Universal Studios

Today was a very awesome day. What we were anticipating to be an exciting day in itself (traveling to Universal Studios, Hollywood) turned out to be MUCH more than we had expected.

First things first. Kyle made a nice dent in the credit card today. There was SO much Hollywood and “Universal Hollywood” memorabilia it was unimaginable. I actually did pretty good and got some nice neat Hollywood stuff!

Anyways, Universal Studios. This park is AMAZING and MUCH better than the one in Orlando, Florida. There is SO much stuff to do!

First, we have the “Revenge of the Mummy” ride, which is based off of the “Return of the Mummy” movie by Universal. For those of you that have been to Disney’s MGM Studios and have challenged yourselves on the “Rockin Roller Coaster”, you may say it is a hard ride to beat. However, if you ride “Revenge of the Mummy” at Universal, you will soon forget the MGM Areosmith ride and make new favorites with Universal’s version.

What makes this ride so great?? It’s basically the same as MGM’s – it’s mostly thrill ride coaster, in the dark, neon signs, all kinds of twists and turns. But the best part, is half way through the ride when you hit a dead end. The only way out is to go back – and thus when you begin to ride the entire ride again….backwards. IT WAS AWESOME!!

As the day continued, we rode many other rides including “Jurassic Park” (which was a neat water ride), and “Backdraft” (which we planned to do after getting soaked in Jurassic Park).

The best part of the day came when we went on the “Universal Studios Backlot Tour”. When we were on the tour, we were privileged enough to sit in the front row (thanks to Kyle insisting it was worth the extra 20 minute line). When the tour began, we started talking with the guide. We told her where we were from, that we were attending a film school, etc etc and in no time flat, she gave us some VIP access passes. Basically, we got to ride the Studio Tour ride (which consists of MANY different sets – including a mini stunt show of the “Fast and Furious” and “Earthquake meets King Kong”) and then we were dropped off on Westeria Lane (from ABC’s Desperate Housewives). She told us to stay and let the next tour bus pick us up, so we did! We had about 5 minutes to tour around the famous set of “Desperate Housewives” and take pictures like CRAZY!!!

When we got picked up by the next bus, we traveled to an area where they shot the majority of street scenes in “Pirates of the Caribbean 2 and 3”. We also passed by a lot of the outdoor sets used in “Bruce Almighty”.

Speaking of “Bruce Almighty”, we learned that there is a SEQUAL coming out called “Evan Almighty”. They showed us a little bit of the filming that was going on for the movie (they were on break as we passed by), but we all saw a GIANT ark, so one could imagine a few things….
The 2nd best part of the tour (besides getting to walk around the ABC set of Housewives) – which in all honesty- might not compare to this next part – was getting to see the crash site from the new “War of the Worlds” starring Tom Cruise. This set was amazing! It gave me goose bumps because it looked so realistic. It was amazingly huge and looked just like it was seen in the movie. We got a chance to snap a ton of night photographs there, too! It was VERY cool!!! (pictures of this coming soon)

At the end of our tour, the original host we had (that gave us VIP passes) was waiting for us. She gave all of us some Annual Passes to come back to Universal Studios in Hollywood as many times as our heart’s desire in the next year!! HOW COOL?!?!?!


We interrupt this broadcast…..

I’m typing out my blog and it is approximately 11:30 at night. As I was typing, I heard a loud rumble and quite a few helicopters pass overhead. For about 15 minutes, 2 helicopters were scanning an area not far from where we were with search lights and then flew off. Not sure what happened, but I got it on tape J

ANYWAYS…

I think that pretty much sums up our awesome day at Universal. I got some heck from Universal employees for wearing a Mickey Mouse shirt (including getting squirted with a squirt gun at one point), but it was a great day full of awesome movie-related things.

Week 2 starts tomorrow and we will be casting for our movies. I’ll hopefully get a chance to call home and a few of my friends tomorrow night when I get home.
Talk to you all soon! PLEASE keep sending your emails!!