Singapore-Universal Studios 9/2/11

On a trip around the world for my job, I had a day off in Singapore. What do crazy enthusiasts do with a day off in a foreign country? Find the closest rollercoaster possible!

I woke up early this morning and got on the computer to figure out how far the park was from my hotel to see if it was feasible. Our hotel is right next to the Singapore Flyer (the huge ferris wheel) and they are also preparing the streets for the Formula 1 race at the end of the month. (wish I could be here for that) At any rate found out the park was a couple of subway and Sentosa Express ride away!

Ran into a guy I work with at breakfast and I told him my plans and so I had a riding partner for the day. We headed out just before nine and were rolling into the park by 9:40. We got tickets quickly and then waited in extremely long lines to get in. Made it into the actual park right at opening time and of course headed off to the main attraction.

Battlestar Galactica: I knew nothing about this ride but knew from looking at it that I wanted to ride the blue side (Cylon) first. We went to get on and got turned away from the loose article Nazi's. Time to run around and find a locker. Luckily if the ride doesn't take too long you don't have to pay for the locker! We walked right onto this ride and got the front row for our first ride. Luck was with us. We got strapped in and I took a closer look at the track and seats and knew right away this wasn't a B&M or Intamin. I had to guess this was the new Vekoma trains everyone has talked about...here goes nothin'. You take a quick left turn out of the station and just as I started to notice the absence of anti-rollback clicks we took off! This thing launches you up the lift and most of the ride was a blur after that. I remember the first cobra roll and then a loop way late in the ride that went through a misting tunnel and circled the lift hill. I also remember a cool inline twist right over the lift hill at the end. From the front, this ride was smooth with some awesome inversions in totally unique places! Loved the new Vekoma trains from the front.

We went so fast on that side we decided to jump over to the red side (Human). This side is not inverted. We had a little more time on this side and I started noticing things that may be a problem later in the day. 1 train ops and they launch both coasters together. The second part is nice but not really necessary on this ride and it just slows down the process especially with 1 train ops. The red side obviously launches up the lift hill also and then has a nice dive towards the lake with some sweet airtime. After that it is kind of meh. This is the family version and the blue side is the thrill seeker version.

After the dueling coasters I got my stuff out of the locker, in time so I didn't have to pay and we started down to the next ride. Revenge of the Mummy was next. I haven't done a stateside Mummy ride so I don't know if these rides are the same. This has a pretty good production with some nice special affects. I wasn't expecting the backwards part at all. the actual coaster ride in the dark was pretty fun. I wish I got to ride it again, but it was pretty packed the rest of the day. I thought this was a real winner.

Jurassic Park- the water ride was down so we waited our 30 minutes to ride Canopy Flyer. This ride is extremely short but I know my kids would have loved it. I got a good picture of the Castle in Far Far Away on the lift hill of this ride...that was the highlight.

Water World Stunt Show- Some cool action sequences with lots of loud explosions. The airplane being launched onto the set out of nowhere was cool. My kids would have enjoyed every minute of this show. Especially getting soaked in the splash zones from the jet skis.

Shrek 4D- This was a pretty long wait but worth it. I am a sucker for these shows and happen to love this series even though they milked it for all it was worth. They did a good job with this story and had some fun sequences in the film. The water in the face was fun the first time. The next four times I could have done without.

Madagascar Boat Ride- Waited 45 minutes for this. Love the movies. The ride was okay. Once again my kids would have enjoyed this and the Merry-Go-Round in this land.

Monster Rock or something- this was a show of performers dressed up like Hollywood Monsters and they sang rock tunes. It was nice to be out of the hot sticky humidity. The songs were well known to me and Frankenstein's wife and some awesome pipes.

Lights, Camera, Action- My friend and I thought this would be interesting to see since it is a ride based on a Category 5 Hurricane hitting New York City! Kind of ironic we thought. They take you into an abandoned boat house/sound stage and make a hurricane come through. Things are crashing and catching on fire. It had some interesting parts especially when this beam came crashing down right in front of me and splashed me with water. I was not expecting it at all. This was a fun quick ride. We hardly waited at all for this so that was excellent.

At this point we had done most of the stuff we had wanted to so we looked for anything we may have missed. There was a Donkey LIVE show that we didn't see before so we went and got right in on that. This reminded me a lot of Turtle Talk with Crush at Epcot but not as good. There were some entertaining parts but you know it isn't that good when lots of people start lining up at the exit doors and the show is only half over.

We went back over to Battlestar Galactica to get another ride on the blue train. It had been running a lot of empty cycles and they just opened it back up. We shoved our stuff in a locker and got in line. This is where I started to hate the Universal Express Pass or something to that effect. You can buy this pass for an extra 40 bones or something and do you know what it does? It doesn't just get you a couple of fast passes. It gets you to the front of the line on every ride all day! Are you kidding me? With one train ops and these people walking right to the front a 15 minute wait turned into over an hour! I understand fast pass systems and the like but this system needs to be reigned in. Give them 1 row on a train or something. If a big group showed up they just shoved them all right ahead of everyone else, as many times as they wanted all day long! I digress. We got the 7th row for our second ride. Great launch and killer inversions. It was a little bit bumpy in the back that I didn't notice at all in the front but still a great ride. This and Mummy were by far my favorites. As we pulled into the station I saw a train sitting on the transfer track. Why wouldn't you run two train ops on both sides on one of your most popular attractions in the park?

We only had a little bit of time left in the park and I talked my friend into walking by Enchanted Airways coaster and if there wasn't a wait then we should ride it. He was pretty much against it since it was a kids coaster, but we headed over there and we pretty much walked right on. He actually enjoyed the ride and it had a great Shrek theme to it. I almost wanted to be in line a bit longer since there were some funny signs and things I wanted to take more pictures of.

This park is extremely well themed. There are some fun rides but this place is also packed into an extremely small footprint! You can pretty much walk around the whole park in about 5 minutes if you don't stop. Not kidding. It was pretty crowded when we were there. I can't imagine going on a peak season day on a weekend. Consider this fair warning, unless you want to drop another 40 bones for each person in your party you would have a rough day of it. This park has a huge draw already, but I don't know where they will expand. I think I saw where Transformers will be, but wasn't sure. That will be a huge hit and help with the crowds. I will be interested to hear how this place is doing in another 5 years. I think they may hit there capacity on multiple occasions and have to stop letting people in. Just my opinion.

Had a great day. Enjoyed riding some new coasters. Was really surprised that everything from shows to announcements were done in English, but I guess the majority of people over hear talk in English anyway. Wish I had more time to check out the rest of Sentosa Island. If you ever get a chance to come to Singapore take it. The architecture is unreal and the city is extremely clean. Can't wait to get back home and head to Universal Studios in Hollywood and compare the two parks (Just moved to CA in July)

Later and thanks for reading!

Doug

Awesome TR! :)

Id like to know if the Mummy there is like the one in Hollywood. I know that 1 had lots of backward time. The one in Florida does go bckwards but only for a moment and then it turns around. I think I prefer the one in Fl only because the special effects are awesome plus the couple pops of airtime too.

The Lights Camera Action show I saw in California. Yea that plane coming out of no where was pretty shocking! Fun show!

I wish USF was getting the Transformers too. We're getting Despicable Me which btw is fine with me. LOVED that movie and the minions are awesome. Cant wait for it to be done!

Great TR thanks for sharing!

Jo
Lifetime Raptor flights: 3050 :)