Universal Studios

Up bright and early once again, we took advantage of the free breakfast once more which consisted of a random combination of foods. A quiche, some pasta in a tomato sauce (cold), a fruit salad (with ice in!) and the usual toast and cereal were on offer. After finishing brekkie, it was on to our final full day in the city.

We spent our last full day in Singapore at Universal Studios which we think has only been open for a few months. Located on Sentosa Island, as mentioned earlier in the week, it was a short train and monorail journey from our hostel.

The queue for tickets at the entrance was quite a short one, and admittance was surprisingly cheap as well. Along with our tickets and park map, we were also given some discount vouchers on merchandise and food around the park.

After passing the trade mark Universal globe outside the entrance and passing under a huge archway, we entered the "Hollywood" area, featuring a mock-American street with a range of shops, signposts, billboards and restaurants, giving the impression that you'd just walked in to downtown Los Angeles.

Hollywood was one of several themed-areas around the park, all set around a large man-made lake which would play host to the nighttime "spectacular". As we remember them, the zones were vintage New York (complete with yellow taxis, steaming manholes and a Broadway-style theatre), Far Far Away Land (the home of Shrek), Madagascar, Ancient Egypt, Sci-Fi Land and Waterworld (which was home to an amazing water-based stunt show).

Each area had different places to eat, all themed to match the area they were in. There were also shops selling gifts that fitted in with each area. For example, in Ancient Egypt there was Egyptian artwork and scultpures, while in Far Far Away Land, there was a range of Shrek merchandise and a Goldilocks Cafe.

After passing an impressive stainless steel American Diner (Mel's) complete with vintage cars outside, we started by entering the New York street, our favourite part of the park. The scenery is very realistic, and there is so much attention to detail. Everytime we walked through the area again during the day, we would spot something new.

There was also a quiet side alley between two blocks of buildings that took you through to a small harbour area and some small vintage shop fronts. We will put some photos up shortly. One of the shops was a loan shark company going by the name of M AULT LOAN COMPANY!

We chose to eat lunch at Mel's Diner, sitting in a booth with traditional red and white seating and a small juke box on the side. The food was typical American Diner-type fayre, with a selection of burgers, hot dogs, etc.

The first ride we chose to go on was in Sci-Fi land and was called the Accelerator. It was basically the Waltz ride, but with a silver and yellow colour scheme and louder noises. Our stay in the relatively small Sci-Fi zone wasn't very long. The two rollercoasters located in the area were both closed which was disapointing.

Next up was Ancient Egypt. We weren't interested in the long wait for the roller coaster in this zone, called The Mummy. We looked in one of the gift shops and decided to queue 20 minutes or so for the a themed-Egyptian explorer car ride. It was, to say the least, slow but over very quick. We didn't seem to do a whole lot of exploring either!

For the ride, you sat in a vintage-styled car that followed a rail around a figure-8 track passing some pretty lame scenery including snakes, Hippos, crocodiles and revolving bugs. All were plastic by the way, and weren't quite as impressive as the animals we had encounrtered the previous night at the NIght Safari.

After photographing some of the Egyptian monuments (Sphinx, etc), we walked through the Jurassic Park section featuring exotic-looking plants and dinosaurs, obviously. There was also the cleverly named "DinoStore". We didn't stop herelong, other than to get a photo and to watch the rapids ride which was puzzlingly empty everytime it passed.

We then moved on to Far Far Away Land, which was cool. A huge castle from the Shrek films provided the backdrop to a brightly coloured zone which was again featured themed shops and restaurants, not to mention happy music and characters from the films hidden pretty much all around.

By this point, we had become quite thirsty and so opted to grab a drink from the Shrek merchandise store. We got a fruit "slush" that was served in a somewhat overpriced plastic potion bottle on a Universal Studios lanyard. Luckily, it was really nice and you got loads!

Before leaving Far Far Away Land, we saw Shrek and Princess Fiona infront of Shrek's tree-stump house and so snook in to line for a photo!

While continuing to sip our giant drinks, we moved on to the Madagascar zone, a film which neither of us have seen! However, we are now desperate to see it having loved the happy, brightly-lit and noisily-themed area. We went on the Merry-go-round twice in an attempt to sit on the illusive Hippo and Giraffe, the new object of our affection! Both times, we failed, and on the second go we ended up clinging on to child-sized Fair Godmothers a "rat thing". We gave up after that.

Next up, we visited Waterworld to watch what had been billed as a spectacular water-based stunt show. To say we were apprehensive about this was an understatement, given that earlier in the day we had been "treated" to a live Monster Rock Show which had also been billed as spectacular, but was utterly dire. It featured Dracula, a Werewolf, a Mummy, Frankenstein and various other horror-show themed character singing and dancing. Considering the double-tiered theatre was full, it would be interesting to know just how many people enjoyed it. The fact that the guy in front of us fell asleep suggests we weren't in a minority - in fact, if we weren't laughing at how bad it was, we may have been asleep too. It was woeful.

So on to Waterworld then, and we kept our expectations low. We were one of the first to enter outdoor theatre, so could chose our seats. The front five or six rows had blue "SOAK ZONE" stickers on them, so we sat a bit further back in the "SPLASH ZONE".

Within minutes, the arena filled. It was a large semi-circle amphitheatre-like stand, built around a large man-made lake which had been built in to a Waterworld theme with ladders, props, boats, gas tanks, etc.

We'd only been sitting a few minutes, when we were first hit by water. And the "show" hadn't started yet! Three of its main characters had appeared at the front, and anyone in the Soak Zone had buckets of water and super-soakers emptied on them. They even did it to kids, making them come up to them before getting a bucket of water from behind their backs and tipping it over them. Genius!

The guys with the water moved around the audience and chose random people and areas to soak people in. Regardless of where you were sat, you were getting wet!

Once the show started, it lived up to its billing, with some superb stunts, jet ski acrobatics and even a huge sea plane bursting through the set and landing in the pool. It was fantastic.

Another highlight of the day was when we chose to return to the NewYork zone to go to the special effects presentation. After a short queue, we were taken in to a theatre-type room where a video introduction by Steven Spielberg welcomed us and described some of the techniques that can be used in films.

We were then led through more doors in to a studio that was filled with water and themed like a boat house/warehouse which surprised us. The show was set during a Hurricane in New York, and throughout the next few minutes things crashed through the set, were set on fire, exploded, etc. It was amazing, although we did get a little wet here too! At the end, a voice-over said "it's a rap" and the set literally began to pull itself back in to its original position once again.

For dinner, we ate in an American-Italian Pizzeria in New York. The food was lovely and the portions were huge. It was packed, but two people invited us to share their table which was nice. The people of Singapore once again showing their generosity to us!

By the time we had finished, the majority of the park had shut. On Friday and Saturday evenings, you could enter the park to dine in either the Hollywood or New York zones and look in the shops between 7pm and 9.30pm for just $5. Each of these two nights ended with a Grand Finale Firework Spectacular..

We managed to get a great position from which to view the fireworks from, and waited for it to get underway at 9.30pm. After a wait for around 45 minutes, it fizzled unenthusiastically in to action, and ended soon after. We were out of the park and making our way home by 9.40pm.

After getting the train back to Little India, our usual stop, we decided to walk up into Little India itself to look at some of the lights for Deepavali, the Indian Festival of Lights. We were both shattered, so after walking a few hundred yards up the main street and taking some photos, we walked the ten minutes back to the hostel and called it a day.