Universal Studios – Anne Goes to Places

APRIL 22, 2017

KT and I woke up early to eat the famous kaya toast at YA KUN KAYA TOAST. Good thing there was a branch near the hotel so we didn’t have to hurry or spend for transportation. We were supposed to meet J and K at USS but it was a coincidence that they also planned to eat kaya toast in the same branch so we ended up meeting earlier.

Since there were four of us, we decided to just take a cab going to UNIVERSAL STUDIOS SINGAPORE instead of the train. We got a bit lost when we were trying to look for the entrance to USS but still managed to find it thanks to the help of friendly Singaporeans. We bought our USS ticket online because we also availed the Express Pass, which saved us time.

We first went to Lights, Camera, Action!, where we got to experience the setting of a Category 5 hurricane in New York City. We were not allowed to take photos but this one was a good attraction. Next stop was Transformers The Ride: The Ultimate Battle, which is very similar to the Amazing Spiderman ride in USJ.

Continuing the tradition of taking a selfie after every ride

Our first extreme ride (and probably the only one haha!) was Battlestar Galactica: Human vs Cylon. It was K’s first time to ride a rollercoaster and we were not sure if he enjoyed it, but at least the other rollercoasters we rode that day seemed like a piece of cake to him. All of us rode Human but K and I backed out in Cylon. Haha!

Just a few meters away from this ride, we could already see Egypt theme in the next portion of the theme park.

We rode the Revenge of the Mummy, which reminded me of Disneyland’s Space Mountain in Tokyo and HK. J recommended this because she liked this ride in Universal Studios LA but she was quite disappointed (and us as well) with the effects – supposed to feel the insects crawling on our skin but we only felt water splashes. ☹ We still went for another ride after using our Express Pass because the waiting time wasn’t that long… but we forgot the time limit in our lockers! We didn’t have any money with us so we waited for the fellow tourists to claim their belongings. Good thing fellow Pinoys came so we borrowed money from them to open our lockers. Lesson learned!

Dinosaur era was the next theme we encountered. We went to Jurassic Park: Rapids Adventure and had a lot of fun getting splashed. I braced myself in case there was a surprise drop towards the end but thankfully didn’t happen. Raincoats were available for purchase but we decided to just let the hot weather dry us. Tipid tipid din pag may time.

We had our late lunch in the area – laksa and dinosaur nuggets for me and KT.

No picture because we forgot – but we also ride Canopy Flyer to help us dry our clothes. Haha! Far Far Away land was the next stop…

We rode Puss in Boots’ Giant Journey which is a rollercoaster ride for kids. It was part of the Express Pass so might as well use it as much as we can.

We participated in the Shrek 4D(?), which we did not enjoy as much. The introduction part was just too long that it became boring. The 4D part was okay though. We also attended [Puss in Boots live] and had fun with the interactions.

Our last stop was Waterworld, which is based on Nicholas Cage’s sci-fi film. No idea about the movie but it is apparently popular according to my mom. It was the last show for the day and it was crazy how it was very humid at 5PM… so we decided to sit in the SOAK ZONE. Yes, we really wanted to get soaked with lots of water! Intense ng init!

They had an awesome huge set and prior to the start of the show, some of the cast engaged the audience by asking each side to mimic their cheers. They also splashed some people with lots of water! Couldn’t upload the video here but the whole show was freaking great, particularly the stunts and effects! Hands down one of the best theme park shows we have watched.

We rode Enchanted Airways before going to Madagascar, the last portion of USS we have yet to explore. We didn’t ride any attraction but we bought cold desserts… both mango and strawberry were just okay. ☹ There were fruit bits that were too sour for our taste.

After eating dessert, KT went back to Battlestar Galactica to ride Cylon again. The rest of us decided to just wait for her and when she came back, she told a funny story on how her seatmate (big male person) told her after the ride that he couldn’t scream because she was laughing and having fun the whole time.

We left USS and took a cab going to LAU PA SAT for dinner. KT and I got the same food and shared some portions – dim sum from Bao Luo Wan Xiang and duck noodles which I forgot from which stall. We enjoyed the food and everything was incredibly affordable.

All in all, a fun day for the four of us despite the very humid weather. ❤

MARCH 14, 2017

The day we have been waiting for because 1) theme park rides, and 2) HARRY POTTER LAND! We left our Airbnb early and arrived at the theme park at around 9AM.

Hello UNIVERSAL STUDIOS JAPAN! Good thing we already bought our tickets online + Express Pass Standard 4 because the lines were loooong. We were able to buy ours online, with the help of my cousin who can read Japanese.

Note that Express Pass cannot be bought using the English website of USJ so it helps if you know someone who can read Japanese. This is very helpful particularly during days when USJ has high volume of crowd:

You get to skip the long lines in popular rides as there is a dedicated Express Pass line. Rides/ attractions depends on what kind of Express Pass you buy. The one we bought includes Amazing Adventure of Spiderman, Jaws, Jurassic Park: The Ride, and Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey. Extremely useful for HPFJ because the estimated waiting time when we got there was 3 hours.
Timed Wizarding World of Harry Potter entrance – on occasions where there is a really big crowd inside USJ, they do not allow visitors to just come and go WWOHP. You have to (run and) get a ticket which tells you the time you can enter the area. This is where the Express Pass is useful again. We chose our time to be around 2PM so that we can spend the time before that in exploring other parts of USJ.

When we got inside, we went to Backdrop right away to fall in line. We waited for about 2 hours before we finally got to ride and every minute of waiting was worth it. The staff placed us at the first row and I am not sure if I was happy or angry because of it. Haha!

Highlight of this ride is the “car” moves in reverse so we could not see where we were going and if the track would be elevating or dropping us. I actually got teary eyed after the ride because it was already extreme for me.

After the ride, we explored the other areas…

…and eventually found ourselves in front of the Amazing Adventure of Spiderman attraction. We had low expectations when we learned it was 4D experience BUT DAMN. This is definitely a must for anyone visiting USJ. The effects were really awesome that M ended up clapping and saying “Sugoi!!!” loudly when the ride ended. 😉 It was also a good thing that the staff let us sit at the first row so there were no heads blocking our view.

Another round of exploration and I could not help but admire the details done in every building. Minions were also a big thing during our visit.

Also saw this pterodactyl ride which looks scarier than Backdrop. Good thing the waiting time was too long so my friends gave up on the idea of riding this.

Next stop was Jurassic Park: The Ride, which was also included in our Express Pass. It was a chill ride initially until we got to the last part. Kind of expected it but not that high! Good thing we were seated in the middle so we did not get soaked.

We decided to go to Jaws attraction before we eat our lunch and so hello Amity Island.

Power of Express Pass enabled us to skip the long line. It was entertaining but not as fun as Spiderman – set the bar too high for us! No decent shot of the shark in the attraction…

…but there’s one right outside the entrance!

This is what I got for lunch because everything inside was so expensive and most theme park food do not offer value for money.

After lunch, it was time for us to visit WWOHP. AAAAHHHH!!!!! We had to go through some maze-like entrance forest (and passed by the Whomping Willow) before we got inside the magical world.

Hello Hogsmeade!!! I honestly did not know where to start… Too overwhelmed with happiness.

We decided to use our Express Pass for the last ride in our list – Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey. We skipped the 3-hour wait and the ride was perfect for us because there were 3 seats per “car”.

Funny though because at the Whomping Willow area where we were tossed, our car stopped and we were sort of upside down. We asked J if this was normal because she rode the same attraction in USFlorida. She was not sure though and it was just a long time of silence before we heard an announcement in Japanese. We infer that there was a technical difficulty because after a few seconds, our car started to move again.

Once we got back at the platform, the staff asked us if we want to ride again. We thought maybe it was because of our Express Pass but heck, of course we want to ride again! We did and after passing the Whomping Willow area, we realized that it was because of the problem during our first ride. We skipped some portion of the 4D experience hence they offered us to ride again.

After our 2^nd trip, we went to Three Broomsticks to have our late lunch. Food was not bad and I actually enjoyed their Butterbeer. Not a fan of caramel in general so this was a surprise.

The trip would not be complete without visiting Honeydukes… and I ended up spending a lot here. Chocolate frog, sugar quill, jellybean, lollipops, and more! No regrets though.

Oh and of course, I am proud to show my alma mater – Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Libre naman mangarap eh! 🙂

Since we still had some time to kill and the waiting time for Flight of the Hippogriff was just less an hour, we decided to go there. Definitely for kids because there was no thrill at all.

One last round of going around WWOHP before we leave…

…and USJ photos at night, yay.

We were supposed to have dinner at Harukoma because they are famous for serving generous thick cuts of fish for their sushi. But lo and behold, they were closed on that day. Since we were too tired to think and walk, we went to the sushi place across it. Sushi was just okay but at least we felt full after. Chef also placed a LOT of wasabi in each sushi… ☹