Monday – June 5th, 2023
On our Epic trip last year, we visited Universal Studios on the VIP Tour and it was one of the best theme park experiences we have done. So this year with the arrival of the insanely popular Mario World we thought… let’s do it again! This was the last thing we would do before flying out tomorrow, and we hoped it would be a real treat.
Rush Hour
We had decided not to stay near The Studios as it would be easier to just have another night in the Kings Inn and then drive the hour or so over to Universal in the morning. We got Breakfast included with the tour and Valet parking so it made sense and then we could drive to the Airport Hotel right after. The only glitch in that plan…LA Traffic.
The 1 hr drive suddenly became almost two hours as Google Maps started turning RED in the morning. While this was annoying we had planned for it and had plenty of time, we just didn’t really want to sit in traffic for hours on end.
The other slight Issue we were facing was Los Angeles’s perfect Blue Sky Weather had turned a very unusual shade of deep grey, and it appeared to be raining quite heavily. Not good. We later found out this Spring has been a real wash-out in LA and we had bagged the only good days so far for our Disney trip. But the glom had returned and the Sky was noe thick with rain. Forecasts had it drying up mid-morning but remained pretty gloomy all day.
Af our tour was not until 10:15 the traffic started easing up slightly as we drove towards the Studios and in total it only took us 1:30 to cover the 35ish miles…only! As we said the VIP experience comes with FREE Valet so we dropped the car off, which was full of Luggage with the Valet safe in the knowledge it would be nice and safe.
Check-In and Breakfast
Check-In at the VIP Desk is always exciting, you get your own red carpet, are assigned a Guide, and receive your very useful VIP / Express Pass lanyard. You also get to meet your group and get access to the Breakfast Buffet.
We love how the Breakfast is described as light when there are mountains of food for you to choose from. Smoked Salmon and Egg Cheese Croissants, Muffins, Cookies, Cereal, Fruit, Unlimted Tea, Coffee, and Juice. All really fresh, tasty, and delicious. While enjoying Breakfast on the Outdoor Terrace overlooking the regular guests we got to meet our Guide Brogan.
He was certainly flamboyant and had the look of a Medival Salvic Warrior, with a large Build, Black flowing hair, and a neat beard. He was certainly an imposing man, but it was clear from the off he was a softy really. We got together in our group as Brogan explained the itinerary. First up we would be hitting the park then taking the Tour of the studios afterwards.
Super Nintendo World and Writers Strikes.
It was a strange time to be visiting the park. The recent addition of Super Nintendo World had sent queues skyrocketing and Writers Strikes meant the Studio was in a state of flux. While not a lot of filming was going on, there were still a lot of areas out of bounds. Ninja Warrior was in town so all of New York was off-limits and there were a lot of places off-limits due to maintenance work.
This all made the tour quite different from the last time we did the VIP Experience. We no longer go reserved seats to water world and three rides, Secret Life Of Pets, Minion Mayhem and Simpsons were no longer on the tour, although we did have Express Lane access for later. In place of all that was one experience. Super Nintendo World.
VIP Experience – The Park
The first part of the tour was simply the walk down to the Lower lot where 4 of the big rides are located. On the way down Brogan explained how the day would go and pointed out lots of interesting things along the way. We were then walked right to the front of the Queue for our First Ride.
Ride 1 – Transformers – The Ride
We love transformers and with Queus of nearly an hour today it was very nice to walk straight to the front. This ride does not seem to get old and we love the raging battle that takes place through the streets.
Ride 2 – Mario Kart: Bowser’s Challenge
After Transformers it was time for Chaos.
The Queue time for Mario Kart: Bowsers Challenge was now over 2 and a half hours, and that was on top of the crazy virtual Queue required to even get into Super Nintendo World. When Universal announced the Nintendo World we were pretty skeptical it would be a success, it’s not the 90s anymore, wow were we wrong?
We have not seen Universal Studios this busy in a long time and it seemed this was entirely due to Super Nintendo World. And while we know Mario Fans are really Die-Hard, we just did not know there were this many of them. It was only a random Monday in Early June and the park was RAMMED! Even getting into Super Nintendo World looked like an impossible task…Unless you have a VIP Lanyard and a Brogan.
We walked right in through the Iconic Green Drainpipe and into a world of bring colors, Moving Blocks, mushrooms, and Bowsers Castle. It is certainly very impressive what they have done with the place. However, there is not much to really do in the world. If you pay for the power-up band there are some mini-games to play around with, but not exactly mind-blowing, and there is the Toadstool Cafe which is basically permanently sold out. But that is about it.
Of course apart from the BIG attraction Mario Kart: Bowser’s Challenge. This new headline ride has a lot of people excited. The queues were simply insane. The fact we could basically walk -on was very appealing anytime you can save a 2-3 hour queue we are very happy. And the only way to d this at the minute is with VIP as the Expres does not get you into Mario Kart!
Even with the VIP and the Guide walking us to the front of every Pre-Show, it still took nearly 30 mins to get to the front of the ride. We were kitted out with all the gear, the hilarious headsets, and really excited for the ride. I was a big Mario Kart fan back in the day and would spend hours with my mates battling away with Shells and Banana skins. Even Kate, who is not a gamer, had some good times with Mario Kart as it is such an accessible game.
We always like to be positive, we don’t give things bad reviews for the sake of it, and we are mindful not to unset the hordes of very passionate Nintendo Fans out there, but this ride is UTTER garbage! We hope this does not upset any Nitendo Fans as they should really be upset at this TERRIBLE representation of their beloved Franchise! Mario Kart was such a fun and accessible game and this is just garbage. We will try and articulate this better in the full review, but the combination of a slow and boring ride and infuriating and pretty pointless mini-game happening before your eyes means all we really remember is the odd Mario character appearing in front of you, if you hold your head right, firing virtual shells somewhere in their direction, and vaguely having to steer the kart because a huge arrow has told us too.
The game is terrible, the ride slow, and largely missed due to the game, and the whole experience massively underwhelming. We do not think we have ever been this disappointed with a ride experience. We just can’t imagine the horror of queueing 3 hours for this!
Ride 3 – Revenge Of The Mummy – The Ride
Largely confused at this point as to what the hell had just happened, we were quickly ushered out of Super Nintendo World and into the Mummy. This quickly snapped my attention back to the real world, by being flung around a dark crypt being chased by mummies, and reminded me Universal is actually pretty good at this stuff usually.
Kate is not a fan of the Mummy as the ride is just too Violent. The sudden direction changes in the dark along with the pretty rough ride has a habit of putting her back out so it’s best avoided. Instead, she stood with our Guide and drilled him for information. Mainly about the new format o the tour due to Super Nintendo World, some awkward customers on our tour, and what was coming up today.
Ride 4 – Jurassic World – The Ride
Next up, was the very enjoyable Jurassic World Ride. While we certainly feel the ending of the Jurassic World ride is a letdown compared to the old ride, it’s still a fantastic romp through the Jurassic World Universe. The modernization is really good and some of the very old models have been replaced or updated and feel far more believable. The Mosasaurus Tak is brilliant and we love the destroyed Predators Cove with the rustling buses in the raptor cage. The focus on all this really means you forget how steep and sudden the drop at the end is.
It’s still a great ride, just some of the storytelling elements are not as great and that has a big impact on the ride.
Once off the ride, the free Ponchos saved us all from a drenching and we got to see the Triceratops out on display interacting with the crowds. This is rarely out and we were really happy to see her.
Ride 5 – Flight Of The Hippogriff
We then headed back up to the upper lot and into Hogsmeade for our Harry Potter Fix. The first ride was the Flight Of The Hippogriff. This is very much a family coaster and a really short one at that. But it is quite fun, especially if you can skip the 45min queue. The best part will always be the great views of the castle though!
Ride 6 – Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey
Then it was onto the main event and a ride on the Forbidden Journey. This is such a fantastic piece of ride tech. The whole experience from being in front of the castle, the amazing sets in the queue line to the fantastic visuals of the ride, and the seriously fun Robo-ride vehicles. It’s just so good, it’s hard to understand how Universal made this AND Mario Kart.
Ride 7 – Wand Shop
After Forbidden Journey, we still had a little time before lunch so our guide hooked us up with an extra ride. We wanted Simpsons, but as we were in Hogsmeade he got us into Ollivander’s Wand Shop instead. This was a good shout really as there is no Express line here and we can Do Simpsons after the Tour on our Express Pass. We also really like the wand ceremony and had some kids on the tour with us that were really big Harry Potter Fans.
Unfortunately, they didn’t get picked but it’s still really fun seeing the wand pick out its wizard.
Lunch
Then it was time for Lunch. We shouldn’t say this is our favorite part of the tour, but it is such a good Lunch we always look forward to it… a lot. Lunch is held in the Moulin Rouge Restaurant and only VIPs can use this dining location, and it’s the best menu in the park! There is an indoor and outdoor covered seating area and we love dining outdoors with stunning views over the San Fernando Valley.
Foodwise it’s a high-end all-you-can-eat buffet. Having been on the road for nearly 3 weeks now our diet has not been the most healthy and we love the act thee are loads of fresh green vegetable options available. The Salad station has multiple salad options along with Shrimp Cocktail, Fresh Poke, hummus, cheese, and various dips. On top of that, there is Shrimp Scampi, Roast sirloin, Chilli Salmon, Chicken Tenders, Chicken Tika Masala, and various potatoes and vegetables for the main course.
Dessert offers warm fresh baked cookies, Chocolate Dipped Strawberry Ghoclate Gatau, Creme Brulle, and some really nice Gelato. It’s a fantastic Spread and all really good quality. We dined away happily for an hour enjoying the food, free drinks(soft), and amazing views while chatting away with some of the other guests. A great lunch.
We also got to meet Doc and Count Dracula who were both exceptionally entertaining.
VIP Experience – The Studios
We then met up with the rest of our group and our tour guide ready for the main event. We mentioned some awkward members of our group, these had spent the morning badgering the Guide to move along faster and get more done, we are not really sure how we could have gone about this as it was pretty swift and we got everything in that was planned, and more. But for some reason they were unhappy, and we noticed they didn’t even come for lunch. And thankfully they didn’t show up afterwards. We hung around for a short while in case they were just late and then left. It was clear they had ditched the tour and were missing out on the main reasons to actually do VIP. All the other perks are great but they don’t really add up to enough to fully justify the high cost. The VIP Tour of the Studios is what it really is all about and the reason we are happy to pay so much more.
We headed off on the tour and were a little disappointed in the opening segments. Due to Nija Warrior Taking over New York Street, we had no access to this part of the Studio. This is a big deal as there is a lot of really cool stuff in there. We have been before so it was ok, and out of anyone’s control regardless, but a shame all the same.
Instead, the tour headed off to the other live sets such as the lake, the flood, and the Earthquake set. We then did the King King Ride, the Hollywood Cars, Fast and The Furious, Jaws, the Bates Motel, and the War Of The Worlds downed Airliner. It was all pretty cool, but we realized we were basically JUST doing the basic tour. We had not done anything over and above the regular studio tour. Last time we had made 2 or three stops and had been out exploring real sets, but this was basically the same tour as the regular guests receive, only on comfier trams with personal tour guides!
We were about to raise the issue when the guides jumped in and explained, that yes up until now we had just done the regular tour, but while the normal Trams would head back, we now had an extra 30+ mins to do things most people do not get to do!
The first stop was the Props Department. This is new to the tour and really cool. Things in here were so secret we were not allowed to take photos and were actually accompanied by a security guard the whole time! These are all live and in-use props used by actual movies, either existing films or ones being shot in the upcoming months. This is why it was so secret props actually had tags on them declaring which movies they were earmarked for, and some of these were not even fully confirmed movies.
It was really cool and we just got to see a fraction of it.
Following this we headed to an Actual soundstage. Large parts of a studio tour are spent driving around these enormous buildings. However, you rarely get to get out and actually go inside. But again as a new part of the tour, we were allowed access to one of the newest sound stages in the far reaches of the Studio. Inside it was eerily quiet, literally able to hear a pin drop. Our guide spoke in soft tones and we could easily hear them due to the incredible acoustics of the building. And it was BIG, normally a space such as this would echo for ages but it was instead eerily quiet.
We didn’t spend too long here as, well, it was just an empty building, so we boarded the tram again and moved on. This time stopping at Colonial Street. This mock-up of American Suburbia has been used in a lot of shows, far too many to list, basically, any time a generic suburban street is needed, and they are not filming on an actual street they use Colonial Street, but the most iconic production filmed here is Desperate Housewives.
This was one of Kate’s favorite Shows of all time and getting to walk down Wisteria Lane has been a dream of hers for a while. Unfortunately, we did this exact same thing last March so the novelty at least had worn off, but was still really cool and a great end to the Tour.
We then headed back to the Park and got ready to part ways with our Guide. Brogan had been really good but the whole day had not been quite as special as the last VIP tour we took here. Maybe it was the novelty maybe it was the pretty crappy weather (It had remained very grey and overcast but at least the rain held off) or maybe it was the fact Super Nintendo World had consumed so much of our time and was not really worth it! It was probably a combination of all the above, and possibly a little of the fact we were at the very end of a very long USA road trip. But something just felt not as good as last time…
We thought our time with Brogon was done, but instead, he said he would walk us onto one last ride and we all agreed the 75min queue for the Simpsons ride would be one we would like to skip.
Ride 9 – Simpsons The Ride
Once again we were walked right to the front, although we did have Express passes for the rest of the day and onto the ride straight away. The Simpsons ride is really fun, it’s a bit of a stomach churner u so much fun and the humor is really good, as you would expect from the Simpsons, and very apt to the location.
Ride 10 – Transformers – The Ride
After this, we said goodbye to Brogan and ventured out into the park itself. After walking 30+ miles over the last few days we were not looking for any heroics from the rest of the day, we had done most of what we wanted and were just ticking boxes. We headed to Secret Life Of Pets, a ride we really like but the queue had gone mental. Even the Express Pass queue was out the door, probably due to the ride going down, so we decided to skip it. Instead, we headed back down to the Lower Lot for a ride on Transformers again. The Express passes this time getting us on almost instantly.
Ride 11 – Secret Life Of Pets
We then headed back to Secret Life of Pets and got on straight away. This is such a fun ride, and really family-friendly. It’s not really like Universa to have such a Dinsey-esque Dark Ride, but still, it’s really well done and great fun.
Ride 12 – Minion Meyhem
The last ride of the day that was not a Re-Ride was Despicable Me: Minion Mayhem. A fun Simulator ride that transforms you into a Minion and on a crazy adventure through the Lab. Again out Express pass getting us straight on.
Ride 13 – Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey
We decided to end the day in Hogsmeade enjoying some Harry Potter immersion. We obviously re-rose the Forbidden Journey, taking our time in the Queueline to really take in the interior of the castle. Easy to do from the Express Pass line as we slowly wandered around the castle halls.
Outside we took the time to try and soak in the land. The grey overcast weather really helped set the mood. It’s always a bit odd in Summer when the skies are blue and the temps 90°f+ to have snow on the roofs (maybe not so odd after our drive through the Sierra Nevada Earlier?) We really looked around the shops and the back alleys of the land and took it in far deeper than we usually do on our whirlwind visits.
We even tried Butter Beer again and still despised it, they definitely missed a trick with that!
It was by now after 6 pm and we decided enough was enough and we headed out of the park and back towards Valet to pick up the car and head down to our overnight Hotel at the airport.
Hilton – LAX
Our flight was due to leave at 3:40 pm tomorrow but with so much already behind us we decided that we would not plan anything for the final morning and just relax in the hotel before heading for the airport. As such we booked a hotel right by the Airport and headed straight there from Universal.
The drive there was around 25 miles and we left Universal late enough that the traffic had calmed down from rush hour. We arrived at the hotel and decided to Valet as PArking was $45 a night and Valet “only” $55 so not much more and we simply could not be bothered working out the hotel self-parking.
We checked in and received a few benefits due to our Hilton Honors status, chief amongst them was a 12pm check-out and a free breakfast. Unfortunately, we did not get a room upgrade as we were in their top tier for upgrades already with a Runway View.
In the room, I have to say we were pretty unhappy with the Runway view. You could see a runway but was pretty distant and not active, the rooms at the front of the Hotel have much better views and this view off to the side was pretty awful, but we were beyond caring and just settled into the otherwise large and plush room.
For dinner we decided there was only one option…the famous In-N-Out at LAX. So we hopped into the car and headed over. It was fairly quiet, at least for this location and we found parking and got out food in short order before sitting outside watching the planes soar over tucking into our 3×3 Animal Style Burgers. We always miss in and out when not on the East Coast.
After this, we just headed back to the room, made sure everything was in order for the morning and just relaxed for the evening. A rare treat on what has been a seriously epic road trip.
Thinking back to only 3 weeks ago, over in San Francisco, it’s hard to believe the incredible scale and scope of the trip we have just embarked on! Over 1500 Miles through the most incredible and diverse scenery and landscapes imaginable. Just amazing.
Walking Total – 17,395 Steps – 8.8 Miles
While 17,000+ steps and 8.8 miles seem like a pretty hefty day, it’s actually a really light day for a theme park day. One of the reasons we love the VIP tour. While you are still walking around the park, everything is done efficiently and with a purpose. The Guide knows he can walk you onto every ride so can plan the most efficient route, whereas tackling it on your own you are always winging it a little and end up having to Backtrack several times during the day. The complete lack of queueing also minimizes time on your feet so as we left at the end of the day our feet felt SO much better than the last two Disney Days.
<<< Day 19 – Disney California Adventure – Disneyland Fireworks
Day 21 – LAX – London Heathrow – Virgin Atlantic Premium – >>>