Universal Studios was one of the places that I did not visit when I last visited the States way back in 1991. I was in Los Angeles for two days and only had enough time to visit “Magic Mountain” which was a park containing something like a 100 different rides.

My disappointment was somewhat alleviated when I first visited their site at: www.universalstudios.com

As most of us are aware Universal Studios are one of the oldest and largest producers of “block buster” movies like “The Mummy”, “The Grinch” and “American Pie”.
They have diversified into TV shows, Theme Parks and hotels and all this information is provided on their site.

The main page has the major links on the top and in the middle, dominating most of the screen, is the “Universal” logo. To the right hand side of the page you have options of clicking on links of movies that have just been released and ones that are about to be.
These links will provide you with a movie clip (trailer) of the movie. It takes a bit of time to download. However if you’ve not seen the particular movie then it might be worth it.

Back to the links on the top of the page. These are the main links and will cover the whole of the Universal Studios package.

Ones to watch out for are:

Theme Parks
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This page partly loads. You will then have to wait for a movie clip to download before it opens fully.
This was the one I was interested in since it’s the one that I missed.
It provides you with full information on all of there Theme Parks around the world and these are: Orlando and Hollywood (LA) both in the States, Japan, Spain and China.
You can get tickets, make hotel reservations and get full information about each park from here.

Universal Kids
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This section is great for kids. It basically takes you to a page that contains
many more links for great pages for children. Some of these are: Casper’s Haunted Christmas, The Life & Adventures of Santa Claus, The Flintstones in Viva Las Vegas and many more.
Kids can spend a lot of time here visiting these pages, joining clubs, watching cartoon clips and the likes.

Community
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They have a very nice Message Board here where people talk about all aspects of movies, cartoons, TV shows. Become a member (which is free) and ask you questions. They have many users and the response will usually be good.

Movies
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This gives detailed information about all of Universal’s movies, in the theaters, on DVD and Pay-per-view.

Television
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Detailed information on all of Universal’s TV shows such as Jerry Springer, Blind Date, Hercules and many more. Also links for TV related sites such as Studios USA, Universal Television and Network Group, Sci-Fi UK and several others.

Games
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Again very interesting for the children. They have many games, which the kids can play online. All unique games and all based on their own movies. Some of these great games are: The Mummy Returns, The Grinch, Woody Woodpecker and several more.

If you explore the site you will find a lot more useful information that I might not have touched on.

Overall I was well satisfied and now instead of being pacified about not having gone when I had the chance, instead now have the urge to go even more. Albeit I will have to wait until next year, when my family and me plan to visit the States for our Summer holidays.