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As I sit at home isolated, completely cut off from my friends and school, I begin to wonder
about the many places I would have liked to visit had there been no outbreak of such an
abhorrent virus. And each and every time my mind gets lost in the kingdom of thoughts, it ends
up directing to one place only- and that is Universal Studios Singapore. I have not been
fortunate enough to visit many places that lie on this earth only to amaze visitors, but I am
fortunate enough that I have had the privilege of visiting what I would call ‘A place where
dreams bloom like flowers’. It is indeed a place which upholds and reminds me of my golden
childhood, a childhood filled with wonderful memories. And today as I sit here, I can still feel
my legs carrying me to one of my most favorite places on this planet.
The first thing that one has to do when getting to Universal Studios Singapore is to pack up and
get ready for an arduous yet amazing day. All I did on the night before our visit to the theme
park was prepare myself in the best way possible, although my parents and sisters kept pulling
me to go to malls with them. I prepared my shoes, packed my bag with some chocolate biscuits
and an extra t-shirt along with my headphone and I had a good sleep the night before. It takes
about half an hour (or even less) to travel from the city to Resorts World Sentosa on Sentosa
Island, where lies Universal Studios. As you walk into the resort you begin to feel adrenaline
rushing through your veins, and walking through large crowds of jolly people, ascending the
elevator sends a magical feeling through your nerves, a feeling that is greatly amplified when
the sweet view of the spinning globe comes within your plane of vision. Oh that beautiful
moment of pride and happiness! When you realize that you have reached to a magical
wonderland, it is the moment to cherish. The marvelous logo of Universal Studios spinning in
front of a huge, gaping gate while a soothing music play in the background, all the merry people
trading here and there and cameras buzzing all around- Oh you begin to feel as if you are in
Hogwarts and being enchanted with spells of joy! Then comes the ticketing part, but it’s not as
much hassle as you think when the word ‘ticket counter’ strikes your mind. Off I go, with the
tickets flailing on my hand, my mind purified of any thoughts about the tiresome world, my
heart beating faster than ever as I step into the park, and there you are- welcome to Universal
Studios, a place where you can ride the movies!
I checked my map and discovered that this merry place is divided into seven parts
–‘Madagascar’, ‘Far, Far, Away’, ‘The Lost World’, ‘Ancient Egypt’, ‘Sci-Fi City’, ‘New York’ and
‘Hollywood’. First comes Hollywood, it is basically a place for meet-and-greet where people get
to meet their favorite characters from the movies (basically performers wearing costumes of
them) and be sure click those cameras, but don’t fill up all the space, there’s more to come! I
was so full of glee to have met Gru from ‘Despicable Me’ that I was not ready for what was to
come next.
You guys know Alex, Marty, Gloria and Melman right? Well next up is Madagascar, and here’s
where the breathe-taking rides start playing their parts. As we walked past the walkway built
with bamboo sticks and broken pieces of crate boxes, with posters all over saying ‘Animals are
missing’ or ‘Caution: wild animals’, we started to feel the thrill. There we were sitting on our
ride, a wooden boat with ‘Be careful of Foosas!’ written on the back and we started the our
boat ride inside the eery, partly broken ship attributed to the film’s ship which were carrying
our heroes to Wild life reserves in Nigeria. It was basically a series of fun events with ‘Oh My
God how did they do that’ kind of animatronics and laser display. I was so full of glee when they
played the ‘I like to move it move it’ song and swayed with the crowd, bidding farewell to my
favorite heroes.
Off we go to ‘Far,Far,Away’! This place is attributed to Shrek, our childhood favorite ogre, and a
huge, life-sized ogre’s house laid right there beside a ‘jaw-dropping’-ly beautiful king’s palace.
You have three options here- either ride ‘Dragon Airways’-a rollercoaster with many twists and
turns to handle- or ride ‘Puss in Boots: Giant Journey’- another rollercoaster with way more
twists- or just lay back and enjoy a 4D film inside King’s dungeon which shows the aftermath of
the first film, with all the effects of 4D coming into action- getting wet when a character
sneezes or feeling warm when a dragon releases fireballs. We had to choose the 4D film since
rollercoasters made my mom dizzy, but to be honest there were no complaints as it was quite
an experience.
Steven Spielberg, you sir made my childhood and made me who I am today. And as we bid
farewell to Shrek, and entered the ‘Lost World’, I realized it even more. Now this section was
the one that brought a little change to the experience in my opinion. While all the other
sections dealt with futuristic or straight-outta-fairytale events, this one dealt with creatures
that walked and ruled the earth millennials ago, yes the dinosaurs. It was a tribute to
Spielberg’s classic ‘Jurassic Park’, and these is the one that made things a little more
frightening. You can either ride some side attractions, or you can get into the main attraction
itself, the theme ride. Now folks here’s where I need to give some advice. Now if you are a
nyctophobic, then stay off the ride because when your ride reaches the facility, and gets
attacked by a giant Tyrannosaurus Rex, it’s all in the dark and all the more frightening is the red
alarm ringing all along, creating a sense of fear (damn I should have stayed out of it!). And if you
are really ready to show off your courage, then be advised that the ending involves a drop from
a 14 storeyed building straight into the water, so be prepared to get wet, even soaked! At this
point we were pretty hungry and so we headed to the Jurassic themed restaurant. Oh I forgot
to tell you, each and every ride comes with a themed shop and restaurant. This particular one
featured the huge skeleton of a T-rex in the centre (just like the one in the movie) and tables
encircling the skeleton. Sitting there and eating lunch all the while listening to John William’s
beautiful theme music was quite delightful indeed!
Next came ‘Ancient Egypt’, featuring the most scariest ride of the park, ‘The Revenge of the
Mummy’. Now you can either ride a rather ordinary side ride which involves travelling in a car
through ancient Egypt, or you can be man enough to ride the most dangerous rollercoaster
where you will definitely be victimized by scary spirit, that too inside a doomed pyramid. For my
part, I could not ride the scary ride. Yeah, sad. Moving on!
Now came the one I was really excited about. You see I am a big fan of science fiction films, and
when I first visited Universal Studios, my most favorite ride was ‘Trabsformers: The 3D Battle’.
Yes, it still is. But before that let me warn you about ‘Battlestar Galactica’- a rollercoaster that
will get you dizzy for the rest of your life. It is one with way too many twists, daring turns and
scary flips that might misplace your guts. But we avoided it. Where was I? Oh yes Transformers.
As you enter the attraction and stand in queue, Optimus Prime delivers the message that
Decepticons have attacked, chaos is ensuing and that we, the freedom fighters, are earth’s last
hope. And then as we ride the car meant to carry us, our car who is a transformer himself says
“Alright crew, ready or not it’s mission time.” And off we go, twisted, flipped, attacked by
Decepticons and sent through buildings in an attempt to protect our Mcguffin, the Allspark. The
ride ends with us dropping from a building, only saved by Bumblebee in the nick of time and
Optimus congratulates us for saving the earth. Wow, what a ride! It really makes you feel like a
freedom fighter. After this attraction ends, all the excitement starts to ooze away as we
approach our next and final spot.
That place is New York. Similar to Hollywood, New York doesn’t offer much to tempt you. You
can probably head back to your older, exciting rides and ride them again (Yes you can do that, I
rode the Jurassic Park ride twice). The ‘Sesame Street: Spaghetti Space Chase’ is not much of a
thrill, it is rather that laid back credits scene that you watch after a thrilling film ends. It is for
the younger ones who were mostly abandoned from riding many of the rides. Well the premise
says it all, evil aliens have stolen all the spaghetti from earth and now you have to accompany
Elmo in his adventure to space to recover the stolen spaghetti. You can also attend some
special programs on special occasions, or you can reminisce about how you spent one of the
greatest days in your life.
And like that our journey came to an end as we approached Hollywood again. As we stepped
out of the large gates, tears welled up in my eyes as I bid farewell to one of my most favorite
places on earth, and I could spot the bright sun setting on the horizon. If you ever visit
Singapore, do visit this magical place, and then only you can feel the real magic.
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