Universal Studios: Los Angeles, CA
Zack & I are big movie-lovers. We love to get home after a long day, eat a yummy meal, and watch whatever new movie we can. So Universal Studios sounded like a perfect activity for our quick LA trip in September 2021.
We met up with my friend Olivia and her boyfriend and spent the day walking around, riding any and all rides, and going on the hour long tour they offer that drives you around the park and tells you about it’s history. We found something for each of us from Harry Potter, Transformers, to Fast & Furious.
Instagram:
https://www.instagram.com/unistudios/
Website:
https://www.universalstudioshollywood.com/web/en/us
Hours:
10am-5pm
Honestly, this is plenty long enough to see the whole park! I was worried this would be too crammed and we would have to rush around but we didnt need to rush really!
Tickets:
Range from $105-$145 depending on what day of the week you go.
Cheapest days are typically Mondays-Thursdays.
Harry Potter World
We started in Harry Potter part of the studio. There are 2 Harry Potter rides.
1) Flight of the Hippogriff™: it takes you through the pumpkin patch and by Hagrid’s house and is a more family friendly roller coaster.
2)Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey: This was our favorite part of the whole day! Favorite ride and we loved the visuals for it. We thought as far as the rides went that this one was the most exciting. We actually wish we had ridden this ride twice. We thought this ride & section of the park was the most visually interesting and immersive.
Ultimately, Harry Potter World was our favorite section of the whole park!
Hello Hogwarts!
We ate at the Three Broomsticks™ restaurant which was basically English pub food.
Zack & I got the shepherds pie and the fish & chips to split!
Zack with a frosted butterbeer (non alcoholic basically a butterscotch slushie)
The Simpson's Ride
Next we headed to the Simpson’s part of the park! There’s a virtual reality roller coaster ride where you get in a car that lifts up off the ground and it tilts and takes you all over Springfield on an adventure. It’s an indoor simulation through Krusty-Land which is Springfield’s very own messed up theme park! The animation is shown on a giant 80 foot domed screen above and in front of you.
2 things I didn’t really get photos of:
1) Jurassic World ride. I’m a big dinosaur fan. When I was 2 years old Jurassic Park and Godzilla were my favorite movies so this is something that I thought was really cool! You get splashed a little and you go on an adventure through the jungle in a “raft” where you see an intense battle between Indominous Rex & T-Rex!
2) Revenge of the Mummy Ride! It’s a 45 mph visual effects ride. They even utilized real hieroglyphic warnings!
Next Up: The World-Famous Studio Tour
We recommend taking the studio tour! This is an hour long ride where you get into an open tour bus basically and you go through sets, and on rides with a tour guide! Check this out if you want to see all the things on the Studio Tour!
You see a bunch of different movie sets from all sorts of movies. The one in the photo above is from the Purge movies. I loved seeing these sets in person. The attention to detail was just immaculate and so interesting to see.
The shark from Jaws tries to eat you, you are in a flash flood. You see Bates Motel (from Alfred Hitchcock’s Psycho) and a gigantic crashed plane from War of the Worlds.
You also get to experience King Kong 360 3-D. This is the world’s largets 3-D experience to date! Basically T-Rex and King Kong battle and it’s intense.
The grand finale is the Fast & Furious Supercharged ride! It’s 3-D and with 360 degree screens so it is literally all around you and you get to be apart of the “family” on a high speed chase that goes over 120 mph (ride doesn’t but the visuals makes it seem that way!) The ride is over two football fields long so plenty of time to enjoy the special effects!
We thought this was overall a pretty jam packed hour and nice because you get to sit down the whole time and give your legs/feet a rest.
This was a really fun day out! I’ve heard that the Orlando Universal Studios is way better though although I haven’t been-yet! I’ll get the inside scoop and report back later!
