As it was announced yesterday Universal Studios Singapore is finally opening next Sunday, February 14th, for one week of sneak preview. Disney and more have a great pictorial report for you today with fantastic panoramic pictures which will give you the feeling to visit the park, just like if you were there. A kind of sneak preview before the "real" sneak preview!
Most of the pictures you will see today are new pictures. There is 34 new pictures, but to make sure you'll have a view of all different lands i've added some pictures posted previously. Two or three pictures were shoot while the park was still under construction just some weeks ago, specially the New York Streets pictures, and of course all building machines you'll see on the pictures are removed now and guests of the sneak preview will see a park totally finished, even if some rides are not yet operational.
Also, you will notice on some pictures lot of people just like if the park was already open, especially in the Mel's Drive-In restaurant shots. That's because some of the pics were shoot two weeks ago during the "family employee preview" day. For any theme parks there is always a "family day" before the park's opening where employees and people who helped to built the park can invite their Family members.
And one more thing: due to a mistake during the shooting the "date stamp" appeared on some pictures. And because it's panoramic pictures made of four or five different pictures put together there was four date stamps! No big drama but as these date stamps were really un-esthetic and as i really want to pay tribute to the fantastic work done by Universal creative people i did my best to hide them. In some cases i had no other choice than to put a colored rectangle on these damn' date stamps. It was a huge work but most of the time you won't notice them, and if you do just remember they're here to hide a date stamp, and of course that they don't exist in the real decor.
So, let's have a look at these great panoramic pictures showing all the different areas of the park. As usual click on each panoramic picture to see it in big size and explore the park in details.
The first picture at the top is of course the park's entrance with the Universal Studios famous revolving globe. Same for the picture below with the tickets booths.
This next picture show the grand entrance of the park.
Let's enter the Hollywood area. On the picture below the camera is looking towards the entrance you saw in the previous picture.
A panoramic view of Hollywood Blvd, the entrance of the park is on the right.
Inside one of the shops. Could not located where it is exactly, but might be in the Hollywood area.
Exiting the Hollywood Blvd, on the center of the picture. On the right the Madagascar land, where the big ship is, on the left looking towards New York Streets.
The Brown Derby shop where guests will find great headwear is located on the right when you exit Hollywood. The big building structure behind it is 1500 seats Pantages Hollywood Theater fully equipped to host major Broadway musicals. Guests will watch the Universal Monsters Revue with a rock and roll style.
On the picture below it's Universal Singapore Central Plaza, with the Mel's drive-In restaurant on the right. You can see Ancient Egypt and Sci-Fi City lands on the other side of the lagoon.
Another exterior view of the Mel's Drive-In.
These vintage cars are parked in front of the Mel's Drive-In restaurant.
The two next pictures were shoot inside the Mel's Drive-In during the "family day". Sorry, they're not perfectly sharp.
Located on the left when you exit Hollywood is the Madagascar land, with this huge tree.
Welcome to Madagascar! Here is a picture of the entrance of the land.
But if you turn on the right when you'll exit Hollywood you'll enter the New York Streets area.
This next panoramic show the other side of the New York Street. As usual with Universal the quality of the sets is stunning.
The next shot is also showing the New York area, looking towards the Hollywood area.
Always in New York, the facade of the Palace Theater.
The 1940's style decor of the KT's Grill restaurant where guests will find grill entrees and sea food!
Another restaurant of the New York streets is Loui's NY Pizza Parlor.
A last picture of the highly detailed sets of New York streets.
Another picture of a shop. Sorry, i couldn't locate in which land it is, may be New York?
Let's move to Sci-Fi City, the next land. It's here where guests will be able to ride the giant Battlestar Galactica Dueling Coaster. Here are three different pics of it, the first one also showing the entrance of the ride.
On the picture below Sci-Fi City looks a bit empty but no doubt that when there will be plenty of guests or with the night lighting it will look great.
On the right of this next panoramic, the "tea cup style" Accelerator ride.
On the panoramic below the Ancient Egypt land is across the lagoon on the left, Sci-Fi City with the Battlestar Galactica dueling coaster in the center and the New York area on the right.
Next stop: Ancient Egypt land, where Universal Creatives built a gorgeous decor!
Another area of the land with the giant Anubis statues and the Lost World land in the background.
Right at the border of Ancient Egypt and The Lost World.
A picture of a shop which, considering the items sold and the deco, is probably the Carter's Curiosities shop in Ancient Egypt.
Let's move to The Lost World, home of Jurassic Park raft ride. On this first picture, the entrance to Ancient Egypt is on the left and the Discovery Food Court in the background, inspired by Jurassic Park's Discovery Center.
Two other views of the same area with Jurassic Park entrance on the left.
Another panoramic showing the vegetation inside The Lost World and the Jurassic Park Rapids Adventure entrance on the right.
The entrance of Canopy Flyer on the left and the Dino Soarin ride on the right.
A Lost World area for young kids: the Raptor Nest.
Another picture of a shop, probably located in the Lost World area. Sorry, not perfectly sharp picture.
Our last stop will be Far Far Away land, home of Shrek and other characters from the animated movies. This panoramic below show the entrance of Far Far Away, shoot from the entrance of the Lost World land.
The next shot below is a picture of the "Far Far away" "Shrek" castle.
On the picture below the New York area is on the left (with a bit of the dueling coaster), the Hollywood area in the center and the Enchanted Airways coaster of Far Far Away land on the right.
And one more panoramic for the road, which is the least i can say as it shows the giant car park where you will have to find back your car at the end of the day! You better remember where you will park your car!
Hope you've enjoyed this pictorial report of Universal Studios Singapore. Once again everybody who built the park did a fantastic job and i'm confident it will be a success from day one.
Let's end with a special note: if you're a Disney and more reader who intend to go at USS sneak preview days, please let me know as i am looking for pictures of the park's opening. Any pictures of USS sneak preview are welcome and you can send them at: lawrence55@wanadoo.fr
Thanks!
See you next week for more news about this great park!
Thanks to leave a comment or discuss this article on D&M english forum on Mice Chat
All pictures: copyright Disney and more
12 comments:
Mmm am I the only who thinks this park looks ugly?
You must be kidding! They did a fantastic work on the sets of each land. SciFi City is not my favourite but all the rest looks great.
The problem is elsewhere: as Universal Singapore is quite "compact", i.e that the lands are a little bit too close to each other (ref: Ancient Egypt and Sci-Fi City for instance) when you look at the whole thing you may feel a lack of harmony. But i'm positively sure that when you will be inside each land it will be great.
I really really think that they did a great job, specially for a cost of $1 Billion. Believe me, we will be VERY happy to have this in Paris!
Wow, that's really cheap!! I agree that it is'n't the most beautiful park, expecially because everything is built to close to each other. I don't like al those canopies over the streets, but is is practical. What i do like is the ancient Egypt part and the very nice casino!!
I like it that they've built it really fast, can remember the drawings of a year ago and it is already built! Wish I could say that of DLP......
That's right Brian, $1 Billion to build all this is not expensive. Although i can understand you're not a fan of the canopes over the Hollywood and New York streets they will be very useful. Believe me, i know Asia during the monsoon (or hot days) and the canopes will be VERY welcome during those days!
I, too, think something just isn't coming together in this park. Or rather, the lands being so close together combined with huge wide walkways (vs. intimate paths) make it seem like themed areas of a mall rather than "lands" that you feel like you are in.
As for the Sci-Fi aspects, it may be nice looking, but did they even watch Battlestar Galactica? If that show had one predominant color it was black. Everything was a shade of dirty, dark gray--from charcoal to a deep, black tar. This red, white and blue coaster looks like it belongs in Six Flags Great America; the only thing connected it to BSG is the logo over they entry.
Oops--typo in my post. Last line should read, "the only thing connecting it to BSG is the logo over the entry."
What you have to know about the lands so close to each other is that it's not the fault of Universal. They did the best with the land that was available.
I'm still pretty sure that when you're in each land it looks totally different.
Universal has never aimed for the kind of thematic immersion / visual coherence that Disney does at its best, and the truth is there is a large segment of the population for whom such things are not important. Also, $1 billion may not be as much as is needed to build a full day, full quality Disney park, but still is more than what Disney initially paid for AK, DCA, WDS, or HKDL (excluding landfill, etc), and maybe even more than what Disney paid for D-MGMS originally. There is enough quality and entertainment in this park for it to be a success. While Universal has never reached the artistic heights that Disney has, it has never sold itself short either.
- Tasman
^ Tasman hit the nail on the head.
The total cost of building the entire Resorts World Sentosa was USD$4.93 billion (SGD$6.59 billion.
PS: All the Sneak Preview Tickets for Universal Studios Singapore are sold out.
Universal has never reached the artistic heights of disney? Are you kidding? You must've missed the Hogsemeade/Hogwarts photo updates.
Great pictures. I hope I can go there someday.
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