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Jun242006
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Universal Studios Theme Park |
Arien and I went to Universal Studios Theme park today. There are shuttle buses running from the hotel there. We got up in time to catch the 10:05 but it was full so we had to wait for one at quarter past eleven. We got a little something to eat and sat by the pool for a bit while we waited. The shuttle arrived at Universal Studios at about 11:30. We bought our tickets at the hotel so we didn’t have to wait in that particular line. One of the first things we did when we got in was go on the Shrek 4D ‘ride.’ We waited in line a little over a half hour for that one. When we finally did get in, there was a presentation of sorts by a staff member and some animated displays. The ‘ride’ itself was a big movie theater with moving seats, blowing air and sprits of water at key moments. All that and the glasses made for convincing 4D effects. The story involved Princess Fiona being kidnapped by goons of the ghost of Lord Farquaad. It was actually quite amusing. After that ride we walked around a bit. I don’t really feel like describing the park in any great detail. I’m sure it’s very well documented elsewhere. Suffice it to say the park has streets, each of which are themed based on various cities in the USA. We stopped for lunch in one of the park’s restaurants called Lombard’s Seafood. It was a nice enough place. I got a fried fish and fries plate and Arien got some ravioli. After lunch, we went to the San Francisco “Earthquake” thing, named after the movie. There were a couple demonstrations of special effects involving members of the audience. Finally there was a ride where you get on subway cars and move to another station where an ‘earthquake’ takes place with all sorts of physical effects that end with a tidal wave of water coming down a staircase which was pretty dramatic looking. The last ride we went on was the Back to the Future ride. We waited a good while to get on as there were some “technical difficulties.” Part of the wait was in the hot sun. The ride itself was cool, although it shows its age. While we were there we also stopped in a couple gift shops. We also walked around the kiddie area for our amusement. We stopped in a couple gift shops and bought a couple key chains. We left around 4:30. Arien saw everything she wanted to see and I didn’t have any overwhelming desire to stay longer. After we left we walked to a movie theater on the grounds. I wanted to see the new X-Men movie but there wasn’t another showing for two hours so we saw Click, an Adam Sandler movie in which he is bestowed a remote control which allows him to stop time, see his past and fast forward to the future. It was a rather amusing movie, as Sandler movies usually are. It was a little depressing towards the end though. After the movie, Arien and I caught the 7:45 shuttle back to the hotel. We had Chinese delivered for dinner. I ordered a lot more food than I could eat though. I had a rather bad headache this evening so I wasn’t very sociable when Lauren got back with a friend of hers who stayed and talked for a while. I was in bed at around eleven.