California Update : Day 9

This is the day I was waiting for! My brother had planned that this day was for Universal Studios in Hollywood! I was so psyched, couldn't wait to see the great Universal Studios. I haven't even been to the Singapore's one but I heard Hollywood's is better since it's like the original Universal Studios. But I sure as hell want to try to go to Singapore's one day.

It took only around half an hour to get to Hollywood from our hotel in Orange County. On our way there, I got a little too excited to see the huge Hollywood sign I always see in movies. Too bad I was so amazed that I forgot to take out my camera to snap a picture. But it was really pretty. When we arrived at Universal Studios, we were kind of bumped to see that there were a lot of cars like, swarming the parking lots. They had several parking areas but each and every one of them were full of cars. So we opted for the special pass parking so we could get a better chance at finding a vacant bay.

The whole place was full with Christmas decorations and Grinch's pictures were hung everywhere since it was Christmas eve. I just love how festive people can be about Christmas over there. And that was just the parking area, we hadn't even seen inside the Universal Studios itself! We took photos before going in and people were everywhere! We had to wait for our turn to take photos in front of the Universal Studios sign, the one with the globe.

When we went inside the Universal Studios, it was even worse! We had to walk like sardines in a can! I really hate crowds but the place was so beautiful that not even crowds can ruin my mood. And the weather helped too. Since it was winter over there, I didn't even break a sweat although I was stuck in between strangers. To be honest, I wasn't even focusing on the crowds or which way I was going. I was busy looking around. How the decorations were so pretty, I couldn't quit staring.

As we move along the entrance, I saw this one huge Grinchmas sign on top of my head, I couldn't help but to point my fingers and said, "look, it's Grinch!" to my family, like a 6 year old would normally do.

My brother was the one with the Universal Studios' map. So he was the one who guided us which way to go first. He said we should go to the Studio Tour (hosted by Jimmy Fallon) first. On our way there, we saw this huge guy walking in the middle of the sea of people. Frankenstein! We quickly snapped a picture with him before continue to head to the Studio Tour.

We were so shocked to see how long the queue was! Seriously, I could sleep while waiting. It was so long, I thought of just giving in and not going for the tour ride at all but my brother insisted that the tour was the most crucial part of Universal Studios. I obliged, went in the queue lane along with the rest of my family. I was even more shocked when the queue was fast! Despite the super long queue, we only had to wait around 10 minuted till it was our turn to hop on the tramp (or train or whatever it is called) and I thought we were going to waste around an hour minimum, looking at the queue. I guess the system was really efficient, not that I'm complaining.

So we hopped on the tramp (or whatever), and started with the tour. I thought Jimmy Fallon will be like, right in front of us but turned out he was actually on the screen in front of us. Hehe but that's okay. Not like I'm a big fan anyway. The first 10 minutes of the tour was so boring. I was like, "I didn't get in the queue for this". The tour guide showed us around the Universal Studios and then, we arrived at this place, where the tramp went in a really dark place and we were asked to put on our 3D glasses that were given to us before. It turned out to be kind of like, a 3D experience but better. I don't know how to explain it but there were dinosaurs and a King Kong fighting around us and the tramp was shaking and stuffs. It felt like real, I swear! After that there were a few rounds of that kind of 'experience' some more and we saw the sets in movies. It really looked like the real city but it turned out to be a fake one, the ones they used the set. They showed us clips of the movies that used the sets there in Universal Studios. Everything was just amazing around the place!

Do these houses look familiar to you? Of course they are! They're the Desperate Housewives set!

After, we went to go for the rides. If you know me well, you would know that I'm a complete chicken when it comes to rides. I was never the type who loves to go on rides or anything like that just because I'm scared of falling and dying on the rides. What more when I'm really scared of heights. But this time, even though I didn't want to go on those rides, I came to my senses and thought, I should really brave myself and embrace my fears now. So, I went on to the Jurassic Park ride. It was actually not scary at first but it got scarier at the end. It was all worth it though, to experience it with my whole family.

After that ride, we went to the Mummy Returns ride. This one was said to be a lot scarier than the Jurassic Park one, because we were required to store our bags in the lockers. So that means it's going to be really wild in there. I wanted to pee waiting in queue. And that moment, I thought that it's okay, if I die in there, I'm going to die with my family by my side. Hahahaha. Seriously, I was that dramatic. But everything turned out great after all. I enjoyed the ride, it didn't have any like, 360 turn or anything. So I survived.

We looked for something to munch on and saw a Churros stall nearby. Honestly, that was my first time eating Churros and I loved it! I know people have been eating them more and more here in Malaysia but I've never tried them here. My family and I loved it so much!

We then searched for more rides to go on. They were a lot and I don't think I can finish typing one by one. I know you guys will probably be bored reading anyway. So I'm just going to upload the photos.

After the Krusty Land ride, we headed for the exit since it was getting dark.

My brother brought us to a nearby Halal Pizza Restaurant called Pizza Per Tutti. After satisfying our stomachs, my brother drove us to Hollywood so we can walk through the Walk of Fame!

I was so excited because my dream since I was little was to take photos with the Olsen twins' Walk of Fame. My brother said it was going to be hard to find a specific one because there were thousands of them along the side walk. I just prayed that we would be able to find it and yes! We found it, alright!!

I was jumping up and down with excitement that people thought I was going loco. Hehe.

We were so tired by the time the clock hit 11pm, so we went back around to head back to our hotel. It was a really tiring day but the best one too! One of my dream was filled that day and I couldn't be happier!