I am remembering swiftly that the best thing about working long cruises is the utterly amazing days where you get to play hooky. And this was not something that happened to me a lot on my previous job, in fact, I would go so far as to say it happened never.
Until this contract, when I suddenly realized that…I have nights off. I have entire days off. I am still getting used to this rather abnormal concept, and I don’t think I’m about to forget just how lucky I am.
Weather nearly kept us away from Universal Studios today, but thankfully the skies – while threatening – held off on dumping their contents on our heads. Always appreciated. That said, the overcast sky seemed enough to keep most of the crowds away, which is always a definite bonus.
We aren’t docked at our normal terminal, so it was a ten-minute taxi ride to Sentosa Island where the park is located. I’ve never approached Sentosa from anywhere but above (we usually take the cable car over) so I had completely forgotten how big the place was. Fortunately the taxi dropped us off only steps from the park entrance (literally, it was one flight of stairs away), so we were able to get our entrance passes and our Express ride passes in near-record time.
The express ride passes were a new thing for me, they allow you to bypass the main line once on each ride in the park. Since I wasn’t going to be doing Single Rider lines this time around the passes proved to be an exceptionally good choice. Especially since the lines on some attractions can reach upwards of an hour! As it was, we were able to ride every major ride in the park at least once without having to wait more than 10 minutes at any time. I’d say that’s definitely a worthwhile investment.
The main entrance spills directly into “Hollywood” where we immediately bumped into Beetlejuice (Even without saying his name three times), before heading around the corner through “Madagascar” and into “Far Far Away” (home of Shrek) to attempt to ride the Puss in Boots coaster ride that had been under construction the last time we were both there…
You see, Amras and I have both been to Universal Singapore, but we have never been together. One fateful contract a few seasons ago we were on almost identical runs, exactly three days apart, which means that we have the pictures that somewhat look as though we went to Universal together, when in fact we were there separately. So there were things we had seen, and things we hadn’t seen, but nothing we had seen as a pair…one of those was the Puss in Boots ride…
I say we attempted to ride it because when we got to the front of the line (which was only 10 minutes ,we didn’t even bother express passing it) the attraction encountered technical difficulties and ended up having to be shut down for a few hours; leaving us to decide what to do next.
Amras has one favourite ride in the park, and since it was nearby (and indoors, which, with the skies still threatening, was definitely a good thing) off to Revenge of the Mummy we went.
Revenge of the Mummy (which we usually just call “The Mummy”) is an amazing dark coaster that pits the rider against the evils of the ancient Egyptian priest Imotep (forgive me on the spelling), in a series of drops, twists and speeds high enough that you’re pretty sure that at some point you left your stomach behind on the tracks somewhere. Plus fire-effects, and spins, and at one point the damn thing goes backwards. In short: it’s brilliant. Near the top on my list of favourite dark coasters. Like a few other rides in the park, you can’t take anything with you onto the Mummy ride, because it goes so quickly and anything that fell or got in the way would get lost in the dark; so everything is loaded into free lockers before riding. Even my hair clip, although thankfully not my glasses.
Once we survived our battle with the undead, we emerged into Carter’s Curiosities, which is by far my favourite shop in the park as it’s all Egyptian mythology motifs. I usually have to pretend I don’t have a credit card when I walk in there. By the time we actually got back outside it had started to rain, though thankfully not very hard, and not cold, so it wasn’t too much of an inconvenience, although it’s never particularly nice to get rained on while standing in line.
For me, even though the weather was starting to be ever so slightly against us, there was only one ride in the park that was a must.
Next door to “Ancient Egypt” is Sci-Fi City, Universal’s answer to Disney’s “Tomorrowland”, and the skyline of Sci-Fi City is dominated by just one thing: the twisting, interwoven tracks of Galactica. More properly known as Battlestar Galactica: Human vrs Cylon, they are the tallest coasters of their kind in the world reaching a height of 42.5 metres, and they have been closed for ongoing maintenance and upgrades since just after 2012 when I last road them. Which means I have been to the park multiple seasons, and haven’t ridden those coasters in over 4 years. Amras had never ridden them at all as they were still closed the last time he was on a run that called in Singapore.
Which one do you want first? Cylon is a hanging coaster, Human is a seated coaster
Hanging!
So we stored our gear in the mandatory locker and ran through the rain to the express line up. The regular line up for Galactica is almost always over an hour, so this was definitely the time when the express passes came in the handiest. We also discovered just how serious they are about not letting a single loose item on the coaster. There’s a staff menu at the attraction entrance with a detector wand checking every single guest who boards: no passports, no money, no wallets, nothing. If they discover you still have something in your pocket, they will send you back to the lockers to secure it. Roller coaster risk prevention at its finest. Speaking of safety, the announcement that came before we boarded made me giggle
Ladies and Gentlemen welcome to Battlestar Galactica, please make sure all personal belongings are secured in a locker before riding and please note as it is raining outside you definitely will get wet on this ride!
We wove our way through the very detailed que (obviously designed for when the lines reach outrageous lengths so that those waiting have something to look at), and found ourselves at the loading platform, where I even had to devest myself of my glasses before riding! Once seated, we pulled down the shoulder restraints. The restraints on Galactica are not like regular coaster restraints. The reason for this (I think) is that the coaster reaches intensely high speeds not to mention pulling both inside and outside loops, that means negative G-forces, so the restraints are unusually heavy – feeling more like the lead aprons that are used to protect you from X-rays than regular restraints! Once those braces are in place you are not going anywhere, and you’re buckled in on top of it. If nothing else, I definitely felt safe during take off!
And take off we did! Galactica doesn’t launch with a standard chain lift, it rockets with a compressed air launch and it’s fast right from the beginning. Whichever coaster you are on (it’s a two part ride) you are racing against the other side, and at times appearing to nearly collide with it! I can only imagine being the person who designed all of this.
Once we had exited the Cylon side of the ride, laughing, and yes definitely damp from the rain, we zipped around the corner to board the “Human” side of the coaster which is a seated version. Don’t let the fact that it’s seated lull you into thinking it’s tame, the Human side of the coaster reaches the insane speed of 90km per hour, and the riders on the Human side end up with more G-force experiences than those on the hanging coaster! And at those speeds? Little tiny flecks of rain start to sting, as a result our ride picture from the human side is hilariously terrible because were unable to open our eyes at all because of the rain! Even though it was hardly really raining!
We actually purchased all our ride photos, because Universal now offers the same deal that the Disney parks have offered for a while: if you purchase a photo pass package you get digital copies of all the professional photos shot in the park. So any time you see a cast member with a camera you can snag a shot – doesn’t matter if it’s a character encounter (we met Marylin Monroe) or a ride photo, they all get loaded into the same card and fall under the same purchase blanket. Once you get to more than 10 photos? It works out to just a few dollars a piece. Definitely worth it for all those memories! Especially the ones that make you laugh!
We wiped the rain out of our eyes, gathered our belongings from the locker and started exploring. Along the way we grabbed food (Advertised as the best hot dogs in Hollywood, not quite sure about that but hey, at least it was food!) before making our way to Transformers 4D, for which we were lucky enough to get a seat in the front of the car (again, thank you Express Pass) for the jolting, jarring, and occasionally falling, simulation of saving the city from the Decepticons (yes spell check that is a word, clearly no one programmed you to recognize classic pop culture). Still one of my favourites.
Somewhere along the line we found our way to Lights, Camera, Action; the special effects demonstration that put us smack in the middle of a category 5 hurricane hitting New York. After which, New York, puts itself back together (“set back to 1 everyone! That’s a wrap!”). It reminded me a lot of the old tram ride in Universal LA, where the bridge reconstructs itself; one of my favorite memories.
Over the course of the rest of the day we actually did manage to ride every ride in the park except for the Merry-Go-Round (which was definitely geared towards people much smaller than us) and one ride in Jurassic Park..
Ah yes, Jurassic Park…
We did eventually do Jurassic Park, although I kept finding convenient ways to put it off (mostly consisting of “we’ll get wet on that one, so let’s leave it for now) – which were meant partially to (unsuccessfully) mask the fact that I am a terrible coward when it comes to that ride. That said, it almost ended up out of our hands whether we rode or not, because that thunder storm that had been threatening all day showed intense signs of starting, and in that kind of weather the park closes all the outdoor attractions for safety reasons. And Jurassic Park Rapids ? is definitely outside. So for a while every time we came back to the line there was no line because the ride wasn’t open. Which was fine by me as we used that time to ride the Mummy again (we have three pictures from the Mummy)…which was fine by me J
Jurassic Park opened at long last, with only about an hour or so to spare. I wish I could say why this ride terrifies me so much, but I think it has something to do with the fact that I have always kept my eyes closed. When you’re blessed with a vivid imagination, it can make it ten times worse than what’s really there! We were riding with three younger girls who I swear were jumpier than me, which is part of what helped me keep my eyes open this time.
I think it’s something to do with things jumping out at me from the dark
But it isn’t dark…
It is once we get to the hydraulics plant!
Easy, I’ve got you…you’re working yourself up for more than there is.
Once I forced myself to open my eyes in the darkness I discovered it is not…actually dark. There is much more ambient light than I thought, and the actual autoanimitronics are much…less intimidating than my mind makes them out to be.
The upshot of all this is that I actually now have a ride picture of Jurassic Park where I am looking up at the camera, and my eyes are open!!!
Because the big giant dinosaur didn’t eat me…
At long last the day was winding to a close; we picked up our photo pass data at the main shopping street in Hollywood and headed out into the gathering twilight. That said, we were not quite ready to go home. I’ve never been able to go to Sentosa at night, since in my previous position I always had to be back on the ship by – at the very latest – 8pm. I’ve never seen the place by true night, and it’s beautiful. Having wandered through the festive lights and even explored the massive candy store (where I bravely resisted a t-shirt that stated that chocolate is salad), we climbed the stairs and walked straight into the light show that was playing across the giant Sentosa Merlion. It was one of those beautifully surprising moments that just jumps on you once in a while. All these breathtaking lights and the flower-scented evening air. All you could do was just…watch…and try to catch your breath.
Sometimes that’s all you can do after a really good day: just pause, and try to catch your breath…
And let yourself be happy.