Dec 27, 2011

Universal Studios Singapore



Jonathan (my youngest brother) and me
As early as 10am, we've reached Waterfront station at Sentosa Island prior to entering USS after meeting my family at VivoCity.

You only pay per entrance to USS so it will be stupid if you go late.

Despite the fact that it's a weekday, we kind of visited at the wrong time - December school holiday + post festive season,





The first attraction we visited was CYLON at Sci-Fi City, it's been ages since my last roller coaster ride.

Nevertheless, this one was pretty scary and exciting because of the increase in acceleration in the beginning and a couple of free falls from great height.

Jonathan was seated left to me and he closed his eyes throughout his ride, what a waste, and I wasted my energy yelling and asking him to open his eyes during the ride.

HUMAN is next to CYLON and we're about to visit but my mum suggested that we proceed to other attractions first instead of riding roller coaster twice in a row. Plus, my brother was freaked out and dare not ride HUMAN.


Right ahead of Sci-Fi City is Ancient Egypt, where they have Revenge of the Mummy ride that you must ride.



We queued long for that as well. It's dark inside with those scary Egyptian background music.


The ride was thrilling in an extraordinary sense, it's very dark when the vehicle started to move at high speed and you don't know when will it go downwards. Furthermore there're mummies which rise out of nowhere to frighten you with loud screeching.

And the most memorable - there's a backward drop and you don't know how much it will drop. At some point it's quite painful due to high deceleration at the fire chamber where they light up fire which produces the heat.

Well, the story of the ride comes with the objective of finding the Book of the Living and we found it and sealed the mummy? :D

And we had the opportunity to take photo with Indiana Jones as a token of appreciation for fighting the mummies... If you really thought so... :)



It's already 12pm having queued and visited two attractions, time for lunch.

As expected, food and beverages inside this theme park are absurdly pricey. Bring your own food if you wanna save some money.

My mum was doing her job of planning which show to watch at certain timings, and it's reasonable to start queuing for WaterWorld at The Lost World.

Big crows in the queue, as the show is held somewhere like a stadium that fits thousands.



The actors started off by squirting and splashing the audiences with water guns and pails. None of us want to get wet because we didn't bring any extra clothes. Fortunately, we're seated at the red zone, where they're not allowed to squirt at.
Thank God without realizing the fact that "those in the blue zone might get squirted and splashed; those in the green zone might get some shower.



The show was quite capturing and amusing. The casts (almost all are Caucasians) must have spent time and great efforts for putting such a synchronized and dangerous show.


The next zone Far Far Away is Jonathan's favorite - the dreamland he used to watch in cinema...


... where you'll find Shrek, Fiona, Puss in Boots...


Gingy... lol...


Our next attraction will be Enchanted Airways, and while queuing, we saw...

Puss in Boots

I was able to bring my compact camera with me, so some dangerous shots here:

We're wrong thinking that the ride was for children and it wouldn't be that thrilling (thank God my mum didn't join us for the ride).


The next zone followed by Far Far Away is Madagascar. We didn't manage to visit the attraction Madagascar: A Crate Adventure due to technical issue at that point of time, so we thought of visiting it later.

In the meantime we went to queue for the must-visit-attraction - TRANSFORMER The Ride: The Ultimate 3D Battle at Sci-Fi City.

Now the story begins: we're told that we'll have to queue for more than two hours to take the 4-minute-ride. All of us didn't believe because it didn't seem to be a super long queue.

When we reached the entrance from the queue outside, we're asked to visit another attractions first instead due to technical issues (again?!?!). Are you kidding me? Alright, but we're freaking not leaving as we took so much time queuing to the entrance.

Luckily about a quarter hour later, we're allowed to enter. Yeepie, but well, there's another long queue inside.

And by the way, I ran into Jared, one of my ME3101 group mates when I was queuing, but he's further ahead of me but just leaving the queue to get his girlfriend something.

Along the queue, there's an ice cream man selling Magnum ice cream at $5.50 each, smart guy.

Tired of queuing already...


We're at the mezzanine connecting to another chamber and look at the queue...

Just when we thought we're almost there, as we entered the chamber, there are more queues, and after reaching the entrance to another chamber, there're even more queues!!! Seriously, how many chambers are there?!?!

In each chamber, there're animations on screen to narrate the story of the ride, but then can you imagine how many time has that animations repeated because the queue was moving way too slow?

And finally... finally we reached the place where we get ourselves the 3D glasses, we knew the ride's finally here.
Besides cheering, we had to admit that we really did have to queue for more than 2 hours (2 hrs 40 mins to be exact).

Phew, the ride was simply AWESOME!!!

Well, I think they used low speed acceleration of the vehicle and some winds to make you feel that you're moving at high velocity, brilliant.

Sadly, my mum closed her eyes for most of the time because she's afraid of such ride, although it's not practically a roller coaster.
We're satisfied and thinking that the ride actually was worth our time queuing.

Next, Monster Rock, a musical show at Hollywood. nice harmony for the songs, but all were English songs (again, all Caucasians) which are not really my jam.
The only one which impressed me was 月亮代表我的心 sung by one of them.

Dinner @ Mel's Drive-In, Hollywood.

My dad, Jonathan and I left first for Madagascar: A Crate Adventure; my sister left with my relatives for other attractions; while my mum took care of her grandnieces.



Opps, didn't know it squirts...

USS closes at 9pm, so my brother and I quickly visited whichever attractions that have the least queue before it is closed, and ended up riding Revenge of the Mummy 4 times for the day. Come to think about it, we found the Book of the Living and we found it and sealed the mummy 4 times. LOL...

It's been a long but meaningful day - some quality family time.

If you happen to visit USS, get someone who's willing to take care of your belongings if possible, because you'll have to keep your stuffs in the expensive lockers when at whichever attractions which you're visiting.

And of course, avoid school holidays or weekends. Have fun!

For more photos, please check out my photo album Universal Studios Singapore on Facebook.

Javin Tham A master's degree graduate in engineering, a musician at heart, loves playing with soft toys.