Today, Jason and I had no class, so we seized the opportunity to go to Universal Studios Singapore (USS) in the middle of school week, as any good theme parkers should. The day was ideal. All the rides were open, and we got to do everything we wanted to do, and then repeat all the best things, just for good measure.
We arrived around 10am, the hour when the park opened, and went immediately to the Battlestar Galactica dual coasters. This took us through the Hollywood-theme and New York-theme lands, which were both very nice and a little retro. Their way-better-than-life depiction of bygone days in big cities was charming – I loved the ambience. And somehow, the transition to the space-themed land wasn’t jarring.
Once at the coaster pair, we got in line for the Cylon side. The coaster was inverted with plenty of inversions, and an incredibly fun first ride. One highlight: plunging into fog-filled holes. The white of the fog matched the white of the surrounding ground pretty well, and since we were in the front, the illusion of impending impact was excitingly convincing. We went on the human side less, and it was a much more standard coaster. Not inverted and no inversions or fog holes, but still fun J
Next, we went to the Egypt-themed land and went on the Revenge of the Mummy ride. It’s apparently very similar to the one in CA, but I’ve never been on that one, so it was new to me. And ridiculously fun. Indoor steel coaster with excellent theming. It was kind of like Space Mountain and Indiana Jones mixed together and set to the Mummy plot.
Next, we went to the rapid ride in the Jurassic Park land. Now, I almost swore off rapids rides altogether, as getting wet is far more frightening to me than long vertical drops or corkscrews or any of those purely fun coaster elements. But this was Singapore, where at least the ride’s water is better than the sweat that’s already drenching you. And Jason let me wear his rain jacket. The ride was very fun, complete with the requisite Tyrannosaurus Rex near-death experience.
We finished up Jurassic Park land with a short kid-oriented inverted coaster and a quick-but-satisfying climb up the amber rock wall. Then, we went to Far, Far Away, where we were ushered into the “Donkey ‘Live’” show, which was a sad, sad attempt to do what Disney has done so well with “Crush.” The effects and theming were as quality as the rest of the park, but the jokes just weren’t funny. But that’s ok, because we went to the Shrek 4D experience next, and it was very entertaining and fairly funny. Far, Far Away also had a short-and-sweet kiddy coaster.
The last land in the circular park was Madagascar-themed, and the giant boat made a nice backdrop to the area. Unfortunately, it doesn’t have much in the way of attractions yet, but we went on the Merry-Go-Round, which was fun. It’d been a while.
Having gone on all the worthy rides, we got some tasty pizza and started into ride seconds and shows. The Universal classic monsters rock musical was kinda weird but in an entertaining way. We got to see some impressive B-boy dancers in New York land, and the Waterworld show was great.
All in all, I loved USS. The park only opened in March 2010, and everything felt just as new as it was. The theming throughout the park was impressive and delightful. The Wednesday crowd was so thin, we hardly ever had to wait at all for rides. We even got to go on the BSG coasters three times each! It’s hard to imagine a better day.
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