Los Angeles: Universal Studios - Day 2

Universal Studios – Tony Romas




Theme park time! We woke early to take the Metro Red Line to the Universal Stop. From that point all we had to do was cross two roads to get to the bus stop that has free shuttles leaving for Universal Studios every 15 minutes.

We bought our tickets online and that gave us 2 day entries for the price of one. It was a great deal because squeezing everything ride or show into one day would have been quite impossible. The 2 day ticket worked out great for us because some rides opened only at 11.30 am and last rides were at 4pm.

Our first stop in the park was the Studio backlot tour. It made for a very interesting ride. We saw many different sets. We initially thought it was gonna be purely a narrative tour but there parts of the ride where we got to experience some scary action. Real fun!

I shan’t say more but each picture and the short comment below them will depict our experiences that day.

Guard posing - before park opening times


Homer Simpson decided to give the crowds a laugh

Giant man eater

Huge backlot for filming - You can see the studios in the distance

The 'bus' for the studio tour

One of the many stages where series like CSI are filmed

Bridge of destruction set

Set of The Fast & the Furious

How an explosive scene is shot

This scene was in 'Big Fat Liar' starring Frankie Muniz & Amanda Bynes

Set up where they shot Jaws

Desperate Housewives!

Another house on the Desperate Housewives set - pardon the truck, apparently they were shooting on site that day

The Grinch set - Whoville!

Set of Psycho - Bates Motel

Norman Bates getting rid of a body

Note the mansion atop the stairs - where Norman Bates kept his mothers body

Set of a plane wreckage - It was a real plane, a 747

Remnants of a house after the plane crash

House on a lake - they drained the lake - This lake was where they shot the final scene in The Truman Show

After the studio tour which was about 45 minutes long, we headed straight for the rides. There weren't as many people as we expected in the park so the queue times were bearable.

Alex outside the Simpsons ride - In Krusty's mouth

While waiting for our ride we got to watch a short episode of The Simpsons

Does Alex look a little nervous to you? Hehe..

Me, part of the Apollo 13 team

We met Scooby-Doo and Shaggy at mid day

I spy with my little eye...

We were lured by the smells coming from this open air barbeque - Flinstones Bar-B-Q!

We watched a live show called Animal Actors - It shows how animals were trained for the movies

Opening act

This dog was trained to look as though he was responding to a character in the movie

Another of the trained dogs - This one reminded me of our Harvey! The same nose, same ears, same bushy tail! (Harvey is our dog back in Penang)

This Orang Utan was trained to stick out her tongue, fold her arms, smile and say Ppppttthhh!

Very adorable - Alex's favourite creature of the lot

Fred and Vilma Flintstone!

The Curious George part of the park

I bumped into Marilyn Monroe in a pink cadillac!

We then went for Shrek 4D - It was very funny!

Green glasses - The fashion must have

We met the green ogre on his way to the Land of Far Far Away

I got roped into part of 'The Blues Brothers' act - Hehe... my short moment in the limelights of the movie making industry

Tired out

Wide view of the studios backlot

We caught the last dancing act right before the park closed

Having a nice conversation with 'Donkey'. Or should as Shrek says it, '"Dong-kay!" [Seriously, we had a conversation... I wasn't imagining things :) ]

The City Walk outside Universal Studios

We had heard of Tony Romas before coming to the states and we made it a point to have one of our dinners there. Tony Romas is known for its ribs. So ribs we had... Or should I say Alex had. He ordered the baby back ribs with salmon, asparagus and chips on the side. It was yum. Succulent, slightly smokey baby back ribs. Lightly crispy on the outside and moist meat on the inside. Me, I ordered a Crispy Chicken Salad for fear of the big portions of U.S food.

True enough, the portions were humongous! I had several bites of Alex's food and we could not finish my salad.

Inside Tony Romas

My Crispy Chicken Salad with balsamic vinagrette and red wine vinagrette

Alex's baby back ribs, salmon, chips and asparagus

We called it a night after that. Full and tired out from all the excitement we had all day. It's great to be doing all this before we have our own kids :)

cheryl

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