I swung by Universal Studios Hollywood, Monday, late morning, to renew and upgrade my Annual Pass.

Light crowd.
Now is a good time to visit, before the true summer season hits.

I hate their $10 parking. -- Just for parking!!!
Preferred parking is $17. -- Just for the privilege of parking in the sunlight!!!
But unlike DL, they take credit cards for parking.-- Nice.

If they increase the parking price any higher, they will be taking your first born. :rolleyes:

I asked some questions of the guy monitoring the master show board (the one which lists show times for the major shows, located in the main street of USH).

No Whoopie Goldberg tour yet. -- Coming.

Fast And Furious -- Tokyo Drift -- Coming.

No FEAR FACTOR. -- "On location," whatever that means.

Some of the NICKELODEON area was down. (I don't follow "Nick" so I don't know the characters or the shows.)

Other areas had work being done, too.
So, it seems like USH is gearing up for the summer.
I would have thought that by the first week of June, USH would have its act together.

SHREK photo op includes a face character, Princess Fiona, who really looks like Princess Fiona (Cameron Diaz) pretty close.

Annual Pass Deluxe card features Terminator metal face and neck, which now replaces my old Jurassic Park (T. Rex head) illustration.

Other characters walking around, or posed for photo ops:
SPIDERMAN and THE GREEN GREMLIN
CAPTAIN AMERICA
WOLVERINE and STORM (see X-MEN)
BEETLEJUICE
MUMMY
SPONGE BOB SQUARE PANTS and two other NICK characters I do not recognize.

Ya gotta hand it to USH when it comes to photo ops.

I don't know when the Big Changes are to be implemented.
A few months ago, I saw the WAR OF THE WORLDS scene in the Back Lot Tour.

Some MousePlanet regulars should post when the new things get activated.

I didn't stay but long enough to do my pass, walk thru VAN HELSING, and eat some DOTS ice cream (flavor: "banana split").

^If you go regularly, think about getting the Premium AP, free parking during the day, and front of the line access for the tram tour.

And heck, Six Flags parking is $15 per car now chain wide.

We're planning to go sometime in June because our APs expire in August but all weekends will be blocked out after June. My husband's AP was free because of a promotion, and my AP was the same price as a regular day ticket. Those are the only reasons we have APs there. We're certainly not renewing. I just want to see the Terminator show again because I actually enjoyed it, and I think I want to ride Mummy again to confirm exactly how lame it is.

I almost turned my car around when I saw the $15 Six Flags parking last month! At least Universal attempts to make up for their highway robbery with the $10 in food money if you are there for a movie.

Heads up: Just got home from Universal Hollywood today, and Whoopi is officially on the Tram tour. Sad.... I'll miss Ron...

In hte past few weeks, my friends and I have seen: Spiderman, Captain America, Wolverine, Storm, Green Goblin, Lucy, Dora, Diego, Spongebob, Shrek, Fiona, Mummy, Frankenstein, and Beetlejuice. We seem to have good luck finding a lot of them for some reason :)

:) I sent a message USH asking them is there going to bring back Halloween Horror Nights this year and they told me they will be hosting it this year to Vist www.universalstudioshollywood.com by the end of August for more info on it.

ANOTHER USH Tram Tour Update:

The Fast and The Furious 3 part of the tour is now operating... Whatever they spent on it, it SO wasn't worth it.

Basically, you're "heading onto a set" of the film, when they "start filming" a scene where two stationary cars are being shot at by a police helicopter. The cars are then sent "catapulting" towards the tram, but stop in midair. You are then shown the mechanism underneath each of the car, and the tourguide sas something to the effect of "hey guys, what else can you do?!"

The cars then "dance" to "Dame Mas Gasolina." It would have been cool, until they did the stupid dancing thing.


Thumbs Down.

The Fast and The Furious 3 part of the tour is now operating... Whatever they spent on it, it SO wasn't worth it.
[...]
Thumbs Down.

"Dame mas gasolina"???
That doesn't sound promising.

Did the tram "audience" laugh? Was it meant to be funny?

I think it was supposed to be funny, but you know how business people have things that they think are funny and really aren't?

There you go.

How are the crowds at USH lately? We plan to go Friday July 21st and would like to get any suggestions on times to arrive ect. So we can avoid heavy lines & crowds. Thanks!

Yesterdaythe crowds were pretty heavy from what I recall. The lines didn't seem TOO long, however anything over 5 minutes is too long a wait for The Mummy. I recall seeing Back to the Future at 30 minutes, but that was only when I had walked by it once. Shrek was at a continual "15 Minute" wait, and the Tram Tour was walk on. i don't remember checking out Jurassic Park as we had to go meet our friend who was going to be competing in Fear Factor (and won!).

So then is the front of the line pass worth it? I see online if I purchase it I get a free annual pass, so that makes it better to me....let me know your opinion. The last time I was there was 1993 :)