On Monday, Andrew braved the 101 and drove us to Universal Studios without fault. Needless to say I was pretty excited to see where movies are made.
Me with a NYC taxi
Surprisingly the lines weren’t bad at all and soon we were sitting on the Jurassic Park ride. Andrew was sitting on the edge and got kind of drenched. The first ride got us really pumped for the rest of the day. After that we jumped on The Mummy Ride, which scared Andrew stupid as a child. He was stressing out pretty bad by the time the roller coaster took off, kind of adorable! He was fine though. Things always seem bigger/scarier as a kid.
After that we went on the Transformers ride, which is a simulator style ride for which you wear 3D glasses. Then we went on the Studio Tour, which I had been really looking forward to:
Does this look familiar?
It’s the set from Psycho! Doesn’t look quite as terrifying in the sunny California daylight. We watched Norman dump a shower curtain clad body in the boot of the car before he came over to say hello. With a huge knife in hand.
Check out the mothers’ house on the hill. Looks much closer in real life.
This is the set from part of the War of the Worlds movie:
Amazing
There was a full size, deconstructed Boeing 747 on set:
Insane amount of work!
Does this street look familiar?
It’s Wisteria Lane! Having been thoroughly obsessed with Desperate Housewives as a teenager I started to fangirl pretty hard…
Gabrielle Solis’ house, which looks way more yellow on the show
Ida Greenberg’s place
The sets looked really simple in real life, I guess that shows what lighting and camera angles do.
Hanging out with Marilyn
Universal has an area dedicated to The Simpsons, which I loved. I can pretty much quote every episode from the early seasons and since I was a kid have wanted to visit a Simpsons theme park.
There was the Kwik-E-Mart.
A classic example of Andrew cutting off my feet!
All the characters were there.
Andrew chatting to Milhouse
Chief Wiggum and I
Lard Lad donuts
Moe’s
Every kid at Universal seemed to be obsessed with the Minions from Despicable Me. So we went to check them out.
Andrew and I with the Minions
The Despicable Me ride was also a simulator, and was pretty great.
Just a photo of the gardens
The view was awesome from the park
An Oscar
When Universal closed at 6pm we went to the neighbouring City Walk area for dinner. We went to Karl Strauss Brew House for beer and burgers.
It was amazing.
Drool
On the way home we only got beeped/flipped off once for being in the wrong lane, which I think is pretty good! An excellent day.
Great photos Bec! It’s such a fun place, isn’t it?
Sure is Lynne! We loved it 🙂
Wow! Great photos! Some parts of Universal L.A. look quite similar to Orlando, especially the Simpsons area, but I have now decided that I’ve GOT to visit because of the studio tour. Bates Motel AND Wisteria Lane – I. Cannot. Cope.
Also I forgot to mention there’s a set from Jaws, this crazy old looking Mexican town that has fake flash flooding (used in Lady Gaga’s Judas music video as well as lots of other stuff) and an underground subway station that has fake earthquake/flooding, it’s been used in a few TV shows. It’s so amazing!
That’s so cool! It’s a shame that they closed the Backlot Tour at Orlando, even though it wasn’t to this scale, it was still interesting and I always enjoyed the American Film Institute museum exhibit attached to it. I definitely have to visit L.A. one day, especially being such a cinephile!
Oh absolutely, you will love it!