Universal Studios Singapore was a dream trip, right after Disneyland on my bucket list. For the amount of 75 SGD per person (about $55 USD), you can enjoy one day of all participating attractions Universal Studios Singapore (USS) has to offer. But one day is not enough to do everything.
Universal Studios in Singapore
USS has lockers where you can store your valuables and bags, depending on its size. It’s free for a short period but you can just pay for the succeeding minutes. We needed it since there were attractions that do not allow phones or any gadget.
We wanted an extreme experience, so we went to Transformer the Ultimate 3D battle as our first ride. The line wasn’t that long, so we didn’t really have to wait for our turn. With our 3D glasses on, we got ready for the mission. This is not for the weak hearted, especially with its unpredictable drops, sudden turns, flying broken glasses and huge robots fighting. It made us feel we were part of the real movie. With that high level of adrenaline, we wanted more extremes.
And so, here comes Ancient Egypt: Revenge of the Mummy. At first, we thought it’s like an ordinary horror ride. But as soon as we enter the great ancient Egyptian themed building, we got our heebie-jeebies on the creepy sculptures along the hallway. We had to wait for few minutes because the queue was quite long.
The ride started so slow that it was kind of boring since we can only see total darkness and then there was the sudden drop that made us scream at the top of our lungs. The ride was short – I wish it was longer.
There are two more extreme rides that are left on our list, and we chose Battlestar Galactica – CYLON because the line wasn’t that long.
By the way, outside the rides are the number of people waiting inside and how long will it take for your turn which I guess is a good idea. At least you know how much time you will waste in waiting. That explains why one day is not enough to do everything in USS.
After waiting for about 30 minutes, we got our option to remove our footwear or make sure our shoes are tightly worn on our feet because our legs will be hanging in the air. This is not recommended for people who have heart problems as this ride will absolutely make your heart skip a beat – and not in a romantic way!
Sitting on an inverted roller coaster, you have to trust the seat locking device will do its job in keeping you safe and won’t betray you, even though it felt like the opposite. The ride felt so long though it wasn’t really. We even had to check if all parts of our body were still intact!
Since we had all three extreme rides, all other attractions were like boring already. In Far Far Away -the fairy tale part of USS, we watched the Puss in Boots show. In USS, the big cat dances. It’s really entertaining for kids mostly.
So, we tried Shrek 4D Adventure. Since it is 4D, we had to wear 3D glasses and physical effects which included movement of seats, every time the donkey sneezes some liquid was sprayed on our face which felt nasty, and crawling creatures on our legs which felt like tickling spiders. It was a funny experience which is recommended for toddlers who are not afraid of Shrek.
In all, Universal Studios Singapore definitely lives up to the hype – if you don’t mind long waits and a lot of walking.
About Norm Schriever
Norm Schriever is a blogger, Amazon best-sellling author, cultural mad scientist, and enemy of the comfort zone. His work appears in the Huffington Post, Business.com, Good Morning America, The Anderson Cooper Show on CNN, NBC, MSN, Yahoo, Hotels.com, and media all around the world.
Norm grew up in Connecticut and graduated from the University of Connecticut, where he was never accused of overstudying. After expatriating to Costa Rica in 2011, he started traveling the world and documenting what he saw. He now lives in Southeast Asia, writing his heart out and working with local charities.
