LATE BREAKING NEWS: Do not visit USS if your main reason is to ride the Battlestar Galactica coasters! The BSG ride has been closed temporarily by the Singapore Government and a statement from Resort World Sentosa follows:-

Breaking news about the statement of closure of BSG coaster by Resort World Sentosa:-

In lieu of that, I fear that their park attendance is gonna suffer. BSG so far may be the only main attraction going to USS, it certainly is mine. My suggestion now is to wait until news of that glitch has been rectified before planning your trip there back again.

I will keep track of this closure, and keep interested visitors informed of the BSG situation, so please keep your eyes peeled for further news in the future. Please be advised.
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Hi there!

In this I shall chronicle my own experience planning, and what I have experience so far at Sentosa Integrated Resort Universal Studios Singapore. It is my hope that this may help others have a general idea of what to expect, what to plan for, and what to experience to enjoy the most of their trip to the USS.

The itinerary goes:-

Venue: The Hard Rock Hotel Sentosa.
Length of stay: 3 days 2 nights.
Cost: SGD318 per night for a standard room, two single bed.

The journey began with MH601 from KUL to SIN. I opted for this for several reason, mainly because I work with the airlines, and the option of travelling to Sentosa from the airport is the easiest yet.

There are several options to get to Sentosa.

1. Via the airport for those arriving by plane. From the airport, there are several options themselves.
2. Via driving your own car, 30mins from Causeway link SIN-JHB, 30 minutes from Tuas Second Link
3. Via MRT if you're planning to stay within the city and taking the MRT as the mode of travel.
4. Via the Singapore Cruise Center situation in Sentosa.

NEW EDIT: Here's a handy PDF explaining how to get to Resort World Sentosa and to Universal Studios Singapore. PDF size is huge. Print for easy reference.

NEW EDIT: This is a handy chart explaining the price differences and what dates are defined as offpeak or superpeak and their relative prices.


Option 1 is further subvidided into the option of taking a cab, MRT from Terminal 2 or complimentary shuttle service. Cab is self-explanatory, however if you do not accommodation arrangements within Sentosa hotel areas, you are REQUIRED to pay for the Sentosa Entry Fee at Sentosa Gantry. MRT option is sound if you're located close within the proximity of an MRT station and wish to take that as the mode of transport. MRT users will have to stop at VIVO city, alight here and switch to Sentosa Express, a monorail service connecting VIVO City and Universal Studios Singapore. But by far the easiest and cheapestmode of transport is via the complimentary shuttle bus. It departs from the bus lane stops outside of the respective terminals in Singapore airports (T1/2/3, sorry no budget terminal stops). From the arrival area in T2, head right till the exit and keep right till you see lanes of bus stops servicing private and public needs to the city center. The bus is hard to miss, is huge, well maintained and air conditioned. The bus shuttle trip takes 30 minutes and is FREE!

The rest of the options, I list down only, I dont know their prices and their details.

Upon arriving at Hard Rock Hotel, check-in is technically not available until 3pm. You then have the option of luggage-keep from Front Desk and head to the park and enjoy your entire day there and check back in after your day at the park is done and your room will be ready for you.

I chose that, and headed to USS. The close proximity of USS and Hard Rock Hotel allows me to walk to the USS gate within 10 minutes. The route is covered almost entirely under canopy, so that you can make your way to USS should the weather turns bad. "Festive Walk", USS' version of Universal City Walk, starts from Festive Hotel next to Hard Rock (these two hotels are practically next door to each other), and will connect the six different hotels in the Integrated REsort Area to USS via underground shopping known as Festive Walk. What's different from the other Universal City Walks around the world, is that Singapore's Festive Walk serves high end, posh and branded items from brands like Hermes, Certier and Burburry, within Festive Walk itself, making this another high-end version of Orchard Road. Other Universal City Walk in Hollywood, Orlando and Osaka only sports cheap souvenir and gift items, compared to Festive Walk's high end items and luxurious dining options.

Upon arriving at the end of Festive Walk is the Lake of Dreams and the adjourning open court area leading to the Universal Globe and the gate of USS itself. This area serves as a street performance/atmosphere area with bustling carnival like activity during night time.

A word of warning, PURCHASE YOUR TICKETS WELL EARLIER BEFORE HEADING TO THE PARK. USS is tightly packed and compact park, but still houses up to 24 attractions within its walls, and due to this space constraints, USS management decides to allocate specific quota amount of tickets for the day before closing the ticket sale for the day. I have seen people get turned down after arriving at the ticket booth because ticket allocation is full and only ticket for the next follwoing day is available for sale. Also, wait until the very last minute and survey the crowd before deciding to purchase an Express Pass. Express Pass allows you direct front of the line spot on many rides and attractions, but can only be used once a day per ride. Looking at my own crowd traffic when I arrived at 1030am this morning, it is literraly a walk-in straight to the front of the line, without the need for the Express Pass.

For week day tickets, the price is SGD66, and the weekend tickets are SGD72 a pop. However, being the park may close its attractions for a short period of time before reopening it later in the day for "creative adjustments", they have complimented early patrons with SGD10 voucher for food/beverage and SGD15 merchandise voucher for patrons of the first opening week. In essense, my ticket today is priced at SGD41, and is SGD47 tomorrow.

Upon entering, these are the attractions I went in chronological order:-

1. Sci-fi City. Battlestar Galactica rollercoaster. This is a dueling coaster, meaning both tracks of the coaster pass near misses with each other, with each tracks snaking around one another to simulate a duel. There is the Human side, colored Blue and the Cylon side, marked Red. Both have different entrances and differnet interior design. The Human side is more mundane and features light furnishing, to supposedly complement the Galactica spartan design, with only Kara "Starbuck" Thrace briefing you on the mission before blast-off. The Cylon Side however is more lavish and intricate, with the interiors fashioned to look like the infusion of flesh, metal and steel, with thousands of Cylons hanging off coathooks just like inside the Resurrection Ship. While surveying this interior, you will hear the creepy voice of the Cylon Mothership Hybrid spewing incoherent mission objectives just like in the TV show.

To further differentiate between the Human and Cylon side, the tracks and the coaster cars are different too. The Human coaster is a floor design with the track running underneath the floor of seats, but with open sides. This does not provide the openness feeling, compared to the Cylon coaster design. The Cylon coaster is FLOORLESS, wth the tracks running above the rider's seat, allowing that dangling and free sensation. The tracks too are different. While both tracks are snaking around each other with narrowly missing one another, the Human track is has more steep turns and on the first section, feature a huge stomach churning drop. The rest of the Human track is relatively mundane, to a coaster vet like me. The Cylon track however is more exciting, with it being floorless, allows makes the rider feel like he's about to fall off. The Cylon tracks also feature double inversion/loop, with each loop dipping BELOW ground, and riders are sprayed with water misters on each dip below ground. I ended up sputtering and choking water on the second loop, before spitting it out for a gulp of air to scream as the next corkscrew section arrives. Verdict? Cylon is always COOLER than Human.

It is at this coaster that I learn the locker system in USS. In other Universal Studios in Hollywood and Orlando, they use fingerprint recognition to rent out lokcer to patrons wanting to stow away their loose items while they ride. This method introduces complications as biometric scanners arenot always accurate and that ended making a huge line of impatient riders wanting to retrieve their stuff from the locker but have to wait their turn while the guy infront is struggling to get the biometric scanner to work and recognize his print. In Osaka, it is slightly bearable with using coinslot and key. In USS, the system uses birthday as password (DD/MM/YY) and favourite color of the patron to assign locker and without the need to remember which locker he uses as it displays which locker the user left his stuff based on that unique DOB/color combo.

Patrons are only allowd a free 30 minutes rental of the locker before charges are imposed, SGD2 until the next hour and so on and so forth.

2. The next area is the Ancient Egypt area. The entrance to the Revenge of the Mummy ride is guarded by two mammoth Anubis figures with a nice miniaturezed representation of Karnak at the front. Single Rider lane is available here. The theming is on par with the Hollywood and Orlando version, but the ride is a different story altogether. The ride is MISSING the Imhotep's warning to accept his offer or a row of his claw-ressurrected mummies with flame jetting up beneath them. I can see those statues in hiding beneath the viewing area, but the mechanism to bring them up is probably acting up. Secondly, the ride is MISSING the beetle-scurrying motion around your ankles when the ride hits the "dead end wall". The ride just continue displaying the thousands of scurrying beetles and goes into reverse. Thirdly, the Flaming Dome effect is greatly reduced, from the usual furnace like intensity in the Orlando version, to a "cooking grill" kinda weakness. Fourthly, the ride feel disjointed, with Imhotep appearing without any coherency and ride music building up the music in suspense without anything happening. Verdict: Orlando's version is the best.

3. The Lost World. Jurassic Park Rapid Adventure. This ride tries to be different by introducing for the first time, a circular raft instead of the normal raft cars on a rail track used in other JP attractions. The end result, it becomes an messy, off-focus ride with riders often straining their necks to see the animatronic dinosaurs because the circular raft has spun them around in an awkward angle to see them better. The ride is also CONFIRMED to make you soaked, instead of the possibility of being soaked like the other JP ride in other Universal Studios, because of the nature of the circular raft, the low floor and the water sloshing around. The last drop WILL GUARANTEE everyone getting wet, with the rider on the bottom-most area getting the wettest. That happens to be me, and I had to slop around the park in a drenched shirt and cargo pants. The ride also allow riders to take their belongings with them into the raft, but you run your own risk of drenching them if you decide not to rent a locker. The lockers here are NOT FREE, they are SGD2 for the first hour, there are not free option.

4. Time approaches 12pm, went for the first showing of the hit Waterworld show. Google up the show, it is on par with the rest of the other Universal parks around the world in term of scale and quality. The only downside here is the audience participation. Asians are predominantly shy and takes a lot of coaxing to participate in the show. Also, most if not all of them are mainly fluent in Chinese, not English. They did not get the cue on the part where you're suppose to take part with the cheering, or the booing when the baddies appear on the show. The performers are sporting and did their best to get the show on par with what I remembered, it is still in essense the same Waterworld I saw in Orlando and Hollywood. Only the lukewarm, ignorant audience participation ruins it.

5. Head to the Discovery Food Court, Jurassic Park's own dining place. This is the only Universal park in the world where you can get cheeseburgers sold alongside Chinese noodle with meatballs and Nasi Lemak with otak-otak, Beef Rendang and bubur kacang hitam or sago for dessert. EXCELLENT! Pricewise it is SGD12.50 for a Nasi Lemak set with the usual condiments, extra otak-otak or gado-gado, a regular Ice Lemon Tea and a bowl of bubur kacang hitam. With the previous SGD10 voucher used, I only pay SGD2.50!

6. Far Far Away Lang. Farquaad Castle looks surreally huge here. Shrek's version of Rodeo Drive is also made to satisfactory perfection here. Shrek 4-D is as how I remembered it in Orlando and Hollywood, but the projector work enhancing the 3D movie onscreen need serious work. They are either out of focus and/or dim. Donkey LIVE is available here although I chose not to go.

It is at this time that I could not stand the soggy clothes I was in, thanks to that JP raft ride, that I had to call it quits, head back to the hotel where I am now, and change clothes. I'll be heading out in a few minutes to be in the park till it clothes and get that awesome WTF!(What The Frak!) T-shirt I saw in Galactica PX store at the ride.

More impressions,, videos and pictures on attractions to come later. Until then, I leave you guys with the video I took of the interior of a typical room in Hard Rock Hotel USS.



* NEW INFO ADDITION!*


This post has been edited by stringfellow: Aug 23 2011, 01:18 PM

Yup it was raining cats and dogs when I left at closing time 6pm. I wasn't in the park when it rained heavily, but when it was drizzling, they still open the Battlestar Galactica coaster. I can tell from experience that it is not pleasant riding a fast moving coaster while your face gets pummeled by raindrops like bullets.

The indoor attractions like Revenge of The Mummy, Lights Camera Action!, and the rest are open, but patrons took refuge in gift stores, meaning more profit to Resort World I guess.

I purchased a WTF! (What The Frak!) tee myself, two in fact. Pictures to come if this thread survives the moderating scrutiny.

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Added on March 19, 2010, 7:07 pmRegarding its patrons, I sincerely hope USS doesn't turn out to be another Genting. Judging from the look AND sound of the chatter around the visitors, the crowd patronising the casinos are certainly pouring into USS. Majority includes those from Mainland China.

Brings back shuddering images of the type of "folks" patronising Genting. I hope they dont tarnish the good name of Universal.

This post has been edited by stringfellow: Mar 19 2010, 07:07 PM

If you are talking about the ticket packages or the hotel packages, they are either booked online at www.rwsentosa.com or via phone booking. Also be advised that at the time of this this post, tickets must be purchased at least the day before your preferred date of attendance. There are no tickets available for the same day entry purchase.

As promised, more details! This freshly baked new Youtube video depicts the walk from Festive Hotel next to Hard Rock Hotel right up to the USS itself. Video is scalable up to HD 720p, so pick your preferred resolution. Apoligies beforehand for the shaky cam, I was walking while filming this.



Pretty lavish, and much more upscaled and posh than your standard Universal City Walk version on other Universal Studios.

More pics of the rides themselves and USS surroundings to come, uploading to Imageshack at the moment. Pictures are scaled down from their 4000 x 3000 resolution to fit into forum size 800 x 600 for easier forum viewing.

In the theme park business, there is no such thing as a large, cheap and money-saving theme park. You have to invest before you get the returns. All theme parks around the world will lose money first in the sense that it needs to build on new attractions, the cost of advertising, and changing the mindset of the people that stay closeby to encourage them to frequent that theme park. This is especially true with Singapore specifically, and this region generally, because Asians (Japanese excluded) does not prefer theme parks. The very mention of theme parks evokes images of fast moving rollercoasters and rides, and Asians tend to be very fearful of things that are not "safe" according to their perception. I witnessed the very attitude personally myself when riding the Jurassic Park Rapid Adventure ride on the circular raft. Rode the raft with a typical Singaporean family, where the busy mommy was more keen on shielding his two boys wearing poncho and warning them not to get wet, than actually enjoying the ride itself. The whole point of the ride is to have fun, and that includes getting slightly wet. If you're more worried with a little water splashing on to you than enjoying what the park engineers have devised for you, then the whole objective of the ride is lost. When the ride was over and I climbed out, the ride techs were hanging around the exit, and we high-five each other for not fearing to get wet and actually enjoying it. That Singaporean family? The mommy and daddy immediately dragged their frightened 8 and 10 year old kids who agot their socks wet.

It's the typical mindsets like these that theme parks like Universal Studios have to take time, years even, to change. that is probably why that newspaper called it a waste of time. If that newspaper want a cheaper theme park, they can go Genting for all I care. For the first time, a world-class theme park is near enough for families with the right mindset and attitude to actually enjoy, and not having to go half way around the world to enjoy one.

The Japanese's Universal Studios in Osaka and the Hollywood's Universal Studios in LA is comparable in size with USS. the illusion of size is given to the American version because it encompasses an active working studio lot which takes most of its space, and is subdivided into two tiers. If you disregard the Studio Tram tour and the two tier design, LA's Universal Studios is actually the smallest of all Universal Studios. The Orlando's Universal Studios is the largest, and I had the pleasure of going there twice. The parks in Orlando is divided into two, the traditional Universal Studios and the Islands of Adventure. Once every rides is operational in USS, they will have 24 rides and attractions which are either redesigned from their American cousins, or completely new. USS is the only Universal park that has the Far Far Away castle for example, and the Transformers ride as well as the MAdagascar Crate ride will making its worldwide debut first in Singapore.

Off to my second day into the Studios today. More impressions, this time concentrated on the shows like "Lights Camera Action" and "Waterworld", and the pros and cons of this park. See ya'll later!

Yesterday was a weekday, and there's light crowd traffic on these days. Expect Resort World to tweak the schedules with more shows and longer opening time later to compensate for this.

I'd venture a guess, that Universal Studios Singapore is more worth it than Disneyland HK. Disneyland HK is NOT a true representation of what a real Disney theme park should be, because of its heavily biased ride/attraction preferences to family-friendly type. To me, Disneyland HK is a waste of time. The real Disney experience in Asia is still Tokyo Disneyland and Tokyo DisneySea. Personally, I'm biased towards Tokyo DisneySea, the rides and attractions there are one-of-a-kind. All other Disney parks has the castle as its central hub, Tokyo DisneySea has a fully-working volcano that erupts with a kick-ass ride (Journey to the Center of the Earth) built into the volcano! I was there before this USS trip, and the waiting time for the "Journey" ride is 4 hours long!


*checks calendar* It's a week day, so the crowd is gonna be light. Today's traffic is starting to test the staff members, particularly because families does not get deterred by the day-long rain to go to the attractions. They are super-friendly and very accommodating, I was even held under the umbrellas by them as I pass through the areas without canopy. They try their best, and certainly earnest in dong so. I've even made friends with 2 of the staff member manning the Battlestar Galactica ride, becuase they kept seeing me riding the BSG ride over and over again. When you're there, look for Sam and Christine. Sam starts his day either manning the Human-side locker, or the Human entrance of the BSG ride. He always gets "disappointed" (kidding actually ) that I chose the Cylon side more than his Human side! Christine was the supervisor of the day at the Cylon side, and later, I will post how the interior of the Cylon side design looks like, from the human-flesh-blending-with-steel-tubings-and-metal, to the rows of Cylons hanging inside the waiting area. All this thanks to Christine! Stay tuned!

After much deliberation, (I kept walking back to the Hollywood Plaza where the Annual Pass Center was located, but didn't enter, something kept me back! ), I chose not to buy the annual pass. I will come here again next month, and that will be when I buy the annual pass. I'd like to see them improve on their current performance,(I'll list down their letdowns later), I'll be buying a two day pass next month, and if I feel that they have improved much, I will grant them my money to buy the Annual Pass on the second day. Take it as a probation period.

To put things simpler, here are my ratings based on "out of 5 stars" I would give to the rides:-

Light Camera Action - 3 stars ***

Stage 28 Monster Revue - did not go, should be similar to the Behind the Scene SFX attraction in LA

Accelerator - did not go, I hate Mad Teacup style rides, I can ride aggresive coasters, but spinning cups makes me puke!

Battlestar Galactica Human side - 4 stars ****

Battlestar Galactica Cylon side - 6 stars ****** YOU MUST RIDE THIS AWESOME COASTER!

Revenge of The Mummy - until they fix the ride's broken incongruency and the missing effects , 3 stars ***

Treasure Hunters - did not go, this is a kiddie based ride with jeeps on tracks. Yawn!

Jurassic Park Rapids Adventure - 3 stars ****, would have got 4 stars if they tweak it so that it did not drench the riders SO MUCH!

Dino Soarin' - did not go, this is a kiddie-style florrless hanging ride. Another Yawn!

Amber Rock Climb - did not go because you have to pay additional for this, plus the surface to climb is slick because of the heavy downpour of rain

Canopy Flyer - did not go, another kiddie ride. ZZZZZZ

Waterworld Show Spectacular - 4 stars ****, but today's performance is only worth 3 stars, because of actors missing the cues, and the seaplane and Deacon's entrance is missing his Chugboat.

Donkey LIVE! - This is the LIVE version of Disney's Monsters Inc. Live Factory, but starring Donkey, Hook, The Headless Horseman and Shrek's version of Tinkerbell. Donkey will interact with the audience, and selected audience will be invited to participate in rib-tickling Q&A and acts with him. Donkey is a digital representation on a projected screen on stage, but the interaction is such that it is as if Donkey is there reacting Live with you. 3 stars ***, 4 stars **** for the family.

Magic Potion Spin - London Eye for the kids. You'll excuse me if I skip this.

Shrek 4-D Adventure - 3 stars *** at the moment, but will be 4 stars if they fix the disappointing projection effect complementing the 3D movie onscreen.

Enchanted Airways - did not go, this is a kiddie ride with riders riding a kid-coaster themed after the Dragon in Shrek.

Madagascar Crate Adventure - COMING SOON, Opening June 2010.

Transformers - COMING SOON, Opening 2011.

In summary, BSG Cylon ride alone is worth the admission price to me. I'm a coaster junkie, I live and breath coasters. At last there is something worthwhile to ride, close enough to KL for me to just pack my bags without planning and jump on the plane/bus to Singapore and ride it. The rest who are not as "coaster crazy" or adrenaline-inclined as I am, may need to re-examine their priorities before deciding. Me? I'm 80% convinced enough to buy an Annual Pass. My next month revisit will probably seal the deal.

Need to take a shower, gonna grab a light snack and head to the casinos. I've also recorded a HD version of what the interior of the Cylon waiting area looks like, with pics as well. Also pics from the waiting line inside the Human-side with its life-size replica of the Colonial Viper. Stay tuned, I'll upload it later!

This post has been edited by stringfellow: Mar 20 2010, 07:43 PM

I did capture the show on FullHD on my GH1, but the show is serious defective because the main villain is supposed to enter the stage via his Chugboat, and on that day, it wasn't working, so he entered by the door on the stage itself. Some of the audience were waiting for his entrance but were surprised and disappointed when his entry was marred like that. Also, the surprising finale, where Deacon and Mariner were fighting and they accidentally shot down his seaplane and it bursts through the gate is also missing. Because of these missing effects, I will not upload the clips, because of they are the true representation of what the show truly is. One good thing is the preshow where the henchmens hyping up the audience with chantings and spraying them with water if they fail is still intact. I even almost got jumped by one of them when I was busy recording the video, without realising one of them was closeby and ready to jump me when I walked past.

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Added on March 21, 2010, 10:03 am

With that I wrap up (with possibility of adding the Waterworld clip later) my field report of my trip of 3D2N to Universal Studios Singapore. I hope that has been informative to anyone looking for info or just undecided whether they should plan for a trip here or not.

Here are my impressions, pros and cons of the park and how they could improve better for my next trip, either next month or later in June.

1. The park needs touching up. It looks functional, with rides running as they should, but aesthetically, it is still behind some of the more established Universal Studios around the world. Granted, this is a soft opening, and they just opened, but that should not give excuse to patch up the scratches on the wall, and ESPECIALLY, the leaky canopies when it rains. Trust me, it rains heavily here, and if this carries on, it would look ugly.

2. There is no security gates or measures to check if visitors are carrying dangerous weapons of any kinds into the park. Not even a bag check to see what is inside your bag. Sure, this speeds up entry process, but even as I was migling around inside the park, I don't see lots of security personnel standing guard around.

3. Their staff talk Singlish. I mean really pure Singlish. Probably because they are pushing to employ locals but they should be filtering their frontliners to the ones speaking more fluent English, not with the -lah., -leh or -liaos. One very bad occasion I had to witness is during the Lights Camera Actions attraction. The staff at the lining up area speaks fluent excellent English, and held poise and professionalism. I engaged him in small talk, both in English and Malay (his name is Radzi), and from his demeanor, he can pass for a well established Universal staff in LA or Orlando anytime. However, as we entered the show area, the preshow announcer ,probably because of nervousness or otherwise, stutters and missed his dialogues and slips into his singlish speaking mode, to my disappointment. I nearly slapped my forehead in dismay and shame, and from his dialect, another Singaporean Malay as well.

The Singlishness does not stop around Malays only. The predominant Chinese also are affected. Christine is a young adult, takes care and supervise the line up area of the Cylon side, but her English isn't up to the standards I would hold her to. Sure, the foreign visitors can understand her, or the rest of the staff handling the entrance or the locker areas, but it give bad impression on their capability to communicate. Once I even saw them speaking among themselves when asked questions by visitors, in Hokkien!

4. Due to the compact area this park is built, there is no separation between the "lands" or attempt to hide theselands betwen each other. It is visually jarring to see Jurassic Park with Egyptian Anubis statues in the background, or walking into Far Far Away and seeing the Madagascar ship in the background as well. I wont fault them on this much, but their falls into aesthetics, and aesthetics counts for big point to count yourself to one of the classier theme parks in the world.

5. The staff competence level is good in some area, and bad in some. The entrance area staff are severely undertrained. The ticketing booth staff are manned, from what looks like Singaporean teenagers with bad English/Singlish, they don't even offer park maps and program list to visitors, and the turnstiles are poorly managed. I can forgive them for slacking when the crowd level is like what it is now, but I can imagine the chaos if the volume picks up and these staff would not be able to handle this. Again, this probably will come with experience, but with first impressions at the entrance gate like that, would put serious damper on the initial mood of the visitor.

However, they are good points of this park.

1. Although this is a soft opening, all the advertised "open" rides are running fluently. Sure there are hiccups like ride closing down for readjustments and effects missing in some of the shows and rides, but I hope/imagine/anticipate them reintegrating them back once they open full-strength.

2. The staff , even with their Singlishness, are SUPER ACCOMMODATING AND POLITE. I've pointed out my request to film the interior of the BSG Cylon side, and they obliged me, with an escort! They go all out to please you, from the staff at the lockers offering you their help to establish a locker for you, to the entrance staff (heads-up to you Sam, you rock!), right down to the the normal staff even offering umbrellas during rainy days. The cleaners are helpful and nice as well. They've covered the hospitality area of this nicely, let's see them improve on their command of the English language.

3. The park designs, intricacy of the details are up to par, and in some cases like the Revenge of the Mummy ride, exceed the other Universal parks around the world. "Mummy" is copied from the Orlando version, but given its own Singaporean touch, which is a good call. The Lost World and Jurassic Park area is another good example. Also a good mention is the Far Far Away and its castle, nowhere else does this appear other than USS. EXcellent!

4. Emergency response is quick and prompt. I had the experience of seeing this first hand in Disneyland LA, and I hold this as the measuring stick to how other parks are gauged upon. The emergency they had in Far Far Awal where a kid was vomiting violently after riding the kiddie coaster there (Asians being asian, weak constituents ), but the staff and emergency response unit is there in a flash while holding away inquisitive crowd to give the family some privacy and dignity I guess. On par with a well established park is always good.

5. Once all the options and rides are operational, this is gonna be the park to go for Asians. No longer do you need to travel half way across the globe to the US to experience the latest in rollercoaster tech, or the latest tech in shows and attractions, when it is available right in Singapore. Except for select attractions like The Simpsons ride or the Universal Tram tours, USS will have carbon copies, or better version of similar rides the other Universal parks has. In some cases, they will world premieres of these new attractions in Singapore first, and other Universal parks will be looking at USS as the benchmark for their new and upcoming rides. That future promise alone excites me enough to give this park more time to establish itself and prove it can stand toe to toe with the rest of the Universal parks around the world.

There you go, my impressions. Thanks for reading, and I'll be adding additional infos and tips I can find from other sources like ThemeParkInsider and other theme-park related sites I've subscribed to, to help you guys decide and make your days in USS a good one.

This post has been edited by stringfellow: Mar 21 2010, 10:03 AM

It all depends on several things, like where you plan to stay, your mode of transport, the number of days you're planning to visit the park.



The cheapest currently available USS-affiliated hotel nearby is Festive Hotel, around SGD250-270 a night, but book well in advance, please. It is a popular hotel for families with kids and also for gamblers for its close vicinity to the casinos.

You don't have to follow what I did. The most convenient way I can see you doing this while saving up, would be to find a hotel within close radius of an MRT station, and then use that MRT to travel up to Sentosa.

Let's break that down.



I like the convenience of staying within Sentosa itself for its proximity to USS, and I like the fact that I can simply walk back to the hotel for a short nap in the afternoon, before continuing later until the park close, and then dine at Festive Walk once the park closes. Then it is just a short walk to the hotel and retire for the day, or freshen up and soak in the nightlife at Festive Walk or test my luck at the casinos. I can also easily hop onto Sentosa Express (it is DIRECTLY outside USS gates!), head to VIVO City and shop there. Or continue on MRT to Orchard Road and have my fill of shopping there, before returning back to Sentosa for the day.

The cheaper solution I suggested may require a bit of travelling, but if you're familar with travelling within Singapore, it is convenient, fast(Singapore is not that big) and efficient, unlike KL's horrendous public transport system. Taxi service is always available and abundant as well, well past the late night hours.

I'm am very sure you can find ever more cheaper accommodation options, like B&B, or hostels, I myself found out there are are such types of accomodation right outside VIVO City itself. This may even bring down the rate to below SGD100 a day, but I would suggest taking this only if you're single or going as singles and don't mind group lodgings with other guests.

Hope that helps. I will add more information and tips whenever I can, especially on the park itself, on when new attractions are opening up, new additions to the park, and more tips on saving up, or splurging (if you feel like it ) on your holiday there.

Also, if anyone finds out more on other cost-saving solutions for accommodations, travel, or discounts on the park entry fees itself, feel free to post them here. Once we have enough information, I will compile them into the front page on the first post for easier reference.

Posting this from Terminal 2 Changi. Boarding my flight in 50 minutes.

This post has been edited by stringfellow: Mar 21 2010, 01:42 PM

Anytime you need info, just holler, PM or post here. There may be cheaper alternatives, so keep looking!

I'm gonna analyse the pros and cons of purchasing their Annual Pass later. Their blackout dates for the Fun Pass covers a lot of weekends for a price they're asking.

Checked them out. They're opening in May 15th 2010. I just hope they cover the shuttle transfers early enough and late enough to cover for the early opening hours, and late enough to allow exploring Festive Walk once they are fully operational.

Good find! They should be cheap too, as cheap as RM9.99 IIANM as per the ad ?

There you go! More savings on airline rates. I have to correct myself, the complimentary free shuttle to Universal Studios Singapore (just get down at Hotel Festive and walk thru Festive Walk to USS) does stop at the budget terminal. So everyone's covered on all side.

Ditto on the MH fares and the Aeroline. I've no answer on why MAS price their tickets that way. For short hauls like KUL-SIN I wouldn't even bother about being served.