Pops Travel Guide, Universal Studios Hollywood

View from our room.

Last week I took my daughter on a father/daughter trip to Los Angeles to see Universal Studios and Disneyland. For Universal Studios I booked a VIP tour which turned out to be the best thing I could have done.

We started out with the first tour of the day. You arrive about 20 minutes early so you can check in and enjoy a continental breakfast and meet your guide and other members of the tour. Each tour size is about 12 people. After filling up on food you board a smaller bus that takes you on the back lot tour. Universal offers the back lot tour to everyone but you are on a larger trolley and you are not allowed to get off the trolley. We made a few stops along the tour and were allowed to get off and walk around. We stopped at the property room, which is a multi-story building, where props can be rented for any movie. Some of the props we saw dated back to movies like the original Spartacus. We also stopped at what they now call Wisteria Lane where they filmed Desperate Housewives. Some of the houses had been used in TV shows like Leave it to Beaver and The Munsters. Another stop was a scene from War of the Worlds with Tom Cruise. The movie purchased a retired 747 in which they cut up and used in the scene where the 747 crashed into a neighborhood. We were able to walk around the wreckage.

After the back lot tour our guide took us into the park to take advantage of the attractions. The VIP experience gave us front of line access. My favorite was the Special Effects Show where they showed us fight scenes using stuntmen, how they set someone on fire and all the precautions taken to ensure safety in a stunt. They also showed sound effects and some of the technology used in film making.

Part of the VIP experience included a lunch. Now this wasn't the theme park food you would expect but was a full sit-down buffet. We had the option of crab legs, shrimp, prime rib and a great dessert bar. It was all you can eat and was well worth it.

After lunch they saved the best for last. We were taken into the Harry Potter area where we tried Butter Beer, and watched someone purchase a wand where the wand picks you. We were also able to do all the rides and at the end our guide left us but we were still free to go anywhere in the park and still take advantage of the front of line pass.

We went back to a few attractions we wanted to see again and then finished the day with the animal actor show which was very entertaining.

The VIP Experience is on the expensive side but if you have one day in the park, want to see as much as possible and get the most for your dollar then the VIP Experience is the way to go.