California San Diego Sea World

Animal theme parks is a mandatory activity in my family's travel itinerary regardless of which country we go to. So of course we wouldn't miss out San Diego Sea World during our 2016 California trip.

I think one reason why I'm still not bored of animal theme parks is because of the souvenir shops.

What makes this theme park so different from the others is their splendid dolphin show. Though I didn't really enjoy it because I think that it is a cruel act to imprison dolphins (or any animals that require a vast amount of space) in small tank.

Another reason why Sea World was so memorable was because it was the first time I got to touch a stingray and feed sea lions. If I'm not wrong, there isn't a need to pay to touch the sting rays and the price of the sea lion food was kinda cheap too.

There was also an extremely extremely adorable pet show about pets saving Christmas! Besides our everyday pets, there were even animals such as a kangaroo and a pig. 

Our last activity of the day was to watch another Christmas show. Who doesn't love christmas shows am I right? 

I can't really remember the storyline but this is one of the funniest theme park show I've watched!

Thanks for reading!

Universal Studios Hollywood

During the California trip, my sister and I went to Universal Studios Hollywood. Yes, just us since my parents aren't really a fan of theme parks and they didn't really know the characters there. As far as I can remember, this is the first time I've went to a theme park in another country without my parents so it was definitely a unique experience for me. 

We got the Front-of-the-line passes to make sure we could finish all the rides and shows. Thank god we did as it was Boxing Day and the place was extremely crowded. All the rides except for one kiddy ride had at least a 40 minute wait after 10 am so if you're planning to try out all the attractions in a day, buying the fast passes will be the smarter choice. 

I was really surprised when I saw the park map as I had no idea the park would be so small. I was so psyched for the Marvel rides as I didn't reach the height limits when I was younger. Little did I know that that was in Universal Studios Florida. Disappointing yes I know. 

We started out at the Minions area as we were looking for Starbucks. The only ride there was the 4D stimulator ride that Singapore doesn't have. It was still early when we got there so we barely had to queue. This was how we made our mistake... After the ride, we went around taking photos with mascots, drink coffee at a French Bistro near the Minion ride (don't buy the starbucks from here because they have really limited choices and the coffee wasn't that good either). The 20 minute wait time for the rides became over 40 minutes!

The second ride we went to was the Jurassic World Wet Ride which is located at the Lower Lot. I kinda hate how there's an Upper Lot and a Lower Lot because it takes 4 long escalators from one place to another. It was really inconvenient and a waste of time. Again we decided not to use our fast passes as the waiting time wasn't that long yet, which was pretty dumb of us because we didn't have time for a second round as planned. 

One of the rides was really enjoyable and special. The Studio Tour is a must to go as it is the main attraction of Universal Studios Hollywood. I think that because of their size constraints and the fact that Universal Studios movies are filmed there, the rides are mostly 4D simulators to show off how great their technology and stuff are. So yes, in exchange of exciting adrenaline pumping roller coaster rides, you get to ride on a tram around the sets of many universal studios movies. How exciting!!

I may sound sarcastic but the experience is a lot better than how I just described it. If you don't believe me you can always believe the waiting time of the attraction, which was 75 minutes. It was really an eye opener to learn that the same set could be remodeled to fit different locations in dozens of movies. We also got the chance to watch 360• 4D stimulators for King Kong and Fast and Furious 7. They really went overboard with the water effects because it felt like they dumped a whole pail of unknown liquid on my face. 

The other ride I enjoyed was the Mummy coaster. It is almost the same as the one in Singapore so you must be wondering why I had fun on it. So at the last part of the ride, it was really quite and dark. Just imagine the silent part before a jump scare in a horror movie and you'll get what I mean. During that part, I screamed at my sister and she got scared and what made it even funnier was that I did the same thing when we watched an Egyptian movie a few months back. We planned to ride the Mummy coaster again and I was really looking forward to it because I wanted to scare other people but the queue for the single riders was definitely more than 30 minutes in the evening when we got back to it. After wasting 15 minutes we decided to give up. 

There were other rides/shows that Singapore doesn't have such as the Simpson Ride, Animal Actors and the classic ones like the Transformer 4D Ride and Jurassic Park. 

I think that Animal Actors is a fantastic pet show. Usually pet shows have the usual animals: dogs, cats, pigeons and pigs for some others. I'm quite sure not many pet shows have owls in their cast list. The animals of the shows are actually the animals in Universal Studios movies, one of which is Harry Potter. It was really cool to see how animals are trained to act in movies. What made the show even better was the backstage passes we had due to the front-of-the-line card, allowing us to take pictures with the owl!

And now I shall end of this post with pictures :)

Grand Canyon Tour

Hmm, Grand Canyon ok very interesting  was my reaction when my dad first told me about it. I was quite uncertain about the idea because what's so interesting about a pile of dumb rocks. Well that pile of dumb rocks comes with different interesting photo points, historical facts and a deep trench that one can jump into anytime they want :) Also, it serves as a great escape place from the bustling city lifestyle as the canyon is a great place for hiking and for chilling on the edge of a clliff to have a picnic.

As we had never been to the Grand Canyon before, it was better to join a one day tour group to ensure our safety is taken care of. 
http://www.grand-adventures.com/#./west-rim-skywalk-tours

Starting of our journey was a picture at the Welcome to Las Vegas sign, followed by breakfast at the golden arches, which was really just Mcdonalds. Chad tried his best to glorify the fast food restaurant. I have to say it was the best Mcdonalds meal I've ever had. Firstly, the menu is 90% different from the one in Singapore. Also, Chad delivered our food and cleared the table personally. Table service in Mcdonalds! I'm sure not many people have experienced that before,

After a two hour car journey, we finally arrived at Grand Canyon. Our first destination was at Eagle Point where the SkyWalk was located at. At first I thought it was called Ego Point until I saw the sign at the location. The place got its name from these two rocks that resembles an eagle's wings.

I thought the SkyWalk was a super cool glass-floored bridge that connects from one end of the canyon to the other but the real deal was truly disappointing. Instead of what I had expected, the attraction was this tiny circular walking area, no more than a 10 meter radius with a glass floor so scratched and dirty it barely feels like I'm walking on air. This was probably why we were not allowed to bring any objects into the Skywalk to prevent more detoriation of the glass. Even so, Chad managed to snap a few photos of us on the Skywalk.

While waiting for the other tourists, we had plenty of time to take many insta-worthy photos.

 

Our next destination one stop away from Eagle Point to learn about the Native American Tribal Structures. As Chad grew up in environments like these, he was able to share some interesting facts and information.

Afterwards, we began our hike. Just a tip for all of you: wear dark colored clothes as you might have to climb up some rocks to take a good photo and to wear sports shoe or old shoes as it might get scratched or dirty. I really enjoyed the walk around Grand Canyon because it was the only chance I had to exercise this trip and who wouldn't enjoy climbing around right? To be honest I was probably the only one in our group that had fun climbing up the rocky slope. It was no kick for sporty men like me hehe.

I could tell that Chad was really passionate about his job as he shared all the interesting photo points that we came across and offered to take photographs for us.

All those walking actually made me lose my appetite during lunch and the ice cold sandwiches certainly did not help. There were also cheese crackers, grapes and chocolate chip cookies but wouldn't it be better if we had a bowl of steamy hot noodles instead?

Our final destination was Hoover Dam. At that time I was already exhausted but I couldn't resist not spamming photos of the gorgeous scenery in front of me. I thought that the dam was pretty cool since many places rely on it's water and generated energy.

Although the Grand Canyon tour was exhausting as hell, it was the most fun I had in Las Vegas and I really recommend that all of you visit it, be it with a tour group or alone. However, for safety reasons, I think that going with an experience guide will be better as there may be some places that are out of bounds and hazardous.