National Day at Universal Studios Singapore
This National Day, I joined my friends from the NUS Choir to visit USS for the 3rd time! There was a promotion for Singapore Citizens and PRs to celebrate Singapore's 47th birthday. The admission ticket cost only $47, and it even came with a free ticket to the Maritime Museum. I suppose RWS had to offer this National Day promotion because it is a holiday which traditionally sees low visitor numbers in the park. However, I think it was not promoted heavily enough. I only heard about it because my friend's friend works there, and when I checked out the RWS facebook page, the promotion was posted on the page only on Sunday.
We were all concerned about crowds considering that it was a public holiday, but to our pleasant surprise, the park was relatively empty the whole day. The longest queue was for Transformers, which peaked at 70 minutes at around midday, but most other rides had very short queues. Battlestar Galactica and Revenge of the Mummy queue times never exceeded 10 minutes throughout the day. The weather was hotter than my last visit in May, but it was cloudy at times and the temperature was bearable. No sunburn, phew! Food was simply amazing. We had lunch at Mel's Diner, where they served a special Jumbo Burger which costs $48. 8 of us shared the burger, so the meal cost a very affordable $6 per person - much more reasonable than the set meals at most other restaurants that cost $12 and up.
Battlestar Galatica: Cylon (x8) was our 1st ride of the day. We planned to be at the gates at 9.45 because being the typical kiasu Singaporeans that we were, we wanted to avoid any long queues. However, the crowds were already large at the gates when we arrived, so we literally made a run for the ride once we all got in, which was pretty hilarious. Unfortunately, after storing our belongings in the ride lockers, we didn't manage to be the first in line. The front row seats were amazing as usual -great view, and I love the first drop, the fog pit and the smoothness of the ride from those seats. Seriously, thank goodness for Battlestar Galactica; USS seems to be too family-friendly. They really need more thrill rides.
The ride attendants no longer allowed spectacles to be worn on the ride, which sucked big time. I brought my spectacle hook, but I was too lazy to take it out. In the end I took every ride without my glasses and totally felt like a blind bat. Nevertheless it was still an amazing ride. Some friends preferred the back row seats. It makes a difference especially on coasters with traditional lift hills. The increased jerkiness of the back row seats also gives a greater sense of "danger" and speed. Both give a great ride experience.
Battlestar Galatica: Human (x2) really seems to pale in comparison, especially immediately after taking Cylon. As my friend said, it's something like an extremely fast train. Other than the initial drop, there really isn't much too exciting about the ride. I learnt a new strategy for taking the coasters though. Don't pull your restraints too far down. If you leave some space, you will get more air-time on the ride as long as the attendants don't adjust them for you.
Next, we headed to Revenge of the Mummy. Another awesome ride but not so unpredictable anymore since I've already experienced it a number of times. Still, it was nice to escape the sweltering heat in this ride. We then wanted to cool off at Jurassic Park Rapids Adventure, but to our dismay, it was temporarily closed due to technical faults. Worse still, the attendants couldn't give us an estimated opening time. This reminded me of my first visit when Canopy Flyer was closed, and remained closed the entire day. All of us were delighted when we saw wet people roaming around the area after our second Mummy ride. Turns out it wasn't a full day closure after all! After all the roller coasters, it didn't feel as exciting, and I also didn't get the super wet seat, but it was still a fun ride nonetheless.
Transformers was next on the agenda. I wasn't too keen to go at first, but decided to join the rest for it since the lines were not too long, and it didn't disappoint at all. The special effects are extremely impressive. We also managed to catch the Waterworld show. It is still a crowd favourite, and fairly so, with the engaging performers and visually appealing stunts and effects. The audience is always in for a good laugh as random audience members get doused with water. After another ride on Jurassic Park, we went to Shrek 4D. Boy, this was terribly boring and lame. I totally would have been better off taking the junior roller coaster Enchanted Airways (yawns).
We went back to Battlestar Galactica for more thrills after that. We split into 2 groups, hoping to see each other on the opposite side, and amazingly this was accomplished after the other 3 managed to take Human twice. Fate or coincidence?
To end off the awesome day, we headed to King Julien's Beach Party-Go-Round. It is extremely well-designed in my opinion, with bright, striking colours and a wide array of cute party animals to choose from. An unconventional way to end, but oh well, it was a blast!
