Universal Studios Singapore

On Friday we took the plunge and visited the Universal Studios Singapore theme park. It was a day before Singapore's school holidays would start, so we were expecting limited waiting times.

The park has 7 areas with various attractions and rides we did savour to some extend. Here's the verdict:

1. Holiwood: We had burgers and fries at Mel's drive in and enjoyed the display of nicely renovated vintage cars including the police car above. We watched the "Monster Rock" show in the Pantages Hollywood Theatre. I liked it a lot and it was (besides loud) a nice R&R pot puree. However I had to explain to the gentlemen what the different monsters were and we added some of them onto the "watch-movie" list.
2. New York: The Lights! Camera! Action! Steven Spielberg show was quite impressive. Universal loves collapsing stuff and pyrotechnic. We skipped the Stage 28 show about movie making.
3. Sci-Fi City: The only open ride was the Accelerator, which the gentlemen rated "quite lame". Luckily we didn't have to queue more than 5 minutes when we reached there. In 2011 Sci-Fi City will add a Transformers attraction and hopefully open the Battlestar Galactica double roller coaster "Cylons/Humans" which looked impressive.
4. Ancient Egypt: features 2 rides, the "Trasure Hunters" which we skipped (rated "too kiddie style" by the gentlemen) and "Revenge of the Mummy". On our first go we queued about 30 minutes for a nice scary ride with good effects. Towards evening (about 7:30pm during extended hours) Anthony and I had a second go with merely 10 minutes wait while in the afternoon waiting times would have been around 90-100 min. We had lunch at the Oasis Cafe with some Falaffel and Kebab. Food was OK.
5. Lost world (best to enjoy in the early morning): We queued a full hour for the "Jurassic Park Rapids Adventure" ride (after checking the ride twice when the waiting times were 90 and 120 min respectively). Nice splashy going with good animated Dinos along the way. Of course a theme park ride about a theme park ride has its own little irony. We skipped the Canopy Flyer when the gentlemen budged at another 90 minutes boring wait. They rather had their go at the "Amber Rock Climb" probing their skills in rock climbing. Singapore style we had to sign a form first to remove injury liability from the operators. The highlight in the Lost World however was the WaterWorld show based on the Kostner movie. Good special effects, amazing stunts and actors driven to make it an experience brought fun to the session. You will get wet.
6. Far Far Away: The Enchanted Airways roller coaster features the Dragon 380 wide body cabins and is a nice mid-level ride. Good to enjoy with very short waiting times when we were there and again and again. The "Shrek-4D Adventure" is a funny Shrek based short 3D movie with a set of extra experiences (hence the 4th D). Good innocent fun. We skipped Donkey LIVE.
7. Madagascar: The main attraction wasn't open, we skipped kiddie rides, food or merchandise.

I liked that every ride did display waiting time information. Probably we will come back once all rides are open. If you go there. Head for the "Lost world" first in the morning - it's the remotest part of the park - to beat the crowd. On Fridays and Saturdays the park has extended opening hours until 10pm. When you start in the morning, depending on your stamina, that would all you need to cover the rides. Of course if you want to sample all the foods, you want to come back another day, but for the food aficionado there are better places in Singapore after all.