A Teen’s Experience of Universal Studios. Worth It or Not?

With Universal Studios Beijing’s grand opening a few weeks behind us, people have been buzzing about the new amusement park left and right. And for what it’s worth, it’s safe to say that the hype is totally worth it.

My visit to Universal Studios happened just two days prior to the official opening and it was mind-blowing, to say the least. My sister and I spent the entire day there, arriving around 9am and leaving at 7.30pm.

Unfortunately, for an entire hour and a half, we took a seemingly endless stream of photos in front of the rotating Universal Globe. One useful tip – allocate a specific amount of time to take photos in there, because spending nearly two hours just taking pictures was the last thing we had anticipated.

As for the park itself, however, we started off strong with the rides and decided to try the infamous Decepticoaster in Transformers Metrobase first. All the stories are true. This ride is for devout thrill-seekers, a group I’m proud to count myself among.

It was definitely the best ride to kick off the day and boost my adrenaline, which got me excited about the rest of the rides. Unfortunately for my sister, the Decepticoaster converted her from a thrill-seeker to a person in deep need of therapy.

The entire day, she was reluctant to try other rides, so to slow things down a little, we headed to the Raptor Encounter located in Jurassic World. Although watching the showman interact with the dinosaur was a lot less frantic than the previous ride, the diversion served its purpose.

Still thoroughly traumatized and hesitant to try another ride, I was finally able to convince my sister to go on the Flight of the Hippogriff at the Wizarding World of Harry Potter. Personally, the ride was an eight out of ten. Nothing too extreme but still fun and exciting, in its own right.

Next, we headed to Kung Fu Panda Land of Awesomeness and tried all sorts of rides, from the Carousel of Heroes to the multifaceted Journey of the Dragon Warrior. The entire place really lives up to its name. There is so much to do and so much to see there.

And again, be warned, the iridescent lights and soothing background music will force you to indulge in another endless photo and video shoot. Do not fall victim to this! Unless you plan on visiting the theme park a second time, taking pictures at one spot for much too long is not the best idea.

Our next stop was to Minion Land, where we went on the Loop-Dee Doop-Dee three times in a row. Although the name sounds quite silly, it was short and lovely, and definitely made it to my list of top five rides. Another ride that I really enjoyed was the Despicable Me Minion Mayhem. As a huge fan of virtual reality, the ride unquestionably did it for me. Unfortunately, the wait time was half an hour so doing it a second time was a no-go.

Sing on Tour was our last stop. If you loved the movie, then you’ll doubtlessly love the musical performance. Some of the songs were mashups of other popular songs like Shake it Off by Taylor Swift and all the choreography was impressively synchronized.

After the live performance, my sister and I were famished. On our way out, we headed to Mel’s Drive-In where we ate cheeseburgers and French fries for dinner. Although the food was incredibly overpriced, we enjoyed our time at Universal Studios, and hope you do too!

Images: Courtesy of Jenny Andrea