beyond toxicity

On Thursday morning, 1st September 2011, I initially brought my wife and kid to the riverfront near One Fullerton via bus from Bencoolen Street. However, since the sun was unforgiving (at least Mr. Sun was up after days of downpour prior to our trip), we opted to head directly to USS via cab.

And did the much-needed tourist thing, haha!

It was ages ago when I stepped foot in Universal Studios Hollywood; I was still single then, and apparently didn’t have Gabby yet to share the experiences with. Nonetheless, the memory remains vivid and it’s so apt to relay the fun to our son when we got a chance to bring him in a similar venue.

A day in most if not all theme parks would not be complete without photo-ops with those lovable mascots…

Wonder where Shrek and Princess Fiona were that day. It was only Puss whom we saw in Far Far Away. We watched Shrek 4D Adventure though, and tremendoulsy enjoyed the simulations of splashes and spiders crawling on legs.

Then we also caught a birdie mascot (Is this Woody Woodpecker?)…

Whe we heard the growling of our stomachs, it signaled us to immediately chow down.

Of all the restaurants inside USS, we chose Goldilocks (not the local cakeshop that we grew with) and ordered some delicious fastfood junkies…

We shared these tray of chicken burger, criscut potato fries and 3-piece chicken seasoned with 7 spices done just right! Ang sarap! But it made me miss our very own Max’s Fried Chicken back home.    

Moving on…

There was a souvenir shop where we tried on some novelty hats just for the cam…

There were so many hats to choose from and almost everyone at the facade of the store wanted to try them all. 

We still wanted to escape from the heat of the sun, so we took the chance of queueing at Monster Rock that featured the Universal Classic Monsters in rock-and-roll extravagant show.  I had a mixed feelings and thoughts watching (performers wearing costumes of) Frankenstein, Count Dracula, Lady Mummy and others doing Lady Gaga and other contemporary pop songs on stage, nevertheless, it’s fun! They pulled out the show.  But prior to their production numbers, Tina and Gabby had their own show…

I’ve told you, we also watched Waterworld before lunch time. The show has death-defying stunts, pyrotechnics and explosions on water.  I’ve seen it first in Los Angeles and concluded then that the USS show is even better than its movie version. 

Since I knew that there will be parts of the show where actors would intentionally wet the audience with splashes and pails of water, I told Tina and Gabby to sit in the so-called-”dry area” of the bleachers.  I noticed improvements from its USS Hollywood version; this one in Singapore has more humor and stunts. 

We continued to while away time and went to the part of USS called Sci-Fi City. Here, the famous buwis-buhay (life-threatening) ride called Battlestar Galactica can challenge fear in anyone…

Are you daring enough to ride this?

We’re not! We’re just content in watching the actions from the ground. At least there, we’re surely safe!  

“Battlestar Galactica -Human or Cyclon? Choose your side on the world’s tallest duelling roller coasters. Prepare to engage in aerial combat between two coasters. The Cyclon (blue track) suspended coater goes up, around and upside down with an intense corkscrew and a cobra roll, while the Human seated coaster zooms at speeds of 82.8km/h and propels you over fourteen storeys into the air!” -sourced from the USS Studio Guide.

In Ancient Egypt…

one funny thing happened to us…

 

Overwhelmed with excitement, we went to the locker area and left all of our things at hand -bags,camera etc, to the designated locker by the ATM-looking machine for free. We went on queue for the Revenge of the Mummy absolutely clueless that it’s another buwis-buhay-ride. Why? Well, we went inside without reading anything! *bummer!* So we hurriedly exited the building after reading a warning sign that stated it’s indeed an indoor roller coaster ride. It really pays to read, hehe!

 

At around 4PM, we decided to leave USS.  And just before exiting the turnstiles at the gate, we saw Marilyn…

 

My family has sweeter tooth than I am (OK, we all have!). Imagine their bliss upon seeing a volume of shops of chocolates and candies…

 

I know Tina’s number 1 fan of Jelly Beans; she can eat it as if there’s no tomorrow!

 

 Those enormous Hershey’s bottles are plastic coin banks that I wanted to take home. However budget and logic restrained me, it costs S$25 each! Nevermind, haha!

 

Now, these are happiness to me (Tina, Gabby and Reese’s)!

 

At the Hershey’s store, they have these biggest chocolate bars available at whopping price of S$60 each! As I took it from its shelf to hand in to Gabby just for fun, I told him to hold it carefully for I didn’t want to be jailed if he breaks it, haha!

 

Honestly, I expected to ride an open-air tram that takes guests to different studio buildings inside USS.  I thought it’s similar to that in Hollywood with backlot filled with studios where famous movies were shot and where simulations of scenes can be experienced but I was totally wrong.

I even inappropriately compared the size of USS to Disneyland in Anaheim, Disneyland and DisneySea in Tokyo but it’s no match. Perhaps, not even half of Disneyland in Hong Kong. That was my mistake making me felt short of USS.

 

What’s important for Tina and me was the fact that Gabby enjoyed his day.

 

So much for a day in Universal Studios Singapore. We went to Merlion Park, Esplanade and Makansutra at dusk that same day which will be featured and posted soon…