I finally got out of town long enough to hit a few parks on my days off. First up is Universal Studios Hollywood, where they are building bathrooms, parks, and homes for minions.
My video update showing off some of the highlights of the day is posted on the Theme Park Nerds YouTube channel. Check it out!
Universal Video Update
Welcome to a cold and rainy day in Hollywood. It was pouring most of the morning and continued with light rain throughout the day. I don't mind getting a little wet, so it made for PERFECT theme park weather. Everyone except the die hard tourists stayed home.
Down in the lower lot, the lines were non-existant. It was a 15 minute wait for Transformers until around 2pm, Mummy and Jurassic Park were walk ons.
In a very good move, they relocated the Transformers Meet and Greet location to the left of the attraction entrance and gave it its own queue. Much better than the old location on the other side of the gift shop. The people who waited to get their picture taken with a giant robot waited longer than the people going on the Transformers ride. Maybe they were too distracted by Optimus to realized there was a super cool ride behind him?
New in the Universal Experience is the DeLorean from Back to the Future, a movie that in two years will be renamed "Forward to Today"
It's a cool picture car and is displayed very well in the center of the exhibit. The stop motion sets from ParaNorman around the corner in the same room can't compete with the DeLorean's awesomeness.
Side note, someone puked in the exhibit before I got there. The entire room smelled like the chemical used to absorb vomit. Apparently the awesomeness of this car was too much for someone's stomach to handle. Now that the scene is properly set, admire the hood of the car.
Because of the rain, the Dino Play area near Jurassic Park was closed, making so anyone under 40 inches tall had zero reason to be on the lower lot.
A shot of the wet, closed playground. It's a very nice, well done play area.
Meanwhile, in the bushes of Jurassic Park, Dora was exploring Isla Nublar looking for Dinosaur embryos to sell on the main land. She was later eaten by a Velociraptor.
Dino Splash! They had all the extra water effects turned off on Jurassic Park, since everyone looked like a drowned mammal anyway. Without the cannons, the splash is much more modest.
I've never noticed this before, and it's probably been there forever, but this is the gate to the roads behind the Jurassic Park drop building. I thought it was cool.
Now to the upper lot, where Krustyland was showing a 25 minute wait for The Simpsons Ride. In actuality, it was about a two show back up. No real queue outside the grouping area, but they were only running one theater because the park was so slow.
Orlando is getting all of Springfield, Hollywood is getting....a bathroom expansion....maybe.
Walls were up connecting the Kwik-E-Mart to the current restrooms.
A shot behind the construction walls from the studio tour bridge. They have torn out the retaining wall on the hillside and appear to be doing lots of utility work.
Elsewhere on the upper lot, the former site of the Wild West Stunt Show is now a big empty area. Not having the old, unused theater there really opens up the area. It doesn't feel as small anymore. Not sure exactly what is going in there, but many are saying it will be a nice park area, which is fine by me.
Wrapping things up for this update, the Gibson Amphitheater is enjoying it's last days before being magically transformed by a bunch of wizards. Soon, Waterworld will be on the outskirts of Hogsmead, which is odd.
Hope you enjoyed the pictures. Be sure to check out our YouTube channel for more on Universal and other parks.
Until next time,
Later Nerds!
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