Give them roots and wings

We went to Universal Studios Singapore (USS) for the second time, as part of the Bishan East Family Day.  The first time we went was in August 2010, to celebrate Samuel’s birthday.

We are truly heartlanders.  See my three Ah Bengs – eating their breakfast. Later the Elias and Samuel watched some performances while Elkan went to play games. We got some popcorn too.

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I like RC events because they give us really good goodie bags. There was a lucky draw (but of course!), but we didn’t win anything.

The RC was really clever.  It coincided the Emergency Preparedness day with the Family Day, and the collection of tickets was treated as a water collection exercise.

Our precious tickets!

Our first photo inside USS! Samuel was excited to see the little red cart.

Our first trip was to the Madagascar Crate Adventure.  Here we are, in a family photo, carrying the Bishan East Family Day bag, so we could take part in a Photo competition.

Smile for the camera, everyone!

Here, let me help you.

The wait was very long – 35 minutes.  Samuel saw the water cooler and decided that he wanted to fill his water bottle.  I think he was more bored than thirsty.

We were excited before the ride.  The children enjoyed it, but honestly, I thought it was not well thought through.  There were simply scenes after scenes of motorised figures, and there was no coherent story-line.

The boys enjoyed it because they are familiar with the silly characters but for people who have never watched the movies, I doubt if it would be interesting at all.  We must be one of the few people who came out from the ride smiling.  Not worth the 35 minutes wait.  But our spirits remained high 🙂

Talking about “Little Empire” again? 🙂

The Spielberg’s “Light, Action, Camera!” was good.  We enjoyed it tremendously the last time we saw it too.

Edmund, being a good father, teaching his sons about the film equipment! (His standing among the boys is very high, when it comes to Science and Technology).

Then we went to the Sci-Fi city, wanting to take the Transformer Ride.  The wait was 90 minutes, so we decided to visit it later.

I love Bumble Bee!

Elkan still enjoys posing for photos. This time we got a photo of Bumble Bee as the Robot man.

We took the Accelerator.  It was fun but I could not take any nice shots.

We decided to go to the Boat Dock for a picnic lunch.  The area leading to the boat dock is my favourite part of the Theme Park.  I really love the pretend-old-buildings.

We enjoyed fooling around, pretending to do all sorts of things.

We pretended to be hooligans, trying to break into the shop!

We told Samuel to knock on the pretend door. He took quite a bit of assurance before he would do it. He was afraid that someone would open the door.

I peeked in between two doors.  My imagination spooked me and when I turned around, I was given a real scare by “Beetlejuice” (honestly, I had forgotten who “Beetlejuice” was, till I did the research to write this post. I enjoyed that show.) It was a shock, but I enjoyed the fun.

I got frightened by “Beetlejuice”. Elkan enjoyed himself… laughing at me… how insolent! 🙂

We found a music shop!

We had a lovely, restful time at the Boat Dock (I enjoyed the view).  It is actually a designated smoking area, but thankfully nobody was smoking there.

After our picnic, we went to watch the Monster Rock show.  It was good, but we found it toooooooo LOUD.  I had to cover my ears at some parts.  Even now, writing about it brings back the feeling and I can actually feel pain in my ears.

After the show, we went on separate ways.  Elkan and I went to do the Transformer Ride, whilst Edmund took Elias and Samuel for other rides.

Outside Mel’s Drive in.  Samuel wanted to take a photo with the Police car.

Samuel wanted to take a photo with the Madagascar ship.

Edmund brought them to the Lost World for the Dino-Soarin.

Elias said the ride was fun and boring at the same time.

Edmund also brought them to take the Enchanted Airways, which Samuel fell in love with.

When Samuel first took it, he was quite frightened.

Meanwhile, Elkan and I were at the Transformer’s Ride.  It was fun.  We enjoyed seeing the exhibits and watching the videos before the ride.  The whole attraction was very well done, I must say.

We were at NEST HQ (Non-biological Extraterrestrial Species Treaty). We were Recruits in training.

The Decepticons attacked the NEST HQ to obtain the AllSpark. It was then left to the recruits to protect the AllSpark… and escape by riding in Evac, a transformer machine.

This is the AllSpark!!!

The Ride was wonderful, worth every minute of the wait.

This is Elkan in his 3D specs. And that is Evac, which we rode in 🙂

After that, we met up with the rest at the Lost World and watched Waterworld.  The boys LOVED it (slapstick, I suppose).  I found it boring.  I spent most of my time looking at the USS map, wondering where to go next…

We went to Ancient Egypt, and Elkan and I went for the Revenge of the Mummy.  The first time we visited USS, Edmund, Elkan and Elias waited for an hour to get it.  This time, the waiting time was only 5 minutes, and Elkan and I basically spent the 5 minutes walking through the super-long queue route through the exhibits.  It was rather spooky though, having nobody else there.  I was glad Elkan was with me.  He was rather amused by my fear I think – I was happy to amuse him.

Well, about the ride.  I HATED the dives (I always hated dives), I thought I was going to die, and I actually teared a bit.  I wanted to know how long it was going to take, but I didn’t dare to ask Elkan (“What if he said – another 5 minutes??”).  Was I relieved when it was over! I will never take it again.

While Elkan and I were inside, the rest were having their snacks, and after I came out, Edmund went in for the ride.  Elkan didn’t want to take it again.

After that, we went to Far Far Away for the Enchanted Airways. I really liked the design of the “airport” – I thought the various exhibits (“Fly to the Fairy-godmother’s cottage for your honeymoon!”, “No smoking” (Says the dragon)) were really clever.

Samuel enjoyed it so much, that he wanted to take it again and again and again. Elkan took it 4 times with him.  (There were so few people, we basically got off, walked out, went back into the “queue” and got on again).

Happy, thrilled, delighted Samuel with the responsible brother.

I took it with Elias for 4 times too.  (Elias : “Mum freaked out for every one of the ride”.  Mum : “That is true.  Roller-Coasters always get me screaming”). Just as it was with Elkan, I was happy that I amused Elias with my fear.

When Samuel wanted to take it for the 5th time, Elias took it with him because the rest of us were too tired (Over-stimulated!!) (Edmund gave up after the second ride).

We then went to watch the Shrek 4-D adventure. Two years ago Samuel was quite frightened by it, but this time he loved it.  My boy has grown up.

After the Shrek show, we got onto the Magic Potion Spin.  There were so few people there.  I am sure we would have been allowed to ride it again and again without even getting out.  But nah, it was boring…

Hello Daddy, Elkan and Samuel!

Hello mummy and Elias!

Finally we went to wait for the Dream Parade to start.

We found some space right in front of two dustbins (I guess no one else wanted to sit there….) and settled down.  It was really convenient for us, because we started having a picnic, and we could conveniently throw our stuff right into the dustbin (we did not even need to get up).

The Parade was enjoyable for us because it was the first time for all of us except for Edmund who has watched the one in the Florida Disneyland.

Samuel’s favourite penguins!

Magadascar float!

After the parade, we went to watch the Magadascar Boogie (where the Penguins danced to “We want to move it… We want to move it move it…”).  Before that we managed to take a family photo with the Magadascar standies.

Hello friends and family!

We had dinner at Mel’s Drive-in.  I loved that place. I was sooooo happy that we managed get a booth.

The burgers and fries were good. The fish nuggets tasted awful.

After dinner, the whole family went to take the Transformer Ride.  We were thrilled that Samuel was tall enough to ride!

It was great.  We all loved it.  It was easily the BEST ride in the whole of USS that we have tried.  It was very cleverly done, feels real enough, and was thrilling without being terrifying.

Then we proceeded to watch the fireworks which was to begin at 9pm.

It was nice walking along the streets at night.  I know this place is no where near the Disneylands in US and Japan, but it was still magical and very enjoyable for me.

New York!

Hollywood!

Woah! Fireworks!

It was really fun this time because Samuel was old enough to enjoy many of the rides and we could stay all the way till the park closed at 9+pm.

We did not get to try all of the rides, and looking at how things are going, the crowd is going to get thinner… so we will come again 🙂

Universal Studios!