<link href='http://fonts.googleapis.com/css?family=Coming+Soon' rel='stylesheet' type='text/css'/> Winnie's Holiday Reflection

During the holidays, I did not travel abroad as there are pets at home and no one was available to take care of them. However, I did go to Universal Studios twice, on the 27 November 2013 as well as on the 19 December 2013. Universal Studios Singapore is the second Universal Studios Theme Park to open in Asia (Japan being the first), and the first in Southeast Asia. There are a total of 24 attractions, of which 18 are original or specially adapted for the park. The park is divided into seven areas, each beautifully designed to conform to its corresponding movie theme. The seven areas are Hollywood, New York, Sci-Fi City, Ancient Egypt, Lost World, Far Far Away and Madagascar and they surround a lagoon.

For the 27 November trip, I went to Universal studios with 3 of my friends. One of my friends that went to Universal Studios with me was currently my best friend named Kah Ghee while the other person is my primary school best friend whose name is Cheryl. I allowed her to bring her current best friend whose name is Gwendalyn so that my two best friends would not be awkward around each other. Another reason that I wanted to bring 3 friends is that most of the rides in Universal Studios is usually 2 by 2 or 4 by 4.So if there was an odd number of people, they would have to sit with strangers or by themselves, which would cause the rides to be not as enjoyable.

It was the second time that I was going to Universal Studios. The day started out quite awkward but my friends slowly got to know each other and we were able to communicate better with each other. I personally felt that it was a great idea for Cheryl to bring Gwendalyn as I got to make a new friend and know more about her, widening my social circle.

To get to Sentosa Island, we first took the MRT to HarbourFront Station. From there, we walked to the 3^rd floor of VivoCity shopping mall where we purchased a ticket to board the Sentosa Express – a monorail that provides access to and unlimited rides on the island with a single fare. This mini monorail will basically transport you to four stations that visitors can choose to get on and off. A single-day pass costs $4.00.

When we entered the theme park, I began to wonder why Universal Studios is referred to as “ride the movies”. I realized that each zone is based on a blockbuster movie, featuring their own unique attractions, character appearances, dining and shopping areas.”Hollywood” is the at the main entrance area of the park, hence we passed by there first. It is themed after the real Hollywood Boulevard of the 1970s, dynamic architecture and palm trees are also found there. It also features a replica of the famous Hollywood Walk of Fame. Complete with elaborate streets and a convincing replica of the famous Chinese Theater, “Hollywood” is a perfect place for taking your first snapshots inside the park.

After that we went to “Madagascar”.”Madagascar” features zoo animals, Alex, Gloria, Marty and Melman,
as well as others escaping from the Central Park Zoo and unfortunately crashing onto the island of Madagascar . We went to the Crate adventure ride first, which was a water boat ride. I felt that the animatronics and digital projection is good as in one instance where the crates were “dropping down “the person sitting in front of me actually thought that it was real and “prepared “himself by lifting both hands up so that the crate would not drop on him. I was scared of the “explosion “that was part of the story plot as a very loud sound and heat was emitted, making it seems very real. The next ride is the King Julien's Beach Party-Go-Round, which is a carousel. It is actually a merry-go round ride that is decorated with the characters found in the movie “Madagascar”.

Next we went to”Far Far away”. Cheryl felt thirsty as she did not bring along her water bottle. However, the merchandise sold there are all quite expensive as a mineral water which u can get outside for $0.80 is sold at $2.00 there. She bought a slush at $4.50 as well as a Nachos with Japaleno Cheese which cost her S$5.50.She complained that the cheese was given was very less and that additional top-up of cheese needs an additional $1.00.So, a tip for anyone who would not like to spend unnecessary money on food should bring their own as it is a cheaper choice. There are two attractions found in ”Far Far Away”, the enchanted airways and the 4D movie. The enchanted airways was a kiddy roller coaster (modeled after Dragon) ride that whizzes about the zone of Far Far Away. The 4D Shriek movie was a show on how Shriek,Donkey and Dragon saved Fiona from the evil lord Lord Farquaad who wanted Fiona to be his ghost queen so that they could rule the underword together. The show was complete with jumps, bumps, bounces, air blasts and water spray that brought the action to life for each guest- with an extra dimension of special effects through the use of OgreVision (3D) glasses.

At the lost world, we went to the “Jurassic Park”. At the Jurassic Park Rapids Adventure, you can choose whether you would want to buy a raincoat. If you drop from the Hydroelectric Generator Compound facing backwards, be prepared for a complete soaking. Otherwise, you will just have a splash. This ride features a water raft system where riders on circular yellow rafts are tossed along the waterways within the compound where it is home to dinosaurs that have broken free from their cages. We took this ride about 3 times so as to not waste the raincoats which cost us $4.00 and that because the ride is thrilling. We went to the canopy flyer, which allows us to have a feel of the prehistoric bird’s-eye view of “Jurassic Park” and the Dino-Soarin’ which allows us to control the height of the pterodactyl that we are riding on after that.

Next, is my favourite zone, the “Ancient Egypt”! “Ancient Egypt” is based on the historical adaptation, rich Egyptian architecture and artifacts found during of Ancient Egypt during the 1930s Golden Age of Egyptian Exploration. Pharaohs' tombs were discovered - and their terrible curses unleashed. The place also features obelisks and pyramids which are typical of Ancient Egypt.

There are highly detailed statues inside The Revenge of the Mummy rollercoaster ride which follows a storyline about high priest Imhotep in the popular film franchise, The Mummy. Also, the ride has reverse motion which I think makes this ride scarier than others. What I liked the most was the part where in you enter a chamber full of gold being engulfed in flames and the part where high priest Imhotep swallows the passengers into oblivion after saying “your souls would be mine for all eternity “if we could not find the book of living .Plagued on all sides by huge fireballs, swarms of scarab beetles and an army of warrior mummies, all in total darkness, this rollercoaster is a must try as its digital effects are superb. We took this ride for about 4 times. There is also a “Treasure Hunters” ride. I personally feel that this ride is not worth the time as it is very boring and only drives around an abandoned Egyptian excavation site.

Next we went to the “Sci-Fi City”, which is themed after what cities and metropolis may look like in the future, equipped with space-age technologies and the ultimate modern conveniences. The park features the world's tallest pair of duelling roller coasters that are based on the popular television series, Battlestar Galatica . Unfortunately, both rollercoaster are closed. The difference between the two coasters is that the Human is a traditional sit-down coaster while Cylon is a suspender-type rollercoaster. I had not taken this ride before as it seems a little too scary for my liking. We went to the Transformers 3D ride after that. It has giant wrap-around screens that sport photo-realistic 3D-HD video imagery at various points throughout the ride, and has additional 4-D effects such as water spray, wind, hot air, fog that further enhances the ride experience. The fate of humanity hangs in the balance as villainous Decepticon invade NEST Headquarters to steal the “ALLSPARK”. While queuing, you will see interesting decoration inside such as a decapitated hand of an enemy Decepticon and even a replica of the “ALLSPARK” can be found. It’s a good way to distract visitors from the huge line with the LCD screens which shows what has happened before the ride. We took this ride about 3 times as it allows us to have a feel and the thrill of being in an adventure. We also went to sit on the accelerator which is known as the teacup.

Lastly, we went to “New York “.In the “Lights, Camera, Action!”hosted by Steven Spielberg which shows a story plot of New York City has being hit with a major hurricane. The damage escalates slowly but painfully as debris is being blown off by the raging wind. Even more convincing were the various effects such as strong wind, intense fire, signboards crashing through the roof, the boathouse windows blowing away, movement of the platform we are standing on, and a huge cargo ship slamming through the boathouse entrance. Calm soon returns and the damaged boathouse restores itself, all thanks to movie magic. Among the replicas you can find inside New York is the Rockefeller Center and the New York Public Library, with two lion statues at its entrance. There is the new Sesame Street Spaghetti's Space Street, which shows Sesame Street super heroes stopping Macaroni the Merciless in his plot to steal all the spaghetti from Earth. I would say that we had a fruitful day together and enjoyed ourselves tremendously.

On the 19 December trip, it was actually a “class outing “trip but only 7 people turned up which says that it is actually not a successful class outing .We also went on our separate ways for the rides. I feel that this trip can be improved if more people were to join and that we could go as a class and not on our own,making it a chance to bond as a class.