today was a long day at universal studios. we went because of this promotion they have been running. i received a free ticket or annual pass (my choice) in the mail along with discounts for others. twiddle thumbs's dad received the same offer. so we all loaded up in their minivan like good suburbanites and headed out to spend money we don't have.

it's been so long since i've been to universal studios that pretty much everything is new again. the first attraction we went to was van helsing fortress dracula. it is like a halloween maze, i had no idea. i didn't bother to read the description. i kept walking through thinking where's the line for the ride and eventually realized that walking is the ride. woo hoo, what fun! fucking dark in there. but it'd be a nice house for me some day.

then we went to go see the terminator 2 3-d show. i had seen it once before and it was crap. this time we right up front and center and i have to say it wasn't so bad. it must be a different experience being right up there. i have to recommend only watching these sort of shows up front and center now. that's the only way to go.

after watching the show, i realized what a crap weather day it was in terms of visibility. there was hardly any. the photos below help to illustrate the point.

smog too thick to see

what lies beyond

we went to see the shred 4-d show. the set-up and the actual show are entirely different things. there is a shrek 3-d dvd going around, packaged up with the first film i believe, that is like shrek 1.5. it shows what happens right after the first film. it assumes shrek and fiona have just gotten married, not quite on track with shrek 2, and that the ghost of duloc is seeking revenge. the 4-d aspect is that the chairs shake and there are wisps of air and a little spray of water, like the terminator 3-d show. so if you have the shrek 3-d dvd, just get someone to shake the chair as you watch it. in other words, don't bother going to this show.

if only duloc were real

this was the first time that i took the studio tour in spanish. i have the vaguest of memories of taking the tour in japanese. we did the spanish tour as two of twiddle thumbs's aunts were in town from mexico and they don't speak english. i could probably give the tour by heart because my brother had an annual pass back in the day so i've been to universal many times. only now they've changed things and i have the old universal memorized. i used to hate going to universal because i knew everything. this time i wanted to hear the tour commentary as things have changed. however, a few sections were closed off (old europe and 'oh yeah' street) due to filming and the tour wasn't that different so i don't think i missed too much. i did notice that they changed the jaws portion. instead of a guy on a boat going down under, it is now a man in a diving suit. new things were that they have a scene from the grinch which completely ruins the atmosphere of the psycho house and bates motel. there was also a section from the new "war of the worlds". the avalanche has been redone in an ancient egyptian motif but i feel like that was there when i went 5 years ago, maybe i'm wrong. what was good about the tour was that now the trams are equipped with little tv screens that show footage of the facades in actual use in tv shows and films.

we had lunch which we brought of course--do you think you can eat vegan at an amusement park?!--then went on the back to the future ride. i couldn't recall how that one went. there were very few people in line. actually, the park wasn't at all crowded for just coming off a major holiday weekend and weather was very mild for summer too. a nice day out of the house. anyway, back to the future is lame. time to rip that one out and put something else in.

then we went down to the lower level and got on the jurassic park ride. it has taken me years to try to convince twiddle thumbs to go on it--that it is a wimpy ride with a drop at the end and if she can do the log ride at knott's then she can do this. in the end, what convinced her is that her mom has been on it before. it was such an amazing moment when twiddle thumbs was on the ride that i had to take a picture because no one would believe it otherwise. when there was the first false drop, twiddle thumbs screamed her head off and i laughed my ass off because she was expecting the big drop that i had told her about. when the big drop came, i think there was only 1 other person besides me waving their hands in the air and having a good time.

after that, we kept up the momentum and got on the revenge of the mummy ride. they ripped out et to put in this indoor roller coaster that they have been hyping up. what convinced twiddle thumbs to go on this was not only was everyone else getting on it, but there were also a few old ladies in line. if they can do it, you can do it! the ride did not live up to the hype. i was expecting a lot more 3-d or laser imaging of mummies but it was more like florescent paints with black lights in a fun house. the initial jolt of the roller coaster starting was pretty cool and that's when they took the photo. we were in the very front row and that is how twiddle thumbs was able to cope with it because she could see the tracks. after we got off the ride, she said it wasn't bad and she would go on it again so that's fair warning to anyone into roller coasters. if twiddle thumbs can get on it and is willing to go on it again, then it's pretty damn tame. i think we should make a pilgrimage to cedar point.

guess i'm the only one who's a coaster junkie

the special effects stages are all different now. gone are the days of the hitchcock stage and watching kim novak on the screen. it's been replaced with monsters and showing a bit about movie blood and animatronics. the other stages aren't doing lame things like harry and the hendersons anymore either. now they use a few clilps from more recent blockbusters in order to show how various techniques are used, such as adr, the use of miniatures, etc.

the last two things we did were go to shows. we went to waterworld and fear factor live. i have never seen the waterworld show because even the movie is too horrible to watch. if it's a hot day and you don't mind cooling down by getting drenched, then the waterworld show is for you. we were up high in the bleachers 'cos it was the last performance of the day and we didn't want to get wet hosed down. the only thing of worth in this show is when the plane crashes forth. i didn't know anything about this show so it was a good surprise.

fear factor live was disappointing because you know it must be the same stunts everytime. probably very little chance of seeing anything different. the stunts weren't too out there and they never said if the participants actually win anything. it's not worth digesting a bunch of weird shit if no prizes are involved.