John
TS Member
- Favourite Ride
- Steel Vengeance
Regular viewers may remember my occasionally updated series of trip reports from places I get sent to with work, well here's the latest instalment. One of our big sources of work internationally is Singapore. Until recently I've not had the chance to go out there but, naturally, as soon as the opportunity came up I was sure to factor in time to visit to one of the less well-known Universal parks.
Universal Studios Singapore forms part of Resorts World Sentosa, a wide range of visitor attractions managed by the casino chain Genting. As such it's not owned by Universal themselves, though at first glance you wouldn't really notice it. The park is located in Sentosa, an island separate from the Singapore "mainland" and accessed via a bridge (road and pedestrian bridges), monorail or cable car. To balance cost and convenience, I choose the monorail option. The route starts at a shopping centre on the mainland with connections to the metro. The monorail stops at Universal then goes on to several more stations in Sentosa. Capacity is somewhat limited, with just a 2-car train so queues can form at busy times, though service is reasonably frequent.
Once arriving at Resorts World Station, the park is only a short walk away. There's a pseudo-citywalk around the entrance that I had zero time to explore, though it seemed a lot smaller than the equivalents at other Universal parks. I arrived shortly before the official 10am opening to what appeared to be moderate crowds, so I made an effort to beat the rush to some of the star attractions, without spending much time in the entrance area beyond a very cursory glance at the vista at the end of the entrance street. From here, the park strongly resembles a stripped-down Islands of Adventure, with a number of themed lands set around a central lake, though the park is considerably smaller and lighter on attractions than IoA. Currently, the former Madagascar area is being re-worked into a Minions Land, and is completely closed off. This means the park layout is more of a question mark than a circle and makes the guest flow a little awkward. My visit was during halloween season but I wasn't visiting Horror Nights (the 12th instalment of HHN in Singapore). Due to the evening activities, the daytime park hours were a somewhat miserly 10-5, though given I was flying home at 9pm that evening I couldn't really have stayed much longer anyway. As my visit was also on a Saturday, I was a little concerned about queue times but not enough to make me consider the s$120 (£70) Universal Express. In the event I managed to make it round everything, though I wasn't exactly blessed with time.
I'd booked a ticket that included a meal, though it took me a while to find something that was 1) included in the offer and 2) not dreadful. I only partially succeeded in the latter. Given free choice I'd probably have opted for one of the excluded food places but on the whole I wasn't that impressed with what was available in the park. Including the meal, I paid just over £50 for my ticket, which for a Universal park seemed a great deal (especially as I only booked the night before). If I'd had the time/desire for shopping I could also have got $5 off a purchase and maybe a promotional pin badge too, assuming they had any left - I didn't see any and didn't hang around long enough to ask.
What of the rides though? Listed in order of distance from the entrance, travelling anticlockwise, I managed to get on the following rides during the day:
Sesame Street Spaghetti Space Chase: A ride rivalling Hagrid's at IOA for length of name if nothing else. This Intamin suspended dark ride was actually not too bad. It's not particularly big or high budget but it had a very short queue so who cares? The basic concept is that some sort of space monster is stealing all the spaghetti on earth and we need to help Elmo get it back. No it's not some fever dream. It's obviously mainly for kids but as dark rides go there are far worse out there. Queue time: 10 min (stated) / 10 min (actual)
Transformers: The same as the two in the US. For the unfamiliar, it's just 3 minutes of looking at giant screens showing shards of metal flying past you. It's a ride I've always felt very detatched from whilst on it, despite the budget being huge I've always felt that the action is going on around you rather than the passengers actually being part of it. Maybe using SRQ rather than main queue meant I missed some of the build up/backstory but given a choice between a 60min main queue and walk-on via SRQ, I'm taking the latter.
Battlestar Galactica: A pair of intertwined Vekoma's with LSM launch lifts. The ride effectively combines the roles played by Hulk and the former Duelling Dragons from IoA, providing a visual spectacle on the lake and high capacity. I've seen several photos of the rides running simultaneously but when I was there it was more akin to the final years of Dragon Challenge as the two tracks were running independently with no duelling, so I can't comment on how effective that aspect of design is/was. I guess it makes operations more efficient though as it means no waiting for the other side to be ready, which on a busy day could be a useful consideration.
The two tracks are deliberately aimed at different thrill levels: Cylon is an inverted coaster aimed at thrill-seekers whilst Human is a conventional sit-down with no inversions and is more of a family-thrill ride. Hang on, is this where Walibi Holland got the idea..? The coasters were the first new-gen Vekoma rides to be built, with a improved track design and opening with 4 across trains featuring vest restraints. Unfortunately it became apparent very quickly that there were problems with the trains - a lengthy closure ensued and the ride reopened with half the seats removed. The result is two mediocre capacity coasters, which coupled with Cylon opening late and on 1 train made for some horrendous waits later on- I was not willing to verify the accuracy of the posted 100min queue it had mid-afternoon. Looking at each side individually:
BSG Cylon: Vekoma's first attempt at a "proper" inverted coaster rather than the SLC we all know and... know but seemingly unrelated to the more recent STCs. Luckily I got there just after it opened and was able to experience this surprisingly good coaster with minimal wait. The layout is unusual due to being intertwined with the red "Human" track and features some elements rarely found on inverted coasters such as an in-line roll. The vest restraints combined with the new-style track make for a comfortable ride and whilst it's not exactly on par with a B&M invert it's an great result from Vekoma. The highlight for me has to be the vertical loop around the two lifts, dipping into mist-filled pits at the entry and exit. All in all it's genuinely good coaster, though maybe not quite top 10 percent. Queue times: 10 min & 50 min (stated) / 10 min & 20min (actual)
BSG Human: Oh dear. Having one side designated as the extreme ride and the other a more accessible ride isn't necessarily a bad idea, it's just that the layout for Human was clearly a total afterthought compared with Cylon. Nothing really happens and it just meanders around a bit, making for a ride that felt rather like a larger version of the vekoma junior coaster on the other side of the lake. At least I got on it early in the day before the queue built up I guess. An observation I made at the time - with the Cylon side yet to open AND the ride sending 1 train round empty, the small trains made for an attraction running at 1/8 of the design capacity. Doing this first was definiely the correct decision. Queue time 5 min (stated) / 10 min (actual).
Revenge of the Mummy: A clone of the good one in Florida rather than the mediocre one in California, though the story is slightly different. For the unfamiliar, this is a top tier dark coaster with a fairly long and impressive dark ride section at the start then a pretty punchy launched lift to kick off the coaster section. As with almost all enclosed coasters, the actual track layout isn't really that substantial but having it all taking place in near total darkness hides this very effectively. My one criticism would be that the final part of the ride is a bit of a let down (there's also no Brendan Fraser on this one!). Queue times: 5 min & 20 min (stated) / 5 min & 10 min (actual)
Jurassic Park River Adventure: A Hafema rapids version of the giant flume rides found at other Universal parks. The storyline is broadly the same as the others - you start off on a river journey through some of the herbivore enclosures in the park, then all hell breaks loose and you end up face to face with the more deadly stuff. Being Hafema, they're able to do the "big drop" finale, though the drop is quite small compared with the opening drop on River Quest. As a rapids ride rather than a giant flume, the first half of the ride has a very different feel to the other versions of the ride. Whilst the theming is still very strong, the rider is more focussed on.. y'know - the rapids. The problem with the ride system is that a lot of the theming will be awkwardly behind you or just not where you're really looking - the giant flume is probably better suited to the scenic portion of the ride but the rapids themselves are fairly fun so on the whole it balances out. Nearly 45min in to my advertised 20min wait they "helpfully" paused operation to add 4 more boats, presumably as they'd switched from 1 lift to 2 operation (think River Quest, though the orientation is different). I didn't spot there was an SRQ until I was well into the main queue at which point I fell victim to the sunk cost fallacy - in retrospect I REALLY should have switched. Queue time: 20min (stated) / 50min (actual)
Canopy Flyer: Similar to the unspellable Pteranodon Flyers at IOA but with one key difference - you're actually allowed to ride this one without children! It's really not a particularly interesting ride though, imagine Vampire's 2nd section minus the drop into the tunnel and you'd be pretty much there. The cars have back-to-back 2-across seats but as I was using the SRQ for this one I could only take what I was given, in this case the front seats. I considered trying for backwards later on but by then the SRQ had ballooned to about 20 people and given the throughput was dreadful (probably about 200/hr at best) I decided against it. Queue time; 45min (stated) / 1min (actual, via SRQ)
Waterworld: Not a ride, but the same show I'd already seen in 3 other Universal parks worldwide. It's still really good despite being based on a totally forgotten film. For the unfamiliar, the basic premise in that in a future where the ice caps have melted and almost all land is flooded, the few survivors live on floating "atolls" defended against roaming bandits, whilst rumours persist of a mythical place called Dryland. It's basically Mad Max on water - there's jet skis, fire, explosions, people falling from high walkways into the water and THAT set-piece effect (no spoilers) - what's not to love?
Puss In Boots' Giant Journey: I'll admit I was a bit apprehensive about this one, as this Zamperla suspended coaster borrows a lot of tech from the dreaded Volare ride system, most obviously the spiral lift. The plot is that there's a food shortage so PIB hatches a plan to climb the beanstalk and steal golden eggs to feed the orphans. Or something. The ride itself is mostly fine but sections of swooping around are interrupted by extremely harsh block brakes from time to time. Frustratingly, there was no SRQ for this one, despite the cars having 3-across seating and most of them going out with multiple empty seats. Queue time: 30min (stated) /45min (actual)
Shrek 4D: It's Shrek, in 4D cinema form. Set immediately after events of the first film, this starts with Shrek and Fiona heading off in the onion coach on their honeymoon. Shrek gets lost and takes an ill-advised shortcut which somehow results in them being attacked by the ghost of Lord Farquaad. My overriding memory of this is the moving seats which went into overdrive for an excessively long horse chase scene - the galloping effect really didn't need to be as violent as they made it. This show used to run at USF, USH & USJ but this is the last one left. The show building has quite an impressive castle facade, far outstripping the quality of the attraction within.
Enchanted Airways: The final ride in Far, Far Away (which with the current park layout is appropriately enough the furthest area from the entrance) is a Vekoma Jr coaster. This one can run 2 trains but wasn't. The stated queue time was 35 minutes but looked longer and (somewhat reluctantly) I decided to give it a go. As with several other rides in the park, the queue experience was hampered by the ride running at ~50% express, resulting in a very slow main queue. The queue/station is themed to an airport, with theming including a ticket office and a departure board showing flights to various destinations from the Shrek universe, but what would they use for planes? Dragons, naturally - the D380 is apparently the latest wide-bodied flying machine and speeds us off to whatever destination we're going to this time. How was the ride? Well this particularly Vekoma Jr. is a slightly newer model, currently running the 2nd gen trains with individual lap bars, making for a decent ride experience. Ultimately the queue was just far too long and tedious for what it is. At least the ride was open though - according to the website it was scheduled to be closed for maintenance that day. Queue time: 35min (stated) / 45min (actual).
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I ended the day with a final ride on Cylon, whilst the advertised wait was still pretty long I gambled on the queue time being overstated to begin with and then running off much more quickly once express dried up. I was correct on both counts and was on in about 20 minutes. The timing was such that I could have got a re-ride as half the bays were empty when I returned but apparently it's not allowed - boo! By this point they were very much trying to corral people out the park ASAP so they could get ready for horror nights and people were already lining up outside nearly 2hrs before the evening event was due to start. I headed towards the monorail station but the queue looked dreadful, so a quick march over the bridge was on the cards to get me back to the metro station so I could make my flight home. In the end I was at check in with less than 2hrs to go, so had the Cylon queue actually been the stated 50min I'd have been very stressed on the journey back.
Final thoughts and the big question - is USS any good? Well, for a Universal park, it's not that great. The coaster line up isn't too bad (I'd rank the collection behind IoA & USJ but better than USF & USH) but beyond the coasters the rest of the ride package feels a bit weaker than most of their other parks. Opening hours were disappointing and where queues developed they were exceedingly slow and tedious due to low capacity and excessive express pass allocations. It's likely I got unlucky in that my visit was on an Saturday during HHN, maybe it's normally not an issue. Conversely, aside from BSG Cylon and Mummy there wasn't really much I'd have wanted to do more than once anyway and I'm not sure there was anything I missed. I don't think I'll be rushing back for the new Minions area - I'm assuming the main ride will be the same simulator as found at other Universal parks worldwide with another ride or two to round out the area (I could see some kind of flat ride testing, though it took me a while to realise it wasn't accessible). The popularity of the Minions has endured somewhat more than that of Madagascar so the change seems logical from the parks' perspective but as someone who has already been on the main simulator ride at other parks in the chain it doesn't really add much value for me. Apparently a Nintendo land is also coming in the future, which would be more appealing, though hopefully I'll get to see it at one of their other parks first.
Couple of pics to finish. I am not a photographer:
Little easter egg in the Rapids queue. There was a similar message on the haystack driers at the exit warning that they don't offer protection against raptor attack
Waterworld set
BSG & Mummy (plus a scare zone that I got slightly lost in) from the end of the main street.
Universal Studios Singapore forms part of Resorts World Sentosa, a wide range of visitor attractions managed by the casino chain Genting. As such it's not owned by Universal themselves, though at first glance you wouldn't really notice it. The park is located in Sentosa, an island separate from the Singapore "mainland" and accessed via a bridge (road and pedestrian bridges), monorail or cable car. To balance cost and convenience, I choose the monorail option. The route starts at a shopping centre on the mainland with connections to the metro. The monorail stops at Universal then goes on to several more stations in Sentosa. Capacity is somewhat limited, with just a 2-car train so queues can form at busy times, though service is reasonably frequent.
Once arriving at Resorts World Station, the park is only a short walk away. There's a pseudo-citywalk around the entrance that I had zero time to explore, though it seemed a lot smaller than the equivalents at other Universal parks. I arrived shortly before the official 10am opening to what appeared to be moderate crowds, so I made an effort to beat the rush to some of the star attractions, without spending much time in the entrance area beyond a very cursory glance at the vista at the end of the entrance street. From here, the park strongly resembles a stripped-down Islands of Adventure, with a number of themed lands set around a central lake, though the park is considerably smaller and lighter on attractions than IoA. Currently, the former Madagascar area is being re-worked into a Minions Land, and is completely closed off. This means the park layout is more of a question mark than a circle and makes the guest flow a little awkward. My visit was during halloween season but I wasn't visiting Horror Nights (the 12th instalment of HHN in Singapore). Due to the evening activities, the daytime park hours were a somewhat miserly 10-5, though given I was flying home at 9pm that evening I couldn't really have stayed much longer anyway. As my visit was also on a Saturday, I was a little concerned about queue times but not enough to make me consider the s$120 (£70) Universal Express. In the event I managed to make it round everything, though I wasn't exactly blessed with time.
I'd booked a ticket that included a meal, though it took me a while to find something that was 1) included in the offer and 2) not dreadful. I only partially succeeded in the latter. Given free choice I'd probably have opted for one of the excluded food places but on the whole I wasn't that impressed with what was available in the park. Including the meal, I paid just over £50 for my ticket, which for a Universal park seemed a great deal (especially as I only booked the night before). If I'd had the time/desire for shopping I could also have got $5 off a purchase and maybe a promotional pin badge too, assuming they had any left - I didn't see any and didn't hang around long enough to ask.
What of the rides though? Listed in order of distance from the entrance, travelling anticlockwise, I managed to get on the following rides during the day:
Sesame Street Spaghetti Space Chase: A ride rivalling Hagrid's at IOA for length of name if nothing else. This Intamin suspended dark ride was actually not too bad. It's not particularly big or high budget but it had a very short queue so who cares? The basic concept is that some sort of space monster is stealing all the spaghetti on earth and we need to help Elmo get it back. No it's not some fever dream. It's obviously mainly for kids but as dark rides go there are far worse out there. Queue time: 10 min (stated) / 10 min (actual)
Transformers: The same as the two in the US. For the unfamiliar, it's just 3 minutes of looking at giant screens showing shards of metal flying past you. It's a ride I've always felt very detatched from whilst on it, despite the budget being huge I've always felt that the action is going on around you rather than the passengers actually being part of it. Maybe using SRQ rather than main queue meant I missed some of the build up/backstory but given a choice between a 60min main queue and walk-on via SRQ, I'm taking the latter.
Battlestar Galactica: A pair of intertwined Vekoma's with LSM launch lifts. The ride effectively combines the roles played by Hulk and the former Duelling Dragons from IoA, providing a visual spectacle on the lake and high capacity. I've seen several photos of the rides running simultaneously but when I was there it was more akin to the final years of Dragon Challenge as the two tracks were running independently with no duelling, so I can't comment on how effective that aspect of design is/was. I guess it makes operations more efficient though as it means no waiting for the other side to be ready, which on a busy day could be a useful consideration.
The two tracks are deliberately aimed at different thrill levels: Cylon is an inverted coaster aimed at thrill-seekers whilst Human is a conventional sit-down with no inversions and is more of a family-thrill ride. Hang on, is this where Walibi Holland got the idea..? The coasters were the first new-gen Vekoma rides to be built, with a improved track design and opening with 4 across trains featuring vest restraints. Unfortunately it became apparent very quickly that there were problems with the trains - a lengthy closure ensued and the ride reopened with half the seats removed. The result is two mediocre capacity coasters, which coupled with Cylon opening late and on 1 train made for some horrendous waits later on- I was not willing to verify the accuracy of the posted 100min queue it had mid-afternoon. Looking at each side individually:
BSG Cylon: Vekoma's first attempt at a "proper" inverted coaster rather than the SLC we all know and... know but seemingly unrelated to the more recent STCs. Luckily I got there just after it opened and was able to experience this surprisingly good coaster with minimal wait. The layout is unusual due to being intertwined with the red "Human" track and features some elements rarely found on inverted coasters such as an in-line roll. The vest restraints combined with the new-style track make for a comfortable ride and whilst it's not exactly on par with a B&M invert it's an great result from Vekoma. The highlight for me has to be the vertical loop around the two lifts, dipping into mist-filled pits at the entry and exit. All in all it's genuinely good coaster, though maybe not quite top 10 percent. Queue times: 10 min & 50 min (stated) / 10 min & 20min (actual)
BSG Human: Oh dear. Having one side designated as the extreme ride and the other a more accessible ride isn't necessarily a bad idea, it's just that the layout for Human was clearly a total afterthought compared with Cylon. Nothing really happens and it just meanders around a bit, making for a ride that felt rather like a larger version of the vekoma junior coaster on the other side of the lake. At least I got on it early in the day before the queue built up I guess. An observation I made at the time - with the Cylon side yet to open AND the ride sending 1 train round empty, the small trains made for an attraction running at 1/8 of the design capacity. Doing this first was definiely the correct decision. Queue time 5 min (stated) / 10 min (actual).
Revenge of the Mummy: A clone of the good one in Florida rather than the mediocre one in California, though the story is slightly different. For the unfamiliar, this is a top tier dark coaster with a fairly long and impressive dark ride section at the start then a pretty punchy launched lift to kick off the coaster section. As with almost all enclosed coasters, the actual track layout isn't really that substantial but having it all taking place in near total darkness hides this very effectively. My one criticism would be that the final part of the ride is a bit of a let down (there's also no Brendan Fraser on this one!). Queue times: 5 min & 20 min (stated) / 5 min & 10 min (actual)
Jurassic Park River Adventure: A Hafema rapids version of the giant flume rides found at other Universal parks. The storyline is broadly the same as the others - you start off on a river journey through some of the herbivore enclosures in the park, then all hell breaks loose and you end up face to face with the more deadly stuff. Being Hafema, they're able to do the "big drop" finale, though the drop is quite small compared with the opening drop on River Quest. As a rapids ride rather than a giant flume, the first half of the ride has a very different feel to the other versions of the ride. Whilst the theming is still very strong, the rider is more focussed on.. y'know - the rapids. The problem with the ride system is that a lot of the theming will be awkwardly behind you or just not where you're really looking - the giant flume is probably better suited to the scenic portion of the ride but the rapids themselves are fairly fun so on the whole it balances out. Nearly 45min in to my advertised 20min wait they "helpfully" paused operation to add 4 more boats, presumably as they'd switched from 1 lift to 2 operation (think River Quest, though the orientation is different). I didn't spot there was an SRQ until I was well into the main queue at which point I fell victim to the sunk cost fallacy - in retrospect I REALLY should have switched. Queue time: 20min (stated) / 50min (actual)
Canopy Flyer: Similar to the unspellable Pteranodon Flyers at IOA but with one key difference - you're actually allowed to ride this one without children! It's really not a particularly interesting ride though, imagine Vampire's 2nd section minus the drop into the tunnel and you'd be pretty much there. The cars have back-to-back 2-across seats but as I was using the SRQ for this one I could only take what I was given, in this case the front seats. I considered trying for backwards later on but by then the SRQ had ballooned to about 20 people and given the throughput was dreadful (probably about 200/hr at best) I decided against it. Queue time; 45min (stated) / 1min (actual, via SRQ)
Waterworld: Not a ride, but the same show I'd already seen in 3 other Universal parks worldwide. It's still really good despite being based on a totally forgotten film. For the unfamiliar, the basic premise in that in a future where the ice caps have melted and almost all land is flooded, the few survivors live on floating "atolls" defended against roaming bandits, whilst rumours persist of a mythical place called Dryland. It's basically Mad Max on water - there's jet skis, fire, explosions, people falling from high walkways into the water and THAT set-piece effect (no spoilers) - what's not to love?
Puss In Boots' Giant Journey: I'll admit I was a bit apprehensive about this one, as this Zamperla suspended coaster borrows a lot of tech from the dreaded Volare ride system, most obviously the spiral lift. The plot is that there's a food shortage so PIB hatches a plan to climb the beanstalk and steal golden eggs to feed the orphans. Or something. The ride itself is mostly fine but sections of swooping around are interrupted by extremely harsh block brakes from time to time. Frustratingly, there was no SRQ for this one, despite the cars having 3-across seating and most of them going out with multiple empty seats. Queue time: 30min (stated) /45min (actual)
Shrek 4D: It's Shrek, in 4D cinema form. Set immediately after events of the first film, this starts with Shrek and Fiona heading off in the onion coach on their honeymoon. Shrek gets lost and takes an ill-advised shortcut which somehow results in them being attacked by the ghost of Lord Farquaad. My overriding memory of this is the moving seats which went into overdrive for an excessively long horse chase scene - the galloping effect really didn't need to be as violent as they made it. This show used to run at USF, USH & USJ but this is the last one left. The show building has quite an impressive castle facade, far outstripping the quality of the attraction within.
Enchanted Airways: The final ride in Far, Far Away (which with the current park layout is appropriately enough the furthest area from the entrance) is a Vekoma Jr coaster. This one can run 2 trains but wasn't. The stated queue time was 35 minutes but looked longer and (somewhat reluctantly) I decided to give it a go. As with several other rides in the park, the queue experience was hampered by the ride running at ~50% express, resulting in a very slow main queue. The queue/station is themed to an airport, with theming including a ticket office and a departure board showing flights to various destinations from the Shrek universe, but what would they use for planes? Dragons, naturally - the D380 is apparently the latest wide-bodied flying machine and speeds us off to whatever destination we're going to this time. How was the ride? Well this particularly Vekoma Jr. is a slightly newer model, currently running the 2nd gen trains with individual lap bars, making for a decent ride experience. Ultimately the queue was just far too long and tedious for what it is. At least the ride was open though - according to the website it was scheduled to be closed for maintenance that day. Queue time: 35min (stated) / 45min (actual).
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I ended the day with a final ride on Cylon, whilst the advertised wait was still pretty long I gambled on the queue time being overstated to begin with and then running off much more quickly once express dried up. I was correct on both counts and was on in about 20 minutes. The timing was such that I could have got a re-ride as half the bays were empty when I returned but apparently it's not allowed - boo! By this point they were very much trying to corral people out the park ASAP so they could get ready for horror nights and people were already lining up outside nearly 2hrs before the evening event was due to start. I headed towards the monorail station but the queue looked dreadful, so a quick march over the bridge was on the cards to get me back to the metro station so I could make my flight home. In the end I was at check in with less than 2hrs to go, so had the Cylon queue actually been the stated 50min I'd have been very stressed on the journey back.
Final thoughts and the big question - is USS any good? Well, for a Universal park, it's not that great. The coaster line up isn't too bad (I'd rank the collection behind IoA & USJ but better than USF & USH) but beyond the coasters the rest of the ride package feels a bit weaker than most of their other parks. Opening hours were disappointing and where queues developed they were exceedingly slow and tedious due to low capacity and excessive express pass allocations. It's likely I got unlucky in that my visit was on an Saturday during HHN, maybe it's normally not an issue. Conversely, aside from BSG Cylon and Mummy there wasn't really much I'd have wanted to do more than once anyway and I'm not sure there was anything I missed. I don't think I'll be rushing back for the new Minions area - I'm assuming the main ride will be the same simulator as found at other Universal parks worldwide with another ride or two to round out the area (I could see some kind of flat ride testing, though it took me a while to realise it wasn't accessible). The popularity of the Minions has endured somewhat more than that of Madagascar so the change seems logical from the parks' perspective but as someone who has already been on the main simulator ride at other parks in the chain it doesn't really add much value for me. Apparently a Nintendo land is also coming in the future, which would be more appealing, though hopefully I'll get to see it at one of their other parks first.
Couple of pics to finish. I am not a photographer:
Little easter egg in the Rapids queue. There was a similar message on the haystack driers at the exit warning that they don't offer protection against raptor attack
Waterworld set
BSG & Mummy (plus a scare zone that I got slightly lost in) from the end of the main street.
