stringfellow

The "bandwidth exceeded" problem for my pics is fixed, sorry for that guys. Sad to hear on the closure hitting Mummy too.

Confirmed by another rider/visitor who went today as well from the forum I frequented. His day was ruined by this glitch, and they shut down both sides, Human and Cylon.

Apologies on the "bandwidth exceedance" for those photos. It'll reset one we get to April. I would post an external link with all those photos and additional infos intact, but I hadn't that privilege yet.

Isn't it better to have some form of security measure, or at least visible ones, so as to deter any possible intention of committing crime, than to have one happen, and get them all go overboard on it? Historically that is the case in Singapore. Why are we arguing about this? I'm happy they didn't impose such restriction, but I'm thinking of any future implications if such things does happen. And yes, my eyes were peeled, and there are minimal security presence.Unless they employ an "Eye in The Sky" kinda surveillance that I can't see , then IMO they're trusting too much on the good faith that patrons will behave. Can we move on?

If you say so, ma'am. Just that when things go wrong, it'll be too late to do anything about it. And when that does, Singaporeans being Singaporeans, will be going head over heels with security measures that it'll be more uncomfortable than your average TSA officers. Singapore = public caning, no spitting and chewing gums. Don't wanna see overtly aggresive measures implied if the so-called "illusion" of safety doesn't deter or at least make people think twice of doing anything criminal. *shrugs* I wonder if SFMM is already considered "ghetto" now with its metal detectors and all. Last I been there, those things were there.

I can't believe your complaining about this! This just proved that they aren't as paranoid as some of the american parks, which is a good thing in my opinion! And the flights are cheaper if you fly AirAsia or Tiger (or if you work at the airline and get discounted as you ) The need for security measure will come into question once something bad happens inside the park. It is usually when things turn south is when they will realize that is necessary. The park caters for families with childrens, what happens when, God forbids, bad things happens to these children running around? I'm not worried much about the adults, but more towards the children. As for my flight fare, it's the Z-fare. 90% discounted. Or if I chose too, use on of my allocation for free ticket for the Singapore flight. Or take the shuttle bus from Kuala Lumpur for less than USD25. The close proximity allows such abundant options.

I think you should take a ride on a hyper coaster. Not to start a flame war or anything, just a little disagreement. I probably should. The problem is, I couldn't find time to get to a park with those rides, or in my mind, find the park overall, not worth enough to plan a trip to. Mind you, I'm not located in the US.

This is a carbon copy of my own trip report and impression posted on another local site I frequent. Please bear in mind that some of the content are directed and addresses the concerns of the audience I'm talking to in that local forum, hence the points catering more towards the Malaysian crowd. ================================================================================= Hi there! In this I shall chronicle my own experience planning, and what I have experience so far at Sentosa Integrated Resort Universal Studios Singapore. It is my hope that this may help others have a general idea of what to expect, what to plan for, and what to experience to enjoy the most of their trip to the USS. The itinerary goes:- Venue: The Hard Rock Hotel Sentosa. Length of stay: 3 days 2 nights. Cost: SGD318 per night for a standard room, two single bed. The journey began with MH601 from KUL to SIN. I opted for this for several reason, mainly because I work with the airlines, and the option of travelling to Sentosa from the airport is the easiest yet. There are several options to get to Sentosa. 1. Via the airport for those arriving by plane. From the airport, there are several options themselves. 2. Via driving your own car, 30mins from Causeway link SIN-JHB, 30 minutes from Tuas Second Link 3. Via MRT if you're planning to stay within the city and taking the MRT as the mode of travel. 4. Via the Singapore Cruise Center situation in Sentosa. NEW EDIT: Here's a handy PDF explaining how to get to Resort World Sentosa and to Universal Studios Singapore. PDF size is huge. Print for easy reference. Option 1 is further subvidided into the option of taking a cab, MRT from Terminal 2 or complimentary shuttle service. Cab is self-explanatory, however if you do not accommodation arrangements within Sentosa hotel areas, you are REQUIRED to pay for the Sentosa Entry Fee at Sentosa Gantry. MRT option is sound if you're located close within the proximity of an MRT station and wish to take that as the mode of transport. MRT users will have to stop at VIVO city, alight here and switch to Sentosa Express, a monorail service connecting VIVO City and Universal Studios Singapore. But by far the easiest and cheapest mode of transport is via the complimentary shuttle bus. It departs from the bus lane stops outside of the respective terminals in Singapore airports (T1/2/3, sorry no budget terminal stops). From the arrival area in T2, head right till the exit and keep right till you see lanes of bus stops servicing private and public needs to the city center. The bus is hard to miss, is huge, well maintained and air conditioned. The bus shuttle trip takes 30 minutes and is FREE! The rest of the options, I list down only, I dont know their prices and their details. Upon arriving at Hard Rock Hotel, check-in is technically not available until 3pm. You then have the option of luggage-keep from Front Desk and head to the park and enjoy your entire day there and check back in after your day at the park is done and your room will be ready for you. I chose that, and headed to USS. The close proximity of USS and Hard Rock Hotel allows me to walk to the USS gate within 10 minutes. The route is covered almost entirely under canopy, so that you can make your way to USS should the weather turns bad. "Festive Walk", USS' version of Universal City Walk, starts from Festive Hotel next to Hard Rock (these two hotels are practically next door to each other), and will connect the six different hotels in the Integrated REsort Area to USS via underground shopping known as Festive Walk. What's different from the other Universal City Walks around the world, is that Singapore's Festive Walk serves high end, posh and branded items from brands like Hermes, Certier and Burburry, within Festive Walk itself, making this another high-end version of Orchard Road. Other Universal City Walk in Hollywood, Orlando and Osaka only sports cheap souvenir and gift items, compared to Festive Walk's high end items and luxurious dining options. Upon arriving at the end of Festive Walk is the Lake of Dreams and the adjourning open court area leading to the Universal Globe and the gate of USS itself. This area serves as a street performance/atmosphere area with bustling carnival like activity during night time. A word of warning, PURCHASE YOUR TICKETS WELL EARLIER BEFORE HEADING TO THE PARK. USS is tightly packed and compact park, but still houses up to 24 attractions within its walls, and due to this space constraints, USS management decides to allocate specific quota amount of tickets for the day before closing the ticket sale for the day. I have seen people get turned down after arriving at the ticket booth because ticket allocation is full and only ticket for the next follwoing day is available for sale. Also, wait until the very last minute and survey the crowd before deciding to purchase an Express Pass. Express Pass allows you direct front of the line spot on many rides and attractions, but can only be used once a day per ride. Looking at my own crowd traffic when I arrived at 1030am this morning, it is literraly a walk-in straight to the front of the line, without the need for the Express Pass. For week day tickets, the price is SGD66, and the weekend tickets are SGD72 a pop. However, being the park may close its attractions for a short period of time before reopening it later in the day for "creative adjustments", they have complimented early patrons with SGD10 voucher for food/beverage and SGD15 merchandise voucher for patrons of the first opening week. In essense, my ticket today is priced at SGD41, and is SGD47 tomorrow. Upon entering, these are the attractions I went in chronological order:- 1. Sci-fi City. Battlestar Galactica rollercoaster. This is a dueling coaster, meaning both tracks of the coaster pass near misses with each other, with each tracks snaking around one another to simulate a duel. There is the Human side, colored Red and the Cylon side, marked Blue. Both have different entrances and differnet interior design. The Human side is more mundane and features light furnishing, to supposedly complement the Galactica spartan design, with only Kara "Starbuck" Thrace briefing you on the mission before blast-off. The Cylon Side however is more lavish and intricate, with the interiors fashioned to look like the infusion of flesh, metal and steel, with thousands of Cylons hanging off coathooks just like inside the Resurrection Ship. While surveying this interior, you will hear the creepy voice of the Cylon Mothership Hybrid spewing incoherent mission objectives just like in the TV show. To further differentiate between the Human and Cylon side, the tracks and the coaster cars are different too. The Human coaster is a floor design with the track running underneath the floor of seats, but with open sides. This does not provide the openness feeling, compared to the Cylon coaster design. The Cylon coaster is FLOORLESS, wth the tracks running above the rider's seat, allowing that dangling and free sensation. The tracks too are different. While both tracks are snaking around each other with narrowly missing one another, the Human track is has more steep turns and on the first section, feature a huge stomach churning drop. The rest of the Human track is relatively mundane, to a coaster vet like me. The Cylon track however is more exciting, with it being floorless, allows makes the rider feel like he's about to fall off. The Cylon tracks also feature double inversion/loop, with each loop dipping BELOW ground, and riders are sprayed with water misters on each dip below ground. I ended up sputtering and choking water on the second loop, before spitting it out for a gulp of air to scream as the next corkscrew section arrives. Verdict? Cylon is always COOLER than Human. It is at this coaster that I learn the lokcer system in USS. In other Universal Studios in Hollywood and Orlando, they use fingerprint recognition to rent out lokcers to patrons wanting to stow away their loose items while they ride. This method introduces complications as biometric scanners are not always accurate and that ended making a huge line of impatient riders wanting to retrieve their stuff from the storage but have to wait their turn while the guy infront is struggling to get the biometric scanner to work and recognize his print. In Osaka, it is slightly bearable with using coinslot and key. In USS, the system uses birthday as password (DD/MM/YY) and favourite color of the patron to assign lokcer and without the need to remember which lokcer he uses as it displays which lokcer the user left his stuff based on that unique DOB/color combo. Patrons are only allowd a free 30 minutes rental of the lokcer before charges are imposed, SGD2 until the next hour and so on and so forth. *Why does the post auto-replaces the word L O K C E R (rearrange that for "lokuh"), with "fluffy fluffy bunny medicine with goo"?* 2. The next area is the Ancient Egypt area. The entrance to the Revenge of the Mummy ride is guarded by two mammoth Anubis figures with a nice miniaturezed representation of Karnak at the front. Single Rider lane is available here. The theming is on par with the Hollywood and Orlando version, but the ride is a different story altogether. The ride is MISSING the Imhotep's warning to accept his offer or a row of his claw-ressurrected mummies with flame jetting up beneath them. I can see those statues in hiding beneath the viewing area, but the mechanism to bring them up is probably acting up. Secondly, the ride is MISSING the beetle-scurrying motion around your ankles when the ride hits the "dead end wall". The ride just continue displaying the thousands of scurrying beetles and goes into reverse. Thirdly, the Flaming Dome effect is greatly reduced, from the usual furnace like intensity in the Orlando version, to a "cooking grill" kinda weakness. Fourthly, the ride feel disjointed, with Imhotep appearing without any coherency and ride music building up the music in suspense without anything happening. Verdict: Orlando's version is the best. 3. The Lost World. Jurassic Park Rapid Adventure. This ride tries to be different by introducing for the first time, a circular raft instead of the normal raft cars on a rail track used in other JP attractions. The end result, it becomes an messy, off-focus ride with riders often straining their necks to see the animatronic dinosaurs because the circular raft has spun them around in an awkward angle to see them better. The ride is also CONFIRMED to make you soaked, instead of the possibility of being soaked like the other JP ride in other Universal Studios, because of the nature of the circular raft, the low floor and the water sloshing around. The last drop WILL GUARANTEE everyone getting wet, with the rider on the bottom-most area getting the wettest. That happens to be me, and I had to slop around the park in a drenched shirt and cargo pants. The ride also allow riders to take their belongings with them into the raft, but you run your own risk of drenching them if you decide not to rent a lokcer. The lokcers here are NOT FREE, they are SGD2 for the first hour, there are no free option. 4. Time approaches 12pm, went for the first showing of the hit Waterworld show. Google up the show, it is on par with the rest of the other Universal parks around the world in term of scale and quality. The only downside here is the audience participation. Asians are predominantly shy and takes a lot of coaxing to participate in the show. Also, most if not all of them are mainly fluent in Chinese, not English. They did not get the cue on the part where you're suppose to take part with the cheering, or the booing when the baddies appear on the show. The performers are sporting and did their best to get the show on par with what I remembered, it is still in essense the same Waterworld I saw in Orlando and Hollywood. Only the lukewarm, ignorant audience participation ruins it. 5. Head to the Discovery Food Court, Jurassic Park's own dining place. This is the only Universal park in the world where you can get cheeseburgers sold alongside Chinese noodle with meatballs and Nasi Lemak with otak-otak, Beef Rendang and bubur kacang hitam or sweet green bean porridge with sago for dessert. EXCELLENT! Pricewise it is SGD12.50 for a Nasi Lemak set with the usual condiments, extra otak-otak or gado-gado, a regular Ice Lemon Tea and a bowl of green bean porridge with sago. With the previous SGD10 voucher used, I only pay SGD2.50! :clap: 6. Far Far Away Lang. Farquaad Castle looks surreally huge here. Shrek's version of Rodeo Drive is also made to satisfactory perfection here. Shrek 4-D is as how I remembered it in Orlando and Hollywood, but the projector work enhancing the 3D movie onscreen need serious work. They are either out of focus and/or dim. Donkey LIVE is available here although I chose not to go. It is at this time that I could not stand the soggy clothes I was in, thanks to that JP raft ride, that I had to call it quits, head back to the hotel where I am now, and change clothes. I'll be heading out in a few minutes to be in the park till it clothes and get that awesome WTF!(What The Frak!) T-shirt I saw in Galactica PX store at the ride. More impressions,, videos and pictures on attractions to come later. Until then, I leave you guys with the video I took of the interior of a typical room in Hard Rock Hotel USS. Enjoy! Stay tuned! ============================================================================================ Yup it was raining cats and dogs when I left at closing time 6pm. I wasn't in the park when it rained heavily, but when it was drizzling, they still open the Battlestar Galactica coaster. I can tell from experience that it is not pleasant riding a fast moving coaster while your face gets pummeled by raindrops like bullets. The indoor attractions like Revenge of The Mummy, Lights Camera Action!, and the rest are open, but patrons took refuge in gift stores, meaning more profit to Resort World I guess. I purchased a WTF! (What The Frak!) tee myself, two in fact. Pictures to come if this thread survives the moderating scrutiny. Regarding its patrons, I sincerely hope USS doesn't turn out to be another Genting. Judging from the look AND sound of the chatter around the visitors, the crowd patronising the casinos are certainly pouring into USS. Majority includes those from Mainland China. Brings back shuddering images of the type of "folks" patronising Genting. I hope they dont tarnish the good name of Universal. ============================================================================================= If you are talking about the ticket packages or the hotel packages, they are either booked online at http://www.rwsentosa.com or via phone booking. Also be advised that at the time of this this post, tickets must be purchased at least the day before your preferred date of attendance. There are no tickets available for the same day entry purchase. As promised, more details! This freshly baked new Youtube video depicts the walk from Festive Hotel next to Hard Rock Hotel right up to the USS itself. Video is scalable up to HD 720p, so pick your preferred resolution. Apologies beforehand for the shaky cam, I was walking while filming this. Pretty lavish, and much more upscaled and posh than your standard Universal City Walk version on other Universal Studios. ======================================================================================== The ubiquitous Universal Globe. The mist effect is sometimes overdone here. Told ya the mist effect was overdone, it fogged up my lense! The Ticket Booths at USS with a shot of the USS gate. Another shot of the booths. Getting in for a tight low shot of the gate. The turnstile aread where you scan your ticket for entry. Staffs are all super polite! :clap: And we're IN! The canopied area of Universal Plaza leading to the central lagoon. This copies Universal Studios Osaka and provides the much needed shades from the sun and refuge from the tropical downpour. Your customany stop for souvenirs and gifts for friends and family back home. Was trying to look for the USS equivalent of the grey Universal Studios tee, but they dont have that same print I got from Orlando. Lights, camera, action! The staple three statues seen on other Universal Studios, depicting a working film studio. Battlestar Galactica coaster looms on the right and Ancient Egypt leading to Revenge of The Mummy ride to the left. The Madagascar Tree Farquaad Castle at Far Far Away Ancient Egypt front facade leading to the Mummy ride New York, New York! Lights Camera Action! hosted by Steven Spielberg. Old New York facade needs and old NY Yellow Cab Co. taxi. Sci-Fi City themed settings leads to........ ...the glorious Battlestar Galactica coaster! Ready? BSG 75 awaits! The Human side entrance. The Cylon side entrance. The best part of this pic? the waiting time is 10 minutes, which means straight to the front line, baby! :clap: Watch your neck! The BSG insignia, as well as the two duelling tracks above it. Another shot of the Human side entrance. Wait time is lesser on the Human side when patrons realize how much more fun the Cylon track is. Not a very good shot of the two sides duelling, though. Lagoon Overlook of the BSG side. There is a bigger side of the Lagoon behind me overlooking spectacular vistas..... Canopied Hollywood area, with that Madagascar ship looming larger than that canopy itself! The Madagascar Crate ride is housed inside that ship, but the ride is expected to be operational by June 2010. Pan the camera further right and you'll see...... The Far Far Away Castle! Larger than the LA version of Disneyland Castle, with working interiors. Moving on to the next "land", the Ancient Egypt! Huge Anubis statues guarding the area entrance. The front facade of the Mummy ride. Much more elaborate than the LA or even the Orlando's version! :clap: Interesting lined-up perspective of the front facade. Enter at your own peril. Told ya it's huge! Another shot from the side. Check out the size difference. Puny human! On to the next! The Lost World themed area and its main attraction, Jurassic Park! T-Rex(JP1,2) versus Spinosaurus(JP3), who will win? Fight! Approaching the two dueling beasts closer..... ......right up to their faces! Lucky they're frozen in time. The Jurassic Park Rapid Adventure itself.The locker is located to the right, but it's not free. You're allowed to bring your stuff to the ride, but drench it at your own risk. And oh yes, you WILL DEFINITELY GET WET! Only in a theme park, you will see a fairy tale land connected to a prehistoric dinosaur zoo. From Jurassic Park, to the land of Far Far Away! The archway leading into Far Far Away Beautiful, intricate, and huge! Let's pull back a little.... ...and check out the Romeo Drive (Shrek's version of the actual Rodeo Drive). There is an actual Fairy Godmother Potion Bar inside the castle, where you can purchase exciting concoction and juices to refresh your day! Yummy "Happily Ever After" potion! :drool: Thirst quenched? Let's check out the ride, Shrek 4-D! The fourth sense is the sense of touch by the way. Yes, you get squirted and blown. Pull back a little to get the whole shot of the castle... Pull back in to see what citizens of Far Far Away see when their King Shrek addresses them. On the opposite side of the entrance, the fountain dedicated to "the King who croaked". They even built a working replica of Shrek's Tree Stump cabin in the swamp. Avoid going into that toilet though. Leading away from Shrek's cabin, is Madagascar itself, well, at least the Madagascar version of the Dreamworks movie. Welcome to Madagascar! Gloria's Snack Shack. Voracious little lady hippo! Hauling the crate up for the next headliner ride? Hey, the whole gang is here! Check out the SIZE of that ship! Make sure you get rescued when you "drop by" Madagascar! ......which leads back to the Hollywood Plaza and time to go! Last parting shot of a less "misty" Universal globe:- Off to my second day into the Studios today. More impressions, this time concentrated on the shows like "Lights Camera Action" and "Waterworld", and the pros and cons of this park. See ya'll later! Today's traffic is starting to test the staff members, particularly because families does not get deterred by the day-long rain to go to the attractions. They are super-friendly and very accommodating, I was even held under the umbrellas by them as I pass through the areas without canopy. They try their best, and certainly earnest in dong so. I've even made friends with 2 of the staff member manning the Battlestar Galactica ride, becuase they kept seeing me riding the BSG ride over and over again. When you're there, look for Sam and Christine. Sam starts his day either manning the Human-side lokcer, or the Human entrance of the BSG ride. He always gets "disappointed" (kidding actually ) that I chose the Cylon side more than his Human side! Christine was the supervisor of the day at the Cylon side, and later, I will post how the interior of the Cylon side design looks like, from the human-flesh-blending-with-steel-tubings-and-metal, to the rows of Cylons hanging inside the waiting area. All this thanks to Christine! Stay tuned! eace: After much deliberation, (I kept walking back to the Hollywood Plaza where the Annual Pass Center was located, but didn't enter, something kept me back! ), I chose not to buy the annual pass. I will come here again next month, and that will be when I buy the annual pass. I'd like to see them improve on their current performance,(I'll list down their letdowns later), I'll be buying a two day pass next month, and if I feel that they have improved much, I will grant them my money to buy the Annual Pass on the second day. Take it as a probation period. To put things simpler, here are my ratings based on "out of 5 stars" I would give to the rides:- Light Camera Action - 3 stars *** Stage 28 Monster Rock Revue - did not go, should be similar to the Behind the Scene SFX attraction in LA Accelerator - did not go, I hate Mad Teacup style rides, I can ride aggresive coasters, but spinning cups makes me puke! Battlestar Galactica Human side - 4 stars **** Battlestar Galactica Cylon side - 6 stars ****** YOU MUST RIDE THIS AWESOME COASTER! Revenge of The Mummy - until they fix the ride's broken incongruency and the missing effects , 3 stars *** Treasure Hunters - did not go, this is a kiddie based ride with jeeps on tracks. Yawn! Jurassic Park Rapids Adventure - 3 stars ****, would have got 4 stars if they tweak it so that it did not drench the riders SO MUCH! Dino Soarin' - did not go, this is a kiddie-style florrless hanging ride. Another Yawn! Amber Rock Climb - did not go because you have to pay additional for this, plus the surface to climb is slick because of the heavy downpour of rain Canopy Flyer - did not go, another kiddie ride. ZZZZZZ Waterworld Show Spectacular - 4 stars ****, but today's performance is only worth 3 stars, because of actors missing the cues, and the seaplane and Deacon's entrance is missing his Chugboat. Donkey LIVE! - This is the LIVE version of Disney's Monsters Inc. Live Factory, but starring Donkey, Hook, The Headless Horseman and Shrek's version of Tinkerbell. Donkey will interact with the audience, and selected audience will be invited to participate in rib-tickling Q&A and acts with him. Donkey is a digital representation on a projected screen on stage, but the interaction is such that it is as if Donkey is there reacting Live with you. 3 stars ***, 4 stars **** for the family. Magic Potion Spin - London Eye for the kids. You'll excuse me if I skip this. Shrek 4-D Adventure - 3 stars *** at the moment, but will be 4 stars if they fix the disappointing projection effect complementing the 3D movie onscreen. Enchanted Airways - did not go, this is a kiddie ride with riders riding a kid-coaster themed after the Dragon in Shrek. Madagascar Crate Adventure - COMING SOON, Opening June 2010. Transformers - COMING SOON, Opening 2011. In summary, BSG Cylon ride alone is worth the admission price to me. I'm a coaster junkie, I live and breath coasters. At last there is something worthwhile to ride, close enough to KL for me to just pack my bags without planning and jump on the plane/bus to Singapore and ride it. The rest who are not as "coaster crazy" or adrenaline-inclined as I am, may need to re-examine their priorities before deciding. Me? I'm 80% convinced enough to buy an Annual Pass. My next month revisit will probably seal the deal. Need to take a shower, gonna grab a light snack and head to the casinos. I've also recorded a HD version of what the interior of the Cylon waiting area looks like, with pics as well. Also pics from the waiting line inside the Human-side with its life-size replica of the Colonial Viper. Stay tuned, I'll upload it later! eace: As promised, the interior look of Battlestar Galactica Cylon side of the BSG rollercoaster waiting area. Note the flesh-like walls, the rows of Cylons(made using mirrors to look like there's infinite number of them), and the Hybrid babbling in the background. Pics of the interior, for those not wishing or not able to load the Youtube video:- Centurions standing guard. Cylons ready to deploy ala Resurrection Ship. I sneaked into the loading area of the coaster, and secretly snapped the coaster:- Yup, the feet dangling type. You can always tell if the coaster is "aggresive" or not by its device that straps you in. Lap bar = boring, tame and lame, shoulder harness = aggresive, stomach turning, hell yeah! The Human side was not popular for me, but it has an interesting item on the waiting/lining up area,.........a full size Colonial Viper! Good Hunting! The Waterworld Live show is next! The stage is set! Punches were thrown! Helpless civilians were dunked in a vat of toxic waste! Railguns and Bazookas were shot, one even hits a seaplane![/center] I did capture the show on FullHD on my GH1, but the show is seriously defective because the main villain is supposed to enter the stage via his Chugboat, and on that day, it wasn't working, so he entered by the door on the stage itself. Some of the audience were waiting for his entrance but were surprised and disappointed when his entry was marred like that. Also, the surprising finale, where Deacon and Mariner were fighting and they accidentally shot down his seaplane and it bursts through the gate is also missing. Because of these missing effects, I will not upload the clips, because of they are the true representation of what the show truly is. One good thing is the preshow where the henchmens hyping up the audience with chantings and spraying them with water if they fail is still intact. I even almost got jumped by one of them when I was busy recording the video, without realising one of them was closeby and ready to jump and spray me with water when I walked past. Still don't believe how WET the Jurassic Park Rapids Adventure is? Here's proof! Note the splash size! Let's zoom in closer.... DRENCHED! Even those with plastic rain ponchos are not spared! Those who are sporting, wouldn't mind, it's part of the fun. Otherwise would whine and complain, like that b****y Singaporean mom I rode with yesterday. :shakehead: Let's get more shots of the Discovery center area! Frozen-in-time green dinosaurs, even the mighty T-Rex and Spinosaur are no match to my mighty ...errr.....camera? Makan(eating) time! On to the Food Court! An imposing dinosaur skeleton greets you as you enter the compound. There are 3 lines, one each for the Chinese, Western and Malay cuisines. Dont believe me? There. Look closer................. Nasi Lemak and Beef Rendang , baby! the only Universal Studios in the world that serves such delicacy. Picky eater, whether palate-wise or those worrying about their halalness , need to worry no more! :clap: Let's hop next door, to the Ancient Egypt! Looks a bit weird isn't it? The Lost World ends and Ancient Egypt looms behind it. The park is compact enough to not allow its separate "lands" to appear "separated" on its own. Upskirt! Shows how huge these statues are, lining the entrance into the ride entrance. Find the Book of the Living and kill Imhotep! Again, their ruling is that no loose articles can be brought in on the ride, so generally you cant get a camcorder or camera sneaked in with you. However, I sneaked in this one shot inside the lining up area, in the tomb area:- I have a crappy iPhone-captured video of this area, will upload later once I head home. Hungry after the ride? Head on to the Oasis Spice Cafe to satisfy your cravings for the munchies! Halal-certified as well. :clap: More pics on the Lake of Dreams and its surroundings. This area is free, and is outside of the gate of Universal Studios Singapore, where visitors can lounge about, grab snacks or head to the more posh dining restaurants here for table-service meal. The area lit up in bluish hue at night, especially the ornaments around the Lake area, however I did not manage to capture it since I wasn't here with a camera when that happened. With that I wrap up (with possibility of adding the Waterworld clip later) my field report of my trip of 3D2N to Universal Studios Singapore. I hope that has been informative to anyone looking for info or just undecided whether they should plan for a trip here or not. Here are my impressions, pros and cons of the park and how they could improve better for my next trip, either next month or later in June. 1. The park needs touching up. It looks functional, with rides running as they should, but aesthetically, it is still behind some of the more established Universal Studios around the world. Granted, this is a soft opening, and they just opened, but that should not give excuse to patch up the scratches on the wall, and ESPECIALLY, the leaky canopies when it rains. Trust me, it rains heavily here, and if this carries on, it would look ugly. 2. There is no security gates or measures to check if visitors are carrying dangerous weapons of any kinds into the park. Not even a bag check to see what is inside your bag. Sure, this speeds up entry process, but even as I was mingling around inside the park, I don't see lots of security personnel standing guard around. 3. Their staff talk Singlish. I mean really pure Singlish. Probably because they are pushing to employ locals but they should be filtering their frontliners to the ones speaking more fluent English, not with the -lah., -leh or -liaos. One very bad occasion I had to witness is during the Lights Camera Actions attraction. The staff at the lining up area speaks fluent excellent English, and held poise and professionalism. I engaged him in small talk, both in English and Malay (his name is Radzi), and from his demeanor, he can pass for a well established Universal staff in LA or Orlando anytime. However, as we entered the show area, the preshow announcer ,probably because of nervousness or otherwise, stutters and missed his dialogues and slips into his singlish speaking mode, to my disappointment. I nearly slapped my forehead in dismay and shame, and from his dialect, another Singaporean Malay as well. The Singlishness does not stop around Malays only. The predominant Chinese also are affected. Christine is a young adult, takes care and supervise the line up area of the Cylon side, but her English isn't up to the standards I would hold her to. Sure, the foreign visitors can understand her, or the rest of the staff handling the entrance or the locker areas, but it give bad impression on their capability to communicate. Once I even saw them speaking among themselves when asked questions by visitors, in Hokkien! 4. Due to the compact area this park is built, there is no separation between the "lands" or attempt to hide theselands betwen each other. It is visually jarring to see Jurassic Park with Egyptian Anubis statues in the background, or walking into Far Far Away and seeing the Madagascar ship in the background as well. I wont fault them on this much, but their falls into aesthetics, and aesthetics counts for big point to count yourself to one of the classier theme parks in the world. 5. The staff competence level is good in some area, and bad in some. The entrance area staff are severely undertrained. The ticketing booth staff are manned, from what looks like Singaporean teenagers with bad English/Singlish, they don't even offer park maps and program list to visitors, and the turnstiles are poorly managed. I can forgive them for slacking when the crowd level is like what it is now, but I can imagine the chaos if the volume picks up and these staff would not be able to handle this. Again, this probably will come with experience, but with first impressions at the entrance gate like that, would put serious damper on the initial mood of the visitor. However, they are good points of this park. 1. Although this is a soft opening, all the advertised "open" rides are running fluently. Sure there are hiccups like ride closing down for readjustments and effects missing in some of the shows and rides, but I hope/imagine/anticipate them reintegrating them back once they open full-strength. 2. The staff , even with their Singlishness, are SUPER ACCOMMODATING AND POLITE. I've pointed out my request to film the interior of the BSG Cylon side, and they obliged me, with an escort! They go all out to please you, from the staff at the lokcers area offering you their help to establish a lokcer for you, to the entrance staff (heads-up to you Sam, you rock!), right down to the the normal staff even offering umbrellas during rainy days. The cleaners are helpful and nice as well. They've covered the hospitality area of this nicely, let's see them improve on their command of the English language. 3. The park designs, intricacy of the details are up to par, and in some cases like the Revenge of the Mummy ride, exceed the other Universal parks around the world. "Mummy" is copied from the Orlando version, but given its own Singaporean touch, which is a good call. The Lost World and Jurassic Park area is another good example. Also a good mention is the Far Far Away and its castle, nowhere else does this appear other than USS. Excellent! 4. Emergency response is quick and prompt. I had the experience of seeing this first hand in Disneyland LA, and I hold this as the measuring stick to how other parks are gauged upon. The emergency they had in Far Far Awal where a kid was vomiting violently after riding the kiddie coaster there (Asians being asian, weak constituents :rolleyes:), but the staff and emergency response unit is there in a flash while holding away inquisitive crowd to give the family some privacy and dignity I guess. On par with a well established park is always good. 5. Once all the options and rides are operational, this is gonna be the park to go for Asians. No longer do you need to travel half way across the globe to the US to experience the latest in rollercoaster tech, or the latest tech in shows and attractions, when it is available right in Singapore. Except for select attractions like The Simpsons ride or the Universal Tram tours, USS will have carbon copies, or better version of similar rides the other Universal parks has. In some cases, they will world premieres of these new attractions in Singapore first, and other Universal parks will be looking at USS as the benchmark for their new and upcoming rides. That future promise alone excites me enough to give this park more time to establish itself and prove it can stand toe to toe with the rest of the Universal parks around the world. :clap: There you go, my impressions. Thanks for reading, hope that helps you guys decide and make your days in USS a good one. eace: The cheapest currently available USS-affiliated hotel nearby is Festive Hotel, around SGD250-270 a night, but book well in advance, please. It is a popular hotel for families with kids and also for gamblers for its close vicinity to the casinos. You don't have to follow what I did. The most convenient way I can see you doing this while saving up, would be to find a hotel within close radius of an MRT station, and then use that MRT to travel up to Sentosa. Let's break that down. I like the convenience of staying within Sentosa itself for its proximity to USS, and I like the fact that I can simply walk back to the hotel for a short nap in the afternoon, before continuing later until the park close, and then dine at Festive Walk once the park closes. Then it is just a short walk to the hotel and retire for the day, or freshen up and soak in the nightlife at Festive Walk or test my luck at the casinos. I can also easily hop onto Sentosa Express (it is DIRECTLY outside USS gates!), head to VIVO City and shop there. Or continue on MRT to Orchard Road and have my fill of shopping there, before returning back to Sentosa for the day. The cheaper solution I suggested may require a bit of travelling, but if you're familar with travelling within Singapore, it is convenient, fast(Singapore is not that big) and efficient, unlike KL's horrendous public transport system. Taxi service is always available and abundant as well, well past the late night hours. I'm am very sure you can find ever more cheaper accommodation options, like B&B, or hostels, I myself found out there are are such types of accomodation right outside VIVO City itself. This may even bring down the rate to below SGD100 a day, but I would suggest taking this only if you're single or going as singles and don't mind group lodgings with other guests. Hope that helps. I will add more information and tips whenever I can, especially on the park itself, on when new attractions are opening up, new additions to the park, and more tips on saving up, or splurging (if you feel like it ) on your holiday there. Phew! Took me a while to correct the "fluffy fluffy bunny with medicine and goo" nonsense, why does your forum not accepting the word below?* Weird! this word, why cant I post it? That word isn't obscene.

*PM me for the link for pics and video clips in HD that I took for the parks and the video of inside the waiting area of the Cylon side of BSG. Haven't that privilege since my post numbers are less than the required number to post those.* It is not a good idea to ride a coaster in the rain, because I had the first had experience riding it 7 times in the rain on the Cylon side, raindrops attack you like bullets when you're sitting on a coaster moving at high speed. Even more so when you're seated at the front! Same here, wait time NEVER more than 15 minutes. The BSG coaster do get stopped for "readjustments" , and quoted by the staff there as put on hold for 30 minutes,but after 10 minutes it's back up and running again. All the rides are operational, except those which has yet to open, namely the Madagascar Crate Adventure and Transformers of course. Jurassic Park Rapids Adventure is a no-go for me. I initially thought that the drench factor is gonna be like the LA or Orlando's version, but it is worse than Popeye's Bilge Rat Barge ride in Orlando! You get THOROUGHLY SOAKED AND DRENCHED if you ride without a poncho. What's worse, the weather does not allow quick drying, and yesterday's weather was "moody" all round with rainclouds hanging overhead almost from opening till closing of the park! The staff are friendly and very accommodating, I got my permission to record that waiting line area interior of the Cylon side when I asked them. In some areas where it is not canopied or covered, staff were hovering around, putting umbrellas over your heads when you traverse the open area parts so you dont get wet! They need to brush up on their command of English, I had to endure embarassing moments of Singlish (broken English) during the "Lights Camera Action" show with the preshow announcer trying his best to get the hype going but failed miserably because we were aghast at his broken English sentences. Perhaps it's the bouts of nervousness, but I applaud his for giving it a try! I stayed at Hard Rock Hotel for 3 days 2 nights, and it is within walking distance, on covered grounds, and in some parts, underground, when you travel between the hotel and to FEstive Walk and to the gates of USS itself. Their aesthetics choice of building leaf-like canopies around the Lake of Dreams area may bite them in the rear as the rainwater are dripping around endlessly and when it pours, patrons were dodging rain-waterfalls left and right! I initially wanted to get an Annual Pass but decided against it until they fix some of the mess and missing effects I saw around the park. The park is functional, but they could touch it up for aesthetics reason. I forgive them for this because the park is newly open. However, there is no excuse for the Revenge of the Mummy ride MISSING the clay mummy reveal when "Imhotep gives you the ultimatum of joining him or die" part, you can clearly see the mummies lying on their backs but only the flame effects are present. Talking about flame-effects, the flame-dome effect before the end of the ride, is pitifully minimal, almost look like a griddle-burner flame. The ride congruency is also broken, unlike the Orlando or the Hollywood version, especially the abrupt ending. Also missing, and this is sorely apparent to those already seen the Orlando or Hollywood's version, is the seaplane crashing through the walls in the Waterworld show! On my showtime, the head baddie Deacon even entered by a stage door, not regally through his own boat! I was anticipating his arrival and the seaplane bursting through, only to be commented "Oh, the seaplane hits the outer wall" dialogue by the actor playing the Deacon, before he moved on with the show. Appalling! Far Far Away is decent, although I can confidently say the projector effects complementing the 3D movie on screen during the Shrek 4-D show is sorely lacking in luminence, focus and does not complement the action onscreen properly. Donkey LIVE show is cool, think of it as the "Monster's Inc Laugh Factory" version for USS. A live voice actor voices out Donkey in an auditorium and invites participants to participate with him with trivias, and questions, based on Singaporean details like the ERP, the Merlion spitting water while Singaporeans are not allowed to spit, things that are locally familiar with the visitors. A good effort for a first try, but pales in comparison with the Monster's Inc version. There is also an exact replica of Shrek's tree stump cabin next to the castle. As for BSG, I personally love the Cylon side more than the Human side for its multitude of manouvers. There aren't any REALLY close or narrow misses per se, unlike the real misses on the Dueling Dragons, but the two coaster tracks and coaster types are different enough to warrant riding them both. After riding them both, I still prefer the Cylons. Watch the clip I took for the waiting area interiors, the Cylon side feature rows of Cylons made to look like they are thousands of them via mirror effect, probably to mimic their numbers in the Resurrection Ship, with the Cylon side also has this nice flesh-like designs with steel tubes as blood vessels. The Human side is spartan, and quite empty, save for the lone Colonial Viper plane. The audio commentaries are also varied, with the Cylon side having the many different Cylons coming onscreen while bridged by the incoherent babblings of the Mothership Hybrid issuing commands to the Cylon Heavy Raiders (the coaster you're riding) to attack. The Human side has an unrecognizable announcer (not from the show) with the occasional videos of Adama and Starbuck wishing "Good Hunting". I skipped the Madagascar area totally, as its star attraction isnt ready until June 2010. All in all, a good effort. It is a soft opening after all, but they need to ramp up the effort to beautify the rough patches and the missing show effects. And oh, the staff will gather at the entrance during closing time, to cheer and thank you for coming for spending your day with them. A very good touch there indeed. ADMIN EDIT: The links have been removed as they are in violation of our Terms of Service.

It's a personal preference. I rode El Toro and Colossus, and find them janky and not smooth. I end up bumping my head around a couple of times, with bruises all over. End up coming out of these two rides with a mixture of adrenaline rush and pain. I'd rather have the former only, and not the latter. As for hypercoasters, if you're a fan of speed and airtime, sure, they provide lots of those qualities, but I'm not looking for those qualities on my rides, I like more manouvres than airtime. Speed comes in both those with lapbars and shoulder harnesses, like Kingda Ka, but I have yet to find rides that I remember or return again and again fondly for, that uses lapbars. Again, all these are personal preferences. No offense.

Here a link to my own trip findings, spent 3 days 2 nights at Hard Rock Hotel, and 2 days in the park. Also included in the findings are pictures and videos, including how the Battlestar Galactica waiting line interiors look like, particularly the Cylon side. ADMIN EDIT: LINK REMOVED Enjoy!

Already booked myself for a 3days 2 night stay at the resort itself. Coming from Malaysia, so it'll just a 45min flight from the capital. My worry is about which rides are open and which isn't ready yet? If too many of the rides are still in the "soft opening" mode, I might as well cancel the reservation. The whole trip was about USS anyway, and USS without rides properly working is....well... I've trawled the web looking for information on this, looks like it's a guarded secret. The usual suspects like Screamscape or the more closer sources like that Sentosa blog, are'nt really furnishing any news, if there are any, with regards to which rides will be working and which isnt. The rides that we already know beforehand that are not open will be fine by me, but I seriously hope the usual staples like Shrek 4D, Mummy and the likes will be operational by the time I'm there on the 19th. Any ideas guys? Finally, this is like a dream come true to me. Ever since Resort World built their own theme park atop the Genting peak in my country, I've yearned for a big-name world-class theme park close enough to where I live that allows me to go there as frequent as I can. Come this 18th, it is just like I said, "a dream come true". I've been to theme parks all over the world, thanks to the nature of my work, and have sampled the many different flavours of Universal Studioses, Disneylands/World and the Six Flags and other smaller parks around the world. USS however, will be near and dear to my heart, because, well.......it's near!

Weird. Im not wearing my post-repelling shirt today, or any other day for that matter am i? Got the info my looking for elsewhere, so it's all good. Maybe the worry about the community here turning into cliques and talks to certain people only in here carry some weighty truths here, or maybe im asking questions that many had replied before. Anyway, im all set for the trip, thanks for the interest fueled by pictures and posts here, and no thanks to the cold shoulders responses, or lack thereof. LA in 3 days, cant wait!

Hi everyone! Writing from Malaysia here, and very very new (read:green) in coaster riding. Fell in love with it when i got into my first ride in DL Paris (Space Mountain: Mission 2) and immediately planned for another TP trip, which resulted in being in So.Cal. from 13th till 21st this month. I'll be travelling alone most of the time, with a possibility of colleagues joining me on the SFMM trip on the second day and USH as well. I consider myself lucky when i went for my DL Paris trip last month, where i stumbled upon a user review/guide/how-to-beat-the-queue webpage from a very loyal DL Paris visitor(in which i cant remember the URL, sorry), which have saved me tons of grief and time as well on planning my attack of getting on almost all the major rides in DL Paris, with ample time to spare on sightseeing and shopping in between. If any of you guys had any advice or plans on how to go about planning which rides to go first at what time of the day, or one of those "beat-the-queues" plans, please do share. My itinerary would be somewhat like this:- 13th Oct - arriving in LAX , settle down , unpack in hotel. Booked near Anaheim. 14th and 15th - "attacking" SFMM. This cannot be any more important to me, as i have read (with envy of course) at the amount of rides and experiences everyone had here at SFMM. Tatsu, X, Deja Vu, RR are on top of my list, and im planning 2 days, to get to ride all of them! (if i can).This will be the first ride of this kind (i've only been exposed to Disney-esque kind of ride all this while, while smacking my head thinking there are greater rides that this available in one place, SFMM!) for me, since most of the rides i've been on are rather tame compared to the experiences these rides in SFMM will give me. 16th - "attacking" Knotts Berry Farm. I've only allocated a single day for this as i have looked at the rides available and they are not many of them. 17th and 18th - "attacking" USH. I've read somewhere that USH rides/shows are pretty much huge in volume, and large throughtput per hour, so i'd figure that with two days it would be more than enough to savor them all. 19th and 20th - "attacking" DL and DCA. Since i had familiarity with rides in DL, thanks to the DL Paris trip, i might just see what's different and ride those which arent available in DL Paris. Is this line of thinking correct, or should i ride the same rides in DL Paris here in DL LA? Are there any significant differences, for those who had the chance to ride the same rides at both these TPs? DCA will be a brand new experience to me, but judging from the review, only the Tower of Terror ride is worth going for. Is that correct? 21st - fly back to Malaysia. Point to note, i cannot arrange to arrive early since im prebooked on motor coaches and tour bus + admission kinda tours with Viator.com, so i guess i'd miss 1 or 2 hours (i think) on a head start but not arriving when the parks (SFMM in particular) opens. I would also be missing out on late extended park hours especially on the Halloween-related events. I would very much want to experience this, but getting back to the hotel in Anaheim would be tricky. Would i be missing much on these Halloween events at these parks? Thanks again in advance, for any tips, plans or advices, and a huge thank you for Robb and Elissa (did i get this correct?) for thinking up and making this awesome site, it has been a great source of information, for some very very new in thrill rides. Great job Robb, and keep it up! My dream would be taking up one of those Spain, Midwest USA or Japan trip you guys have planned and enjoy it with like-minded enthusiasts. Cheers!