蔣和勳

Our second day in the USA, we went to Hollywood and Universal Studios! After departing from the Inn, we realize that we had to change to another bus. We were sent to their “headquarter” which I unfortunately forgot where it was (There was a MacDonald nearby). We had to wait for a pretty long period of time before our next bus came. Furthermore, with so many people going to different places (Hollywood, San Francisco, Las Vegas, etc.) there were mass confusion. Tour guides were calling for people everywhere and every time a bus came along, people rush towards the guide inside asking if it was the right one. Eventually, we manage to get on the right bus and waited (yet again) for other tourist (since people were coming from different locations). While waiting, we acquainted with an Australian couple named Lynn and Tony. They had waited a long time as well and had toured with this (our) tour guide, Henry, the previous day (where they went Disneyland!) and said that the experience was terrible. On a side note, they were pretty nice.

Eventually we left for Hollywood moments later. Before reaching, Henry told us that we could have been able to visit Beverly Hill, CA but due to the delay we couldn’t. In my mind, I was thinking that if your company had organized the trip in a more orderly manner, we could have…! Back to the trip, we past by the famous Hollywood sign along the highway before entering Hollywood, I don’t think I’ve manage to capture it on camera since it was on the other side of the bus! Upon reaching Hollywood boulevard, we alighted and got some “coupon”. Turns out, it was actually some advertisement to get us into that shop which I, in the end, went and bought some souvenirs. We walked down the stretch of road, and saw the starry road. We stood and took pictures outside the Grauman’s Chinese Theatre where there were lots of finger and foot prints of famous stars. Pretty interesting. Walking further down, we reached the famous Kodak Theater. After which, we turned back and returned to the bus.

The next destination was Universal Studios, Hollywood!

When we reach Universal Studios and after using the toilet, we were all asked to queue up in 4 rows by Mr Henry, our tour guide. It was pretty hilarious as many felt that it was like we were still school kids. Anyways, we got our tickets and yet again we were directed by him again. Initially, I had thought that it was free and easy but found out it was a guided one whereby Henry brought us to different shows to watch and then after everything, we had our own time to spend. The first thing we visited was the Studio Ride. The ride included a tour of various film sets including Desperate Housewives’ Wisteria Lane, Ghost Whisperer, Psycho, War of the Worlds, Back to the Future, The Sting, and How The Grinch Stole Christmas,etc.. There were also staged events including… (quoting from wikipedia)

Psycho House (1964) The Psycho house was one of the big draws of the Universal Tram Tour back in 1964, and continues to be instantly recognizable even now. While shooting a big movie on the Universal lot back in 1999, Jim Carrey dressed up as “mother” and leapt out from behind the Psycho house, scaring everyone on the tram, including the guides. The movie in production was Man on the Moon, and when Tram operators spoke to the film crew for an explanation, they said that Carrey was just trying to channel the creative energy of Andy Kaufman (the entertainer he played in Man on the Moon).

Flash Flood (1968) The effect has appeared in countless films including Big Fat Liar and Fletch Lives. There’s a story that when a group of dignitaries (including John Wayne) visited the Flash Flood in the early days, the water levels were still being perfected, and the group got soaked.

The Collapsing Bridge (1974 – 2006, 2008 – ) The tour guide tries to take the tram around the bridge rather than going over it, but suddenly the tram driver takes the tram towards the bridge. Will it hold out? Nope – just as the tram reaches the mid point of the bridge, it creaks and massive timbers fall away causing the bridge to “drop” the tram a foot or so under the weight of the tram. The tram drives on, everyone survives, and visitors drive past the bridge as it rebuilds itself for the next tram. The bridge has recently been used less and less, and in March 2006, it seems that it’s finally been decommissioned permanently. The tram is not able to cross the bridge any more. It seems the mechanism will need to be completely replaced to bring it back into operation. The bridge is still mentioned by guides as a filming location. The Collapsing Bridge returned as an event in August 2008.^[2]

JAWS (1976) Opened a year after the release of Steven Spielberg‘s 1975 smash-hit film. It’s a Disneyland inspired animatronic attraction that featured very little of the shark (as in the movie) and other sets including the actual ORCA. The shark prop had cameos in the made for TV film The Harlem Globetrotters on Gilligan’s Island in 1981, and on the episode Hooray for Hollywood from Diff’rent Strokes in 1984.

Earthquake (1988) Replaced the Tower of London set, Earthquake: The Big One is a simulated 8.3 Richter scale Earthquake. The entire attraction resets itself in just 15 seconds ready for the next tram.

The Fast & The Furious: Extreme Close-Up (2006) Offers a glimpse behind the scenes of a thrilling special effects sequence for a high-octane action movie. The attraction started construction in March 2006, and opened on 15 June 2006. The area was formerly occupied by a model used in Dante’s Peak.

Curse of the Mummy’s Tomb (2006) The tram guide says we are going to take a look at some props from the film The Mummy, but instead, the tram is lead into Imhotep’s cursed tomb, where he sucks them into a powerful revolving sandstorm. The guide eventually leads the tram out of the sandstorm, and Imhotep is defeated.

King Kong Sea (2006) The guide leads the tram into a body of ocean around Skull Mountain Island. Suddenly, the waves part, and the tram travels between them, and guests get a view of the mini island.

Psycho (2008) As the tram passes the Bates motel, you can see Norman Bates carrying a corpse to a car. He then notices the tram and walks hauntingly towards it with a butcher knife as the tram leaves just in time to escape the crazed killer.

Stunt Show (2008) The tram passes an area dressed for filming as the guide asks if they can watch their stunt “rehearsal”. The stunt crew moves around various locations. At Denver Street they “rehearse” a Western gunfight, in Six Points Texas they “rehearse” a gladiator sword fight, and at the log cabin they “rehearse” a fight scene inside the cabin moving to the outside. Each one of these shows uses fake dynamite to propel the stunt men into the air to their mark on a pad.

Whoville Comes To Life (2008) During the holiday season at the Whoville set all of the Whos, even Max the dog, perform a musical spectacular for the guests’ enjoyment. The songs are remixes of songs from the movie. This is part of Universal’s Grinchmas celebration.

Pretty cool for a ride! Next we went to watch Shrek in 4D! Totally awesome, the seats moving, water squirting and wind blowing from nowhere! Had to wear these special 3D glasses as well. After which we went for lunch (had hot dog meal with chips). We kinda missed our next guided destination (the Waterworld: A Live Sea War Spectacular) as we past the time and so, had to go on our own since. We, then went to watch Terminator 2 in 3D. Wasn’t that great compared to Shrek, but still it was a wow factor for me. Since we were still early for the Waterworld show, we went for the Universal’s House of Horrors. It was so scary. Actually, it was boring and lame! Ha ha! We returned back to watch Waterworld: A Live Sea War Spectacular. Similar to the one I caught in Japan in 2007 (Possibly even better considering that majority of the audience being American, thus more enthusiastic about the show). We walked around and took picture. With that, it ended our Universal Studios’ journey since we had to return early as there were couple of tourist in our coach that had to catch their train/plane. Pretty unfortunate we didn’t manage to catch more show, but overall it was a great place to go.

Before we could reach our Inn, we had to alight those people and change our coach as well. We were very tired by then. When we reached our Inn, we decided to have the bread we bought the day before as dinner. End of day 1 of the tour. Not forgetting, Lynn offered us a banana on our way back. By the way, there were Australian and Hong Kong family, Vietnam/Phillippino and Korean/Japanese students on the coach. Ate ceral and waffles for breakfast.