the drive into and in singapore the day before was pretty good - a bit of time spent at the immigration as expected but that was about it. waze told us, to get to universal studios by 10, we would have to leave at 8.15am so we planned to go down for breakfast at 7.30am. but i was up late the day before - settling the immigrations forms, amani's bottles and extra clothes - that i totally missed the alarm clock. i woke up at 7.15am and knew it would take at least 30 minutes to get the everyone ready, and some more for breakfast. we finally went down at 8.15am and ate what we could and left at 8.50am.
ok, so it wasn't that bad. waze estimated we would arrive in 1 hour & 40 minutes but i was sceptical about the rush hour crowd at the check points. true enough, both places took a bit of time & the traffic jam started on the bridge itself but waze was right, though, we got to the park within the time they estimated.
parking was actually pretty easy, it was empty and we managed to get a spot a couple of minutes walk from the escalator that led to the park entrance. there was no queue at the entrance at all and we quickly went to the turnstiles to scan the e-tickets we bought at klook. we took a few pictures here and there at the entrance and along the hollywood boulevard.
when we came here in 2011, we took the left side of the park first as the boys would be more interested in shrek and the madagascar characters. this time around we went to the right side of the park as i wanted to get the transformers ride out of the way before the wait time became super long (last time it was a 180 minutes wait time). the wait time was 60 minutes which was pretty good considering its one of the most looked-forward-to rides in the park. as the boys queued, i took the girls for a bit of a walkabout near the ride. shortly after, amani asked for breakfast so we stopped at the cafe near the ride. she fell asleep immediately after her bottle, so i took them out again and let amira walk around a bit. before long, the boys came out screaming it was the best ride ever, except akmal who was crying - he said afterwards that it wasn't that scary but he just couldn't stop crying *sigh*
next was the accelerator ride which had a short queue and wait time. we offered the boys the battlestar galactica ride but they declined. they also declined the revenge of the mummy ride (which had a 20 minutes wait time, surprisingly) but went on the treasure hunters ride. at this stage it was getting hot and amani was getting cranky and amira was not about to sit down quietly. thank God, the wait time and overall the ride was not long.
then we walked to the third section of the park, jurassic park, and the boys qiuckly pointed to the rapids adventure ride. that was another 60 minutes wait time ride but we were planning on having lunch after the lunchtime crowd so we said ok. this was when amira and amani cried and screamed and threw tantrum simultaneously. 60 minutes passed by really, really slow.
the boys came out and said dino soaring and canopy flyer were next. together was 60 minutes, so we opted for lunch instead. asyraf wasn't too happy, as he usually is when someone says no to him. but we were tired and hot and hungry. we walked across the far, far away part into the madagascar part and chose marty's casa del wild food court. besides being a halal eatery, it was big and had air-conditioning and had rice and there was no crowd at all. we used both the $5 meal vouchers here as we didn't plan on eating large meals at the park after this. all of us had rice as we wanted to last time dinner.
after lunch we walked back to the far, far away section and the boys went on the puss in boots ride at the corner of the park while amira and i watched the puss in boots magic beans dance show. the wait time said 50 minutes when the boys went in but it went down to 35 minutes when they were in the queue and the ride took that long. it started drizzling and we found shelter at the shrek 4D show. the queue was short and we all loved the show. i guess it rained while we were in there as the place was wet when we came out.
across the theatre was the enchanted airways ride. the boys ran across after the 4D show. i stayed with the girls under the canopy outside the theatre and waited less than 10 minutes before the boys came running back, saying the ride was not at all scary. after the transformers ride and the puss in boots ride and the rapid adventure ride, of course it wasn't scary.
hubby was knackered after going on many rides with the boys and offered to watch over amani while i took the boys on king julien's party-go-round and the crate adventure ride over at the madagascar part of the park. both rides had only 5 minutes wait time.
we aimed for the 6.30pm grouchmas show at the theatre at the entrance of the park and we had 30 minutes to spare. the boys took the sesame street spaghetti chase race while we waited for the theatre doors to open. the girls and i waited at mel's diner, right in front of the theatre. the grouchmas show took about 20 minutes and when we came out it was already dark.
asyraf asked for the canopy flyer ride before we left. seeing the crowd was thinning, hubby entertained him and took them back to jurassic park to see the wait time at the ride. it was only 5 minutes and the boys went on the ride. twice! there you go, asyraf.
we walked back towards the entrance and stopped by the main uss shop to get some souveniours. we left the park slight before 8pm. hubby went to top up the autopass at a nearby 7-11 outlet as we didnt want to have to detour once we left the parking. we drove right to woodlands and the immigration and were back in our rooms, tired and sticky by 10pm - with a detour at yasin in front of the hotel for dinner.
it was a really good outing this time compared to the time we came in 2011. of course then it was the week between christmas and new year so its not surprising that the park was packed to the brim. even with the express pass we still had to wait a long time. this time around, it was a bit crowded in the morning but the crowd thinned after lunch - the rain probably played a big role. opting for a late lunch also helped as i remember how bad the lunch crowd was the last time we came.
i was sad i couldn't find the praying area that i was looking out for near the casa del wild food court. i brought my praying clothes with me and planned to pray after lunch but i couldn't find it.
other than that, we had a really good time. maybe we can do another drive down-uss trip in the near future.
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