Breaking records at Universal Studios

From Monday to Wednesday, we were at a staycation at Resorts World. We had such a great time in June that when we saw an available package deal, we didn't hesitate. (We thought it would serve as the vacation for these school hols, not knowing we would later book ourselves on another trip, but that's another story!)

On Tuesday, we spent the day at Universal Studios. Since it's a small park and we were just there in June, you would've thought we'd run out of stuff to do very quickly right? Wrong! We still spent the entire day there, from opening time to closing. When it comes to theme parks, my kids have endless stamina. Can't say the same for us parents!

Started out with a few rides on the Canopy Flyer as this is the ride that has snaky queues throughout the day. When you start out on this ride, there's virtually no one there, so the attendant even let us have a couple of rounds without having to get off and re-queue.

The trick to beating the queues at Universal Studios is to be ahead of the crowds. Do the popular rides as much as possible in the first hour, then when it gets crowded, do the kiddy ones or go for shows. Have an early lunch and when the crowd fills up for lunch, go back to the rides.





More importantly, for this visit to Universal Studios, Andre was like a man on a mission - he had ridden on the Enchanted Airways (an outdoor roller coaster) 9 times previously and he was out to break his record. I didn't have to accompany him this time as Lesley-Anne was his willing accomplice.

Throughout the day, we kept returning to the ride to check on the queue. As long as it was 15 mins or less, the kids would squeeze a few in. I don't think anyone would believe the final count if I told them. Drumroll... 20! That's right, my crazy kids sat on that contraption 20 times.

I think by then, they were so familiar with the ride they could have fallen asleep (like Mr Bean in his roller coaster clip). As they were queuing for the last time, a man in front of them turned around and asked, "Are you scared?" Mildly amused, my kids said no. When asked, "How many times have you sat on this?" Andre replied, "This is our 20th time." The man must have thought they were stark, raving mad.

The rest of the rides were rather anti-climatic. Accelerator (which is basically teacups) and Dino-sauring. Ok as a time-filler but not much thrill there.










They also took a ride on the carousel just to give Lesley-Anne the opportunity of riding on Melman, the giraffe from Madagascar, since the giraffe is her favourite animal.

Towards the afternoon, I started playing Devil's advocate. Revenge of the Mummy was the only ride the kids have yet to experience - it's an indoor coaster in the dark and is the scariest ride in the park (since Battlestar Galactica is closed). I told them they should leave the park on a high, as in go on Revenge of the Mummy - that would really be something to remember! Call me mean but I kept goading Andre, "Are you a man or a mouse??"

At first, both of them were adamant about not going on it. Then to my surprise, Lesley-Anne slowly warmed up to the idea. She really has come out of her shell over the past year. Andre was pretty terrified but once she started to work her persuasive magic on him, I knew it was just a matter of time before he gave in.

And so they went. As Kenneth and I were waiting for them to finish the ride, we saw a boy about Andre's age emerging in tears and his mum apologising to him profusely. We looked at each other and thought, "uh oh, what have we done?"

But... they survived! Barely too, based on this picture, haha! According to Lesley-Anne, a Mummy would declare spookily, "Your souls will be MIIIIIIINNNNE!!!!!!" followed by a stomach-churning plunge and turns. Repeat four times.

But I know they're glad they took up the challenge. After the ride, Andre told me, "Now I feel like a MAN!" LOL!

Clowning around.

We saw many more characters in costume during this visit. Always nice and adds to the "happy" factor.
















It really is a great place to spend the day and we were blessed with perfect weather. We'll definitely be back when they add some new rides.