or decline insurance covereage (which my personal auto policy covers), then it prints out your information and your on your way. It didn't even take 5 minutes and it was so nice not having to deal with a live person trying to sell you on Insurance. It was so hassle free.
The next thing I love about Alamo is that you get to pick your own car. After you get your info printed you are directed to the rental car lot where all the classes of vehicles are sitting in marked sections. You are allowed to pick any car sitting in the section that you booked. So we found the Mid Size Car section and there were 20 some odd cars that we could choose from. We were able to look them all over and look inside to see what would work best for us. Once you decide the keys are already inside so you just load up your stuff and then drive to the front gate where the attendant checks the car out to you. It was such a hassle free and even a funprocess choosing what kind of car we wanted instead of just being assigned one. The car we ended up choosing was a Black Dodge Avenger.
With the Rental car now ours we could officially start our trip. Today we planned to drive over to Universal Studios Hollywood to see the Grinchmas Festivities that started this day. However since we would be spending 2 days there on this trip we didn't want to get there too early. I looked on my phone for ideas and decided maybe it could be fun to drive over the Grove Shopping Center to kill sometime. If your driving in the LA area make sure you have some sort of GPS as your gonna need it. I just used the Navigation on my phone to get us around and found it worked pretty well. With the address punched in we were on our way. We found it interesting how much Gas prices fluctuated between stations. The photo below has gas near $5 a gallon. Only a couple hundred feet away there were stations selling it for around $1 less per gallon.
It took nearly 45 minutes to get to the Grove from LAX (be prepaired for it to take a long time to go short distances in LA traffic) and we soon parked. We had no idea what was at this mall type shopping place. I just read it was a popular spot to visit and that Entertainment Tonight even films there during the week. In essance its very similar the outdoor malls that are shopping up all around the country. Its very similar to the City Creek and even Gateway shopping centers in Salt Lake as it has an assortment of Mid-High end stores to shop and also many restaurants to eat at.
What we found at the end of the Grove is where we spent most of our time though. Its the LA Farmers Market. In the Farmers market is a whole bunch of local vendors selling cheap goods and food. It reminded me alot of some of the Mexican Flee Markets that we've been to while on cruises although its alot cleaner obviously. We walked around the flee market seeing all the different food options offered. We also liked all the small produce stands set up and fresh butch blocks selling meat. This was where we decided to eat lunch for the day. Kiera got a Turkey Sandwich from a little shop while I decided to get some Chinese Food. Kieras sandwich was pretty big and she said it was good. I also enjoyed the chinese food.
With our stomachs full we spent some more time looking around the Farmers Market and The Grove. There were alot of great deals going on at some stores but we weren't here to do Christmas shopping though. We were on vacation. So we didn't even stop to look. But the stores were packed with locals walking around with bag fulls. We walked past there Santa house which had to be the most elabrete Santa house i've ever seen. And the line was so long to meet santa. So long that you had to take a number and come back at a specific time (like Disney's Fastpass). We then walked down around there Christmas tree which had to be around 100ft tall. it was huge and to my suprise it was also real.
At the base of the tree they had some sort of exhibit for The Hobbit film that was coming out that next weekend. I'm not a big Lord of the Rings fan so I didn't care to look at it. So we decided to call our time at the Grove done and started heading back to the car. Before we went up to the car though we needed to use the restroom facilitys and these were the most amazing restrooms i've ever seen at a mall like this. They were very fancy and even had a family waiting room with a tv and play area for the kids. They even had complementry diapers and wipe warmers in there baby changing rooms. Not gonna lie this was pretty cool.
As we loaded the stroller back into the car and buckled Daniel in I could here are cars exhaust rumbling thru the garage. Now I'm a car guy. I love all cars. Infact my Screen Name is in reference of the vehicle that I own, modify, and Race. So I knew it wasn't the exhaust tone that i'm use to hearing. Sure enough it was a Lamborghini that came rumbling by. I was pretty excited to see it drive by setting off car alarms as it rumbled by. I was just suprised to see it rolling thru the normal parking garage and not the valet. We ended up following it all the way down the garage though where it did turn into the exit of the valet parking. Apparently he was lost lol.
We pulled back out onto the street and set my phones GPS to take us to Universal Studios where we woud spend most of what remained of our day. The GPS directed us up and actually thru the real Hollywood area. This is where we caught our first and only glimpse of the famous Hollywood sign so the picture you see is the only one we have from the trip.
In No time we had arrived at Universal Studios Hollywood and the fun would really start. We hadn't been to this park in 4 years and in that time had become very familiar with and gained a strong love for the Orlando Universal Parks.
I've mentioned it once but some of you might be wondering why we decided to spend 2 days at Universal Studios Hollywood when its a park that is easily done in 1 day. Well this is the end result of our ticket debate lol. We bounced back and forth between different ideas of what we wanted to do on this trip. From the beginning 3 days at Disney and 1 day at Universal was always the plan with 5 days to relax and take it easy in Southern California so we weren't rushing around the parks each day. I found the Southern California Citypass and thought that would be the perfect option for us as it included 3 day Disneyland Parkhoppers, a Day at Universal, and also a day at Sea World that we didn't plan to use. The pass only cost $279 a person so basically we would get our Universal Ticket for only $29 more then a normal 3 day Disneyland Resort Parkhopper. And of course much cheaper then the regular $80 ticket for Universal. That plan changed when Costco started selling there 4 day Disney Park hopper for $259 with a free $50 Costco Gift Card making the Disney tickets only $209. We of course would have loved more days at Disney so this is what we decided to do. Obviously being a more expensive option though once you added in the Universal Ticket. However that Idea was soon killed when we went to Costco to buy the tickets and they were already sold out. So the City Pass plan was back on. Then I found out that Universal Studios Hollywood was running an ONLINE ONLY promo with the City pass where if you bought a Citypass from Universals website and used it at Universal first then you would get a 2nd day there for free.
Which brings us to this part of the recap and why we were at Univesal today. Today December 8th was the first day of the Christmas celebration Univesal does called Grinchmas. At this point in December Universal only does the Grinchmas event on the weekends so it would not be taking place when we visited during the week. Grinchmas seemed like it would be something really fun to go to and see so since we could go 2 days at no extra charge and experiance Grinchmas we decided to go for it. Thats why we only planned to be there for a half day with a focus only on the Grinchmas activities that we couldn't see later in the week. A second bonus of going today in addition to during the week is was the only option to go on the Jurassic Park ride while on this trip. At the Time Jurassic Park was going thru a Month long Referbishment. However they were opening the attraction on the weekends only. So it would be closed during the week when we planned on visiting. Those that have read my recaps before know that Jurassic Park is my favorite Water Flume type ride and so its one I did not want to miss. Especially since the Hollywood version is better then Orlandos.
We soon parked the car and were on our way into the park. Just like the Orlando Universal parks however to get to the Park you will first Travel thru a Dinning/Shopping/Entertainment complex known as CityWalk. Although here in Hollywood I think CityWalk is better then the Orlando version. I don't know if there were more shops or restaurants or clubs then in Orlando but it seemed like the place had much more going on then it did in Florida. The Parking Garage will dump you our on one of the multipule levels that CityWalk has and today we found ourselves on the top level. We took the Escolater down and then continued on to the Theme Park. It takes around 5-10 minutes to walk thru CityWalk to get to the park. For those wanting to bypass Citywalk though you can pay for premium parking which costs $5 more.
At the end of Citywalk your greeted with the trademark Universal Studios Globe. Here in Hollywood you still have the glassic globe. Not the newer and colored one that you will find in Orlando and other parks around the world. I like that they havn't changed it here as Hollywood is not only the Original Universal Theme Park but is still a working Movie Studio. The globe calls back to that Classic Universal that the park still represents for the most part.
After passing thru the bag check you find yourself on the Red Carpet leading up to the Universal Studio Arches. The Grinchmas overlay starts immidiatly here. The Red carpet is changed to be more wimsical like you would find in the Dr. Suess books, wavy Christmas trees line the walkway leading to the gate, and then a large Grinch face greets you as you enter the park.
For the 2nd day free at Universal Option on the Citypass we got you had to print your tickets at home. You then took the printed voucher directly to the turnstyles which counted as your entry ticket for your first day. It worked very well and after scanning your finger print you were in. However first and for most your directed to the Ticket Center where you will be exchanging the printed voucher you used for entry for the actual Citypass card. Grinchmas Decorations line the streets as you make your way pass the entrance and to the center of the Upper Lot where the Ticket Center is located. Switching out our voucher for the actual Citypass was quick and easy. This is also where you would upgrade your park tickets, or get tickets to free filming of TV and Talk shows.
With the most important thing out of the way (getting our actual Citypass Tickets) we could now enjoy the park and Grinchmas. Located right next to Ticket Center is the large Arena where much of the Grinchmas stuff takes place. For those familiar with the park this is also the old Wild West Stunt Show location with for the most part has now been completly removed. At night this arena is the location of the Tree Lightling Whovilation. During the day though its a giant play area covered in Real Snow. Thats right Real Snow in Southern California. Not that fake Bubble snow that you see at Disney. As you enter the arena area you are greeted by many Whos from Whoville that are posing for pictures. Then you see the large, grand Whoville Christmas Tree which is wimisical and wavy just as you would expect from the Grinch Book/Movie.
We chose to go play in the snow first because of how early it closes. Where the park was open today until 8 today the Snow play area would only be open until 3:30. This again is because they need time to clean up and convert the play area to sitting room for the Tree Lighting. It also was very, very packed with kids and parents alike playing in the snow. Obviously to us the Snow isn't a huge deal. We come from a place where it snows during the winter. However for many of the Southern California kids there this may be the only time they can see real snow. It was pretty much a mad house. Complete chaos almost lol. Snow was flying everywhere and all people seemed to enjoy it. However if you have little ones like us the chaos of the snow fights can be too much and with how crowded it was it was hard for Daniel to even find anywhere to move.
Luckly for little ones Universal has a secluded area just for toddlers and there parents. Here there were only a couple other kids and no snow was flying. It was a whole area that Daniel practically had to himself. It was kind of funny watching Daniel play with the snow as he didn't really know what to think of it. He would pick it up, hold it, and then just kind of stare at it. Its funny because not even a month earlier he played in a lot more snow and loved it. Today he just didn't seem to care. Maybe because there wasn't nearly the amount of snow that he played in before. So we decided to move on.
As I mentioned before outside the arena there were many Who's meet and greeting people. So we stopped to take Daniel to one to see how he would react. If you read our Florida recap you will remember that Daniel loved all the Characters on that trip. So much so that we made Characters a priority on that trip. Something we didn't plan. We hoped we would see the same reactions on this trip. Daniel and I awaited our turn but rudely got cut off by other family 2 or 3 times. Finally the Who that saw us waiting patently stopped the people who kept cutting in line and came over to us. Daniels reaction wasn't anything. He just staired at her face probably wonder why it looked so weird. He really didn't care much. I have to say though its pretty amazing how well the makeup Work on the Whos are as they really do look natural instead of being prostetics.
The thing we would do is our first "Attraction". Something that I consider to be the best thing about Universal Studios Hollywood. The thing that is the whole Reason the Universal Studios Theme Park exists. The World Famous Studio Tour. The tram tour typically has consistant long waits all day long and so its recommended to do it early in the day. During Grinchmas it also has a special portion that is not part of the typical Tram Tour. For Grinchmas the Whoville Set comes back to life with Who's and the Grinch doing a small performance. Since this was another thing you can only see during Grinchmas the Studio Tour was another Must do today. But more on that later. We parked the stroller and then got in line. The wait time posted was 25 minutes but I'd say it was closer to 20 minutes. This is also one of the few attractions in the park at a Toddler or Infant would be able to go on.
I mentioned that I love the Studio Tour and its the best thing about the Hollywood park as it takes you on to the Universal Backlot where Movies and TV shows are still filmed on daily. However I was really excited for it today because so much had changed since our last visit 4 years earlier. When we visited in 2008 it was only a few months after a Fire burned down most of the New York Sets as well as the beloved King Kong Encounter. That Day the Earthquake portion of the Tour was down for Referbishment, Westria Lane was being used to film, and you couldn't get close to Courthouse Square do to reconstruction. So we missed out on a lot on that trip. I was happy to hear that there was no Filming taking place today so we would get to see the entire Studio Tour.
We quickly boarded our tram getting a spot towards the front of the 3rd car in on the Tram and sat all the way to the right side of the row. Each side of the tram has there positives and negatives so I will share with you what side of the tram is better for what you see so you can decide for yourself which side you want to be on. Its pretty amazing to see how quickly the trams were being loaded and dispatched on such a busy Saturday. We were quickly loaded and on our way where we were introduced to our Tour Guide and Driver as well as our Automated Tour Guide Jimmy Fallon. The Tram Tour loads in the Upper Lot but most everything is down the hill on the Lower Lot so the first part of the tour is a decent down the hill as you pass Movie posters of Universals greatest hits since the studio was started.
After passing the Backside of the Jurassic Park Ride the tour officially starts as you enter the Front Lot of the studio. The front lot contains all of the Soundstages that are used for all kinds of Filmmaking. You will pass many Soundstages that are currently in use for many popular TV shows such as The Voice, Go On, Parenthood, and NCIS. With NBC being an affiliant of Universal it makes since that many of there shows are filmed here. The Front Lot also contains most of the offices for the studios and the bungalos that the Actors can stay in while doing extended filming.
Next the tram took us into the first section of the Backlot. The Backlot is where all the large scale outdoor sets are located. And the first part of the Backlot that we came to was the one that was no longer in existant when we came in 2008. The New York Sets. These series of streets mostly resemble sections of New York City however they can easily be configured to resememble any Major US city. All of the building are just Fascades and have no Interior to them as when filming is done all interior scenes will be filmed in a soundstage and outdoor scenes in front of the fascade. For a real upclose look to what a fascade is like this is what makes up the Streets of America at Disney's Hollywood Studios in Florida. The biggest movie recently to utilize the New York sets was actually the Amazing Spiderman.
One of the sections of the New York sets is called Courthouse Square. Many of you will know this set as being the location of Hill Valley in one of the greatest Movie Trilogys of all time. Back to the Future. It was also the only peice of the New York sets that survived the fire in 2008. Of course today though the set looks nothing like it did in Back to the Future with the courthouse itself being redressed for other films. Also the surrounding building have been redressed or rebuilt do to the fire and no longer resemble Hill Valley ether. Still its so great to be on the location of one of the greatest films ever. As far as seating on the tram goes if you want the best views of Courthouse Square then sit on the Left side of the tram. For the New York sets in general ether side will be fine as the streets surround both sides of the tram.
Our next stop on the tram tour is also the newest experiance. A visit to Skull Island as part of the Kong 360 3d. This is the only portion of the tram tour that require the use of the 3d glasses you picked up when boarding the tram for the tour. As the tram goes up a hill you will pass the remains of a distroyed tram as you enter the building that houses the Kong 360 attraction. I believe Kong 360 is billed as the worlds largest 3d experiance. Once inside the building the screens turn on to make it feel like your driving thru the jungles of Skull Island. The ground will move and shake the tram as well to add to the experiance. You then come across a bunch of Dinosaurs who then start attacking the tram. They knock it side to side and then King Kong comes to our rescue. He fights off all the dinosaurs climbing over the tram from side to side to do so. At one point its even simulated that the dinosaurs pull the last tram car off and pulls us into revine before we are saved again by King Kong.
This is one of the portions of the tram tour that I thought Daniel would have a spaze out on. Its dark, loud, and even scary at some points. But he did just fine and never made a peep. Kiera and I were both very impressed with Kong 360 and thought it was a great addition to the Studio Tour once again reinforceing the idea that the Studio Tour should not be missed. Kiera never got to the experiance the original Kong Encounter and I think the original was better. Theres not many 3d experiances that can replace fully built sets and full size animatronics that were found in the original experiance. Still Kong 360 is an amazing experiance and very, very well done. As for viewing the attraction it doesn't really matter which side of the tram you sit on as the action takes place all around the tram. However I recommend sitting more so in the middle to the back of the tram instead of the front for this attraction.
Upon exiting you loop back around the building that houses Kong 360 and this is when I realized where the attraction is placed. Its directly in front of the Old Collapsing Bridge portion of the Tour. That distroid Tram car blocks the roadway that leads to the bridge which now remains in its distroyed look. When we came in 2008 the Bridge had just been restored to be used again so it was kind of sad to see it not in use anymore once again.
Driving up the hill you come to a line up a some of the most famous Vehicles that have been in Universal Films. Although most of the vehicles were the same that we saw in 2008 many of them had been rotated out. You will see vehicles here from Back to the Future including the Delorean (which is in very rough shape), the Mercedes M-class SUV from the Lost World, and even vehicles from the Fast and the Furious movies. To get the best views of the vehicles sit on the Left side of the Tram.
Next up you enter the Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift portion of the tram tour. As you pull into the Arena you see two supped up Volkswagen GTI's and the tour guide leads you to belive they are about to film a scene for an upcoming movie. The director has them demo the different special effects first like the gun shots and explosians and then they clame they are filming and do all the special effects in sequence ending with the explosion throwing the 2 cars into the air. The cars being thrown into the air is accomplised by the cars being attached to Kuka arms just like the Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey uses in Florida for its ride system. Up to this point I think the attraction is kinda cool. But with the vehicles elevated on the Kuka is when it turns lame. The vehicles then start turning and dancing to some rap music and "showing off" to the tram. Its a portion of the tour thats really not needed and honestly the space could probably be put to better use someday. If you want the best views then sit on the Left side towards the middle of the tram.
From Tokyo the tour guide takes you to Isla Nublar which is set up with many different vehicles and set peices from the Jurassic Park films. This is a portion you differenitly want to be on the Left side of the Tram for as the props on that side are much better then they are on the right. Theres even a few suprise dinosaur attacks from that side of the tram.
You will then go down a hill and Al Rocher from the Today Show comes on the monitor talking about weather coniditions around the backlot indicating that heavy rainfall is expected in the Mexico Street area. Well thats not good because thats where we are heading. The tram stops on a bridge and then it starts raining fairly heavily. Then a flash flood happens as thousands of Gallons of water comes rushing down the hill towards the tram. This is one of the oldest parts of the tram tour and always fun to see people freak out thinking there gonna get drinched (you don't even get wet. Once again the Left side of the tram is best for this and try to get a car in the middle of the tram for best viewing. After the flash flood you will continue to see the rest of the Mexico Street Sets.
The Mexico Street sets transition into the oldest part of the backlot called Six Points. This is the Old Western Sets that date back to the silent age of cinema. I don't know for sure but I swear there was more to it back when we visited in 2008. Including a stop on the tour where there were Stunt men demonstrating a stunt of a balcony. It seems rather small now and we were quickly thru it.
Next up the tram loops around the Backlot Lagoon. Back in the day this was billed as the parting of the red sea from the ten commandments. Now days though its used as a convienient way to view the minature set used to film some of the Skull Island scenes of King Kong. To get the best views of the Skull Island Miniature sit on the left hand side. However it was really neat when we sat in the front car on Wednesday to actually see the Lagoon head on part.
After passing thru the Lagoon you enter another outdoor set location known as Little Europe. These sets are used frequently for many different European locations. I guess its very easy to convert the sets as all they need to do is dress it and hang flags for whatever European country its suppose to depect and then its ready to film. Last time we came they were filming in here so it was nice to see much more of the sets this time around.
When your done with Little Europe you will wind your way back thru the Western Sets and then into a soundstage that your told is used to film any subway sequences for film. But as you stop in the soundstage everything starts to shake. The lights are flickering and the tram is shaking. The tour guide is fearful that and Earthquake is taking place. The colums start to buckle and then the road from above collapses as a tanker truck slides down towards the tram and explodes. Then a train coming the other direction derails and nearly crashes into the tram. Now a flood is happening as water rushes down the stairs towards the tram. Of course this isn't an actual Earthquake but a simulated one. And its one of the best parts of the Studio Tour. The actual Earthquake Sequence is the exact same as Disaster in Universal Studios Florida however the train in the Orlando Attraction seemed to shake and drop more then the Studio Tram did. I would say that the best side of the Tram for this portion is the Left side. This is again something I thought would scare Daniel but he did just fine with it.
Soon after surviving the Earthquake you will find your self In Amity Road Island. The Location of Jaws. As you pull up next to the harbor you will witness Jaws attacking as you see a diver get pulled under water and even the water turning red from his blood. As you pull next to the dock Jaws starts to make the move on you as the gas ignites and exploads. And then the Shark is shown as it jumps out of the water at the tram as the tram drives by. As you know by now the Jaws ride has been removed from Orlando so unless your willing to go to Japan this is the last remaining encounter with the great white shark that there is. For best viewing sit on the Right side of the Tram here.
Going up the hill from Amity you come upon a bunch of houses and a neighborhood that has been used for many years on TV and Movies. Most recently though you will recognize the Neighborhood as Wysteria Lane from the TV show Disperate Housewives. When we came in 2008 we didn't see this section as it was being used for filming that day. Since then though Disperate Housewives has ended so filming happens much less often. You will drive down the neighborhood seeing all the different houses and then turn around at the end of the street passing them all again so ether side of the tram is fine to sit on here.
Driving next up a hill you come to the portion that is the whole reason we are taking the tram tour today. You come to the Whoville set from the Grinch who stole Christmas. And with it being Grinchmas in Universal Studios the Whoville set comes to life during the event. As we pulled up to the set we were first greated to the Grinch and his dog Max. As you pull up and stop more and more Who's come out and start singing and Dancing. eventually the Grinch also joins in as many songs from the movie are recreated and performed on the real Whoville set right before your eyes. Daniel loved this little performance and was clapping during it. Its too bad they can't do this every day as part of the Studio Tour because it really is a fun performance. The performance lasts about 3 minutes before the Who's and the Grinch wave goodbye and the tram proceeds on with the tour. The best viewing for the set and the show is on the Right side of the tram.
Rounding the corner from Whoville you pull up in front of the Bates Motel and House from Pshyco. And whos that coming out of the Motel but none other then Norman Bates himself. But he seems to be carrying something. Is that a dead body? After putting it in the trunk of the car and not wanting any witnesses he pulls out a knife and then starts walking towards the tram. The driver quickly drives us away before he can get us though. Although not much interactivity always makes the sets on the Studio Tour better. The Right Side of the tram is best to see this.
After running from Norman Bates you pull into the middle of one of the largest sets that Universal has ever created. The plane crash set from the War of the Worlds. This set is huge and the distruction here can't even be put into words. They actually took a real 747 aircraft and tore it apart to make it look like it really crashed into the middle of a neighborhood. Although there is distruction on both sides of the tram I would say its best viewed from the Left side. The set is so huge and sureal that you just have to experaince it to understand how amazing it is.
Next up is the Falls Lake area. This is a huge Green Screen Backdrop that is used for many different movies. However growing up it was painted much like the sky with a lake in front. It was also recently used for the filming of the Amazing Spiderman. In front of the backdrop is also cabin that is most famous for being used in the Movie the Great Outdoors.
The final portion of the tour takes you to the Mummy's Tomb. Its claimed that it was used during filming but it is really cursed. The driver takes us in anyways where the Curse effects us and the tomb walls start turning. This section has been around since I was a kid but back then it simulated a snow avalanche. Still the spinning tunnel wall effect throws me off to this day as it really feels like your the one spinning around and not the walls. This was really the only part of the Studio Tour where Daniel got a little scared as in his mind he likely had no clue at all what was going on.
Upon exiting the tunnel you then return to the tram unload area where you tour officially ends. The tour today was amazing and took just under 1 hour to see it all. Although the park is busier on the weekends this truely is the best time to see all of the Studio Tour as production doesn't happen typically on the weekend. The Studio tour is the #1 must not miss thing no matter when you go to Universal Studios Hollywood. The tour is worth a visit to the theme park alone and if you havn't been able to tell was the big inspiration for the Universal Studios Florida theme park. A little history lesson for those of you familiar with the Florida Park but when it was being designed Universal took portions of the studio tour and made them bigger and grander rides and attractions for the Studio park. Thats where you get the now Extenct Kongfrontation and Jaw rides from, as well as the Earthquake Portion of Disaster. Other rides that found there way to Orlando were also in Hollywood such as the E.T. Adventure and Back to the Future the Ride. Although its sad to see some of these classic attractions in Orlando gone or changed, with the exception of the original Kong Encounter its great to see them all still part of the Studio Tour.
As we exited the Studio Tour we made our way past the Simpsons Ride. Although the Simpsons Ride is very good its not one that we would be riding today. We would wait until later in the week when we return to ride it. Instead we walked past it to the escolaters to head down to the Lower lot where Universals Studios Hollywood top Thrill rides are located.
And that concludes this update. My next one will finish out our day at Universal Studios Hollywood as well as our travel to Anaheim and our Hotel. Thanks everyone.
Day 1: Travel, The Grove, Universal Studios Hollywood
Day 2: Newport Beach
Day 3: Disney California Adventure
Day 4: Disneyland
Day 5: Universal Studios Hollywood, Westwood
Day 6: Downtown Disney, Knotts Christmas Craft Village
Day 7: Disneyland Resort Park Hopping
Day 8: Beverly Hills
Day 9: Downtown Disney, Hollywood, Travel Home
Anyways please be patent as I put this together as if you read my previous recap you will know that my reports are very picture intense and also very detailed in writing. So they take alot of time to put together and it will take many months to full complete the recap. With that said thanks for reading and feel free to ask any questions you might have. I figure those who regular post on an Orlando based site may be very interested to see what the West coast has to offer. This time around I will be posting smaller updates more frequently instead of 1 huge update every few weeks. Enjoy.
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Day 1, Part 1: Travel, The Grove, and Universal Studios Hollywood
Our trip this time started out the way that many of our previous trips have. By waking up very early to catch an early flight. As you may recall for our Florida Trip last April we elected to take a later flight as we didn't know how quickly we could get out the door with an Infant. With Daniel being older now though we figured we could probably get going pretty quickly. Plus since we were looking at less then a 2 hour flight to LAX compared to our 7 Hour Plus flights to Orlando we wouldn't spend our whole day traveling. So the sooner we left the Sooner we could start playing.
By 5am Kiera and I were awake and getting ready to leave. We got ready for the day and got the final things packed. Kiera then feed Daniel a little earlier then his normal morning feeding in hopes that he would stay asleep on the flight. While feeding Daniel I went down into our crawl space to shut off the water to our house. With cold weather and snow expected at home while we were gone we didn't want to chance pipes freezing or any other damage happening to our home. Unfortunatly Daniel didn't fall back asleep as planned after feeding though so Kiera decided to go ahead and get him ready for the day as well so we wouldn't have to once we got to California.
At nearly 6:30am the car was finally loaded and we were on our way to Kieras parents house. Kieras Mom was kind enough to wake up early as well to drive out to the Airport with us and then drive our car back to there house so we wouldn't have to pay the Airport parking fees. We have never flown out on a Saturday before so we had no idea how busy the Airport would be. I wanted to be at the airport before 7am. We got there shortly after.
Those that read my Florida recap might recall that we have a Southwest Credit Card. So thats the airline we would be flying on once again for this trip. With our Southwest Rapid Rewards Points we only had to buy 1 ticket. A ticket that we got for less then $200 round trip. With how cheap the flight was and also getting a cheap rental car (i'll get to that later) it literally was cheaper for us to Fly to California then it would have been to drive. Plus we got 4 extra days basically out of it (the drive from Salt Lake is around 13 hours. We would stretch the drive over 2 days each day instead of driving strait). And with a child who gets somewhat car sick it confirmed flying to be the best option.
We were very suprised that there was practically nobody at the airport this early in the morning. We walked in and right up to the bag check in. We had to provide the nessicary identification for Daniel to fly free as a lap child and before we knew it we were on our way to security. As with check in there was no wait for security ether. Other then the pain it is to send all our crap thru the x-ray we were able to get thru very fast. We had plenty of time to kill before our flight. So we decided to grab some breakfast. Which we grabbed from the newly opened Popeyes Chicken in the airport. I had a chicken biscut sandwich and thought it was pretty good.
Since Daniel still hadn't fallen back asleep yet and finally having room to let him release some energy we got him out of the seat and let him run around a little bit. Yes the last time I report Daniel was barely rolling. Now he is not only walking but he has discovered the ability to run. So he is all over the place these days. And it was no different as he ran all around the Terminal. As Daniel ran around (with me in toe) Kiera went to gate check our stroller and car seat. To our suprise and happiness our flight was not full (something we've never really got to experiance on our Orlando flights) so we were able to take the car seat on the plane with us and let Daniel have his own seat. We though this was great as it would mean he would likely sleep the whole flight.
The time finally came that we could start boarding the plane. Traveling as a family we typically could use Southwests Family Boarding between the A and B groups. But that wouldn't be nessicary as we got a number in the mid A group. Before long we were on the plan and buckling in for our 8:35am Flight. We found a row of seats towards the front half of the plane and would soon be on our way. Sure enough as soon as the jet engines fired up and the plane started to roll backwards it quickly soothed Daniel to sleep.
We expected Daniel to sleep the entire flight since he didn't get nearly as much sleep as he typically done. But about half way into the flight he woke up. And stayed up the rest of the flight. Which turned interesting when he wanted to get of the seat and run around. Which of course he couldn't lol. He never got too out of control and mad as he found he enjoyed looking out the window. He also liked playing some of his learning games on the Kindle Fire. We soon passed over Las Vegas which is pretty fun to look at from 35,000 feet in the air.
The time flew by and we were soon making our decent into the Los Angeles Area. It was completly covered in clouds. I didn't think it was suppose to rain today but I guess I could be wrong. Daniel started to get upset when we had to put him back into his seat for landing. We also think his ears were starting to pop too from the altitude change so he likely wasn't liking that much ether. We were soon on the ground and made our way to our gate passing some very large planes from other airlines that we don't get in Salt Lake. Seriously flying to California from Utah is great. I loved having such a short flight.
We quickly got off the plane and retrieved our stroller and then started making our way to the baggage claim area. It was very evident how much larger the LAX airport is then SLC and even MCO and TPA in Florida. It was much busier then Salt Lake was when we left. We soon found our way to the baggage claim where we were somewhat suprised to find our bags basically being the only ones on the turnstyle still. I guess many people coming to LA from Salt Lake only taveled with a Carry on bag.
With our bags in hand we made our way outside to find the Rental Car Shuttle Bus. This was another thing odd about LAX is that no Rental Car Lots are located onsite at the Airport. Each company has shuttles on a loop to take you out to the Rental Car lots located a couple miles away. We waited only a few minutes before the National/Alamo Car Rental Shuttle showed up. We booked our Rental car this trip thru Alamo so thats where we were heading. We got on at the first stop and it takes a while to get out to the Lot as the shuttle will stop at all 7 stops and wait a couple minutes for anybody looking to get on. Finally though we made the rounds and were on our way to the Lot. Daniel really enjoyed being able to see out the front window of the shuttle as thats a new view he hadn't really seen before.
This would be our first experiance ever renting a car with Alamo. 2 months prior I had booked a Compact car thur Budget using a Costco Discount. I was very glad I did as a couple days later all the Rental Car rates skyrocketed. I never thought it would get that cheap again. That was until literally 2 days before our vacation. It was this day that I decided to check rates again (as I had not yet paid) and found I could get a Mid Size Car thru Alamo for about $10 cheaper then what I had booked with Budget. I decided to give Alamo a chance and Cancelled the Budget Rental. You can't go wrong getting a Larger vehicle for a cheaper cost.
I will admit that Alamo has made a big fan out of me. When you walk in to rent your car you do not have go to a desk or wait in any lines. Alamo has rental kiosks that you can get your rental from. You just walk up, punch in your confirmation number, scan your credit card and drivers licenses, choose to accept or decline insurance covereage (which my personal auto policy covers), then it prints out your information and your on your way. It didn't even take 5 minutes and it was so nice not having to deal with a live person trying to sell you on Insurance. It was so hassle free.
The next thing I love about Alamo is that you get to pick your own car. After you get your info printed you are directed to the rental car lot where all the classes of vehicles are sitting in marked sections. You are allowed to pick any car sitting in the section that you booked. So we found the Mid Size Car section and there were 20 some odd cars that we could choose from. We were able to look them all over and look inside to see what would work best for us. Once you decide the keys are already inside so you just load up your stuff and then drive to the front gate where the attendant checks the car out to you. It was such a hassle free and even a funprocess choosing what kind of car we wanted instead of just being assigned one. The car we ended up choosing was a Black Dodge Avenger.
With the Rental car now ours we could officially start our trip. Today we planned to drive over to Universal Studios Hollywood to see the Grinchmas Festivities that started this day. However since we would be spending 2 days there on this trip we didn't want to get there too early. I looked on my phone for ideas and decided maybe it could be fun to drive over the Grove Shopping Center to kill sometime. If your driving in the LA area make sure you have some sort of GPS as your gonna need it. I just used the Navigation on my phone to get us around and found it worked pretty well. With the address punched in we were on our way. We found it interesting how much Gas prices fluctuated between stations. The photo below has gas near $5 a gallon. Only a couple hundred feet away there were stations selling it for around $1 less per gallon.
It took nearly 45 minutes to get to the Grove from LAX (be prepaired for it to take a long time to go short distances in LA traffic) and we soon parked. We had no idea what was at this mall type shopping place. I just read it was a popular spot to visit and that Entertainment Tonight even films there during the week. In essance its very similar the outdoor malls that are shopping up all around the country. Its very similar to the City Creek and even Gateway shopping centers in Salt Lake as it has an assortment of Mid-High end stores to shop and also many restaurants to eat at.
What we found at the end of the Grove is where we spent most of our time though. Its the LA Farmers Market. In the Farmers market is a whole bunch of local vendors selling cheap goods and food. It reminded me alot of some of the Mexican Flee Markets that we've been to while on cruises although its alot cleaner obviously. We walked around the flee market seeing all the different food options offered. We also liked all the small produce stands set up and fresh butch blocks selling meat. This was where we decided to eat lunch for the day. Kiera got a Turkey Sandwich from a little shop while I decided to get some Chinese Food. Kieras sandwich was pretty big and she said it was good. I also enjoyed the chinese food.
With our stomachs full we spent some more time looking around the Farmers Market and The Grove. There were alot of great deals going on at some stores but we weren't here to do Christmas shopping though. We were on vacation. So we didn't even stop to look. But the stores were packed with locals walking around with bag fulls. We walked past there Santa house which had to be the most elabrete Santa house i've ever seen. And the line was so long to meet santa. So long that you had to take a number and come back at a specific time (like Disney's Fastpass). We then walked down around there Christmas tree which had to be around 100ft tall. it was huge and to my suprise it was also real.
At the base of the tree they had some sort of exhibit for The Hobbit film that was coming out that next weekend. I'm not a big Lord of the Rings fan so I didn't care to look at it. So we decided to call our time at the Grove done and started heading back to the car. Before we went up to the car though we needed to use the restroom facilitys and these were the most amazing restrooms i've ever seen at a mall like this. They were very fancy and even had a family waiting room with a tv and play area for the kids. They even had complementry diapers and wipe warmers in there baby changing rooms. Not gonna lie this was pretty cool.
As we loaded the stroller back into the car and buckled Daniel in I could here are cars exhaust rumbling thru the garage. Now I'm a car guy. I love all cars. Infact my Screen Name is in reference of the vehicle that I own, modify, and Race. So I knew it wasn't the exhaust tone that i'm use to hearing. Sure enough it was a Lamborghini that came rumbling by. I was pretty excited to see it drive by setting off car alarms as it rumbled by. I was just suprised to see it rolling thru the normal parking garage and not the valet. We ended up following it all the way down the garage though where it did turn into the exit of the valet parking. Apparently he was lost lol.
We pulled back out onto the street and set my phones GPS to take us to Universal Studios where we woud spend most of what remained of our day. The GPS directed us up and actually thru the real Hollywood area. This is where we caught our first and only glimpse of the famous Hollywood sign so the picture you see is the only one we have from the trip.
In No time we had arrived at Universal Studios Hollywood and the fun would really start. We hadn't been to this park in 4 years and in that time had become very familiar with and gained a strong love for the Orlando Universal Parks.
I've mentioned it once but some of you might be wondering why we decided to spend 2 days at Universal Studios Hollywood when its a park that is easily done in 1 day. Well this is the end result of our ticket debate lol. We bounced back and forth between different ideas of what we wanted to do on this trip. From the beginning 3 days at Disney and 1 day at Universal was always the plan with 5 days to relax and take it easy in Southern California so we weren't rushing around the parks each day. I found the Southern California Citypass and thought that would be the perfect option for us as it included 3 day Disneyland Parkhoppers, a Day at Universal, and also a day at Sea World that we didn't plan to use. The pass only cost $279 a person so basically we would get our Universal Ticket for only $29 more then a normal 3 day Disneyland Resort Parkhopper. And of course much cheaper then the regular $80 ticket for Universal. That plan changed when Costco started selling there 4 day Disney Park hopper for $259 with a free $50 Costco Gift Card making the Disney tickets only $209. We of course would have loved more days at Disney so this is what we decided to do. Obviously being a more expensive option though once you added in the Universal Ticket. However that Idea was soon killed when we went to Costco to buy the tickets and they were already sold out. So the City Pass plan was back on. Then I found out that Universal Studios Hollywood was running an ONLINE ONLY promo with the City pass where if you bought a Citypass from Universals website and used it at Universal first then you would get a 2nd day there for free.
Which brings us to this part of the recap and why we were at Univesal today. Today December 8th was the first day of the Christmas celebration Univesal does called Grinchmas. At this point in December Universal only does the Grinchmas event on the weekends so it would not be taking place when we visited during the week. Grinchmas seemed like it would be something really fun to go to and see so since we could go 2 days at no extra charge and experiance Grinchmas we decided to go for it. Thats why we only planned to be there for a half day with a focus only on the Grinchmas activities that we couldn't see later in the week. A second bonus of going today in addition to during the week is was the only option to go on the Jurassic Park ride while on this trip. At the Time Jurassic Park was going thru a Month long Referbishment. However they were opening the attraction on the weekends only. So it would be closed during the week when we planned on visiting. Those that have read my recaps before know that Jurassic Park is my favorite Water Flume type ride and so its one I did not want to miss. Especially since the Hollywood version is better then Orlandos.
We soon parked the car and were on our way into the park. Just like the Orlando Universal parks however to get to the Park you will first Travel thru a Dinning/Shopping/Entertainment complex known as CityWalk. Although here in Hollywood I think CityWalk is better then the Orlando version. I don't know if there were more shops or restaurants or clubs then in Orlando but it seemed like the place had much more going on then it did in Florida. The Parking Garage will dump you our on one of the multipule levels that CityWalk has and today we found ourselves on the top level. We took the Escolater down and then continued on to the Theme Park. It takes around 5-10 minutes to walk thru CityWalk to get to the park. For those wanting to bypass Citywalk though you can pay for premium parking which costs $5 more.
At the end of Citywalk your greeted with the trademark Universal Studios Globe. Here in Hollywood you still have the glassic globe. Not the newer and colored one that you will find in Orlando and other parks around the world. I like that they havn't changed it here as Hollywood is not only the Original Universal Theme Park but is still a working Movie Studio. The globe calls back to that Classic Universal that the park still represents for the most part.
After passing thru the bag check you find yourself on the Red Carpet leading up to the Universal Studio Arches. The Grinchmas overlay starts immidiatly here. The Red carpet is changed to be more wimsical like you would find in the Dr. Suess books, wavy Christmas trees line the walkway leading to the gate, and then a large Grinch face greets you as you enter the park.
For the 2nd day free at Universal Option on the Citypass we got you had to print your tickets at home. You then took the printed voucher directly to the turnstyles which counted as your entry ticket for your first day. It worked very well and after scanning your finger print you were in. However first and for most your directed to the Ticket Center where you will be exchanging the printed voucher you used for entry for the actual Citypass card. Grinchmas Decorations line the streets as you make your way pass the entrance and to the center of the Upper Lot where the Ticket Center is located. Switching out our voucher for the actual Citypass was quick and easy. This is also where you would upgrade your park tickets, or get tickets to free filming of TV and Talk shows.
With the most important thing out of the way (getting our actual Citypass Tickets) we could now enjoy the park and Grinchmas. Located right next to Ticket Center is the large Arena where much of the Grinchmas stuff takes place. For those familiar with the park this is also the old Wild West Stunt Show location with for the most part has now been completly removed. At night this arena is the location of the Tree Lightling Whovilation. During the day though its a giant play area covered in Real Snow. Thats right Real Snow in Southern California. Not that fake Bubble snow that you see at Disney. As you enter the arena area you are greeted by many Whos from Whoville that are posing for pictures. Then you see the large, grand Whoville Christmas Tree which is wimisical and wavy just as you would expect from the Grinch Book/Movie.
We chose to go play in the snow first because of how early it closes. Where the park was open today until 8 today the Snow play area would only be open until 3:30. This again is because they need time to clean up and convert the play area to sitting room for the Tree Lighting. It also was very, very packed with kids and parents alike playing in the snow. Obviously to us the Snow isn't a huge deal. We come from a place where it snows during the winter. However for many of the Southern California kids there this may be the only time they can see real snow. It was pretty much a mad house. Complete chaos almost lol. Snow was flying everywhere and all people seemed to enjoy it. However if you have little ones like us the chaos of the snow fights can be too much and with how crowded it was it was hard for Daniel to even find anywhere to move.
Luckly for little ones Universal has a secluded area just for toddlers and there parents. Here there were only a couple other kids and no snow was flying. It was a whole area that Daniel practically had to himself. It was kind of funny watching Daniel play with the snow as he didn't really know what to think of it. He would pick it up, hold it, and then just kind of stare at it. Its funny because not even a month earlier he played in a lot more snow and loved it. Today he just didn't seem to care. Maybe because there wasn't nearly the amount of snow that he played in before. So we decided to move on.
As I mentioned before outside the arena there were many Who's meet and greeting people. So we stopped to take Daniel to one to see how he would react. If you read our Florida recap you will remember that Daniel loved all the Characters on that trip. So much so that we made Characters a priority on that trip. Something we didn't plan. We hoped we would see the same reactions on this trip. Daniel and I awaited our turn but rudely got cut off by other family 2 or 3 times. Finally the Who that saw us waiting patently stopped the people who kept cutting in line and came over to us. Daniels reaction wasn't anything. He just staired at her face probably wonder why it looked so weird. He really didn't care much. I have to say though its pretty amazing how well the makeup Work on the Whos are as they really do look natural instead of being prostetics.
The thing we would do is our first "Attraction". Something that I consider to be the best thing about Universal Studios Hollywood. The thing that is the whole Reason the Universal Studios Theme Park exists. The World Famous Studio Tour. The tram tour typically has consistant long waits all day long and so its recommended to do it early in the day. During Grinchmas it also has a special portion that is not part of the typical Tram Tour. For Grinchmas the Whoville Set comes back to life with Who's and the Grinch doing a small performance. Since this was another thing you can only see during Grinchmas the Studio Tour was another Must do today. But more on that later. We parked the stroller and then got in line. The wait time posted was 25 minutes but I'd say it was closer to 20 minutes. This is also one of the few attractions in the park at a Toddler or Infant would be able to go on.
I mentioned that I love the Studio Tour and its the best thing about the Hollywood park as it takes you on to the Universal Backlot where Movies and TV shows are still filmed on daily. However I was really excited for it today because so much had changed since our last visit 4 years earlier. When we visited in 2008 it was only a few months after a Fire burned down most of the New York Sets as well as the beloved King Kong Encounter. That Day the Earthquake portion of the Tour was down for Referbishment, Westria Lane was being used to film, and you couldn't get close to Courthouse Square do to reconstruction. So we missed out on a lot on that trip. I was happy to hear that there was no Filming taking place today so we would get to see the entire Studio Tour.
We quickly boarded our tram getting a spot towards the front of the 3rd car in on the Tram and sat all the way to the right side of the row. Each side of the tram has there positives and negatives so I will share with you what side of the tram is better for what you see so you can decide for yourself which side you want to be on. Its pretty amazing to see how quickly the trams were being loaded and dispatched on such a busy Saturday. We were quickly loaded and on our way where we were introduced to our Tour Guide and Driver as well as our Automated Tour Guide Jimmy Fallon. The Tram Tour loads in the Upper Lot but most everything is down the hill on the Lower Lot so the first part of the tour is a decent down the hill as you pass Movie posters of Universals greatest hits since the studio was started.
After passing the Backside of the Jurassic Park Ride the tour officially starts as you enter the Front Lot of the studio. The front lot contains all of the Soundstages that are used for all kinds of Filmmaking. You will pass many Soundstages that are currently in use for many popular TV shows such as The Voice, Go On, Parenthood, and NCIS. With NBC being an affiliant of Universal it makes since that many of there shows are filmed here. The Front Lot also contains most of the offices for the studios and the bungalos that the Actors can stay in while doing extended filming.
Next the tram took us into the first section of the Backlot. The Backlot is where all the large scale outdoor sets are located. And the first part of the Backlot that we came to was the one that was no longer in existant when we came in 2008. The New York Sets. These series of streets mostly resemble sections of New York City however they can easily be configured to resememble any Major US city. All of the building are just Fascades and have no Interior to them as when filming is done all interior scenes will be filmed in a soundstage and outdoor scenes in front of the fascade. For a real upclose look to what a fascade is like this is what makes up the Streets of America at Disney's Hollywood Studios in Florida. The biggest movie recently to utilize the New York sets was actually the Amazing Spiderman.
One of the sections of the New York sets is called Courthouse Square. Many of you will know this set as being the location of Hill Valley in one of the greatest Movie Trilogys of all time. Back to the Future. It was also the only peice of the New York sets that survived the fire in 2008. Of course today though the set looks nothing like it did in Back to the Future with the courthouse itself being redressed for other films. Also the surrounding building have been redressed or rebuilt do to the fire and no longer resemble Hill Valley ether. Still its so great to be on the location of one of the greatest films ever. As far as seating on the tram goes if you want the best views of Courthouse Square then sit on the Left side of the tram. For the New York sets in general ether side will be fine as the streets surround both sides of the tram.
Our next stop on the tram tour is also the newest experiance. A visit to Skull Island as part of the Kong 360 3d. This is the only portion of the tram tour that require the use of the 3d glasses you picked up when boarding the tram for the tour. As the tram goes up a hill you will pass the remains of a distroyed tram as you enter the building that houses the Kong 360 attraction. I believe Kong 360 is billed as the worlds largest 3d experiance. Once inside the building the screens turn on to make it feel like your driving thru the jungles of Skull Island. The ground will move and shake the tram as well to add to the experiance. You then come across a bunch of Dinosaurs who then start attacking the tram. They knock it side to side and then King Kong comes to our rescue. He fights off all the dinosaurs climbing over the tram from side to side to do so. At one point its even simulated that the dinosaurs pull the last tram car off and pulls us into revine before we are saved again by King Kong.
This is one of the portions of the tram tour that I thought Daniel would have a spaze out on. Its dark, loud, and even scary at some points. But he did just fine and never made a peep. Kiera and I were both very impressed with Kong 360 and thought it was a great addition to the Studio Tour once again reinforceing the idea that the Studio Tour should not be missed. Kiera never got to the experiance the original Kong Encounter and I think the original was better. Theres not many 3d experiances that can replace fully built sets and full size animatronics that were found in the original experiance. Still Kong 360 is an amazing experiance and very, very well done. As for viewing the attraction it doesn't really matter which side of the tram you sit on as the action takes place all around the tram. However I recommend sitting more so in the middle to the back of the tram instead of the front for this attraction.
Upon exiting you loop back around the building that houses Kong 360 and this is when I realized where the attraction is placed. Its directly in front of the Old Collapsing Bridge portion of the Tour. That distroid Tram car blocks the roadway that leads to the bridge which now remains in its distroyed look. When we came in 2008 the Bridge had just been restored to be used again so it was kind of sad to see it not in use anymore once again.
Driving up the hill you come to a line up a some of the most famous Vehicles that have been in Universal Films. Although most of the vehicles were the same that we saw in 2008 many of them had been rotated out. You will see vehicles here from Back to the Future including the Delorean (which is in very rough shape), the Mercedes M-class SUV from the Lost World, and even vehicles from the Fast and the Furious movies. To get the best views of the vehicles sit on the Left side of the Tram.
Next up you enter the Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift portion of the tram tour. As you pull into the Arena you see two supped up Volkswagen GTI's and the tour guide leads you to belive they are about to film a scene for an upcoming movie. The director has them demo the different special effects first like the gun shots and explosians and then they clame they are filming and do all the special effects in sequence ending with the explosion throwing the 2 cars into the air. The cars being thrown into the air is accomplised by the cars being attached to Kuka arms just like the Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey uses in Florida for its ride system. Up to this point I think the attraction is kinda cool. But with the vehicles elevated on the Kuka is when it turns lame. The vehicles then start turning and dancing to some rap music and "showing off" to the tram. Its a portion of the tour thats really not needed and honestly the space could probably be put to better use someday. If you want the best views then sit on the Left side towards the middle of the tram.
From Tokyo the tour guide takes you to Isla Nublar which is set up with many different vehicles and set peices from the Jurassic Park films. This is a portion you differenitly want to be on the Left side of the Tram for as the props on that side are much better then they are on the right. Theres even a few suprise dinosaur attacks from that side of the tram.
You will then go down a hill and Al Rocher from the Today Show comes on the monitor talking about weather coniditions around the backlot indicating that heavy rainfall is expected in the Mexico Street area. Well thats not good because thats where we are heading. The tram stops on a bridge and then it starts raining fairly heavily. Then a flash flood happens as thousands of Gallons of water comes rushing down the hill towards the tram. This is one of the oldest parts of the tram tour and always fun to see people freak out thinking there gonna get drinched (you don't even get wet. Once again the Left side of the tram is best for this and try to get a car in the middle of the tram for best viewing. After the flash flood you will continue to see the rest of the Mexico Street Sets.
The Mexico Street sets transition into the oldest part of the backlot called Six Points. This is the Old Western Sets that date back to the silent age of cinema. I don't know for sure but I swear there was more to it back when we visited in 2008. Including a stop on the tour where there were Stunt men demonstrating a stunt of a balcony. It seems rather small now and we were quickly thru it.
Next up the tram loops around the Backlot Lagoon. Back in the day this was billed as the parting of the red sea from the ten commandments. Now days though its used as a convienient way to view the minature set used to film some of the Skull Island scenes of King Kong. To get the best views of the Skull Island Miniature sit on the left hand side. However it was really neat when we sat in the front car on Wednesday to actually see the Lagoon head on part.
After passing thru the Lagoon you enter another outdoor set location known as Little Europe. These sets are used frequently for many different European locations. I guess its very easy to convert the sets as all they need to do is dress it and hang flags for whatever European country its suppose to depect and then its ready to film. Last time we came they were filming in here so it was nice to see much more of the sets this time around.
When your done with Little Europe you will wind your way back thru the Western Sets and then into a soundstage that your told is used to film any subway sequences for film. But as you stop in the soundstage everything starts to shake. The lights are flickering and the tram is shaking. The tour guide is fearful that and Earthquake is taking place. The colums start to buckle and then the road from above collapses as a tanker truck slides down towards the tram and explodes. Then a train coming the other direction derails and nearly crashes into the tram. Now a flood is happening as water rushes down the stairs towards the tram. Of course this isn't an actual Earthquake but a simulated one. And its one of the best parts of the Studio Tour. The actual Earthquake Sequence is the exact same as Disaster in Universal Studios Florida however the train in the Orlando Attraction seemed to shake and drop more then the Studio Tram did. I would say that the best side of the Tram for this portion is the Left side. This is again something I thought would scare Daniel but he did just fine with it.
Soon after surviving the Earthquake you will find your self In Amity Road Island. The Location of Jaws. As you pull up next to the harbor you will witness Jaws attacking as you see a diver get pulled under water and even the water turning red from his blood. As you pull next to the dock Jaws starts to make the move on you as the gas ignites and exploads. And then the Shark is shown as it jumps out of the water at the tram as the tram drives by. As you know by now the Jaws ride has been removed from Orlando so unless your willing to go to Japan this is the last remaining encounter with the great white shark that there is. For best viewing sit on the Right side of the Tram here.
Going up the hill from Amity you come upon a bunch of houses and a neighborhood that has been used for many years on TV and Movies. Most recently though you will recognize the Neighborhood as Wysteria Lane from the TV show Disperate Housewives. When we came in 2008 we didn't see this section as it was being used for filming that day. Since then though Disperate Housewives has ended so filming happens much less often. You will drive down the neighborhood seeing all the different houses and then turn around at the end of the street passing them all again so ether side of the tram is fine to sit on here.
Driving next up a hill you come to the portion that is the whole reason we are taking the tram tour today. You come to the Whoville set from the Grinch who stole Christmas. And with it being Grinchmas in Universal Studios the Whoville set comes to life during the event. As we pulled up to the set we were first greated to the Grinch and his dog Max. As you pull up and stop more and more Who's come out and start singing and Dancing. eventually the Grinch also joins in as many songs from the movie are recreated and performed on the real Whoville set right before your eyes. Daniel loved this little performance and was clapping during it. Its too bad they can't do this every day as part of the Studio Tour because it really is a fun performance. The performance lasts about 3 minutes before the Who's and the Grinch wave goodbye and the tram proceeds on with the tour. The best viewing for the set and the show is on the Right side of the tram.
Rounding the corner from Whoville you pull up in front of the Bates Motel and House from Pshyco. And whos that coming out of the Motel but none other then Norman Bates himself. But he seems to be carrying something. Is that a dead body? After putting it in the trunk of the car and not wanting any witnesses he pulls out a knife and then starts walking towards the tram. The driver quickly drives us away before he can get us though. Although not much interactivity always makes the sets on the Studio Tour better. The Right Side of the tram is best to see this.
After running from Norman Bates you pull into the middle of one of the largest sets that Universal has ever created. The plane crash set from the War of the Worlds. This set is huge and the distruction here can't even be put into words. They actually took a real 747 aircraft and tore it apart to make it look like it really crashed into the middle of a neighborhood. Although there is distruction on both sides of the tram I would say its best viewed from the Left side. The set is so huge and sureal that you just have to experaince it to understand how amazing it is.
Next up is the Falls Lake area. This is a huge Green Screen Backdrop that is used for many different movies. However growing up it was painted much like the sky with a lake in front. It was also recently used for the filming of the Amazing Spiderman. In front of the backdrop is also cabin that is most famous for being used in the Movie the Great Outdoors.
The final portion of the tour takes you to the Mummy's Tomb. Its claimed that it was used during filming but it is really cursed. The driver takes us in anyways where the Curse effects us and the tomb walls start turning. This section has been around since I was a kid but back then it simulated a snow avalanche. Still the spinning tunnel wall effect throws me off to this day as it really feels like your the one spinning around and not the walls. This was really the only part of the Studio Tour where Daniel got a little scared as in his mind he likely had no clue at all what was going on.
Upon exiting the tunnel you then return to the tram unload area where you tour officially ends. The tour today was amazing and took just under 1 hour to see it all. Although the park is busier on the weekends this truely is the best time to see all of the Studio Tour as production doesn't happen typically on the weekend. The Studio tour is the #1 must not miss thing no matter when you go to Universal Studios Hollywood. The tour is worth a visit to the theme park alone and if you havn't been able to tell was the big inspiration for the Universal Studios Florida theme park. A little history lesson for those of you familiar with the Florida Park but when it was being designed Universal took portions of the studio tour and made them bigger and grander rides and attractions for the Studio park. Thats where you get the now Extenct Kongfrontation and Jaw rides from, as well as the Earthquake Portion of Disaster. Other rides that found there way to Orlando were also in Hollywood such as the E.T. Adventure and Back to the Future the Ride. Although its sad to see some of these classic attractions in Orlando gone or changed, with the exception of the original Kong Encounter its great to see them all still part of the Studio Tour.
As we exited the Studio Tour we made our way past the Simpsons Ride. Although the Simpsons Ride is very good its not one that we would be riding today. We would wait until later in the week when we return to ride it. Instead we walked past it to the escolaters to head down to the Lower lot where Universals Studios Hollywood top Thrill rides are located.
And that concludes this update. My next one will finish out our day at Universal Studios Hollywood as well as our travel to Anaheim and our Hotel. Thanks everyone.
