3D, Rides & more: Fun in Universal Studio

3 D Video, simply explained as a video captured with a 2 pin hole camera each hole with a different cancelling filter.  When viewing the video the person has to use eyeglasses with similar cancelling filters. 
Viewing this way gives us the ability to see as if we where seeing real things with our two eyes.  Our two eyes help us tell approximate distance between two objects. 
Thus  objects moving or fixed look awesome to the viewer.
The separation of the holes and angle and material of the filter is important.
Over time the filters and the technology has changed, while some have faded, others have been dominating due to their simplicity, etc.

Why am I telling all this?
During my visit to Universal Studio I enjoyed a few different types of 3D/4D Videos.  I like to share my experience.

4D Video?
While 3 D video shows the depth of the video, i.e. the distance of one object to another object in the video is visible, 4 D goes one step a head and gives the viewer a part of experience of what is happening in the video.

How is that done?
Everything cant be shared with the viewer, but rocking chairs, sprinkling water on the face or near the neck, gush of hot or cold air, etc, give the viewer a little more fun.

Now lets stop discussing the "Good To Know Stuff" and get to the "Fun To Know Stuff"
I will try to explain my experience and compare it to a similar thing in India.  But I will try to make the stuff look more interesting as you read on.


The Simpsons Ride
This is a virtual ride where in we get to feel as if we are on a roller coaster ride.  We sit in a 2 X 6 closed vehicle and a big screen in front of us shows a video.  The video is of a breaking roller coaster where we are taken through the entire sequence of moving up, down, left, right, jolts, sudden stops and all type of movements.  Since it is done so fast and is so perfectly synchronized with the video ahead, you feel like on a roller coaster.  The characters are introduced even before we get to the ride, so even those who dont know the Simpsons or the story they are going to be a part of, in the ride, they enjoy it.  This is a ride we where so excited that we went in twice.


What is Virtual Ride?
Since we are not moving too much, but the force of movement, sudden stop, or reverse, etc, we enjoy it as a ride.  To give you a little better picture, the building in which we where was showing atleast 6 to 9 rides simultaneously.


Revenge of the Mummy Ride
This is another awesome ride.  Unlike the above rider, this happens in a very dark chamber with parts of walls illuminated by faint images of Mummies, small footage s of the movie, etc.
Since the chamber is so dark, and the movements of the vehicle even more unexpected, it is really thrilling. 
Of what I felt we were moving back and forth in an X shaped tunnel with a few ups and downs.
I wanted to enjoy this ride once more, but just had a heavy lunch.


Jurassic Park
This ride is more predictable and first 50% in broad day light but none the less it gets interesting.
As in the movie, we are visitors on a boat, in a park with huge robotic Vegetarian Dinosaurs, some startling humble ones appearing suddenly out of the water, making you a little wet.
As we go on, the mini carnivorous ones appear, sprinkling water, as if it were acid.  Then starts the destruction phase, where a car drops from a considerable height  again making you wet.
As you go in the big dark tunnel, the thrill starts. The boat is taken up a ladder slowly, and the speed increases suddenly, and we start falling towards the water, while huge Tyrannosaurus and few other big ones try to scare you.
It ends with a gush of water making you shiver in the cold water and weather.
We went in twice.


Shrek 4D
This is a good movie combined with nice 4 D effects.  You can see the perfection in 3 D when you see the curtains lift off.  You see another curtain which is actually a virtual one.
Then starts the action, with us being moved as the main characters Shrek or Fiona move, galloping on the horse, going near a river, facing a dragons breath (hot air), etc.
The best part is the captivating story.


Terminator
 This is a simple 3 D movie, but is projected on three screens placed like inverted \___/
The extra interesting part is that story is not limited to the screen.  People (near look a likes of Arnold, the boy and his mom) come on the stage to perform a small part of the story, and they disappear, and the story continues on the screen.  This includes a bike stunt on the stage and a crash in the screen, a giant virtual nitrogen spider terminator chasing the real characters, and many more synchronized scenes. 
Isn't that amazing.


Earth quake simulation in a subway

For the fans of subs, By subway I mean underground local train stations and not the food chain "Subway".
Our first fun activity in the Universal Studios was a tour.  This simulation was just a part of the tour.
I cant explain an earth quake when in a train, derailing of a passing train, hitting the pillar, the road above you falling off, a fuel tanker sliding down towards you, exploding in flames, and on other side water gushing towards you, only to go under the tracks.
You have to experience it.

Rain Simulation
Simulation of rain, thunder, and flood on a huge set like an old village. Nothing much to explain.
Water sprinkled from electric poles, windows banging, crackling thunder, sudden floods.

King Kong 360
This is the ultimate of all. You must experience it.
Let me explain the scene first.
In attempt to escape from the huge, possibly man eating ape, the actress runs away, eventually finding herself in midst of flesh eating dinosaur.
The ape comes to her rescue, tears the mouth of one, etc. Then she is dangling on roots of trees swinging back and forth between two more dinosaur.

Now remove the actress and put yourself...
Here the screen is on both sides, and is 3 D.  So the ape, the small dinosaurs, and later the big ones are around you (basically left and right), but since you are in a bus and it is being moved, tilted, etc,
You will really love it.
Had it not been part of a big tour in the Universal Studios, we would have gone to it a few times.
But we had a lot to cover and the day had just started.

I covered two things in Hyderabad...but here it is far more better.
Simpsons Ride - I saw one in NTR Garden Fun Area
Shrek 4 D - Imax 4 D

Planning : Trip to LA
Thanks Giving was coming soon and we were thinking of options to spend the long weekend.
While on one side we had our CEO asking us if we shall go to Las Vegas, or Reno to the least, he is a busy guy.

One of my room mates friends and his friend where planing to fly all the way from different parts of U.S. (one from New York, another from Kansas) to meet and enjoy the weekend.
They had planned to spend a day in SFO and then take a car to Los Angeles.

We were invited to accompany them. There plan was pretty much fixed, go to Universal Studios on day one, and on the second day visit other places in LA.  Places including Beverly Hills, Hollywood Sign and most interesting Santa Monica Beach.  They had another place in there plan Automobile Show.  We were not sure if we would be interested in this last part.

So we had a plan of our own.  We stuck to there plan of Universal Studios Hollywood on day one and Disney Land as an option on day two.
Now we had a debate to rush through both Universal Studios and two parks of Disney in two days or enjoy Universal Studios one and half day and the rest go around LA.
We asked different people for suggestions and finally we decided to skip Disney and have a Front Of the Line Pass for Universal Studios. The second day was still unplanned.

Now we had a feeling that we were wasting a precious day of 4 day holiday.  But we were invited, and thankful for that.

The cost of the tickets rose from $77 to $140 per head but to utilize the most we could in the short span we had to make some hard choices.
Coming to food we thought we would decide there to take Unlimited Food at 5 restaurants for $24 or go on our own choice once we went there.  This was more important cos one of us was vegetarian, and, me and the other guy wouldn't eat Beef or Pork.

We thought we would start at around 11 PM Thursday, reach Friday morning around 6 AM, get fresh and then go to Universal Studios.  For the night long sleepless night we decided to sleep the greater part of day :). So we ate and slept and then woke up packed and got ready.

Execution: Start of the travel
Now the two guys arrived and told us the actual plan. The plan was we will start at 3 AM so that we reach LA by 9 AM, in time for Universal Studios.  Once done we would go to the hotel.
So we tried to sleep, wake up at 2 AM, got ready and started around 3:30 AM. Went in search of coffee place, couldn't find one, and so started the long drive.  The first turn we took was wrong turn, and though we realized this just a few feet later there was no way we could make a u turn (unlike in India, where we make  a u turn where ever we want). We left the GPS to recalculate and guide us.

Many times I slept and woke, just to sleep again after some time.  This carried on till 5:30 AM. We reached McD, had breakfast, refueled the car, and started again. It is hard to make a choice, even when it is non vegetarian especially when your not aware neither advised what contains what, what bacon is, what is Slame, what ham is, etc.

Anyway back on the journey,

We continued our journey, and in a few hours we where in picturesque area, wishing to click every picture, the mountains covered in fog, some basking in uneven sunlight, some with deep blue lakes, the roads going up and down and providing a long view of the distance to cover. We clicked photos, captures videos, exclaimed at the stunning views, and so on.

Soon we were closing LA, thanks to GPS, we were less confused and went exact to where we had to go, our first stop, Universal Studios Hollywood.

Guys before I write more, or end up deleting my drafts by accident, lets see how many are interested to read.
I will write based on it and send them only.
So respond and let me know if I should write or keep my experience to myself....more interesting part is yet to begin :)

Day 1 : Universal Studios
Finally we reached Universal Studios Hollywood (to be  referred as USH).  The entry for Car Parking was a huge que though more than one where processed at a time. Now don't say the length of each car made it look big.  We waited for quite some time to get there.  Once at the toll gate we were asked for 3 options $15, $20, $25 depending on the closeness of the car park to the studios.  We had the whole day and so took $15 ticket.
Lucky, we had a walk for around 5 mins walk though the USH city, before entering the park.  It had various shops, different attractions like a huge guitar, a big stage named City Walk, a huge King Kong display, a dragon on a shop, etc. 
Did I say 5 mins....nooooo...we clicked pictures as we went, videos, etc, especially near a randomly water shooting Fountain, etc. And a few more at the huge Universal Studios Globe.

Finally we went into the Universal Studio after showing our Pass.  Did I mention we had taken the tickets online and had saved around 1000 bucks a ticket.  We showed our pass, got the events list, and headed in for fun.  So many events, all free, (or lets say all paid for unlimited visits), and we had to decide which to go to 1st, so that if required we could go again later.

We decided to take the tour first.  This was one interesting part, where we were shown the external looks of the Stages, only outer views built houses, street views, cars and so many other things.  It included a Old Village view where rain and flood simulation for shootings was shown.
Then we saw a car show, where two cars were rotated amongst sudden gush of water, fire etc.  We also saw a petrol tank near a water body blow up, and a shark rushing at us, throwing water at us, making our cameras wet, A huge original plane broken to make look like a real plane crash destroying a near by village, and so on and so forth.. So many that I cant tell all here. 
For the more interested few, who enjoyed my email, I will describe the King Kong 3D, a part of this show in next email... We really enjoyed it, and wished to go again, but the part of it was so small of the entire show that we dint have the time for it again.

After this show was over, we went and took the All You Can Eat Pass, by paying around $24.  I was sure I will not be able to justify it, but paying for each thing I want to try, would be very costly, or time taking.

Now we went down the mountain for food, and few other rides.  We had food, and since it was lunch time there was a long que.  We could choose one of three types of items at a time, and we were sure we wouldn't come again in the line.  A good plan to limit the wastage of food.
Once we had the food we went for the Jurassic Park ride, the Revenge of the Mummy ride, food again.  Now I was heavily loaded and dint want to take any ride at this point.  Two of us went for the Mummy ride again, and then we joined them for the Jurassic Ride again.

Am I going too fast....Yeah let me save this for the next mail, giving you the high level points.

After this we came up for the Terminator 3D show, went to Animal show, Shrek 4D, the virtual Simpsons Ride twice.  Time ran faster when you enjoy it as much you enjoy it.  We headed for food to the nearest place instead of the best place which was far below where we were right now.

After food, we headed out, took a few more snaps here and there, and started for the hotel again.
Again to the mercy of the GPS.  When we headed out of the Parking Lot, we didn't know which way to head, and the GPS took quite a while to get connected to the Satellite. All we could do was ride around with our own instincts.

We reached the hotel, agreed tp pay $30 (including extra $6 for Vallet parking) for Parking, checked into our room. The odd things we learned was a 500ml water bottle was $4, internet for 24 hrs was $10, etc.  We got fresh, unloaded the camera, left it for charging, viewed the pics in laptop, and went to sleep.

Day 2: Beverly Hills, Hollywood Sign, etc

We visited Santa Monica Beach, searched for best parking, and chose $1 an hour parking on the road over the $8 parking near the sand.  Went for food, returned, parked, changed, got wet, played in very very cold water, dried, changed back, and headed for Beverly Hills.
Again same story, searched for best parking spot, walked around the roads, went for Indian food at Saffron.  Nice food (rice, chicken, mango sweet, etc) for around $7.
We then went around in the car for a chance to spot know actors/actresses.  No luck.
Then we went for the Hollywood sign.  Towards the end of the ride to the spot, the roads were very small, sharp turns, and an inexperienced GPS reader would have surely gone on the wrong road.
We reached almost at the right time, just before the Sunset.  What could we do...just click as many as we can, some with us, some of the spectacular scenes with the water in the Dam with evening sun.
On our way back we were completely lost, going in imperfect circles on the Ghat Road, taking the wrong turns, and luckily we were out on the correct road.
We came back, took food (Chicken Sub and Salad from Subway), headed to our room, ate, bathed and went to Sleep.

Day 3 : Back To San Ramon
Next day we went to McD, had breakfast.  I had misplaced my debit card, and so someone had to pay for it.
I could not find it at the place where it should have been, had it not been with me, but lets see what happens.
it was extra long drive on the picturesque road of the Pacific Highway.  Roads with fogs at times, super points with Ocean, scattered rocks, fog, etc.
We stopped for a Visit to a Castle, but couldn't,as we were running short of time. But we did go to a bridge nearby, stopped at few other locations, wow.
Once we were almost getting late for one of the guys flight, we tried to increase the speed, but alas the traffic.  We stopped for Gas at around 4:00 PM and had our only chance to get some food, a Nut Bar.  I found the card tucked in my jacket, and I payed a $1 each for 3 bars.  It wasn't sufficient but we discovered that late, when we were back in the car, and had not taken more of the fear of good or bad taste.
As we went on Traffic kept increasing and increasing.
By the time we reached Airport, he missed the airport in 10 - 15 minutes.  His next flight was at around 11 PM, aprox 5 hours later.
But they still had to return the car, check-in, etc
So they dropped us at our place.  They were so tired of driving for more than 9 hours changing as we drove that they were not even following the GPS correctly, hence driving more and more.

We finally reached, and let them go on their final phase of the journey.  They finally gave the rented car back, headed to the airport, had food and went in their separate directions.

We had Maggi, had slept sound.