Singapore Diaries: Universal Studios Part II

It totally slipped my mind that I haven't finished talking about our Universal Studios Singapore trip. So let me just tell you what I liked about USS. :)

The night before we were scheduled to go to USS we met up with the bu's friends who were staying in SG. 

It turned out to be awesome timing because we found out that Anna and Chip were going to Universal the next day too! :) So we decided we would meet up there and go around the park together. That and Anna already gave Chip the "I will not ride any rollercoasters" speech. At least now he could ride with us. 

The next day, since the bu and I were early birds we still got to take photos with the mascots. The first one we ran into were the woodpeckers. :) I didn't even know that there was a girl woodpecker in the cartoon.

We actually saw Frankenstein when we were on the train and ran into him at the park. Yay! 

After a few rides and a show the bu and I had lunch first to take a break from the heat. It was impeccable timing that right after lunch the show in the theater across the street was starting so we text Anna and Chip that we would meet them there and off we go. The show was called Monster Rock and let me warn you, it was a horrible high school presentation. Comparable to an variety show Halloween special. I wouldn't recommend you see it unless you were bored and killing time. Even then I'd say do something else with your time. Haha...I guess when you compare it to shows in HK Disney you'd realize that it's not what Universal Studios is known for. It explains a lot.

When we were finally through with that experience we decided we would go towards the Transformers ride. It was getting great reviews from everyone and it was high on our list of rides to do. The Battlestar Galactica dueling coasters.

photo from universalstudiosingapore.org

I must say, the Transformers ride was awesmazing. It was sooo good that you couldn't tell the ride prop from the screen. Intense.

Chip and Anna with a piece of the Cube

We loved the ride so much we did it twice! :) Yup,, that was the only ride we did twice. If you're in USS this should be the ride you have to make time to see. 

What I realized about Universal Studios in general is they don't have the Princesses like Disney. So their characters aren't the usual and you would have to be really into old movies/shows to know who they are. Here are some of our photos with a few of the characters.

Here's Rick O'Connel from the mummy. This guy is a dead-ringer for Brendan Fraser the bu and I kept discussing how fun it must be for him to make money off the fact that he looks exactly like the Hollywood actor and when he realized this is something he could cash in on. :)

Rick O'Connel

Betty Boop has been an icon for centuries and when I saw she was there we just had to take a photo with her for my dad. We've had a few conversations where he would mention Betty Boop cartoons. I myself have not been able to watch them but he really seemed to have enjoyed them when he was younger, so this photo is for him.

Betty Boop

And then there are these other people. They were just random Egyptian guys but they were fun to take photos with. They kept changing their poses every shot. :) Talk about in character.

I wouldn't really say Universal Studios Singapore was better than Hong Kong Disneyland. I would say they each have their own strengths. Disney was fun because I grew with those films, the shows were awesome and well because it's Disney. I liked USS because the rides were fun well most of them were just skip the theater show, and because it was a different experience. 

If you were in SG and you had a day free I'd say go to Universal Studios. It would be an awesome investment in memories. 

Singapore Diaries: Universal Studios Singapore

If you've been reading my past posts then you'd know the bu and I are children stuck in grown up bodies. If you're on of our close friends then you'd know what we were really like in real life and everything posted here is not in any way an exaggeration. haha.

So it goes without saying, after Wicked, Universal Studios was high on our list of must-do's in SG. :D

I've been wanting to go because from the time we decided we were going to HK Disney people would tell us that Universal was waaaay better. So now I could finally put it all to the test and decide for myself.

Like in HK, everyone kept telling us we would be done in 3 hours. Once you've gotten through all the rides then you're done. Spend the whole day in Universal Studios: Challenge accepted. They obviously don't know us. We walk ssssslllloooooowww. Hehe, kidding.

Of course we left my cousin's house early because we were excited little children we didn't want to get lost and we were hitching with her to the bus so she could tell us where to get off. :))

Meet my cousin Coley. She adopted us for 5 days. Weeeee

We took a long walk with her and got to USS really early. Like 11 am early. The drawback of going that early, it was too warm and it only got warmer throughout the day. You actually start to develop a headache because you duck into an airconditioned area to escape from the heat and when you step out it's warmer than when you went it. That cycle of warm, cold, warm really gets to you.

Because we purchased our ticket on-line we didn't need to cue for tickets there. :) Yay for us!

Of course the first thing you do when you're in USS is take photos. Here are a few...We tried to get the best photo of the Universal globe thing-y but the thing was turning, so we took tons in different stages of the word Universal. Hopefully when you put them together, we can get a whole word. :D

Want to know what we did first in Universal Studios? After taking photos that is...

We went on the first ride we could see, the Madagascar ride. Let me tell you, it was not what you would expect. Maybe because I had such high expectations, because this was supposed to be better than HK Disney, but our first ride was a bust. It felt like it was more kiddie-ish and we just sat in the gondola and went around listening to the "animals" talk. But then again, just like in any movie, if you're too built up it rarely makes expectation. I guess if you are a fan of Madagascar and if you are below 4 feet you would have found this ride fun. :D

These were the only photos I was able to sneak since every time you go on a ride they make you keep your camera. :/

What I realized after a few rides at USS, their rides are more kid friendly. There were a lot that we decided we didn't want to ride because it was too hot and it didn't look like it would be fun. The other thing I wanted to do was watch shows, so after our first ride we trek to the Waterworld Show. I liked it, they start of interacting with the crowd, getting them all riled up and excited. They even pull out a few guests and soak them! It was fun to watch and the guy playing the lead was amazing on his jetski. It was a welcome break from the heat, that was until they started blowing things up. It was quiet a big production and I would recommend you catch it if you're in USS.

Here are a couple of photos with the cast after the show!

I never really watched the movie so I didn't really know what to expect. I must say I liked it. But a bit of advise, if you don't want to feel the warmth of the explosions don't stay by the front. If you don't want to get soaked don't stay by the front. But if you're up for anything then front is the way to go. :)

I have a lot more stories to share but this post is getting long so let me tell you about it in another post. :) For now, I'm going to dream about milk tea as I'm trying to wean myself off it. What a bad addiction!

Singapore Diaries: Wickedly Wicked.

Everyone knows about the Wizard of Oz. How a little girl from Kansas together with her friends, the Cowardly Lion, Tinman and Scarecrow defeated the Wicked Witch of the West to each get a special present from the Wizard. Oh how that horrible witch made life for all Ozians difficult.

***photo from deadline.com

But, like all villains, there had to be a reason she turned out that way right? And that's what Wicked is all about. The untold story of Elphaba, the Wicked Witch of the West.

Idina Menzel, the original Elphaba.

***photo from last.fm

Oh how I wish I was able to watch Idina Menzel and Kristin Chenowith play Elphaba and Glinda, that would have made it even more fantastic.

I first heard about Wicked from a friend I met when I did a short stint as part of the production team for Beauty and the Beast in Manila. She shared with me the entire soundtrack of the musical and from then on I was hooked. It was on my bucket list. I. Must. Watch. Wicked. So imagine the excitement when I found out Wicked was going to be in Singapore. A mere 3 hours away from Manila. I didn't need to fly hours and hours on end just to watch Wicked. It was perfect. An amazing coincidence, God was making it happen for me. So there really wasn't any choice but to go, that and it was finally a great excuse to visit my cousin who was based there.

With Atchie Nik and Sofia at dinner before the show. :)

Before the show, Atchie Nik treated us to Mozza Pizzeria. Yay to more free meals! :D My cousins planned our meals in Manila and Mozza Pizzeria was one of those on top of the list. A restaurant made famous by the fact that it is partly owned by Mario Batali, a famous Hollywood Chef.

We initially ordered 2 pizzas, a salad and an entree to share. But because we were such a large group the server advised us to order another pizza and so we did. We're easy enough to convince like that. ;D I'd love to write more about the food but I don't think I would be able to do it justice. But if you still want to read more about it then click here, Atch wrote about it in detail.

What a wonderful night it was turning out to be. I was finally going to watch the show I've been dying to watch and I got to eat really awesome food for free. God really does love me. LOADS.

Here's a photo of excited me waiting for food at Mozza Pizzeria. :D

I must say, Wicked did not disappoint. The effects were awesome, the story was amazing and the actors who were in the play weren't bad although I think because I kept listening to the versions of Idina and Kristin my expectations were sky high. Despite that I thoroughly enjoyed myself and would recommend it to all my friends.

What I loved most about Wicked aside from the music of courseis how it managed to incorporate all the elements of the original Wizard of Oz story and make me see it from a different point of view. A story that had come full circle. So if you're on the fence about watching it, I encourage you to go for it. As I always like to say, Wicked was wicked.

***photo from passportchop.com

Wicked will be showing in the Grand Theater of Marina Bay Sands, Singapore until April 1, 2012.

Explore Singapore.

Yay for me! I made two things happen from my list of things to prioritize this year! :) I got to travel and I got to watch WICKED! But I shall write about that in another post. I just know it, this year is just bound to be awesome.

My cousin Coley lives in Singapore and she was awesome enough to let us stay at her house despite the fact that there 5 of us and 3 of them. Yup, it was a full flat but it was great! :) It was my first time in Singapore and the bu's first time in AGES so it was quite daunting for me. The roads were confusing and it was quite amusing to have to remind the bu to look the other way since they drive on the right side of the road. Lucky for us, my other cousins frequent SG so they served as our guides.

My other cousin Ady was nice enough to actually walk around with us and show us good places to shop. If you know us personally then you'll know we're not the walking type of people. :P

Although I must admit, I failed on the MUST SAVE part of the to do list. I still have 11 months to do it. So I'm not losing hope. And as my dear cousin said while trying to make me feel better, "Don't feel bad about all you spent, you just have to look at your stuff and think, WOW, I HAVE SO MANY NEW THINGS. IT WAS TOTALLY WORTH IT." She's so young yet so wise. Sadly I don't have photos of all the things I bought, but trust me, they were A LOT!

One of the highlights of my trip was the fact that my friends actually made time to come see us while we were there. :)

That's Clauds and Miko.

And all four of us. :) The bu's face is a little creepy cause he was trying to tell us not to move right away because he programmed the shutter to close slow but that only made him move a little. Hence the freaky "The Ring" photo. Eep.

What makes my friends even awesomer, they treated us to dinner! :)

Look at all that food, and there were only 4 of us sharing. But trust me when I say, they were all awesome and they were all gone by the time we stood up! Haha

Clauds, one of my best friends from High School asked us what we wanted to eat. I said anything that wasn't weird. So she made us try Sting Ray. I was quite hesitant at first. But yum. Sting Ray good. :)

And Miko, a close friend from a previous job treated us to yummy wings! Yum yum yum!

Aside from that we had loads more food to go around. Cereal Prawn (which I have to say tastes way better when peeled and re-cerealed), fried rice, veggies and satay. Wow, just listing that all down makes me feel bloated. :P The best part of it all, we didn't have to pay for anything. Ahahahaha, I have the awesomest friends. Weeee. But seriously, thank you guys. It was a treat enough to see you, an even better treat to be fed by you.

It's just about lunch time, and looking through all my photos of food makes me hungry. So I'm off to eat and will post about the rest of our Singapore adventure...after the break! :)

I leave you with a photo of what I had for lunch at a hawker place. :)

Yum! :)