Universal Studios Hollywood's Lunar New Year kicked off this past weekend and they've really plussed the event for 2018. 

Check out some amazing shots sent to us from the park. 

You can find all of the info for Lunar New Year here. 

Lunar New Year Highlights 

The Year of the Minion? 

Poe is ready to welcome you

Amazing artists are on hand 

Mandarin Megatron is back! 

This is seriously the coolest thing 

Yesterday we were invited out to Universal Studios Hollywood to check out their always great Lunar New Year Event and once again it didn't disappoint at all. 

Back are all of the amazing character interactions, great food and beautiful backdrop. As you'll see below it was an absolutely beautiful day at the park. 

​We'll also take a look at some of the many projects going on around the park. 

Happy Lunar New Year!! 

It's the year of the Rooster 

New characters this year are Tigress and Po from Kung Fun Panda.

Tigress is ready to fight, Po is just Po. 

For fans of the films there are a few Easter Eggs 

Once again you can leave a message in one of the trees, a great touch that we did. Sadly not in Mandarin. We're a bit rusty. ;) 

Mandarin Megatron is back and awesome as ever. 

Sorry your store got torn down Woody (more on that below) but it's always great seeing you out in the park. 

Moving on. There are no major new attractions coming to the park this year, but that doesn't mean that there aren't a plethora of smaller projects going on at the park right now.

Cartooniversal has been completely removed as we showed you in our last update, but we figured we'd take a closer look this time since crowds were light. 

Taking advantage of these views that we won't get to see forever. 

In addition, Waterworld is closed for refurbishment. 

Some cement work going on outside of Shrek 

It was an absolutely beautiful day to take in the Studio Tour

From the tour you can see all the work being done to add in the 4th Starway escalator 

If you haven't seen Kubo yet you really need to. It's so amazing. 

Boo, no HHN maze. :( 

We saw this a LOT during our Tour. This was the busiest I'd seen the lot in years. So much so that our tour really only lasted about 35-40 minutes. 

Not much change in the former location of Stage 28 

Production stuff 

Sorry for the weird shot here, wasn't expecting Jaws to be closed, but here it is. If you look at the details you can see the shark fins and more. Looks to be a pretty extensive refurb which is odd because it just had one maybe 1 1/2 years ago? 

Moving back to the park, work continues for the new Starway 

Which means an update for the Mummy Lockers to make room 

One last note, they are doing some work on the stage in Hogsmeade. 

As always, we absolutely love seeing the characters at the park. 

Bello!! 

"There's nothing better than a cigar lit with a hundred dollar bill!" 

It was a beautiful chilly day in the park which of course meant Hot Butterbeer!! 

This was also our first chance to ride Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey with the 2D 120 Frames Per Second and we LOVED it. Absolutely no nausea for any of us, the sets and screens blended perfectly and it was a great experience. I love that they are making little tweaks to improve an already amazing ride experience. 

Out in CityWalk, work continues on Margaritaville. 

Do have to say, the sign is in a weird place, you really can't see it until you are right in front of it due to the iFly right next to it. But we do hope the restaurant does well. 

Finally some work being done on Voodoo Donuts!! 

We can't wait for this to open!! 

Now that the Christmas Tree is gone we can see the full outside of the new Universal Cinema. It looks amazing!! 

Alright, that's going to wrap it up for this update, we hope you enjoyed it. 

Be sure to plan some time to check out Lunar New Year. It runs now through February 5th. You can find out more information about the event here. 

​If you enjoyed this update please share with your friends and make sure you "like" us on Facebook and "follow" us on Twitter, Instagram and YouTube. 

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It's finally here!!! It's Potter Week!!

As you all know the Wizarding World of Harry Potter opens at Universal Studios Hollywood this Thursday (April 7) and the star studded premiere is tomorrow night (April 5). We will of course be there on the red carpet so be sure you are following us for all of that fun. 

So while we're celebrating all things Wizarding World this week we thought it would be a good time to stop and take a look backwards a bit, to take a look at where the park was just a few short years ago and at the "Epic Transformation" they've made. Because it truly is EPIC. 

From a park that just a few years ago was giving a full year away for the price of one day to where today is commanding multiple visits for tourists and has definitely swayed the attendance habits of local fans who now have a choice between incredible theme parks to attend each weekend.

It truly is an AMAZING time time to be a theme park fan in Southern California. 

(keep in mind, we don't have all the older pictures we would have liked, but at the time we weren't thinking of taking them for posterity ... oh hindsight) ​

We'll start off at the front of the park since that's the first thing everybody sees when they enter. Remember when this was the new thing in the park? 

Of course, the iconic entry to the park hasn't changed much over the years. 

The rest of the entrance area has sure changed over the years though. 

Sure looks different today 

All new Starbucks!! 

And they aren't even done yet, coming this Summer!! 

The Wild West Theater 

Now ... 

Universal Plaza decked out for Lunar New Year earlier this year. 

Let's take a left turn from Universal Plaza where we now have the amazing Despicable Me Minion Mayhem and Super Silly Funland.

T2:3D. 

Now ... 
Despicable Me Minion Mayhem and Super Silly Funland

Did You Know: Despicable Me Minion Mayhem was one of the first projects we started covering as a website? 

Continuing on through the upper lot of the park, who remembers when Marvel had a presence at the park? It really wasn't that long ago. 

Once Marvel left it was just "Comic Heroes" 

Or when this was actually a thing? 

Even the Studio Tour entrance has undergone some pretty significant changes over the years: 

The tour itself has had some changes, some forced and two totally different Fast and Furious attractions. 

Have a tramtastic day ... 

But all of the changes weren't exclusive to the upper lot, the lower lot has received it's share of love recently. 

​Then ... Special Effects Stages (now on the upper lot)

Now ... 
Transformers The Ride 3D 

Even small changes to make the guest experience better. 

Then... 

Now ... 

But of course, none of that compares to the changes made to the upper lot in just the last few years. The thing that has finally made Universal Studios into a full fledged "Theme Park" and not just a "Studios" park. 

​Then ... 

Did you know: The Universal Amphitheater closed in September 2013? Not even 3 years ago. 

Anybody know what is in this spot now? Certainly looks much different today. 

No Epic Transformation could be done without a LOT of Epic Construction. 

Now ... we'll start off with the amazing Springfield addition that was made last year. 

And of course, none of that compares to what is opening in just a few days. 

So now it's finally here ... just a few short days away. Wizarding World opens for the world to see. 

And we all have heard the rumors, we know they aren't done yet. When the new additions will be announced is anybody's guess. Will they take the advantage of the world looking at the park this week to make another big announcement? We'll find out tomorrow night. 

We hope you enjoyed this look back at the park over the past few years. We of course had a lot more pictures that we could have shared, but we figured this was more than enough. It's still amazing how much work has been done in just a few years and we can't wait to see what the future holds.