Ah, the City of Angels. It seems that almost everyone has been to L.A. at some point in their life, so of course it was a must on our road trip. We were stationed out in Pasadena (have you seen Airbnb prices for downtown L.A.?), and had three days to visit the city. What better way to start than with Universal Studios Hollywood? 🤩
First of all, everything is expensive (and parking is not included with your admission), so pay up and forget about it. And get there early. There are just so many people... You'll have to go through the CityWalk (really cool at night!) where you'll need a lot of self-control not to spend those few coins left in your pocket. We had the pleasant surprise of seeing the Voodoo Doughnut shop, a nice throwback to Portland!
I have almost no memories from the times I went to Universal Studios in Florida with my parents, so it felt like this was my first visit. It's so immersive! We had a lot of fun getting pictures with some iconic characters.
The rides were also a LOT of fun. This was our first time experiencing this "new" kind of ride, where half of it is a 3D movie kind of experience as you get rocked around on a roller coaster type car. Our favourite? Hands down the Harry Potter ride! You get to explore Hogsmeade, check our Hogwarts, see the Weasley's car, and ride a Nimbus 2000 in front of a dragon, so how much more epic could it get? 🤓🧙♂️ We also ate at the Three Broomsticks, shopped around for a wand at Ollivander's, saw a show by Beauxbatons and Durmstrang... the kid in me was screaming for joy.
We also took the Studio Tour, where you hop onto a bus for a guided tour of some studio sets, like King Kong, Fast & Furious, Jurassic Park, Bate's Motel... it was absolutely fantastic! It does take the magic out of the movies (like when you see that buildings are in fact just a wooden wall...), but it gave us a much greater appreciation of what making a movie entails. Below you can see a fake street, a bus destroyed by King Kong, Bruce the robot shark from Jaws, some fake rain, and the spot where Leonardo DiCaprio sat in Once Upon a Time in Hollywood.
Here's a part where hubby and I were just grabbing at each other's arms constantly from nerdy excitement (yes, these are actual props from Jurassic Park!! 🤪):
And for the car enthusiasts out there, check out this collector's dream! 🏎️
And finally, here's a set from War of the Worlds, with an actual Boeing 747.
We also had a lot of fun in the Jurassic World portion of the park, despite the never-ending technical problems with the water ride (we ended up waiting over an hour and got stuck halfway through the ride). Regardless, it really felt like you were in the park from the movies, and seeing a trainer handle Blue the raptor to allow people to take pictures with her was really entertaining.
At the end of the day, we managed to try almost every ride and had one helluva good time. If you have a little family, want to do everything or shop around more, I'd recommend spending two days here. It was so much fun! And that was only our first day in L.A. Stay tuned, folks! 💜
TL:DR; Universal Studios is definitely expensive, but an absolutely iconic experience! The 3D rides are the best (Harry Potter won our hearts, again), the food is delicious, the Studio Tour will excite your fan buds, and Jurassic World will blow your mind (and probably scare the kids).
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