Hollywood Star

Universal Studios Hollywood is certainly a unique theme park in the sense its main purpose is an actual working production studio and the attraction itself is a secondary output leeching on the side

The park is sandwiched on a very tall hill with the upper lot at the top and the lower lot at the bottom with a series of escalators named the Starway in the middle, naturally this delicious sandwich is filled with a lot of Hollywood cheese

Make no mistakes the star of this production is the world famous Studio Tour it's possibly a good idea to head to this first as it draws the largest queues in the park, guests board a tram and are shuttled through working production stages and old movie sets they simply haven't bothered to take down as well as some "spontaneous" jaunts into effects stages which have been specially set up for the tour including encounters with Jaws, King Kong and the chance to experience Earthquake and FlashFlood

Ride wise sharing the limelight are the extensive Jurassic Park water ride and the Revenge of the Mummy an enclosed coaster which starts with quite an elaborate dark ride section before catapulting into the roller coaster portion, the bizarre revolving platform ending accompanied by a cloud of yellow mist is a little bewildering but a really fun touch

Terminator 2: 3D and Shrek 4-D both offer more impressive immersions, while Back To The Future the classic simulator attraction is certainly showing its age nonetheless it seems to be still very popular attracting the second longest queue, after the Studio Tour, of the day

Also rather dated now is Backdraft your typical Universal park immersive effects stage with lots of explosions and the random dropping floor shock finale, which was a little weak in comparison to the incredible Templo del Fuego at PortAventura

The majority of the park's restaurants were all in the same format, you joined a single queue picked up a tray and slide along a counter, picking up your choice of the set meals along the way. The staff were very helpful though and I was able to back engineer some plain burgers and salads without the dressing, as I'm a fussy bugger when it comes to what I eat!

That's a wrap people! Universal Studios Hollywood certainly offers an amazing insight into how movies and television shows are produced, the attractions are overflowing with elaborate sets and special effects making for some memorable Hollywood action

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