Universal Hollywood VIP Experience Photos (about 160!)/Report

When I planned my trip to California (for my sisters wedding), I had already knew I'd go to Disneyland – but a pop-up on a travel site mentioned the Universal VIP Experience.

The tour isn't cheap – it is $200.00.  But that includes (as of this writing): valet parking, admission to the park, front of the line pass, the 6 hour tour with reserved seating/special access to attractions that we visited.  Also, the food pass, bottled water, a small continental breakfast, we were given ponchos and sunscreen towelettes as well.   Oh – and of course, the backstage experience (walking on sets, etc.)

The tour starts in the VIP lounge.  This area is used for tours and private events – and it's a really comfortable place to spend time prior to the tour.  Bottled water was handed out, as were ponchos (for Jurassic Park) and sunscreen towelletes.    You could also ask for a soda at the bar area.   The tour itself is different each time, you never know exactly what you'll see!

 

One of the touted items of the VIP tour is the continental breakfast.  Don't bank on this one, there were muffins and cookies – fortunately, I'd already eaten.  This is what was available when I arrived:

 

 

Remember that you get the food pass all day.  My tour was at 11am, and I could have arrived and received my packet as early as 9am.  So I really could have gotten in, and had some breakfast prior to the tour.

Some photos around the lounge, there was a balcony as well that we could walk out on:

 

Nothing was being replenished as other guests arrived (eat something first, just in case! :)):

 

There were a lot of "ooh's" and "aaah's" over the womens bathroom in the lounge area:

 

A last look at the lounge:

 

The first part of the tour, we went on a number of attractions in the park.  We started with Shrek, and then headed to Waterworld.  Just to show, we had the reserved seating for shows and were brought in the back door for rides (that queue for Shrek?  We didn't get in it):

 

The day was really busy, so that worked out well!  I wasn't  that enamored with the Water World show (which was touted as "the best show at Universal" by the tour guide).   But the stunt people were actually very good at what they did.  I found it interesting that each one was from a variety of TV shows and films – and they did this show in between their other jobs.  I am glad we didn't get seated near the front, you can see that the pre-show consists of hoses and buckets to get everyone wet (prior to getting wet during the show!)   Someone in our group felt bad for those in wheelchairs – it looks like all the wheelchair areas are in the wet zone.