The Lane's next BIG trip: Day 18. Los Angeles (Universal Studios). Monday 6th January

After researching "Universal Studio tips" online, Andrew had a plan worked out for our visit. We were visiting on a weekday when the US schools have returned from their holiday break so we hoped for fewer people than a few days earlier. We read that on busy days people line up for 90 minutes to go on a 3 minute ride! Gates opened at 9am and we wanted to be there then. The weather forecast was for a 25 degree day. Not too hot and not too cold.
We had a 5 min walk to the subway station, then spent 5 min buying tickets (actually a very nice local man pushed all the necessary buttons on the machine for us and then wanted $3 'to get home'. We guessed he'd be there all day helping the tourists for a couple of bucks each 'to get home'). 4 mins on the subway train to the next station, 5 minute bus/trolley ride to the front gates of Universal Studios and at 0905 we were in. Phew! After a little fight with a storage locker, that didn't accept our credit card or the stupid American paper $10 notes, we were on our way to the furthest ride from the gate. Apparently most visitors hang around the upper lot for a couple of hours lining up for ages for tours & rides and then all go down to the 3 rides in the lower lot only to line up behind each other again. We walked straight onto the 3D Transformers ride where we were in a fight with and beat the Decepticons - cool. Next ride, with no waiting, was Jurassic Park where we were lucky to get out alive after a T-Rex tried to eat us - cool (See here for real life video). Then onto the Revenge of the Mummy ride. A scary rollercoaster in the dark - cool - for most of us. For some reason Christine didn't like going backwards on a rollercoaster in the dark! Next, after a 20 minute wait, was the Simpsons 3D ride in cartoon land - cool for most of us. Christine still wasn't feeling the best so she did it with her eyes closed. We then had a break from the rides and went to see a bunch of very clever animal actors, in a show, that have been/or are being trained to be in the movies. We also went on a studio tour amongst the sound stages and movie sets around the studio grounds. Unfortunately King Kong attacked the trolley we were on, luckily we got away only to be in a subway station when there was an earthquake. God knows how we escaped from that before we were attacked by Jaws! - COOL!
The day also included a Waterworld stunt show, a Special Effects Stage Show and the House of Horrors that was full of scary actors leaping out at us - cool. Late in the afternoon the boys returned to the lower lot and went on the rides again, with no waiting, while the girls wandered around looking at the shops and sat down and people watched. We walked out the gates at 6pm after a fantastic day. We had dinner at City Walk, the shopping, dining and entertainment promenade, just outside the gates.