Day 69, 25th October 2011. Universal Studios, Hollywood.

Woke up just before the alarm at 7.45am, got ready, and had cereal in the room again for breakfast. Today we were going to Universal Studios Hollywood, and we had to be downstairs outside the hotel at 8.30am to be picked up by the bus that was taking us there. We booked the bus transfers because it was going to be the easiest way for us to get there as we didn't really want the cost of renting a car.

We got picked up by the bus, which drove us to their bus station thing where we had to switch to another bus. While we were there we also bought our Universal tickets so that we didn't have to wait in line to buy them when we got there. The journey to Universal took quite a while, and we arrived there just before 10am. The weather today was awful. It was cold and rainy, because my feet hurt from wearing my converse for 15 hours yesterday, I decided to wear sandals thinking that the weather would improve, but it didn't and I was stuck with wet feel all day.

The park was just opening as we arrived, and we were headed straight to the studio tour, which was pretty much the only reason I wanted to visit. I was so excited to see the Desperate Housewives set, it was actually the only thing I cared about, and would have been happy if that was the only thing we saw today, and then we saw this....

Desperate Housewives was being filmed today, and although that was cool, I knew that it meant that they could be cutting the Wisteria Lane part out of the tour if they were filming at the time. My heart kind of sank a bit really, because it was the thing that I had most wanted to see. We still wanted to do the backlot tour first so we headed in that direction and Gary met some scary characters on the way, it was nearly Halloween so there was lots of Halloween Horror Nights stuff around.

We reached the Studio tour and it was a walk on because it was so early in the day, plus the park was generally quiet on this day because the weather was so crappy. It was really cool because it was an actual backlot tour, of a real studio, compared to the other ones which just have props and sets, or have had like one thing filmed there.

View over Universal Studios Hollywood

First we drove past loads of sound stages and places where stuff was being filmed, there was loads of cool shows filmed in them which is why I took photos, but of course I can't remember what any of them were now.

Then we drove around loads of different movie and tv show sets

The Backlot tour drove through a King Kong 3D experience thing, which was cool. It's hard to describe but it was really realistic. Of course it doesn't make up for Universal Orlando getting rid of the King Kong ride (nothing ever will, Universal, you are not forgiven).

There was a car thing that Gary enjoyed

Oh look, they have a Jaws area. It was just one scene not like the ride in Orlando. Or should I say ex-ride :( Universal Orlando is clearly trying to lose customers by shutting the classic rides!! 

Then all of a sudden my dreams came true, we did get to drive down Wisteria Lane. I sound like a total loser, but this whole part seems like a blur to me. Luckily Gary took some photos because I was so mesmerized with excitement, they played the Desperate Housewives music and everything!!!! I just wanted to jump out of the tram and run around.

After getting to drive down Wisteria Lane, I'd had all I needed for the day to be a success, but then we got to see the Whoville sets from The Grinch! More excitement, The Grinch is my favorite christmas film ever ever ever. The sets were all old and faded though, which was sad.

One thing to add, you can see a random car that does not belong there in the photo above. It was all Halloween Horror Nights stuff. It looks like the Halloween Horror Nights there are pretty cool, because they are actually on the movie sets, and they obviously can't do it like that in Orlando. (and just to say, by me saying the HHN looks pretty cool, I mean I would never ever want to go because I would die of fright).

Scene from Psycho

Scene from War of the Worlds

That was pretty much it for the Studio tour. It was about 45 minutes in total I think, and we both really enjoyed it, it's definitely the top attraction at the park. Now it was time for some rides, The Simpsons was first.

It was exactly the same as the Orlando one

The park had a very unusual layout, it was on 2 levels. I suppose because it was an actual studio before it was a theme park is why it is like this.

Next we went on The Mummy and Jurassic Park, which again were exactly the same as the Florida versions. As we were getting on Jurassic Park we saw a familiar face, Matt from the trek! He was on the boat in front of us. It was so funny, we had been off the trek for 2 days and had seen someone from it every day so far.

We got soaked on Jurassic Park, which we were not to happy about because it was so cold. Matt was waiting for us when we got off and we went to see the Animal Actors show together.

I have a total soft spot for animals so of course I absolutley loved this show. I love that the animals are so clever to learn to do these things, and they are so cute too!

When that was finished we went to see the Water World show that everybody had been going on about saying it was the best show in the park. I didn't think it was that great (maybe because there were no clever and cute animals in it), but it was ok. There were some cool stunts and stuff in it, but the story line was a bit hard to follow. All the actors seemed to be dressed the same and I couldn't tell who was who.

During the show I started to feel a bit fed up because I was so cold and was getting a bit of a headache.After the show was over we said our goodbyes to Matt, and gave him an express pass someone had given us for the studio tour, as we didn't need it. Me and Gary went to have some lunch, so we went to Mel's Diner because we love the one in Universal Orlando. The food was disappointing, and I was starting to feel really sick. I hardly ate anything and also felt really tired. 

I drank my milkshake and didn't even want to stand up or move. I think the last few days had been so draining on me, and the fact that I was cold and wet all mixed into one and just made me feel terrible. Gary took the camera and left me curled up at the table while he went to take some photos of things that interested him

When he came back and made me leave the table, we went to see Terminator, that I always manage to get out of in Orlando, but there was nothing left to do here so I had no excuse not to see it. It was kind of boring, I haven't seen any of the films or anything so I'm not really into it. We then wanted to go and see Shrek but we had just missed the last show of the day :(

We headed out of the park, looking in shops on the way. I saw this super cute ET and really wanted him, but Gary said no, so I took a picture.

Got a photo of us by the sign, the only photo of us all day, me with my hood up because I was so cold

We had about half an hour until the bus picked us up, so we had a look around City Walk. I would have liked to stay for dinner if we wasn't being picked up soon and I didn't feel so sick. I got a cute headband from Francesca's Collection, a store that I had wanted to go in for ages.

The bus arrived at 5.30pm, and it was a pretty uneventful journey back to Anaheim, we were back in the room by 7pm. I had a bath to warm up, and then we went to Mimi's for dinner. I felt really tired and awful, but Mimi's food made me feel better. I was asleep in bed by about 9pm. We were meant to be going to California Adventure tomorrow, but we decided to have a rest day as I felt really tired and horrible and wanted our first day there to be enjoyable. We also had our engagement photos booked for Thursday, so it would be nice to get all relaxed the day before so that we didn't look tired and ugly. 

I'm kind of gutted my only chance to visit Universal Studios Hollywood didn't go as planned, and I felt too sick and tired to enjoy it, but I got to see Wisteria Lane at least so that made the day worth it for me.