We finally got to go to Universal Studios Hollywood last week to experience the Despicable Me Minion Mayhem Ride. It’s been some years since I visited the park. I used to live 3 blocks off Universal Studios and I’d hang out at Universal City Walk (outdoor food and shops adjacent to Universal Studios) with friends. So it brings a lot of memories to be back at Universal and exciting to see all the new attractions added to the place.
Universal Studios is so close to my pad (single days) in Studio City that my parents who visited me one time, even bought the annual pass so they can walk inside Universal Studios every day as a means of working out. I do wonder though if they really walked or just rode the studio tram every day and ate lots of theme park food. My mom happened to love Jody Maroni (sausage place) at Universal City Walk. Haha.
We went to Universal Studios on a Friday. They open at 9 AM and when we drove in at 9:20 AM, there was already a lot of cars entering the park. We tried to rush to the Minion Ride.
You start at Gru’s home where you are being recruited as his minion. The minion 3D ride makes you feel like you’re riding down a roller coaster, and also hitting bumps, swerving left and right while going through a trip in Gru’s super-villain laboratory with his daughters. It’s a lot of fun.
The minion ride height requirement is 40″ and my daughter just made it. They have to be accompanied by adults if they are between 40″-48″ tall. I thought she was going to be scared but she actually love the 3D ride and wanted to go one more time. But when we exited she immediately saw the Silly Swirly Fun Ride and wanted to ride that next.
We were getting hungry though, so we decided to look for food first. Unfortunately, the restaurants at Universal Studios don’t open til 11AM. The only thing available was popcorn and ice cream. Good thing, Pink’s Hotdog opens at 10:30AM so my husband waited there for 10 minutes while we went to take pictures with Shrek and Fiona (the Shrek 4D is just close by.)
We got our food, ate and next thing you know, Sponge Bob is out for photo ops. It’s nice the line wasn’t long as it was still early in the day.
After some photos, we went back to the Despicable Me area and one of the minions and Gru was there. Gru was dancing.. really cute. Makes him less scary looking to the kids. Haha. The Despicable Me characters were just outside the Minions Ride and so I saw that the ride was already 45 minutes long by 11 AM. Make sure to go there early or catch it later in the day before the park closes.
We headed back to Super Silly Fun Land. This area is colorful and animated, it is perfect for toddlers and preschoolers. It’s nice to see that Universal Studios Hollywood had added an area suited for young children, I hope they add more area like this.
Super Silly Fun Land has a huge water play feature, a dry zone for climbs and slides, and the Silly Swirly Fun Ride. The Super Silly Fun Land is a literal interpretation of the seaside carnival from the “Despicable Me” movie. There’s also carnival games and shopping!!!
By 1130AM, it was already getting sunny yet there was still wind blowing since Universal Studios is situated on higher grounds. We decided it’s the perfect time to take the tram for a studio tour. When we got there, the lines were already 45 minutes long. It’s nice that it just keeps moving though coz’ they do have a lot of trams, so it didn’t really feel like 45 minutes.
My tip when taking the Studio tour tram? If you want to take pictures of cars used in the movies, ride on the left side. Wanna get wet? Ride on the right side(I got wet, but it’s all fun). And the best row to sit on the trams is number two. More leg space and better for taking pictures as there are no bars in front of you that’s part of the tram.
We also took pictures with Dora the Explorer, Woody Woodpecker and his wife, and Scrappy-Doo whom I thought was Scooby-Doo. HaHa.
After 2 orders of Ice Cream, some Churros, and Lemonade Icee. We decided to call it a day. Sugar crash my friends. We bought some Despicable Me items before heading out.
I invite you to visit Universal Studios this summer. It’s a lot of fun. Some people commented on my pictures on Instagram and facebook that they’ve never been to Universal and look forward to going there. I’m sure they are gonna enjoy their first visit there. Plus we only got to cover half of Universal Studios. So there’s a whole lot more for you to see there including the famous WaterWorld show and the Jurassic Park ride.
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