One of my favorite things to do in LA is go on studio tours, so when Lee said that’s what he wanted to do for his birthday I was ok with it. The only downside was the temperatures have been hitting 100+ everyday, but we agree to go early and leave if the heat became to much for me. Unlike the other studio tours we have seen ( Paramount and Warner Bros ) the Universal Studio Tour is part of it’s theme park. They actually started the tours in the early 1900’s but did a major revamp with Steven Spielburg as the consultant.
Lee went once by himself, but they were running a special 60th anniversary of the tour where you could get off the tram and walk around, so it had to be this summer. We got up very early and drove down getting to the complex about an hour early. Turns out this was a good call because the parking garage can be time consuming to get into and in order to reach the park itself you have to walk through City Walk. I will say the walk going in was much more pleasant than the walk coming out (I was pretty tired and it was pretty hot). Cool shops though.
Once we reached the entrance to the park it was very nice with water mist sprayers everywhere and a few places to grab some shade. They also had some stores open right inside which we could shop in while we waited for the full park to open.
Once we went inside we headed right to the studio tour and thankfully got on one of the first trams. It was already getting hot but riding on the tram was nice and I really liked the tour. The backlots were fun in particular the town where Back to The Future was filmed.
At three stops we went into a building and had a VR type experience with 3D glasses. One was dinosaur themed, another was earthquake themed, and the newest was fast and furious. Couldn’t get good pictures but my favorite was the dinosaur.
The other two really cool areas were an old Mexican town where a rush of water comes through a gulley and of course the Jaws town. Jaws may be an oldie but still fun. They even had Steven Spielberg video talk about creating the attraction.
The most disappointing part of the tour was actually where we could get off. They had a small area setup with picture areas and although I appreciated the fact that staff took pictures for us for free it still was kind of lame. The good tour where you got to walk on the sets was actually the private tour and starting at $400+ dollars was a little pricey for us. Still it was fun and we both had a good time so when we finished we started out to see the rest of the park.
The most unusual thing about the park is it is split into an Upper and Lower section and they have elevators that get you between the two areas. One nice thing was there were great views of the city and the walkways did cut down on the steps 🙂
Our next stop was The Mummy (Lee’s all time favorite ride) and since we went in the single rider line we got on pretty quick. I do like how they still have the single rider line and that made it more pleasant. After the first ride I needed to eat so went and sat in a nice restaurant (I had dinosaur ribs which were yummy) while Lee rode a second time.
Next up was my absolute favorite of the day which was the Jurassic Park water ride. It was really good and had a nice splash at the end to cool down.
Lastly we walked through the Simpson town (which was quirky) and Harry Potter area but for me it was really getting hot. Lee rode a VR ride while I stayed in the shade but with temps topping 100 it was time for us to go. It was still a great experience, especially the Studio Tour portion and I do recommend it maybe not on such a hot day!
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Camper Chronicles 
Sounds like a great day!
That gulley wash and Jaws was there when I was a kid! 😆 Glad you had fun!