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Universal Studios Hollywood (California)
by giveup
In a country where size matters and everything is HUGE - I was quite surprised at how small Universal Studios Hollywood is...
It's located on the outskirts of LA, we were driving in from San Diego so it's difficult to say how long it would take to reach from central LA. On the way out, we got stuck in the rush hour traffic ... and it took about an hour and a half to get to our hotel. Parking was not an issue - it has a number of huge car parks and plenty of helpful attendants to point you in the direction of a free space.
When you enter the complex, you walk through what can be best described as a high street - offering all sorts of gift shops, bars and restaurants. We were pretty keen to get into the park so I didn't pay to much attention on the way in. At the end of the day, I did have a look around but none of the shops really caught my eye - expensive tat! Miniature Oscar statues, movie memorabilia - that sort of thing.
We didn't have to queue for too long to get into the park, around 30 minutes and this was peak season. Once in the park, I picked up a map and I have to say I was quite surprised as to how few big rides there were in comparison to some of the UK theme parks. On average each ride lasted about 90 seconds and the queues were on average 90 minutes - I know that's pretty standard for theme parks but... The only ride that I felt was worth the two hours we queued for was the brand new Simpsons ride - that was pretty incredible and I would strongly recommend going on if you ever happen to find yourself at Universal. None of the other rides really stood out and I'm struggling to recall any of them - I went on every ride in the park.
One of the attractions is a horror walk, you know the sort thing, walk through a maze of dark creepy tunnels whilst various monsters and horror movie characters jump out and scare you... That was quite creepy but I'm afraid American legislation means they cant actually touch you for fear of being sued... So it's not actually that scary! I was spoilt with Halloween at Fort Amerhurst in the UK. The characters there will drag you away from the group and shut you in a coffin - bearing in mind it takes place in the supposedly haunted underground fort tunnels - after that experience - everything else seems pretty tame!
Back to Universal and I found the facilities to be the usual excellent standard that I'd become used to in the US. The toilets were regularly cleaned and kept fully stocked. Bins were regularly emptied and accessible all over the park. Food and drink was a little on the pricey side both in the park and the areas outside - but then I think that's pretty standard in theme parks. A nice touch was the ice cream man who would walk the queues selling ice cold drinks and lolly's!
We spent a day at the park and that was quite enough time - by about 5pm we had seen all of the shows and been on all of the rides. The ticket was around $60 USD and I think that was quite reasonable for entry into a theme park but I'll be honest, I didn't rate it as highly as Chessington or Thorpe Park...
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Central Park Zoo (New York)
by healtheworld
On a recent visit to New York, I knew that one of the things I just had to do was visit the Central Park zoo! I am a huge animal lover and could spend all day in a zoo exploring the beautiful animals, so this was always on my 'to do' list.
Central park zoo is on 64th street 5th avenue, and is just on the outskirts of central ... park. It took us a while to find the zoo and had to ask a hot dog vendor how to get there! But once we arrived there was absolutely no queue considering it was a Friday afternoon. We walked straight up to the desk and both paid $12 each for adult tickets which I think is around £7? I think this is great value. You then are scanned in and have the usual New York 'photo opportunity' before entering the zoo. Just before you enter there is a ice cream stall which sells drinks and refreshments and also a booth full of stuffed animals. I would recommend bringing your own drink to the zoo as I was charged $3 for a bottle of water from the stall!
You are given a map and you can choose to carry on straight to the 'Tropic area' or turn right to see the 'Arctic area'. We chose the sea lions first in the arctic area. The sea lions were in a huge glass pool with a little island in the middle of it and there was 2 adult sea lions and 2 baby sea lions. We stayed and watched the sea lions swim round and round and lift the heads up occasionally for a while before heading on to see the polar bear. The polar bear was very peculiar and kept swimming up to the top of the pool and throwing itself backwards until it hit the bottom, then it would repeat this ritual over and over without stopping! (Unfortunately, the day after we seen the polar bear the news reports it had died overnight which was very sad.) Just through some double doors we came to the penguins which were without a doubt my favourite! They had a huge area of ice to stand on and quite a big pool of water to swim in along with various types of ducks.
We then moved on to the bird sanctuary in the 'Tropic area' which was amazing, with the birds flying freely around this huge exotic building full of trees and pools for them to live in. They had flamingos, parrots and all other exotic birds. As you leave the bird sanctuary you come into the reptile area which was full of snakes, toads, bats and other scary animals which wasn't really to my liking! However it was quite interesting to watch them.
In the temperate area was the likes of the Snow leopard which was beautiful and the Sea monkeys. These were both amazing creatures and we spent a long time watching them fascinated.
The whole zoo took us around 2 hours to get around, simply because we spent a long time taking pictures and reading about the animals. However if you were with kids, it probably wouldn't take very long at all. There is a small cafe which looks quite small and dirty from the outside, however it had the most amazing curly fries and pizza for $3 each! Perfect to stop in half way around the zoo as it was extremely hot and tiring.
Overall, Central Park zoo was well worth the visit and the money, it is open 365 days a year 10am to 5:30pm daily. It is a great day out all for under $20 each and to anyone visiting New York, be sure to add this to your own 'to do' list!
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Universal Studios (Florida)
by martyfarty69
Universal Studio's Florida is a theme park located in Orlando Florida and is part of the Universal Studios Resort.
Originally opened in June 1990 it was designed to give themepark goers the Movie and entertainment industry experience, with rides and shows centered around the ... industry.
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The park features 6 themed areas all situated around a large lagoon:
( I will review the rides if I had the pleasure of experiencing them )
1 : Production Central: This area features such rides and experiences as:
Shrek 4-D
Donkey's Photo Finish
Jimmy Neutron's Nicktoons bash
Hollywood Rip, Ride, Rockit : This is a fairly new addition to the park and is a Steel Rollercoaster, it is unique in that each rider has their own sound system and before you begin the coaster you are able to select your own soundtrack using different genre's of music, I myself picked Limp Bizkit and had a blast, the coaster starts you directly vertical going up 167 feet before dropping you down along the 3800 feet of track, it was a thrilling ride and an excellent coaster, and the added bonus of the music definitely enhanced the experience.
2: New York : Designed to mimic the streets of New York it features such attractions as:
Revenge of the Mummy, The Ride : This is an enclosed steel rollercoaster based upon the Mummy series of movies, it is a 2200 foot interior track that reaches a top speed of 45MPH, it gives you the feeling of being inside a mine car.
Twister.....Ride it out :
Delancey Street preview Center : Here you can actually volunteer to watch a pilot of an upcoming TV Show and give feedback, they even pay you for your time, we watched an upcoming buddy cop show called "Common Law" which was awful, but it paid for one of our tickets and only took up about 75 minutes !!
The Blues Brothers Live: A live action roughly 15 minute set from the Blues Brothers, very entertaining and you can just sit outside on the street and watch.
3: San Francisco / Amity: This area is themed after a coastal city and also a seasonal tourist town in New England:
Beetlejuice's Rock and Roll Graveyard Revue
Disaster!: A Major Motion Picture Ride...Starring You! : Its set on a soundstage of a fictitious movie company and puts you through the motions of starring in a movie, its unique in they actually pick people out of the audience and have them become cast members, although it is quite lengthy and does get quite boring after a while, before you get to the thrilling part at the end.
Jaws : An iconic theme park ride where everyone knows whats going to happen, but is enjoyable nonetheless, you go on a boat ride through Amity harbour where you're attacked by Jaws.
Fear Factor Live
4: World Expo : Takes its design theme after various international world expositions of the 20th century.
Men In Black, Alien Attack
The Simpsons Ride : Is a motion Simulator ride based around the TV Show of the same name, it follows Sideshow Bob trying to kill the simpsons family and the riders are along for the ride, it is an impressive ride with great effects and you really get a feel of motion during it.
5: Woody Woodpecker's Kidzone: An area centred around kids with none thrilling rides and areas designed to appeal to pre-teens, perfect if you want a slower pace
Woody Woodpecker's Nuthouse Coaster
Fievel's Playland
Curious George Goes to Town
E.T. Adventure : Is one of the original rides when the park opened and is timeless, it follows you riding in your bike with elliott with ET, while not particularly thrilling it is a cute ride with alot of charm.
6: Hollywood: It recreates areas of Hollywood and makes you feel like you're on the streets of Tinseltown.
Lucy: A Tribute
Universal's Horror Make-Up Show
Terminator 2: 3-D Battle Across Time : A live 3D experience based upon the movie Terminator 2, it uses live cast members and also special effects to give the audience a thrilling experience, however it is long and in parts gets a little tedious.
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Me and my wife visited Orlando the 1st week of May and it was perfect, the lines were manageable and the weather was great, it was mainly in the 80's - 90's in temperature and by the time we made it to Universal Studio's the park was pretty dead, we didn't cue up for a ride for longer than 20 minutes and managed to enjoy the park at our own pace, however out of the four parks we visited ( Magic Kingdom, EPCOT, Islands of Adventure and Universal Studio's ) I do think Universal Studio's florida is the weakest, some of the rides are thrilling ( the Rip, Ride Rock-It coaster was awesome ) but everything is much slower paced and some of the rides / experiences are a little dated ( ET and the Terminator 2 movies are both over 20 years old ).
One thing me and my wife commented on about the difference between Disneyworld and Universal is that with Universal the rides are better ( Islands of Adventure particularly ) and its geared towards the more mature people, but the experience at Disney is much better, customer service at Disney is first class, however at Universal their "Crew Members" ( The opposite to Disney's Cast Members ) don't place as much emphasis on customer service.
One thing Universal offer is Express Plus, for around $25 you can buy a ticket that gives you much quicker access to the rides, however you can only use it once per ride, while in the peak seasons I can imagine it gives you a good value, when we visited most of the lines for the rides were around 20 minutes or so anyway, even the Rip Ride Rock-it coaster was only around a 45 minute wait, which made the expense of the passes just not worth it, however if you're visiting in a peak time I would definitely recommend it as its a good way to experience all the rides and not feel like you missed out at the end.
Overall we had a good time at Universal, however next time we visit Orlando we may give it a miss unless they update alot of the rides and the park itself
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