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. Written by Gregg Condon 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. Related Updates: As we get closer to the holidays we start to wrap up our holiday season coverage and today we are checking out one of the best events in SoCal, Grinchmas at Universal Studios Hollywood. The event has definitely changed over the years due to the huge changes at the park. Most of the events are centered in Unviersal Plaza and the Studio Tour which is great. Lots of great fun to be had. Written by Gregg Condon Welcome to Grinchmas at Universal Studios Hollywood Not only were we there to celebrate Grinchmas, but also our 21st anniversary. Did I marry up or what? ;) Woah, Cartooniversal is GONE which gives a unique view of Wizarding World. For now. It was a busy morning in Wizarding World. One of the coolest things about Wizarding World ... no matter how many times we visit we always see one person each time in house robes and in tears being overwhelmed by Wizarding World. It's awesome to see. And people still think they don't need Wizarding World on both coasts. We decided to take it easy and have some breakfast and Hot Butterbeer at Three Broomsticks. So many Wholiday Events in Universal Plaza. We had already had tickets for the LA Kings game that afternoon so we took a little break from the park to head down to Staples to take in the Hockey game. A look at the decorations in CityWalk. Down at the Hockey game, which is just a short 8 mile drive from Universal. Of course, with LA Traffic it still takes awhile to get down there. After a fun game (lots of goals and fights) it was time to head back to Universal. The new Cinema looks fantastic Absolutely love the entry plaza all lit up It's still just amazing how much this park has changed over the past few years. Even Shrek 4D looks great all lit up. We had to go check out the Grinchmas show on the Studio Tour, and were greated by a special guest while in line. Believe it or not, this was the first time we'd done the Studio Tour at night. Looks so great at night. Fire Good!! The Grinchmas show is lots of fun. Of course the Grinch has got to come out and try and ruin Christmas. Always such a weird transition from Grinch to Psycho. #Stinkpickle Cheers!! Let's check out the rest of the holiday decorations on the upper lot. Grinchmas Tree Lighting show Lots of fun Who stuff to do A private party was about to happen, our invite must have been lost in the mail. ;) Back in CityWalk, Kong with his Santa Hat We were reminscing that when we first started dating shortly after CityWalk opened it was never busy, they've really turned this into a destination place for locals and tourists and it's great to see. And that's gonna wrap it up for our Grinchmas update from Universal Studios Hollywood. It's definitely a great event that you should definitely check out. Click here for more info on Grinchmas. After the first of the year we'll get back to having normal updates from goings on around the park. Happy Wholidays!! Related Updates: Today it's time to take a look at the goings on at Universal Studios Hollywood as they prepare for Halloween Horror Nights which begins in just, wait, 9 days? Wow. It was an absolutely gorgeous weekend in Southern California (VERY fall-like, well for us) so we'll also share some pictures of the park courtesy of Matt. Pictures by Matthew Nelson Written by Gregg Condon What better way to start off a Universal Studios Hollywood update than in Hogsmeade? I'm not an Owl ... No sign of Yakko, Wakko and Dot ... Let's take the Starway down for a look at the lower lot ... raise your hand if you have kind of forgotten there is a Lower Lot at Universal Studios Hollywood since about April. =) From up here the Exorcist doesn't look very scary. Not sure I've ever been so excited for a maze ... ever. Even though it was very cool for Labor Day Weekend, it was still warm enough for a trip through Jurassic Park This one is happy to see you The Studio Tour is a must do of course ... Construction on the all new Halloween Maze is going along quite nicely. Due to filming on the backlot we weren't able to get any shots of the mazes that will be down here, but still plenty of activity going on. Look for this in a Movie/TV Show/Commercial/Music Video (those are apparently still a thing) near you ... These are how they keep you locked up for HHN ... Just time for a quick bite ... More HHN Prep ... It's too bad they couldn't somehow incorporate this in to HHN What's up Orlando ... Doesn't look too Psycho to me Lots of work going on for the Terror Tram. Some kind of facade here and lots of stuff to walk through. Yay!! Just wish we could have the fire back Work on the humongous new soundstages is progressing quite nicely. Or just chilling on break. It's just too bad John and crew couldn't have gotten one year of HHN use out of these soundstages before they are put to use. Could you imagine the amazing pair of mazes they could have had here? Speaking of amazing mazes ... Thankfully since the attraction has opened there's been no toning down of the scares ... in fact, we've heard it's gotten even scarier, which is awesome. And we'll leave you with one of the amazing performers at the park. They truly are the best. Since Halloween Horror Nights starts next week that means we'll have our world famous HHN Strategy Guide up early next week. Well, maybe not World Famous ... LA famous? ... Internet Famous? ... well, it's famous somewhere if only in our own mind. So be sure to check back for that next week. Related Updates: |
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