Foreigners In Singapore - Fourth Day: Ride Of Our Lives

I could name countless reasons why we visited Singapore, but visiting Sentosa's Universal Studios was one thing we made sure we wouldn't miss.   Months ago, we already booked for it, with the help of our sister, Jen.  Our thanks to her for making it possible for us to experience such magnificent place.  So, ready or not, here we go...

There are 4 ways to go to Sentosa (as far as I know), a bus ride (stops outside VivoCity), through the cable car ride, level 3 VivoCity Sentosa Express and  a walk over the bridge towards Sentosa... we took the express.  Upon arrival, we immediately took some pictures with the ever famous Universal Studios globe.  That alone was good enough for me, but didn't want the money we spent to go to waste, so I was  forced to go inside... you kidding me, I was dying to go inside.

First stop, Hollywood.  Just missed Poh, the Kung Fu Panda.  He must had been summoned by his master, hehehe.  Glad we still met other well-known characters like the speechless Frankenstein, the cutie Winnie Woodpecker and the ever sexy Betty Boop.  We enjoyed posing with them for a pic, especially the kids.  You just need a little patience in falling in line and wait for your turn.  They're quite popular, you know.

Help! hehehe...

 

 

We had our first ride in Madagascar: A Crate Adventure.  The line's kinda long, so we took some pics first with the replica of the four main characters: Alex, Marty, Melman and Gloria.

Then we had our turn for the river boat ride.  It brought us inside through a hole in a huge ship.  Inside was the dark interior of the ship, we were entertained by the trail of adventure of our four heroes, with their lifelike moving figures (probably robotics) and special effects (light, sound and water sprays).

After, we visited Shrek's palace in Far Far Away.  Here we experienced our first roller coaster ride in the Enchanted Airways.  Though it was a junior size coaster, still it wasn't for the weak of hearts.  It also had sudden and heart-stopping twists, turns and drops that would surely weaken your knees and make your world turn around a little bit faster.  A piece of advice, shouting or crying can release the pressure... LOL.

For a breather, we watched the Shrek's 4-D adventure.  Here, with the seats moving, sound and mechanical effects and illusion made by the 3-D glasses, we had a greater perspective of the movie, especially the spiders and the sneezing part, just amazing.

We also had their Magic Potion Spin.  It was a ferris wheel for children, and its one of my kids favorite... something they would not miss, and they made sure of it.

Moving on to The Lost World.  I'm just fascinated with dinosaurs when I was young... and seeing their life-size figures just made me very excited.  We tried first their kiddie ride, Dino-Soarin.  Here we rode in a Pteranodon (flying reptile), which had a button where you can control to soar high or go down as you move around the place.
Then, we prepared ourselves to get wet with Jurassic Park Rapids Adventure.  We bought protective coverings for the kids while we took the risk of getting wet.  During our raft ride, my kids were really afraid especially my son who was already covering her face on the lap of her mom.  We passed by inside a containment facility where the dinosaurs escaped their cages.  The thrilling part was when we were lifted in an elevator, while there was a T-rex waiting at the opening above, then  we were suddenly flooded down in a steep slope.  Luckily, we were not on the part of the raft were the water splashed, otherwise we could have been soaked wet.  But just in case one gets wet, there was a cabin-like dryer in the area after the ride, wasn't free though.



And we rode another nerve-wrecking ride, the Canopy Flyer.  Here, we were suspended in a short coaster-like ride being thrown around Jurassic Park.  I asked my kids if they enjoyed it, and said they did... they weren't afraid.  Me and my wife, it took our breath away, literally.
We took a break here to eat some heavy snacks.  We had tried their spicy turkey drumstick and siopao, and boy, was it good.

Then, to the mysterious Ancient Egypt.  We haven't tried the rides here since we were so busy posing for shots at the relics and with some famous characters like Cleopatra and Egyptian warriors.  Personally, I thought that Revenge of the Mummy was another 4-D adventure, when in fact it was an indoor roller coaster ride... ha ha.  Well, my mind was lingering to somewhere else that time.

 

Finally, we arrived at the most challenging part where the most challenging rides were, Sci-Fi City.  I was dying to ride Battlestar Galactica, oh my, was I was dying. My heart was pounding hard just thinking at that moment that I would be riding that coaster.  My wife just talked me to it, that when will I go to try it, when I'm no longer capable?  Having said that, I told her that we'll do it.   And we did.   And guess what, there's no long line there, unlike our previous rides.  Come to think of it, just think of how uncomfortable it was convincing your body and mind that it must be done.  And before we knew it, we're zooming in their "Human" seated coaster (it was the red track).  It was mixed emotion of excitement, fear of the unknown, and this is it, can't turn back now.  The sudden twists, turns and drops were just mind bugling...it made me stiffen with my blood rushing to my head.  We were shouting the whole time during the ride, at least we knew that we haven't passed out.  At last the torture, I mean the fun ended and like brave soldiers we were met by people clapping their hands (wondered why, but I was also clapping my hands too... I'm alive).  I didn't stand up right away since I was waiting for my spirit to catch up with me, I left him somewhere along the way LOL.  We hadn't tried the "Cylon" suspended coaster (blue track) since we didn't have enough time already (excuses? hehehe...).

Haven't got enough yet, we tried their newest attraction, Transformers The Ride: The Ultimate 3D Battle.  It was a very, very long line.  Even heard someone murmuring, "hope this is worth the wait".  So we enjoyed ourselves looking at some of the Transformers paraphernalia and screen shows along the way.  Then, our turn came and we were secured inside a vehicle.  Inside, we were dragged in a battle between the Autobots and Decepticons, with the latter wanted badly to destroy us.  We were fired upon with missiles,  vacuumed towards a huge crushing robot, slammed in a building and thrown from the building to the ground.  Good thing were always  saved by autobots.  It was so realistic, that my son wasn't looking anymore. 

To relax our nerves, we then took some pics around with the famous robots of Transformers.  Too bad, we missed Optimus Prime, oh well, can't have them all.

After, we had snacks, again, but this time in classic 1950's diner Mel's Drive-In.  We also enjoyed the live show outside, a quartet, singing golden hits.  And had pics with their classic cars parked also outside the diner.

We then stopped and took some shots of the old New York.  It seemed like your in a different country and traveled back in time.  We didn't stay long and hadn't watched Lights, Camera, Action! since we were pulled by Hollywood's Monster Rock.  It was a live concert performed by classic monsters but with a modern touch in music and costumes.  Really enjoyed the light fun, whew.

Then as promised, we returned to Madagascar's King Julien's Beach Party-Go-Round.  If there was another thing that my kids enjoy more aside from the ferris wheel, it's a merry-go-round.  So, after a countless of spin around, we decided to call it a day (since they were already closing the part where the rides were).

 

And we had a relaxing walk and took some pics along Hollywood shops until we came by a shop named That's a Wrap, and indeed it was.  Thank You, Yahweh, for such a once in a lifetime experience.

The kids had fun... it's all that matters.