Universal Studios Singapore
I was extremely excited when I first heard that Universal Studios was opening in Singapore. However, less than two weeks after it opened in early 2010, its signature attraction - the Battlestar Galactica dueling roller coasters, was closed after facing serious technical issues. This closure lasted almost a year. During this time, I patiently waited for any news of its reopening, and finally, when they announced the ride was to resume operations, I immediately made plans to visit the theme park with my friends. In this post I'll run through a list of the various rides and attractions that we visited, along with some of my thoughts.
The park entrance leads directly into the HOLLYWOOD zone, which features numerous souvenir shops, restaurants, cafes, as well as many character meet-and-greet opportunities. The only attraction here is Monster Rock (6.5/10), a 20-minute rock-n-roll musical featuring the Universal Monsters, which I felt was pretty mediocre. Lights, Camera, Action! (8/10), meanwhile, at the adjacent NEW YORK zone, was quite an impressive special effects show depicting a Category 5 hurricane hitting New York City.
SCI-FI CITY is home to the Battlestar Galactica dueling roller coasters. One feature which I found interesting was that instead of a traditional chain lift the coasters are launched using LSM (Linear Synchronous Motors). Cylon (9/10) is the blue track that features 5 inversions. It was my first time riding an inverted roller coaster and I really enjoyed being suspended, feet dangling, with no track but only the ground, or at certain times, the central lagoon below you. A nice touch was the pit of artificial fog that greets you just before entering the vertical loop. Human (8.5/10) is the sit-down roller coaster that travels on the red track. The ride attendant got us pumped up before the ride by asking us, "are you ready to defeat the Cylons?" Too bad we couldn't see the other train to find out who eventually "won the battle", but as my last ride for the day, it was definitely a great way of ending on a high. We also tried the spinning tea cups ride Accelerator (2/10), but it was terribly boring. You can actually rotate the wheel in the centre to make your car spin faster, but I thought it was still rather slow.
Revenge of the Mummy (9/10) is an indoor roller coaster also found in Universal Studios Hollywood and Florida and the centrepiece of the ANCIENT EGYPT zone. It was really nice to take this ride at midday to escape from the terrible Singapore heat and humidity. The long queue lines snake through the interior of an Egyptian tomb and the tunnels get increasingly dark and creepy. The suspenseful background music reminded me of Indiana Jones Adventure in Disneyland. I took this ride twice, and it was still extremely thrilling the second time around. The ride also goes backwards at some point, and has some really impressive special effects. Despite the absence of large drops, the roller coaster is quite fast, reaching a top speed of 72km/h.
Over in THE LOST WORLD, you can find Waterworld (8.5/10). One of the must-see attractions at the park, it is a live show based on the movie. Queues start to form as long as 30 minutes before the show. The pre-show was almost as amusing as the actual show, as the performers would sneak up on unsuspecting audience members and douse them with water cannons, and for a lucky few, pour buckets of water on their heads. The actual show also boasted some nice special effects and stunts. Jurassic Park Rapids Adventure (7.5/10) is the river rapids version of the classic Jurassic Park rides in the other Universal parks. While the drop wasn't that high, there was an element of uncertainty with regards to how wet you could get, depending on your final position on the raft when heading into the final plunge. I wasn't too disappointed with the ride. Canopy Flyer is a small suspended roller coaster. I was really looking forward to this ride, but it was closed for the day due to technical difficulties. The ride vehicle has two back-facing seats, which would certainly have been fun. Hope it would be open during my next visit.
FAR FAR AWAY is based on the Shrek franchise. Shrek 4-D Adventure (6/10) is set immediately after the events of the first film. Princess Fiona is kidnapped by the ghost of Lord Farquaad and Shrek and Donkey set out to rescue her. The 4D effect is achieved by movable seats and mist sprayers. Unfortunately, I was slightly disappointed that the seat movement was minimal, which was to be expected given that seatbelts were absent. The special effects were rather cool though. Enchanted Airways (7.5/10) is a junior roller coaster. With the massive Battlestar Galactica dueling coasters looming across the lagoon, this ride seemed to pale in comparison, but it was also fairly thrilling, mainly due to the surprisingly high speed of the train - it reaches a maximum speed of 45.9km/h, which is considerably fast for a family ride. This was the very first ride that I took at the park, and I thought that it was a good warm-up for the more intense rides to follow. Donkey Live (5/10) is an interactive live show that makes use of digital puppetry technology. For me, it was rather amusing at first, but the audience was not very enthusiastic and probably due to lack of time, only one audience member was chosen to interact with Donkey.
MADAGASCAR has two attractions, the carousel King Julien's Beach Party-Go-Round which we skipped and Madagascar: A Crate Adventure, which was still under construction at the time.
Ultimately, we managed to cover a good number of attractions with some time to spare. It helped that we visited on a Wednesday; the park wasn't overly crowded. As an adrenaline junkie, my favourite rides were without question the 3 major roller coasters, both of the Battlestar Galactica dueling coasters as well as Revenge of the Mummy. Battlestar Galactica had just reopened after a prolonged closure and I was really happy we got to take both rides, though the Human (Red) side was closed temporarily during the day due to technical issues. I will definitely come back when more rides are opened.
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| The Univesral globe at dusk |
The park entrance leads directly into the HOLLYWOOD zone, which features numerous souvenir shops, restaurants, cafes, as well as many character meet-and-greet opportunities. The only attraction here is Monster Rock (6.5/10), a 20-minute rock-n-roll musical featuring the Universal Monsters, which I felt was pretty mediocre. Lights, Camera, Action! (8/10), meanwhile, at the adjacent NEW YORK zone, was quite an impressive special effects show depicting a Category 5 hurricane hitting New York City.
SCI-FI CITY is home to the Battlestar Galactica dueling roller coasters. One feature which I found interesting was that instead of a traditional chain lift the coasters are launched using LSM (Linear Synchronous Motors). Cylon (9/10) is the blue track that features 5 inversions. It was my first time riding an inverted roller coaster and I really enjoyed being suspended, feet dangling, with no track but only the ground, or at certain times, the central lagoon below you. A nice touch was the pit of artificial fog that greets you just before entering the vertical loop. Human (8.5/10) is the sit-down roller coaster that travels on the red track. The ride attendant got us pumped up before the ride by asking us, "are you ready to defeat the Cylons?" Too bad we couldn't see the other train to find out who eventually "won the battle", but as my last ride for the day, it was definitely a great way of ending on a high. We also tried the spinning tea cups ride Accelerator (2/10), but it was terribly boring. You can actually rotate the wheel in the centre to make your car spin faster, but I thought it was still rather slow.
Revenge of the Mummy (9/10) is an indoor roller coaster also found in Universal Studios Hollywood and Florida and the centrepiece of the ANCIENT EGYPT zone. It was really nice to take this ride at midday to escape from the terrible Singapore heat and humidity. The long queue lines snake through the interior of an Egyptian tomb and the tunnels get increasingly dark and creepy. The suspenseful background music reminded me of Indiana Jones Adventure in Disneyland. I took this ride twice, and it was still extremely thrilling the second time around. The ride also goes backwards at some point, and has some really impressive special effects. Despite the absence of large drops, the roller coaster is quite fast, reaching a top speed of 72km/h.
Over in THE LOST WORLD, you can find Waterworld (8.5/10). One of the must-see attractions at the park, it is a live show based on the movie. Queues start to form as long as 30 minutes before the show. The pre-show was almost as amusing as the actual show, as the performers would sneak up on unsuspecting audience members and douse them with water cannons, and for a lucky few, pour buckets of water on their heads. The actual show also boasted some nice special effects and stunts. Jurassic Park Rapids Adventure (7.5/10) is the river rapids version of the classic Jurassic Park rides in the other Universal parks. While the drop wasn't that high, there was an element of uncertainty with regards to how wet you could get, depending on your final position on the raft when heading into the final plunge. I wasn't too disappointed with the ride. Canopy Flyer is a small suspended roller coaster. I was really looking forward to this ride, but it was closed for the day due to technical difficulties. The ride vehicle has two back-facing seats, which would certainly have been fun. Hope it would be open during my next visit.
FAR FAR AWAY is based on the Shrek franchise. Shrek 4-D Adventure (6/10) is set immediately after the events of the first film. Princess Fiona is kidnapped by the ghost of Lord Farquaad and Shrek and Donkey set out to rescue her. The 4D effect is achieved by movable seats and mist sprayers. Unfortunately, I was slightly disappointed that the seat movement was minimal, which was to be expected given that seatbelts were absent. The special effects were rather cool though. Enchanted Airways (7.5/10) is a junior roller coaster. With the massive Battlestar Galactica dueling coasters looming across the lagoon, this ride seemed to pale in comparison, but it was also fairly thrilling, mainly due to the surprisingly high speed of the train - it reaches a maximum speed of 45.9km/h, which is considerably fast for a family ride. This was the very first ride that I took at the park, and I thought that it was a good warm-up for the more intense rides to follow. Donkey Live (5/10) is an interactive live show that makes use of digital puppetry technology. For me, it was rather amusing at first, but the audience was not very enthusiastic and probably due to lack of time, only one audience member was chosen to interact with Donkey.
MADAGASCAR has two attractions, the carousel King Julien's Beach Party-Go-Round which we skipped and Madagascar: A Crate Adventure, which was still under construction at the time.
Ultimately, we managed to cover a good number of attractions with some time to spare. It helped that we visited on a Wednesday; the park wasn't overly crowded. As an adrenaline junkie, my favourite rides were without question the 3 major roller coasters, both of the Battlestar Galactica dueling coasters as well as Revenge of the Mummy. Battlestar Galactica had just reopened after a prolonged closure and I was really happy we got to take both rides, though the Human (Red) side was closed temporarily during the day due to technical issues. I will definitely come back when more rides are opened.
