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Day 1:  Universal Studios (full day).   Part 1:    so today was the official kick off of the trip!   a full day at Universal, and it was a Monday which meant the Halloween event was going on!   (I believe it runs Fri-Mondays until Halloween). it's NOT called Halloween Horror Nights, seemed to be called "Scares @ Universal" , but a very similar thing, with houses and scare zones - tho what is "scary" in Beijing seemed to be very different than what is "scary" in the US, at least as far as the Scare Zones go.   I'll get to that later in this update first up tho, was breakfast - which was included every morning during our stay at the Universal Studios Grand Hotel. here's as close as I seem to have gotten to a "room picture", myself and Stacy that I sent home to let Jim know we were ready to go for the kickoff of the trip. the walkway to the breakfast area goes over the park entrance, so got a preview of where we would be in the next hour. and what a surprise!  it's a "character breakfast" I was absolutely thrilled of course. . . even tho I have not seen more than a couple of the "Despicable Me" films, or any of the "Minions" movies. they wander around during breakfast from table to table, and also pose at the front for photos. different characters most mornings.  and in costume for Halloween it was a very good, and large, breakfast buffet.  and tho I didn't take a lot of pictures of the food, I did focus on the sweets table so got lots of those pics! Toothless creampuffs no idea, but adorable spooky donuts! I tried this thinking it was just a case of "mis-translation to English". . . but nope, it wasn't pieces of chicken.  it was Chicken Cartilage. (one of the few things I moved aside once trying a single, chewy/cruncy bite). and all areas of the food tables were decked out with these adorable Minions in Halloween costume sculptures: breakfast eaten, we headed down to the main entrance, and went thru Security as a group  (hotel guests get early entry to some parts of the park, and TPR went thru security and the entry as a group to ensure no issues with tickets.   tho we were all gonna meet up in an hour when Transformers land opened to the public to all ride Decepticoaster together as a group thru the general line.   the entrance area really is not that spooky in the daytime, before they pump in all the fog. reminded me very much of several parks in Europe where the front entrance has a "cover" that turns into an entertainment area at night. spooky hanging tree a look back at our hotel from inside the park. that "bridge" on the 2nd level is where I snapped the pic on the way to breakfast earlier. out of the main entrance street, you are hit with a stunning view of the main lagoon, and the mountain that houses one of the park's signature rides: Jurassic Flyers. (that area wasn't open just yet either, but would be in about an hour) headed towards the "early entry" side of the park:  Minions land, and Harry Potter Minions land is an indoor area. . not really large, but housing the kiddie coaster, and a couple of flat rides.     tho if you count the coaster in the facade, this park has five credits lots and lots of fun theming over here, even if I didn't "get" most of it.   Group shot before we split up for about an hour (some to get the kiddie in minions land, or the junior in HP land).  Courtesy of Robb not allowed to go this way yet (the Moose out front - and those employees there - told us).   but the torches were already lit to start the day.   park staff directing folks to the right for Harry Potter, rather than to the left for Jurassic Park area. tho I've still never been to a USA Universal park - so have nothing to compare it to.  and am not a huge Harry Potter fan (and have issues with the Author). . these lands that I have been in at other Universal parks continue to impress me. they are so well done. (tho I will say the "moaning Myrtle" in the bathroom here, sounds very "adult" when she's moaning in Chinese, LOL) this was the ONLY time all day this area looked like this.   it soon swelled up with so many people (MANY of them dressed in robes with wands) that it was hard to move, and became quite claustrophobic to me.   They LOVE Harry Potter here. taking advantage of the early entry crowds to get a pic with the train. the main ride in this area, tho we skipped this for the moment to get in the shortist-it-would-be-all-day line for "Flight of the Hippogriff" - I believe a true Mack junior coaster.     it was more fun than the one I remembered riding at Universal Japan. . so wonder if it's the same model?    by the time we finished that coaster, Jurassic Park and Transformers were about to open, so we headed towards Decipticoaster, cutting thru Jurassic Park. past Jurassic Park, if you hang a right here, is Transformers world. this intersection would be used as a "scare zone" later tonight. my first good view of Decipticoaster's launch. several folks had told me it was a "clone" of Hulk at the Orlando Park, but in talking to some Universal Beijing folks, they explained it's actually NOT a clone, tho it is very close.  this is due to some minor differences in the track, but heck if I can remember exactly what the differences were that he told me.   across the plaza is another large Transformers ride, but that one wasn't opening with this area, and they told us to come back after 2 and they'd have it open for guests. Decipticoaster doing it's thing. group shot before we got in line to ride (courtesy of Robb) whee!   (pics thanks to Elissa) what did I think?    I really liked it!  it had a ton of floater air (which I really enjoy) and when I commented to someone that it wasn't as forceful as I had expected and was very re-rideable for me, that's when he told me about the differences with Hulk at Islands of Adventure. one thing I DO recall, is the storyline - as I asked about that, since the onboard audio is all in Chinese. he explained to to me, and now I love the coaster even more:   the train is actually a Decipticon.  an evil surfer (dude) who has turned himself into the train to try and torture/kill the riders, and the control unit is trying to safely get us back to the station. too damn adorable. then we all split off again for the rest of the day, and the group I was with headed back over to Jurassic Park to get the other big coaster. but first, we passed "West Dock Dogs". . which amuses me. this is the Queue Line for Jurassic Flyers - a Mack inverted powered coaster, that has seating similar to the Arthur ride at Europa Park. EVERYTHING must go in a locker - tho provided free of charge.   so no pics of the station or queue past the lockers. I did enjoy this ride, but was disappointed by the lack of any dinosaurs on it!  the paddocks you "fly" over, are all empty.  it seemed as if they blew the whole setting budget on the queue line.   (oh, the ride across from it *totally* makes up for the lack of dinos on this ride, but I really do wish at least there were some statues of dinos in the paddocks you go over).    still a fun time, but the line stayed pretty long all day due to capacity on it, so I only rode this the one time. here's the ride across from it. and I wanted Dinos ?   yup, this gave them to me. Elissa told me this was her favorite ride here, and that I'd love it, and yup, she was 100% correct. I ended up riding this a few times.    Myself, Nick, Stacy, and Nick are ready for a Jurassic Adventure! the queue line formation reminded me a lot of "Dinosaur" at Animal Kingdom  (and we saw a bunch of other TPR folks in this line too) Universal really does do a great job with the theming in the queues. . . and the use of the digital screens. no pictures from the actual ride, because there were "no photos or recording" signs everywhere.   but EVERYONE was recording or taking pictures.   on most every ride we had been on thus far.     So I inquired about it, and the advice we got was "do as the locals do". . . .well, the locals were all taking pics and videoing. . . so when I rode this later, I took some pics that I'll share in part 2 (or 3).    it was hard to get non blurry pics tho, as the vehicles are moving pretty well as you're being chased by dinos. . . LOL exiting tho, I was able to snap a couple of pics of Jurassic Flyers in action: then my small group headed over to Minion's land to get the last coaster credit in the park: Loop-Dee-Doop-Dee - a kiddie/jr coaster, that does, in fact, not "loop", nor "dee-doop" . . but some folks count credits, and MUST ride every coaster available.    as it wasn't just an oval kiddie?  I got in line with them to ride too. from the station, a peek at one of the other rides in this area.    Dumbo as "bugs" I guess? the train design is fun too. do as the locals do -   see, folks filming on the ride. so we got a pic and it's a pretty good one, I think. we had the whole day, and with the coasters all ridden (tho some would get re-ridden), we took a detour back to Jurassic Park for Raptor Encounter. is this Blue?   no idea, but it was well done. we even talked the Nick's into posting for a pic. tho I ended up purchasing the one of myself and Stacy.  (it's already hanging on the wall at home). exploring along the backside of the park - as we hadnt' been over here yet, and the map showed a pretty large structure back here. turned out it was Kung Fu Panda area (another franchise I have not seen any films from). . to get there you have to pass thru the Waterworld Show section.   we made note of the times it was playing, as I've never seen it, so wanted to catch a showing. and then suddenly, it gets lush, and there are Panda's everywhere:   it's the "Kung Fu Panda: Land of Awesomeness" and yeah, I'll agree with them. . it's pretty damn STUNNING inside here. (and cool. . the sun had come out by now and it was warming up) the lantern balloon ride looks incredible. as did the carousel - but we'll get to that shortly. this was the main reason to come back here:  a boat dark ride. "Journey of the Dragon Warrior" note it says wait time is 10 minutes. so that is ALL walking the queue.   I think this one wins the prize for being the longest queue line I'd ever been in.    it just went on and on, room after room, and it was a double sided queue . . so giant rooms of just row after row of empty queues. . .  Seriously, the walk was almost 9 minutes to get to the loading station.     it was so long, and with so many steps, that even tho I LOVED this ride?  I declined to go back and ride it again later because I didn't want to do that much walking again.      I can just imagine if every here on a day so busy that the queue would be full. . this would be a 4 hour wait. finally getting to the load station:  as noted tho, the ride IS worth it.   such a great dark ride, even if I didn't know any of the characters represented. really impressive animatronic movements too. and some screens. it's a fairly long, and impressive, ride. wasn't gonna leave this area without carousel freak me, riding the carousel tho! even talked some non-carousel crazy folks to ride it with me  such impressive carvings! and even the toilets in here were themed to the film. . .    to be continued in part 2    

Today is  November 29 – National Chocolate Day or the day I actually prefer 😉... Throw Out Your Leftovers Day

Tormenta first drop taking shape!!! Pics credited to JB Thrills, William Gauzens, Javan Townsend,Andrew Floyd and Six Flags Over Texas!  

The trains from Professor Screammore's Skywinder of the now closed Six Flags America have been shipped to Canada's Wonderland for use on Flight Deck! I am excited about this as these trains from Vekoma greatly improve the ride experience! 🙂

That means we're nearly 1 month to the opening for Six Flags to finally bring its theme park to the Middle East after nearly 20 years in the making (include two failed Dubai projects and a failed Qatar project).