Tons of photos ahead! Like, "I should split this post but I'm not going to" amount of photos. This is more for me to remember anyway!
After having annual passes to Universal Studios for eleven months, we realized we hadn't experienced a lot of the park! So we made sure to knock those things out last month. So here is the post showing the new things we tried out at Universal on two separate visits.
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| Eli grabbed Eden's hand unprompted. Had to snap a pick! |
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| Our first picture in front of the globe...after 11 months of going here. |
One of the things we haven't tried was the Studio Tour. I'm surprised we haven't done this before as I heard great things about it. Here is the view before entering the line for the tour:
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| Joseph thought it would be a scary ride. He was covering his eyes for half the ride 🤔 |
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We passed a lot of studios that were used in the past (like Fresh Prince of Bel-Air)
and current shows like The Voice. Notice the street name 😍 |
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| 3D glasses for the next part! |
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| King Kong and dinosaurs! |
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| The actual cars from famous films! |
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| Car from American Graffiti (this one's for my dad). |
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| The Ferarri from Ferris Bueller's Day Off. |
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| Biff's car from Back to the Future. |
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| The Pulse also from Back to the Future. |
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| Future car...also from Back to the Future. |
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| Pink Edsel Ranger from (you guessed it) Back to the Future. |
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| The car from the Flintstones (whoa, not from Back to the Future?!) |
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| The Ford Angler from Harry Potter 2. |
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| An original Jurassic Park jeep. |
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| Right, the new Jurassic World car, and left, the van from the film Nope. |
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| Tank from Transformers. |
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| The ol' Spinosaurus. |
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| They showed us how they make it rain in films. |
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| It was cool to see a flash flood coming down to us and be diverted last moment! |
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| Mexican street, as seen in The Three Amigos, Nacho Libre, and even in Pirates of the Caribbean! |
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| If you squint, you can see them building a course for American Ninja Warrior. |
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| It's The Good Place! |
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| One of the few shows we've actually seen and it's really fun to watch. |
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| Another fun flash flood! |
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| Dun Dun. |
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| Dun Dun. |
Dun Dun Dun Dun.
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| BoOM! |
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| Dun Dun Dun Dun Dun Dun Dun Dun!! |
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| Mr. Bean car, some from Austin Powers, and more. |
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Fast and Furious car and another I couldn't recall what it's from.
Apparently this lot used to be Whoville! |
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| More Fast and Furious with Bumblebee from Transformers tucked in the back. |
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| Ah, the Bates Motel. |
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| Hey there Norman, whatcha doin'? |
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| Yeah, let's keep going...nothing to see here. |
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| We went into an area that films use for crash and disaster scenes. |
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| They destroyed an actual 747 for War of the Worlds. |
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| These people got the true tour, lucky ducks. |
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| This car is smmmmokin'! |
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| Entering the set for the newer movie Nope. |
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| Nope. |
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| Nope. |
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| Nope. |
We went to the lower part of the park and saw some transformers! They moved and talked (well, Bumblebee played his radio tunes to communicate).
We had plans to do Nintendo World another day, but Sam was able to get access passes so we could do a quick peak. The kids were super excited!
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| Going through the pipe! |
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| Changing paintings. |
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| Noah was so excited! |
We were able to see Peach, Mario and Luigi.
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| The park had mini-games for those who had the expensive wristbands. |
The question marks gave more points to the fancy wristband people.
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| Sitting on a toadstool. |
As you can see it was extremely crowded and we didn't stay long in Nintendo World (the line for the Mario Kart ride was estimated to be 3 hours long...no thanks!!) We decided to leave the park and snapped a pick of these two on the way out.
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| Gru and Kevin. |
This cute photo op was in front of the theatre in the Universal City Walk. Cue taking these cute kids' pictures.
Eating some yummy lunch!
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| The whole fam. |
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| And me. |
We really wanted to enjoy Nintendo World without the insane crowds, so we splurged for early park passes. That meant leaving our house at 6am to park at 6:30am to walk to Nintendo World by 7am. We pulled out our costumes from last Halloween.
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| Fountains looked extra pretty in the City Walk. |
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| Here is my Toad hat. |
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| Heading straight to the ride! |
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| Black light fun! |
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| Going up, up, up. |
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| And up. And up. |
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| Through another pipe. |
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| Entering Bowser's castle. |
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| The details are so fun. |
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| Posing in front of Bowser! |
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| All the different circuits. |
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| Look at this cup! |
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| The halls of Bowser's castle. They really made sure that this place could take a long line! |
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| Evil plans. |
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| A model of the ride? |
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| Bowser adding all the details. |
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| Bob-omb factory. |
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| Boys are REALLY excited! |
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| Noah was too small to ride but luckily there was a child swap option! |
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| Everyone's gear! |
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| Look how cute! |
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| Joseph's favorite part. He loves the kooplings, especially Lemmy at the end. |
They did a fantastic job on the Mario Kart ride and was everyone's favorite ride in the park! Worth paying extra to experience it like we did. Sam got two "fast passes" for having Noah and Eli got to go again with Sam. I hung out with the rest in the gift shop.
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| The topiary was really well done! |
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| Testing out the question blocks again. |
Playing around the toadstools.
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| We didn't try the cafe but I thought it was cute. |
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| Meanwhile, here's Eli with Bowser again. |
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| The ride had these visors so you can play the game during the ride! |
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| Let's a go! |
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| We were too late to join the ride to see Mario and Luigi, so I snapped their pictures again. |
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| Pretend that's us, okay? 😭 |
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| An attempt to get a family shot. Looks about right for our family. |
The genius of getting the early passes was being able to ride the normally popular rides with almost no wait while everyone who came to the park at the normal opening time headed straight to Super Nintendo World. Here is the Mummy:
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| Child waiting area for the Mummy. |
We also rode Jurassic World ride (it was awesome!) and Transformers (made me queazy). Then we decided to do the Secret Life of Pets as it was one Noah could ride (one of two rides 😕).
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| Watching the puppy disobedience school video. |
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| Eli's Chain Chomp he picked out. |
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| Hang out at the playground before heading home. |
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| I spotted the gang! |
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| A picture of the City Walk. |
If you made it here, you are such a trooper. Obviously, we had so much fun at Universal, and though it is always crowded, it's crowded for a reason. They do a great job at the attractions! Thanks for reading, readers.
