I’m probably one of the few Singaporeans who hadn’t made a trip to USS yet. So, after the E2Max L33t Championships or ELC (you can read about the ELC here) when pinkle asked if we would like to go with MiTH Trust, I said yes.
I went to DisneyLand and Universal Studios in L.A. when I was still quite a young kid, and I’ve been harbouring a huge ball of dissatisfaction and unhappiness since then. You see, only people of a certain height or age could take the most exciting rides… and I was very underage and very under-height. And I guess, things that you can’t have are always nicer. So I’ve been living with this childhood hangup of not being able to take all those fun rides for a long time. It really wasn’t fun for me, I was sitting on random swing rides and in teacups meant for babies whilst my sister was exploring magic mountain with my parents.
The trip started at around 11am, when Hong picked me up. It was a bright and sunny day (as all the essays and compositions start) and we made our way there, enjoying the views of the Singapore Flyer that travelling on the Benjamin Shears Bridge afforded, and laughing at all the poor adults stuck in their skyscrapers working their asses off.
We met the rest at Vivo City and had a brunch of Jia Xiang Mian.
3 guys from MiTH Trust with LOTS of coke.
Mary and Phua discussing something with Ruth.
Ruth with a qian bian face. And Mary, whose V I chopped off with my bad framing.
Nic (xfreedom) strolling across the carpark exit (have no idea why???) wearing Hong’s douchey sunglasses. All 5 of these people, including Hong and I were squashed into Hong’s car.
Left to right (excluding Nic) : Petrina, Ruth, Mary, Phua
At the rotating Universal Ball with the Thai guys and pinkle.
What else is more iconic than this. The Merlion. You can climb up it, but well, we didn’t.
and… more merlion! This one looks like a stained glass installation.
The ticket which we queued 15 minutes to get. There was a promotion, so we paid $54 per ticket. There’s also a MasterCard buy 3 get 1 free promo, but the cashier told us that the $54 per ticket promo was more worth it.
Old car pretending to be parked outside a diner.
The street to the public library. Later on in the evening, there were dinner tables set up along this street. Apparently someone rented the location for their wedding dinner.
One of the rides that I did not take. I think its modelled after Cloudy With A Chance of Meatballs. You try to save the spaghetti world or something.
Sesamee Street School Bus! Selling all kinds of merchandise, including hairbands with eyes on top.
Big Bird. I always feel like kicking these things over. And a guy sitting on the lion statue… He think’s he’s Priestess of the Moon.
Cookie Monster?
The garbage bin monster. Can’t remember his name. I never watched TV when I was a kid… But I really liked the green of his fur. The shade is perfect for bedsheets or a carpet… or a sofa… Should skin him and lay him out on my floor.
We decided to take the first recommended ride (we had, among us, friends who visited USS before) that we walked by. Transformers!
The queue time was estimated to be 40minutes, and we headed in to join the queue. At this point, just let me say, SORRY for the overexposed pics. I know I could have edited this with software, but well, I didn’t. I need to learn to look at the histogram instead of the LCD when taking pics I guess!
This isn’t even HALF of the queue.
Random control panels with buttons that you can poke at. Quite a nice touch, it keeps you entertained on the 40minute wait.
The shard that we have to protect.
Queueing (un)happily. It was really a long wait, and as we were beginning to see the light at the end of the tunnel, there was an announcement telling us that there were technical difficulties and that it would be closed in definitely. We were welcome to wait in the queue, but there was no estimated time that it would reopen. So we left in search of more exciting exploits.
This was HUGE. And very elaborate.
The idea of something more exciting than a 1 hour wait at an attraction that breaks down was this. More known as the red and blue rollercoaster, it’s the most exciting rollercoaster ride in the whole park. If you visited and had time for only one ride, it would be this.
After locking your bags and loose items in a locker (the system is also super messy, and half the stations were broken down. Everyone is cutting queue and later when you try to get your bag out, the system never opens and you need to get the staff to manually override it to open it for you.) you proceed to make a choice between taking the red or the blue rollercoaster. They have different queues and different entrances. The blue is the cyclon and the red is human. I think the story is that both sides are supposed to be at war with each other and are being deployed on space ships to fight each other.
There’s this pms-y woman on the broadcast videos who keeps snapping at all of us and she gets irritating after you listen to her over and over for 30 minutes or so as you queue.
As much of the course as I could capture.
A portion of the course. The tracks of the 2 rides intertwine and you can see the other cart go by you sometimes. Both start at the same time and end roughly at the same time.
The twist on the blue here is one of the most exciting because you go 360 degrees.
The blue ride is a sort of swing seat, so your legs are hanging in mid air. I regret not taking the blue!! But the thought of queueing 40mins – 1 hr for a 30second? ride was just… overwhelming.
This is the red ride, we took this. Everyone is seated, and you leave your slippers and hats at the side before going on this one. They also snap a picture of you which you can view after the ride on a TV screen. On the first drop, I actually left the seat, so I spent the rest of the ride clutching the restrainer hoping I wouldn’t fly off.
Next up, we decided to go for the Mummy ride, because the wait time was 30minutes. This was a rollercoaster ride in the dark, with voice overs and special effects. I was quite alarmed when I realised that the fire and heat was real. Also, there’s a section where the cart goes backwards suddenly, so be prepared for that and don’t get whiplash! The ending was sort of anti-climatic, and it felt super short. But I’d say it’s one of the better rides around.
They really went through quite a lot of trouble to make it feel like we were in ancient Egypt. I think I’m about as high as his index finger.
More massive statues marking the entrance of the Mummy zone, complete with inscriptions.
In between Mummy and Far Far Away is The Lost World. When I visit the park again, I will try both the rides here – there’s one where you are suspended in a swing like cart of 4 people, and another is a water ride. The wait time was an insane 80minutes, so there was no way we were queueing for that one.
We stopped by the Public Library to mingle with the Sesame Street characters and to grab a bite. We also had an ice cream and coffee at the Transformers cafe, both of which I do not recommend. The ice cream was a cup full of tiny frozen balls, which I didn’t enjoy, and the coffee was weak. There’s a Ben and Jerrys somewhere around in the park if you want ice cream, so that’s where you should go instead. I’d try the diner with the antique car parked outside too.
After our snack break, we headed back to queue for Transformers. It was actually a pretty good ride, and we all enjoyed this one quite a bit. I was curious as to how they were doing all the movements, and I took my 3D glasses off halfway to peek at my surroundings. After the cart moves off, we’re parked in a capsule shaped movie theatre so the video is playing on the walls all around you. Then, the cart is sort of suspended in this capsule and moved around. Most of the movement is convincing, but some feels a little off. But the effects with 3D were quite good. They even threw in heating when a bomb supposedly flew towards us.
It was getting late-ish and we decided to quickly visit Shrek’s Land.
The castle of Princess Fiona beyond the entrance gates.
The castle. There’s a cafe alley on the right side which you might like to explore. But we went straight to the castle because a show was starting soon.
The show is in 3D and the chairs are special. They move and spray water and there’s mechanical bits which reach out and tickle you too. All in all it was entertaining enough. But the water spraying on you in an aircon room = COLD.
This has got to be my favourite character in Shrek. GINGY!!!
After the 3D show at the castle, we went opposite to catch the last ride. We sat in pink dragon (I think it’s supposed to be the Shrek dragon) and it’s adorned with baby donkey/dragons. They let you take your bags and stuff on with you for this ride, so I wasn’t expecting to be alarmed by it.
After the first drop, I was forced to clutch hurriedly at my bag which was merely resting on top of my lap. The turns are done at quite a high speed and although there were no 360 degree upside down twists, the ride surprisingly managed to get our adrenaline going. Just remember to hang on to your bags and stuff!
We popped by some shops on our way out and got some souvenirs and sweets. Then we made the trek back to the car.
The statue with a nice butt. The Thinker. Somewhere in RWS.
The Merlion at night. It changes colour! Reminds me of the colour scheme that I just set my Alien FX to on my x51 yesterday.
- This seemed to be a really nice hotel. Movenpick Heritage.
It looked nice all lit up at night, so I took a pic on the trot back to our car.
- ***
- Well, I have to say that the rides were decent, but to make your money spent worth it, you should pick a day when there are no people. CHECK THE CALENDAR!!! We went on Youth Day, so the park was overcrowded and we totally didn’t enjoy the queues and waiting time.
- The fact that the first ride we queued for broke down was also sorta turn off, and the fact that the locker system leaves much to be desired also made us feel like the admission fee was more than reasonable. Admittedly they did station staff to help out, but if everything worked properly, there shouldn’t be a need for staff there.
- If I do go back, I will take the Lost World rides as well as the blue rollercoaster. I’ll also catch the Water World show, and eat at the diner.
- Just set aside one whole day to explore it thoroughly, bring plenty of water unless you’re willing to spend on drinks there. I guess it felt like a greedy MMO. The kind of MMO where you have to pay to buy the game, then a monthly subscription and an ingame shop. USS is one of those.
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As you can see, especially in the top most piece, at most only 1/4 to 1/3 of the mouse foot comes into contact with the mouse pad.
The little dark patch on the top foot, right in the middle is where it’s starting to wear off. I slid it around the mouse pad about 5 times to check that it was stuck on tight, and I’m guessing that’s where the current pressure point is.
