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Published: January 26th 2012
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Todays adventures lead us to the amazing United Studios for a start. Getting out of the bus, we were greeted with a giant rotating Universal Studios globe that just begged for a few photos, that set the scene for an out of this world experience that was about to come. With the park not opening till 9, we had half an hour till it officially opened, which we spent around the conveniently open tourist shop. This is where my obsession with theme park memorial pennies began. The glorious machines placed all around theme parks request two quarters ($0.50) which is basically the sum the park makes from the transaction, and a penny, which was the ingredient to the souvenir coin. After lining up the coins in the slots, you turn a wheel to power a mechanism that squishes the penny into different shapes. The first one I got was a generic all-purpose Universal Studios clicky-board one. At this point the gates opened, and we rushed to do our first ride, which was my favourite ride of the day. This was the Simpsons ride, in 3D. We lined up for a while, and after being briefed by Krusty via an overhead screen,
we were lead into a very clever room that featured famous members of the Simpsons cast subtly in their own humorous way telling you the safety rules.
From there we went into a rollercoaster type carrage, which was raised up a little as darkness fell over us. The interesting thing about this ride was that the carrage itself didn’t actually move much, and instead the 360 degree 3D screen around us simulated movement, along with perfectly timed hydraulics moving the carrage side to side, and back and forth. It was actually so intensely realistic. Even when a mutant Maggie picked up the carrage, and started sucking the carrage, water guns sprayed Maggie’s spit all over us, which was a total crowd pleaser. Following up this was the high speed ‘Revenge Of The Mummy’ ride, which was an actual rollercoaster this time. Fortunately, we met up with other rotary students just as we were going there, and ended up taking quite an entourage there. This was a total Adrenaline-rush the whole time, and the rollercoaster even reversed back in its tracks as we were chased by the curse. Scarab beetles even ran across our legs, simulated expertly by jets of
air and strings down by the foot rests which felt so crazy realistic. We ended up doing this twice because it was such a blast. So after that, next up was the ‘Jurassic Park’ ride. This was a boat journey with a real focus on pre-historic life, but with the awesome twist that it looked as though the riders before you had been ripped apart by dinosaurs, and all sorts of Dinosaurs lunged out at us, squirting water jets at us from all over the place. The climax of the ride was a T-Rex smashing through the roof of an actual building, and taking a steep nose dive down a steep ramp into a pond, getting us wet. This ride was where I got my second souvenir coin, because of how much I enjoyed it, I was getting hooked.
Then came the ‘Haunted House’. We were all expecting another rollercoaster ride, but this one was quite unique. There were actual live actors much like Corn evil, but it was all based in a giant house. Walking through the maze of spider webs, mirrors, smoke and mysterious groaning sounds, there were actors dressed as chucky, mad butchers, Frankenstein, headless people
and various other creepy characters. Anna actually came out crying from fright out of it, so that’s quite a testament to its realism and scare factor !. We took a while to sit and level ourselves out after that, and luckily we saw our fellow rotary exchangers that couldn’t recommend the tour of the sets any more. This was many of our favourite attractions at Universal Studios, and the crazy car explosions, the 3D King Kong adventure and seeing heaps of legit filmmaking taking place for real TV shows as we went past in the tram. It was quite a long ride, but it was by far the most interesting and rewarding of anything on offer that day. After that, I found myself wanting a caricature that I knew would be a memory worth keeping, so as I got that, the rest of the group went and got lunch. The picture turned out amazing, I loved it. One of the best $10 I ever spent. So having been ditched, I went to the ride I’d been waiting to go on all day, the Terminator in 3D. This was utterly amazing, and they combined scenes of real actors and 3D animation
seamlessly to create such a realistic experience. Anyway, after this, it was nearly time to go, so I headed back towards the exit, where I got another souvenir coin of the Universal Studios globe. From there we went on a massive take-tour around Hollywood and Beverly hills. Although it was populated by some wealthy looking people, and some very nice cars and houses, it didn’t quite have the same wow factor as it is commonly shown to have on TV and in movies, and the glitz and glam just wasn’t really there. However it was a great experience, and we saw some amazing sculptures and scenery while we were there. It was here when my camera carcked it, and I missed a few great snaps, which sucks.
In true rotary fashion, once we arrived exhausted to the hotel, we had a pizza party with fellow rotary students that were either about to embark on their overseas adventure or had just come back from one that lived in the district. Me and Anna met Taylor, a local living in LA. She gave us these cool little elephant bracelets to take with us. Mine was silver, Annas was gold. It’s cool
how small things mean a lot though right ? We did a shirtless haka, which they absolutely loved. I mean common, who wouldn’t right ? After this we stayed awake till around 4 o’clock chatting and room switching and living up our last night with everyone still in LA. This gave the total sleep hour of the last 3 days to below 15 hours. You can imagine how I feel writing this at 9pm on the plane to London.
I could be sleeping, yes. But I’ve
made a commitment to this.
In around 9 hours, I’ll be landing in London/ Heathrow, so goodnight, bon nuit, and let’s see what tomorrow brings ! P.S, the service on this plane is incredible. There’s a little screen where you can get anything from a bourbon or whiskey, to a hot chocolate (which we got), and snacks like kiwifruit shortbread and chips. You can also get earplugs, eyeshades and even a toothbrush and toothbrush. We have maxxed this system out and emptied the planes chip supply. Success in the field of getting maximum free stuff for sure. It’s too hard to sleep in this awkward sitting/lying position so I’ve given up hope.
My laptop battery is about to die….
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