Day 6 Wednesday, November 7, 2012. This is the 2nd day of filming Mr. Banks with Tom Hanks in Disneyland but we missed it again. This is the day we went to Universal Studios. Wow, what a bummer compared to Disneyland. I can’t figure out for sure what it is, it just doesn’t have that happy feeling. I think part of it is the fact that everywhere you go in Disneyland there is happy music. There is some music in different parts of Universal that is played but it seems to fade off in different areas.
This post contains strong opinions that many of you will not agree with. I’d prefer that you not read if you’re going to leave me snappy comments as mostly I’m just venting! I know nothing can be done about it now.
Our favorite rides: 1) Transformers--of course. This ride really puts you into the ride with 3-D. 2) The Simpsons. We almost missed doing this ride, it was our last one of the day. 3) The Studio Tour. There is nothing like this ride. SS really liked the King Kong portion of the ride. Getting spit on is gross! LOL. Other than that, the park is basically a waste of time. Therefore, we will not be returning to this park. The Studio Tour is only worth doing once in a lifetime, IMHO. It’s not worth the traffic and stress of driving to go to this park again. The two decent rides just aren’t worth the trouble.
This is likely the reason you can buy one day for $80 and get the entirety of 2013 free. LOL
We had our Citypass. FYI just take your city pass directly to the gate, you do not have to wait in line at the ticket booth. They just scan the city pass.
I was hungry by the time we got to the park. Oh, yeah, Jurassic Park was closed. I know I didn’t plan as well for this park as I did for DLR but I was on the different web sites often enough to have found out about a ride closure. They simply didn’t broadcast the closure well enough. One ride we know we would have enjoyed, making it 4 for the park, and it was closed. When you have so few attractions I can see why you wouldn’t discourage someone from coming by letting them know a ride was down. We still would have gone but we would have been less disappointed. Anyway, I wanted the pizza hut pizza. There really isn’t much good food in this park IMHO and that was the one thing I was counting on. Well, it was closed. I was too hungry to go up the 4 escalators again to go to the other PH place so I just got Chinese food. It was OK but not what I wanted.
Another negative about this park. Their employees. They aren’t nice. They aren’t necessarily rude but they don’t go out of their way to have a smile on their faces. Two particular instances ticked me off. 1.) This negative experience involved a smoker. I don’t like smoking allowed in theme parks. I even hate the designated areas in DL. Even from the Big Thunder Mountain ride in DL you can smell smoke, which I simply think is disgusting. However, at least the people are using the areas. There was a man in front of the Terminator ride smoking. An employee clearly saw him. I went and asked the employee if smoking was allowed in the park. He said only in designated areas. I pointed out the man and he didn’t do anything, he just shrugged his shoulders. I went over to the man and dumped my water on his cigar. I was outraged and obviously shouldn’t have done that and I obviously felt bad about it after but I felt I had no other choice at the time. I could tell the man was trying to hide it from the CM too. In reality I just feel deep pity for those who are so addicted to these drugs that their actions are ruled by them. It makes me feel even worse for young people who start smoking. Why? Haven’t we all had family members with lung cancer or some other cancer caused by tobacco?! In the past when the companies made it look cool, or whatever and the effects weren’t as widely know, even with doctors pushing them in advertisements I can see why people started. Now, it’s basically a death sentence, so why would anyone in their right mind start? I’m not talking about those who are now in their’ 50’s as this man was, I’ve been told how difficult it is to stop. One friend who used to be a druggie in the 70’s said it was easier to quit some of the hard drugs compared to tobacco.
Now, contrast this experience with my Disneyland smoking experience. We saw a man smoking and SS and I both were about to tell a CM about it. No need!!! The CM spotted him from farther away then the Universal employee was from their guest. The CM was still really kind! She said, “Sir, are you looking for a smoking area?” I didn’t hear the rest of the conversation but it wasn’t mean at all like, “get in the smoking zone now!”
My 2nd bad experience in Universal. Same place, maybe it’s just the Terminator employees, LOL. In the holding cell for the ride someone was smoking inside the area. Couldn’t see who but maybe it was mr. cigar lit up again. Now, we go into Terminator and from the stage the actress yelled at our seat selection very sarcastically. There was no need.
Now, regarding the cleanliness of the Universal Park. It just seemed grungy overall. I know people talk about how much Toon Town needs to be painted. There was just a black filthy sheen of film all over the walls of the Simpsons queue. It wasn’t just here either. Walking around there was old gum all over the ground. Just ridiculous. I really appreciate the CM’s all over Disneyland cleaning up after all of us. Yes, things drop, spill, whatever. It needs to be picked up!
The best part of our Universal day was watching the Disney film Wreck it Ralph at CityWalk. The movie was over right about 7 and we headed to The Old Spaghetti Factory in Fullerton after that. We had a nice peaceful meal. It was cheap also, which is always appreciated!
BTW: Universal was cold. We also just felt like we hadn’t done enough things. I read somewhere that people need to see 8 attractions in Disneyland to feel satisfied. Personally we did 12 on a short day and were satisfied. Are there even 12 to ride at Universal? Oh I forgot we did enjoy Waterworld. However, I think the production could have been done with lesser actors for cheaper and the could have used the money elsewhere in the park for example, at cleaning!
One final note, the Disneyland Unofficial Guide has a section in the back of the book for universal. I disagree with their statement to go up and down the escalators several times for timing. I just don’t see how that would be reasonable seeing as it takes so long to go up and down. We did the Studio Tour first and the lines got really long shortly after we got on. The park is not laid out well as far as signage. If you’re that spread out you need to have more signs everywhere. They tried but then you’d reach a point where you had to go left or right following their arrows and you were lost again.
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