Visiting Los Angeles will never be complete with Hollywood, and that is exactly what we did today. From our hotel, we had breakfast in McDonald’s then we visited Hollywood Boulevard, in where some sections of the pavement has stars, with stars names on it, no pun. They called it Hollywood Walk of Fame.
On them, you could see hand and footprints from big names like Steven Spielberg.
or the increasingly famous producer, John Woo.
On the stars names, how about American Idol’s host, Ryan Seacrest?
Drew Barrymore, Bruce Willis, Celine Dion, Robin Williams, Ricky Martin, Harrison Ford, Kevin Costner all have their own stars on the walk. Even pastor Billy Graham and virtual actors like Mickey Mouse and Godzilla have their claim on the Walk of Fame.
On the side of the Walk of Fame, there were two buildings, Chinese Theatre, and Kodak Theatre, in where they hold some American Idols finals.
After we’re done with Hollywood Blvd, we were sent to Universal Studios Hollywood. Here’s me in front of the famous Universal Studios globe, carrying an auntie bag on one hand and another hand trying to cover any potential exposure to my tummy :p
Initially, I thought we will be dropped in the theme park and left alone to explore. However, our tour guide was kind enough to bring us around from one must-see attraction to another before everyone started queuing. Many times after we came out from one attraction, we saw the queue was already significantly longer than it was when we queued. That way, we maximized our time there to visit the important attractions.
We started with the excellent 45-minute Studio Tour, they brought us around the studio, showed us what, where, and how they did certain shows from certain movies. I lost count how many stages they had in there.
We could see scenes from oldies like Back to the Future or Six Million Dollar Man, and more recent movies, the humvee used in Jurassic Park, the car used in The Mummy.
This is the exact place where Peter Jackson filmed a boat scene in King Kong. If you’ve watched King Kong, this scene must have reminded you of the movie.
For TV series, we saw the houses filmed in Desperate Housewives and some props used in scenes in Heroes and CSI.
It was a very entertaining and interesting behind-the-scenes Studio Tour, and I would highly recommend everyone going to Universal Studios Hollywood to go for the Studio Tour the first thing you reached there.
From there, we were brought to watch Shrek 4D, animated film that I’ve already watched in Movie World Brisbane two years ago. After that was House of Horror, a walk in a haunted house, complete with real performers dressed up like ghost or vampire or monsters that will send some guys shocked and many girls screaming.
Our tour guide then rushed us to watch Water World, he certainly has the experience to know which attraction has the least people so we won’t have to queue so long, yet managed to catch all these shows at the right time.
Water World is …. I think I’d better keep the surprise for myself, but fair to say, if you sit in front, you WILL get wet. Another highly recommended show to watch. After Studio Tour, this Water World is a show you wouldn’t want to miss. The performers were stunts from shows like CSI Miami, CSI New York, and some other shows.
Notice the person who jumped from the platform like 15 meters high?
Despite its name, Water Show has lots of fire and explosives.
Next up before our tour guide left us to explore on our own, we went to Terminator 2 – 3D. Another excellent 3D-viewing that blends reality with live performers with scenes and 3D movies filmed with Arnold Schwarzenegger.
A visit to The Simpsons family.
For lunch, I chose Doc’s Chicken (Doc is a character from Back to the Future). Nothing fancy about the chicken, it’s just another fried chicken.
After lunch, we managed to catch 2.40PM Animal Stars show. Another highly recommended show where you’ll see the animals, birds, dogs, cats, pigs, monkeys, and mice trained and starred in Hollywood movies. I’m not sure if I missed any animals but there wasn’t any King Kong or Godzilla on show. How can it not be interesting when the MC who started the show was a monkey? The monkey walked on stage, to the mic, and started “addressing” the crowd. One of the most challenging movie for these animal-trainers was Evan Almighty with so many different animals to be brought to the Ark. The human-MC even appeared in the movie, albeit for a second in the midst of a crowd in the movie. I’ve seen people trained dogs and cats, but this is the first time I saw pigs and mice who could follow orders. Weird eh?
To finish the day, we walked around the theme park. Universal Studios Hollywood is the exact opposite of the one in Florida. The one in Florida has a huge, huge theme park with a small studio. The one in Hollywood has a huge, huge studio, with a small theme park. It’s the exact opposite.
Spot Dora while walking around, and took picture with her.
By 6.15PM, we reached back hotel for shower and dinner.
