First time since Jasmine was born, I won't be there for her for 2 nights. Because... we are going to Los Angeles and we're not bringing her along. I did suggest to bring her with us but Uncle Charles strongly advised us not to. In fact, I was not keen about this trip to LA, I told him I am happy just exploring San Francisco... but he kept on pushing and pushing, finally I told him... ok LA. Initially was either Los Angeles or Las Vegas. ;) So cut long story short, Uncle Charles got our details, purchased air tickets, arranged personal limo, bought entry tickets to Universal Studio and booked us the most conveniently located hotel!!
WE ARE BLESSED!!! This 2 days 1 night trip could easily cost us RM5000!!!!
Started the night before our flight, I was asked to let Jasmine sleep with my mum in Aunty Maria's room. Ready with formula milk and bottle, my mum and Jasmine survived the night. :) Joshua and I woke up at 4am, got ready and was at the airport by 5am. Caught the morning flight to LA, I slept like a pig in the plane. Arrived at LA, greeted by a very very very handsome young and enthusiastic american, our limo driver.
He was so friendly, he said he's been with Alexis for a year. He loves driving and when he found out that the company was willing to pay him to drive, why not! :D He even told us that he recently travelled to Seoul and had a hard time fighting jet lags. Someone told him the way to reduce the impact of jet lag is to follow the local time whenever you arrive. So when he took the 12 hours plane on Thursday noon, he arrived in LA on Thursday morning, which meant he had to re-live Thursday, he said it was hard and he started falling asleep by about 6pm. :) Such a cute dude. I enjoyed that short conversation with him before we completely zzzzzzzzzzzzzzz off in the comfortable spacious ride.
An hour later, we arrived at Sheraton Universal Hotel. :) I dont know how many stars, but it's really high class. Friendly and handsome receptionist too. :) When we reach our room, it was 9pm plus, we immediately knocked out! Until 11am!!! So late we jumped up and quickly made our way to Universal Studio!! There's a shuttle bus that comes very frequent so we hopped on to one and they dropped us off at the City Walk just next to Universal Studio.
Breakfast. The cheapest and most edible food we could find here. Nutella crepe. Expensive... but what to do. :P My eyes were still swollen...
Finally we're in front of our destination. We started our day late due to the heavy travelling but we're ready to make this day one of the most memorable one!
You see this when you enter. Can you tell one guy behind is actually not a statue? :) The guy on the right. :) I remember seeing this in 2006.
Our first ride - the Studio Tour. Right choice to make sure we strike this off the list.
Before the queue, we see this stroller drop off point.
And look at the long line! Honestly we're grateful we didn't bring Jasmine along.
On the ride! Joshua's so excited about everything Hollywood!
Some Tom Cruise movie scene... Joshua knows which movie, I don't :P
Impressive was the word for the Studio Tour. We passed by studios where The Voice was filmed, and many other movies or show was filmed. Half way through we passed by a real scene and we were asked to keep quiet until the scene was over. We waited quite a while for the King Kong 3D ride... but when we turn back for it, it was GOOD we're glad we didn't miss it. The tour guide was a pro, nice and calm voice he has and a good sense of humor too! Joshua was extremely satisfied! He still thinking about this until today!
How come we don't get to find this kind of sweet colour in Malaysia?
I went to the washroom, sat on toilet bowl to press out my milk. I couldn't be bothered to look for nursing room. That's the quickest I could think of. I pressed out about 3 ounces and kept in Joshua's backpack.
Special Effects show. I didn't really enjoy it although they tried to make it funny.
There's a lot of gift shops.
There's a Gru's Cafe right next to the minion ride.
Had our lunch here. Ordered one to share, to save costs.
Yeay, a picture with a minion. We didn't line up for the ride yet though.
There's a lot of backgrounds, a lot of set ups for you to take picture.
But they had 90% all set ups for Halloweens which I hate. A lot of zombies, dead scenes, creatures scenes... blood everywhere. I really wish it was Christmas time.
Anyway we went for the Transformers Ride!! We didn't have to line up at all!! Best time to visit Universal Studio is on weekdays. After the ride, can take picture with the Megatron.
We saw that the guy changes into Optimus Prime suit too but Joshua didn't feel the need to line another round for a picture. :)
We also went for Jurassic Park ride, mummy's ride. Both need our bags checked into locker. Mummy's ride was pure thrilled ride which I already tried in 2006. Jurassic Park ride was trying to get people wet. Spraying water left and right.
Finally, we decided to line up for minion ride. Yes, other than studio tour, this is the only ride we had to queue for. I was sleepy!!
The ride was quite fun, we were taken into the ipad minion game. Haha. The kids behind us kept on screaming although we were just stationery, it's just the motion that made us feel like we're sliding or floating... haha.. kids..
Water World. The same as seen in 2006. :) Very good acting by everyone.. and the effects they put in place, Joshua was all WOW.
There's soak and dry zone. Thank God we sat at dry zone because the host will purposely pour water at the soak zone.
One girl voluntarily want to be soaked, the guy surprised her with a big bucket of water from behind!!
This is the only good shot Joshua managed to capture. They did a lot of fighting and shooting scene. Haha.
And these are the casts. We don't know any of them, but they appeared in some famous shows like CSI, Greys Anatomy etc. Joshua say maybe they are extras in those shows. :P
We kept going into the gift shops but the stuffs are really too pricey. So we can only hold and dream.
It closes at 6pm. thank God we managed to go for all the rides we want to, despite starting late. There's only 1 ride we would've gone to if we still have time - the Shrek. I had been there in 2006 but would be good for Joshua to experience it.
We saw that they are building a Harry Potter World and will be available by 2016. I remember there was Indiana Jones ride in 2006 but that must've been replaced, maybe by Transformers. :)
They are constantly making changes, I didn't expect coming again gives me new experiences and new memories! :)
A very friendly korean american father helped us take these photos. :) They are really nice to let us check and offer to help take again if we're not satisfied with his shots.
Unlike a chinese girl we asked to help us take photos, first girl didn't understand English and just walked away. Second girl worse, understood, took the camera but didn't know where to press, did not ask. Simply press and pass back camera to us. Can you imagine our faces when we found out the she didn't press and then just walk away????? It is these Chinese that brings us all SHAME!
Anyway, we hanged out at the City Walk, looking for cheap dinner.
Joshua was impressed at this shop. Those are body massage machines!!! :D
Can you see a king kong behind me? Behind me was a marking on the floor, recommended spot to stand for a picture with king kong. I didn't quite bother especially I only found out after we took these photos.
HardRock cafe. Went in, and came out. Everything is expensive.
We ended up eating at Taco Bell and Joshua bought noodles (chao mien is what they name the food) from Panda Express to eat as supper.
Here we are back in hotel, watching movies while eating the yummy vegetarian noodles. :D
One thing, this hotel is so high class but they don't provide hot water for making hot drinks. There aren't complimentary coffee sticks and tea bags provided. No fridge provided too!! I pressed out my milk, about 4 ounces. Asked for a pack of ice, and I placed the 2 bottles of milk in between those ice, including the 2 ice packs.
That's the only way I could think of to keep the milk and the cooler packs chilled...
We have 2 queen size beds, one worked as our table. :P The bed was really comfortable and that is one good night of rest without waking up to little Jasmine. :) Although, you should know we miss her so much the whole time. Joshua said I kept playing videos of Jasmine in my phone! :P I have to survive another day before I could go back to her tomorrow night.......... :)
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