Universal Hollywood Tour Review
Holly's Rating: 3.5 out of 5
In June I took my son along with my grandmother to a week and half vacation to Disneyland and universal studios. We had already done five days at Disneyland and we were all tired of lines and people so my grandmother decided we were doing VIP tour. I never knew about this option at universal I had heard of the front of the line pass that allows you to go to the head of the line once. Also as a note this is a group tour not a private one like offered in Orlando there is not an option for that tour at the California park.
The thing was we showed up for the park with our regular tickets ready to go deal with lines and crowds, at the entrance there where universal studio employees doing a hard sell. We asked the price and found that for the three of us it was going to be 299.00 dollars per person, and that price was only because we already had park tickets after taxes what we had already spent on tickets and then the VIP package it was around 400.00 per person, I was in the middle of saying no thanks we are only at this park one day and remember we already spent five days at Disney by this point my wallet was crying when my grandmother said sign us up and then I knew it was a lost battle we were doing the Tour.
We were ushered into a VIP area where we were served a continental breakfast, being we had missed breakfast that morning this was nice. This VIP lounge is where we meet our tour guide. I was not aware that the tour we signed up for included another family and not just us, I felt that my son was not able to get the attention of the guide as the child with the other family consistently talked and interrupted anyone who was talking this diminished our experience, my son has a issue with speech and this was a issue as it takes more time for him to get his words out and when he was consistently interrupted he would just give up. If this was a run of the mill 50 dollar tour this would not have been an issue for us but for the amount we paid to have this unique experience, I was unhappy they do not inform you until you are heading out that you will have to share the attention of your guide with others.
Our guide Jon began showing us around the park we stopped off at the major rides we rode the mummy, transformers, Jurassic park were we got complimentary ponchos, the Simpsons ride after the try at the rides we were able to see the sound stages where they make many of the shows we love, and then we walked the back lot we saw where the voice was taped. After the back lot tour that really was not what I was most looking forward to in the first place, we were lead back to the park area to a special VIP only restaurant Lunch is included and they did have good food they serve the food buffet style and have a wide range of drinks this was our break from the other family and our tour guides break also.
After lunch it was back to meet up with Jon and then we were off to the tour bus for the rest of the tour while some was fun and kids exciting there is a lot of looking at buildings include in this tour be prepared, we were able to go to the prop warehouse this was interesting as we could see props from all kinds of movies and it was fun to see the same items you have seen in your favorite movie.
We also saw many costumes and the little extras the public is not able to see. We were allowed to go on a real set of the TV show Parenthood this was exciting we were not able to touch anything but photos where allowed this was fun and something to talk about.
The tour itself was fun however children may get tired of looking at buildings, sound stages, and so many things they are not able to touch, they really just want the rides and let’s face it so do I this was the thing that made the tour worth the cost being able to ride all the rides as much as we wanted with no waiting. The sad thing was the mummy ride broke down after the first go this was the ride I wanted to ride over and over. We did transformers seven times, Jurassic park three times, and the Simpson ride five times after the tour was over I am a ride junkie I love to go on ride after ride and this pass really allowed that. My sons loved the fact he did not have wait hours for one ride so this does take some of the stress out of the day.
We really did enjoy this Tour, but if you have younger children or teenagers who are not really into the sound stage or buildings you are better off letting them go nuts with their VIP Pass and go on ride after ride while you take the tour. There are many photo opportunity’s so be sure to have an extra battery pack or charger, you don’t want to miss something due to low battery.
There were some things that I was not happy about the fact that we were not told we would have to share our guide with another family at the time we were signing up and handing over a credit card. I was under the impression that with the tour we also would get photo opportunities with the characters around the park this was not the case, we had to go back around after our tour to get photos by that point most of the characters where already done for the night.
I also had to wait almost two hours in line to get our ride photos from the photos shop, in fact I called the VIP service and got a unhelpful lady who told me she didn't think that there was anything they could do but she really was not sure, I would have thought the person answering the VIP Service phone would be able to answer questions. I found out after the fact that doing the tour also gave a slight discount at some of the shops, we love to shop and I would have liked to know this before we already had gotten back to our hotel.
I know it seems like there was a lot I did not like but we really did like the VIP tour, the front of the line was amazing most families at the park got to ride the rides maybe once or twice each we were able to ride so many times it was worth the cost. The cost was high but if you can afford the additional cost I would go for it.One thing I would like is a private tour option like they have in Orlando.
This is the link to the page for the tours, I suggest deciding beforehand then calling and ensuring you get all the details of what you get for the price, as prices and inclusions can change.
http://www.universalstudioshollywood.com/attractions/studio-tour/
No comments:
Post a Comment