Photo TR: Adam's 2025 Singapore Journey

[jedimaster1227]

After last year's unexpected trip to Kuala Lumpur, I was once again surprised when I found out I would be working in Singapore. Over the course of my two weeks there, I managed to use my time in between work efforts to see what the city had to offer. 

A first for me this time when traveling to this side of the world, was flying through Doha, Qatar. 

My hotel was attached to one of the city's many large shopping complexes. After over 24 hours in transit from Orlando and a quick need to adjust to the current timezone to start work the next day, I ran down to the food court to get a bite before passing out. I was pleasantly surprised to find a Michelin-Starred venue (a counter-service one in a food court, at that).

I didn't need much but I wasn't going to pass up the chance to have authentic roast duck and BBQ pork. 

The next morning I was pleased to find a Toast Box in the same attached mall. I had eaten at the same company's former location during my Shanghai Disneyland honeymoon in 2017, and this curry laksa became a comfort meal throughout my trip. 

When driving through the Raffles City and Marina Bay Sands area of Singapore I saw lots of F1-related structures as the event was only a few weeks away from taking place during my visit.

Marina Bay Sands is the most iconic (and photographed) part of Singapore, and my hosts brought me here early into my trip to enjoy the sights.

And yes, I did have a Singapore Sling or two along the way...

Merlion Park is another key stop while touring Marina Bay Sands.

I had a chance to see Sentosa from high above, getting an early sneak peek at Universal Studios Singapore, which I would visit both as a day guest and later for Halloween Horror Nights... But more on that later!

One evening between working sessions, I used my downtime to go to Gardens by the Bay...

The complex is absolutely huge and could easily fill a full day. I didn't have that much time, so I prioritized the things that interested me most and that would be open during my brief window of time available. 

Cloud Forest was first on my list, including the recently-opened Jurassic World: The Experience produced by Neon. 

The complex is incredibly impressive and the Jurassic World overlay fits really well into the normal year-round elements of the space.

As one of two Neon-produced offerings I experienced while in Singapore, I was very impressed with the quality of what I saw here.

The waterfall in Cloud Forest is kind of a signature element.

The dinosaurs from Jurassic World are carefully integrated into the walk-through environment in ways that feel organic and immersive. 

The absolute show-stopper of the experience was this large-scale T-Rex animatronic with fully articulated movement in its head, neck and tail. 

If I wasn't so pressed for time, I could have watched it perform for a half hour or more. 

There were several other clever animatronic dinosaurs in the experience. 

The awe of the Jurassic franchise comes to life here and is only amplified by John Williams' and Michael Giacchino's scores playing majestically in the background. If you're a fan of the IP, it's hard not to get swept up by it all and to feel at least a little emotional by how "real" it feels. 

I'm a huge fan of Dale Chihuly's work and so I was greatly pleased to find a work of his in Cloud Forest.

A sneak peak at Supertree Grove from inside of Cloud Forest. 

While Universal has shown us Jurassic incubators before, it was super cool (and cute) to see animatronic baby dinos warming in their own incubator next to the more traditional egg incubators. 

Mr. D.N.A.! 

Some of the year-round elements of Cloud Forest remain unaltered for the Jurassic World exhibition. 

I've seen dinosaurs like these at Universal before, but they were equally fun to see here.

There's an immersive projection space inside of Cloud Forest tucked within the mountain structure.

Yes, they did have the iconic park gates represented... No, they weren't the most impressive element of the experience.

Being able to see this dino from the ground and from the elevated walking paths was neat.

A look down on the T. Rex from above.

Cloud Forest is such a unique environment!

Didn't think you'd escape Isla Nublar without running into a few of these, did you?

Pro lighting setup here. 

No, I wasn't queuing for Velocicoaster when this photo was taken.

The experience's finale is a live showing where guests can see Blue the velociraptor up close.

She did the pose!

Admission to the Flower Dome is included with your Cloud Forest ticket...

It is a large, indoor botanical garden that, if you're into greenery, can be very impressive. 

In addition to natural wonders, there are some pieces of art made with natural materials embedded in the habitats. 

There was a Switzerland-themed event going on during my visit...

Oh, and they have rides here too.

Fun for all ages!

Supertree Grove is incredibly impressive in person.

For those looking for an observation deck-style experience, Supertree Grove has both the OCBC Skyway (pictured here) as well as The Supertree Observatory (the center tree in the previous photo). Each of them has their own admission ticket required, so I chose the more unique of the two.

The view is fantastic!

I felt like I was in the Eloi village from The Time Machine (2002). 

On the grounds nearby is the United Buddy Bears exhibition with 145 unique, artistic bears representing different countries and territories around the world.

After the sun sets, Supertree Grove takes on a different life with a bioluminescent glow.

Otherworldly and beautiful. 

A special version of the twice-nightly light show was running during my visit, featuring "Worlds of Fantasy" music from Disney, Universal and Warner Brothers including Super Mario Bros, Harry Potter, The Little Mermaid and Star Wars. 

I might've had an out-of-body experience when the show started dancing to Star Wars' "Duel of the Fates."

The Singapore Flyer can be seen from many vantage points throughout the city. This is one attraction I didn't get to experience firsthand during my trip.

Gardens by the Bay is a short walk from the Marina Bay Sands mall and casino, so I stopped in to visit the famous mall. I was pleased to find multiple TeamLab experiences on the grounds.

This very unique, three story fountain drains water in a pool found in the open air above this portion of the mall, draining into the mall's indoor lagoon.

It is equally mesmerizing to watch from outside.

One of the most unique Apple Store locations I've ever been to.

And there's a downstairs floor that connects directly with the indoor mall!

And there's a Bellagio/World of Color-style fountain show outside of the mall that I managed to see end right as I got to the railing... So this is the best and only photo I took to prove its existence. 

My time exploring Marina Bay Sands was a highlight of the trip. While there was a lot more work to do, I felt recharged after my time here. 

But there was still more adventure ahead...

 

[bert425]

great pics!

[Nrthwnd]

Great PERK of your WORK! (Sry, had to do that)

Awesome photos of all that you saw and toured through.

Love all that vege -----tation. 

[jedimaster1227]

A few days later I was able to take a day to explore Universal Studios Singapore at Resorts World Sentosa. This was one of the two remaining Universal resorts I'd yet to visit (Universal Studios Beijing is all that remains for now) but also my third Resorts World property (Resorts World Las Vegas and Resorts World Genting). Not unlike Resorts World Genting, Resorts World Sentosa is an integrated resort property centered around casinos but offering extensive choices in hotels, shopping, dining and attractions. The main anchors for Resorts World Sentosa are Universal Studios Singapore, the Singapore Oceanarium and the Adventure Cove Waterpark along with a few smaller attractions scattered throughout the property. In the remaining moments of downtime of my trip, I would try to check a few more of those off but with my one full day, I would focus on Universal Studios Singapore.

Like the other parks, I knew a decent amount about what to expect. Universal Studios Singapore is a smaller park with a collection of "greatest hits" from the other Universal parks with a few exclusives thrown in the mix. The lands are mostly unique compared to the other parks but the attractions within are mostly found elsewhere. Not long before my visit Minions Land had opened in the plot of land that originally opened with the park as Madagascar. And you could absolutely feel the Minion fever throughout the park. 

At the heart of Resorts World Sentosa is the casino itself, and many of the methods of arrival to the complex lead directly to the casinos. 

Obligatory entrance shot. 

Obligatory globe photo.

Just to the left of the park's entrance is a size-able construction plot where the future Super Nintendo World will be located. Work has been underway for some time, but they were working onsite throughout the evenings during each visit I had to this area. 

From the Universal Studios Singapore entrance plaza you can see the SkyHelix Sentosa in flight.

One benefit of Sentosa's integrated resort approach is the inclusion of a resort monorail with stations dotting the entirety of the Sentosa island property. 

It was neat to see The Count helping with the rope-drop procedures at Universal Studios Singapore. 

The park's Hollywood section, along with much of the New York area are covered. 

Halloween merchandise could be found in the park's entrance shops.

Minion Mart was one of many Minions-focused merchandise locations in the park.

Similar but different.

Well this is different.

This tangled mess of Vekoma track is Battlestar Galactica: Human vs. Cylon.

If there is one thing this version of Revenge of the Mummy has going for it, it is the scale and quality of the theming around it.

Minions Land and Far Far Away are on the opposite side of the park. The Lost World is found between Ancient Egypt and Far Far Away and all lands encircle the park's small central lagoon. 

The Pantages hosts a variety of shows in Universal Studios parks around the globe. I didn't get to see this one during timing, but it was neat to see the theater being used for a totally different show than the Beetlejuice or Horror Make-Up shows I've seen in the other parks.

Sesame Street Spaghetti Space Chase was an addition that joined the park's lineup several years after opening. Originally intended to be a Stage 28 walk through experience that was ultimately cancelled, the family-friend ride opened in its place in 2013. Sadly the ride was closed for refurbishment during our visit. 

Besides Spaghetti Space Chase, the other major attraction in the New York section of the park is Lights, Camera, Action! The land features a few shops plus their own take on Finnegan's, which was serving as a Blumhouse Bar during the Halloween Horror Nights season. 

I love this.

Transformers: The Ride was the first version of the attraction to open. Somehow over the years I managed to ride each version in the reverse chronological order of their debut (excluding Beijing's) starting with Florida's, then Hollywood's and finally the one in Singapore. 

Battlestar Galactica was running two trains on each side, and while they weren't dueling, they were operating in such a way that you could sometimes see both sides running at roughly the same time.

Overall I thought this was an interesting concept for a ride, that would have been more enjoyable if it was operated dueling. The Cylon (suspending) coaster was quite punchy and forceful where the Human (sit-down) side was far more tame and meandering. They were incredibly strict about loose articles in this park so I couldn't bring my camera into the queue, but I appreciated that the queue had a video loop playing that featured characters/actors from both the original Battlestar Galactica series as well as the more modern version that aired on SyFy in the early 2000's. 

The scale of the Ancient Egypt section of the park is truly impressive.

As with Battlestar Galactica, lockers were a hard requirement for Revenge of the Mummy so I couldn't take any photos beyond this point. That said, it is in most ways, a copied and plussed version of Universal Studios Florida's attraction. The queue abandons the "making of a third Mummy movie" plot in favorite of a fully-themed Egyptian tomb, but most of the same beats of the Florida queue, right down to the staircase surrounding the statue leading to the station are nearly identical. The coaster's layout is identical to that of Florida's with minor story tweaks to account for the non-movie-set themed story. That said, the coaster was operating with minimal effects (no fire in any rooms) and the coaster seemed to crawl through its entire layout, including the launches. I'd heard many good things about this version, so I was disappointed to find it was my least favorite of the three, theming-aside.

Up next...

Not sure what all of these structures are meant to be for...

I do love the Jurassic Park III influences in this land.

Universal... Keeping Setpoint busy since 1999.

Canopy Flyer has a higher capacity than Pteranodon Flyers, so it has that going for it.

To its credit, the coaster spans most of The Lost World and even has an unusually forceful helix before its end. 

Of all of the "similar but different" things I was looking forward to in this park, it was this.

Let the record show that while I enjoy water rides, I rarely experience them when I go to parks because I hate getting wet on otherwise dry park days. 

That said, I wasn't going to pass up a chance to experience the alternate universe Jurassic Park River Adventure. 

Still kind of a greatest hits of its sister rides, the choice of ride system and the Hydroelectric Plant drop finale make for a unique experience. And I got drenched for riding it. 

This ride's name amused me far more than it should have. 

It was a very cute take on a Dumbo-style flat ride though.

Rather than having a dedicated meet and greet for Blue like some of the other Universal parks, Universal Studios Singapore brings her out on a roaming truck in Jurassic Park.

Several other dinos were a part of the show too.

I was very curious to see how a land, centered around Shrek 4-D could turn out...

Scaffolding aside, this was pretty neat. 

Puss in Boots Giant Journey is another one of those strange, unique offerings at Universal Studios Singapore.

It's like someone asked Zamperla to build a Volare (spiral lift included) replace the grill-rack flying coaster trains with a strange suspended seated train. The whole thing is slow, nonsensical and unique. 

A closer look at one of the ride's trains.

Donkey Live! in Far Far Away is more like Stitch Encounter or Turtle Talk with Crush than the puppet-style versions you've seen in Florida or Hollywood. Sadly we didn't have time to experience this due to other time commitments before the park's early closing that day.

Clever.

It isn't just a clever gag from the film. Frier's Good Food is an actual eatery in Far Far Away. 

And it lives up to its name as having good food.

 

They even had a delicious Gingy sundae!

As we crossed the halfway point in our day, we started to realize we were fighting the clock to have time in Minions Land and to do the few more unique attractions that were exclusive to Universal Studios Singapore, so sadly, a showing of Shrek 4-D would not be in the cards. 

But there was still more to see and do...

[bert425]

I would ride the crap out of that slow moving, suspended, Puss in Boots ride!  

someday, I've GOT to get to Singapore.

[Garet]

I'm always amazed how much is packed into Sentosa for it's size. Your picture of the island from the front, also has the hotel we stayed (Outpost) in the top right corner and that was located right on the Southern Part of the island.

Honestly, I think most people skip the Singapore Flyer. It's not too bad a walk but it feels really isolated from the rest of the bay and the fact Marina Bay Sands has a viewing platform and restaurants makes for stiff competition. We hadn't even planned on riding it but the restaurant with a viewing platform was closed, so we wandered over and it was so dead that they were giving private cabins to every group, even our small group of three.

[jedimaster1227]

The second half of the day was a rushed one as we aimed to experience as much as we could before the park's early closing. We moved from Far Far Away to Minions Land as our hosts had yet to experience this expansion since it opened.

Similar to the Minions Land found at Universal Studios Japan, the experience here is bright, over-the-top and filled with Minion character moments.

The space is huge (or at least it feels that way) and it definitely seems like a popular upgrade from the former Madagascar realm that was once in this same plot of land. 

They had a few fun Minions games in the Super Silly Fun Land section of Minions Land...

Including this perfect recreation of the Super Silly Space Killer game from the first Despicable Me movie!

Just so much to take in!

They nailed the Super Silly Fun Land feel from the film.

Very cute.

Equally cute.

Time for what ended up being my favorite thing we experienced in the park that day...

I'm not even kidding. This Halloween Minions show was adorable and super fun to watch!

And the Halloween minions looked great!

It'll never not amaze me that the ride system for The Funtastic World of Hanna-Barbera gave life to this attraction in 1990 in Florida but has also managed to be cloned in modern times in Hollywood, Beijing and Singapore. Japan's version of the ride replaced Back to the Future: The Ride, and while the ride film is virtually the same (save for added bookends to help facilitate the film being shown on the larger screen), the ride system is different. 

The scale of the interior queue is larger than those I've seen in Florida or Japan. 

But as you go deeper in, it starts to feel more familiar...

Right down to the 106.7 FM radio reference, a nod to the enduring radio station in Orlando, that has been copied in each of the queues since. 

The final pre-show is the same as well.

If you've ridden it in Florida, Hollywood or Beijing, you know what to expect here.

And the post-show experience is equally familiar. 

Buggie Boogie is the land's third attraction, but as I discovered with research after this trip, actually a re-themed experience from the former Madagascar land. 

It's a cute carousel though.

Jumping back to Far Far Away we managed to see Shrek & Fiona greeting guests in from the Shrek 4-D.

Yes, we chose to ride this.

The queue had some pretty fun details...

The train for Enchanted Airways was very nicely themed for the land. 

Waterworld is tucked in the back of The Lost World but was sadly closed for refurbishment during my visit. 

Back in Sci-Fi City, I still couldn't get over how sprawling these coasters' were in this section of the land.

It wasn't easy to get photos of the coasters in motion with one-train operations taking place all day... But the coaster looks nice. 

Accelerator is a mini tea cups, like a smaller version of Storm Force Accelatron in Islands of Adventure.

Sci-Fi City has such a neat, a different-for-Universal aesthetic. 

I was intrigued when I saw Star Dots, thinking that I could get Dippin' Dots in unique flavors here...

It turns out they sold everything here except the ice cream of the future.

Next up was Lights Camera Action! presented by Steven Spielberg.

In the vein of classic Universal special effects shows like Backdraft and Twister, this show is smaller in scale but features an introduction from a famous director and then sends you into the movie set to watch firsthand how a sequence of unfortunate events plays out dangerously. In this case, we're in the middle of a hurricane inside of a boathouse.

Of course, there's fire and fiery water.

And there's watery explosions.

And then a tanker crashes into the boathouse!

They were doing small Halloween acknowledgements in the New York section of the park for daytime guests. Much of the staging seen here was actually set up for Halloween Horror Nights which would start the following week.

They gave out candy on our way out!

I'd never had this before.

As we made our way towards the exit of the park as closing time neared, I was able to spot Battlestar Galactica in motion.

Cylcons in flight.

The covered Hollywood section at the entrance is nice, albeit smaller than others like it.

This was a neat touch I noticed on my way out. 

Passing through the gift shop at the entrance, something caught my eye...

I somehow managed to miss riding Hollywood Rip, Ride, Rockit while I was here. 

Just outside of the entrance of the park you'll find a Hershey's Chocolate World store. I've now been to the one in Singapore, Hershey, New York, and Las Vegas!

They also had a sizable LEGO store...

Some very cool localized models here.

I loved the Merlion man and the Gardens by the Bay models!

 

[Garet]

I really wish with one train operations and no dueling they'd relax the metal detectors and let you leave things at the platforms, they wanded you at the end of the queue anyway and with one train operations that line really crawled.

But then again I was equally confused by Mummy, we left everything since it said no loose items and then noticed people with their phones in the lines and that line also crawled. Not sure if it was operations or an issue since the ride went down ealrier in the day but they were not only running one station but seemed to be letting only one train on the course because cars were being double stacked after the unload.