Today was the day we went to visit Universal Studios. We were both excited however didnt know what to expect. Sophie had heard there were rides and games whereas I had heard it was a tour backstage where the films are shot. To our surprise we were both right!

We were collected at our hotel and taken straight to the Universal Studios where we were given tickets on arrival meaning no queuing for us!! We walked straight in to be greeted by "cooling zones", yes that's right, It was so hot there that you had to stand in cooling zones to survive the heat. Cooling zones were fans that shot out dry frozen air and be Jesus it did cool you down! We decided to hit the studio hard regardless to the heat!! The first ride we attended was a backstage studio tour which was very clever and interesting. We learnt how they perform stunts on TV such as blowing cars up and creating floods! We had a few acts performed for us on our trip such as a scene from "physco", "jaws" and "the mummy". The mummy was in 3D where we was locked in a room surrounded by 3D TVs which made us feel like the room was spinning! We also had a taster of being in King Kong where we stayed on a bus that was surrounded by 3D TVs and again King Kong fought with other creatures whilst jumping over the bus we were in causing the bus to shake. We were even dragged off a cliff but King Kong saved us at the last minute!! Damn those 3D TVs are believable! We were told the King Kong set was the largest 3D screens in the world and that Kong Kong was the largest 360degrees 3D experience.

Our next ride was The Simpsons ride which was actually one of our favourites. It appeared to be a roller coaster however it was just a simulator but was the best simulator we have both ever been on! The ride lasted around 10 minutes but was very believable and fun! Now we had a taste for roller coasters we decided to head to the part of the studios that had 3 massive roller coasters. The park alone was massive and took us at least 10 minutes walking from section to section of the studio!!

The first roller coaster we reached was Jurassic Park! Not only was it a roller coaster, it also had realistic moving dinosaurs that liked to spit water at you, large ponds that the roller coaster shot through (yes you got drenched) and at the end you shot down a massive free fall and yes landed in water!!! We were both drenched and were not expecting to get wet so were both very surprised!! We next hit The Mummy roller coaster which luckily was dry however was fast and 4D, the most rememberable part of this ride was when the scarab beetles jumped out on the TVs, the roller coaster shot random chunks of air rapidly on you ankles and for a second it felt that these scallywag beetles were actually on the roller coaster!! The last roller coaster was The Transformer ride which was a 3D ride that was also good. On this ride you watch as a car shoots around with you in as all around you transformer people fight and shockingly the good ones win :O

The rides were complete and we noticed the Shrek 4D was about to begin. I've never seen Shrek but Sophie loves him so we were soon off to see his newest adventure. The queue was massive however everyone seemed to fit into the cinema. We watched as Shrek ran around to save the princess and were involved via the 4D in all of Shreks adventures. I didn't quite get what Shrek was about but the 4D made it very entertaining and Pinocchio also made me chuckle at the end! Next on the list was special effects! These special effects are used regularly in TV and were actually very clever. The guys doing the show tried a bit too hard to be funny however everyone seemed to enjoy and appreciate the amount of talent needed to perform the effects.

As soon as the special effects finished we ran over to catch the end of the Blues Brothers. This was a musical show by actors dressed as the Blues Brothers however this again was very entertaining and attracted a massive crowd. We noticed that The Terminator 2 3D was the next show starting so quickly sneaked off to get first in queue. We were second in queue but that's not too bad. The Terminator was very good and the cast showing us in to our seats were actually part of the show and so it all kicked off from every angle. The show kept jumping in and out the the large screen in front of us which was incredible! Explosions went off all around us and sadly the Terminator destroyed itself to save the human race!! Sounds familiar....

Next was waterworld!! Finally a film I had seen and Sophie hadn't!! Waterworld was amazing and we got soaked again! I talked Sophie into sitting in the soak zone :) the show was basically identical to the film except now it was crushed down into a 20min show. This was very good with explosions going off left right and centre!! Amazing!!

We managed to get to the last show which was famous animals. We saw some famous animals and they showed us some tricks. We also learnt about their life stories and how they were trained to do the tricks. Most of the animals in movies are rescued animals and have to attend auditions to get the job...... Pretty intense stuff!!

Sadly the day had to end and our taxi was waiting to pick us up. We left after managing to see every show and ride every roller coaster!! We headed back to our hotel and ate in the restaurant knowing this was the last proper meal of our trip. We planned a early night as we knew the next day would be a long however as usual we ended up having a late night and over sleeping.........