We Like To Move It Move It at Universal Studios

One of the reasons why we chose to go stay on Sentosa was to go check out Universal Studios. Partly because we thought it might be fun for Noey, but also because Mummy here loves theme parks. We had not checked out Universal Studios yet and we figured that this was as good a time as any.

We bought tickets for Friday, but were in 2 minds about whether to go when we heard the ominous sound of thunder just as we were about to leave our hotel. But by then I'd talked about going to the theme park, and Noey had latched on and kept repeating "Want to go to the theme park!!" about 100 times so we went ahead.

Tanking up at breakfast before our day out. Obviously relaxing on Papa is THE way to have your meal!

A cheeky smile and a croissant in hand and we're off! "Theme park!!" says the relentless Noey.

It was our first visit ever to Resorts World as well and I couldn't resist taking a pic with the HUGE Casino sign. Obviously Resorts World never got the memo that this is an Integrated Resort (I really hate this ultra-fake term by the way -- call a spade a spade, I say.) and the casino is but one small facet of it. The "CASINO" signs were everywhere, always in capital letters, and often a good few font sizes bigger than the rest of the signages. Genting is very clear on its objective evidently.

I think before we arrived, we didn't realise how huge the whole development was. I didn't know there was that much land just sitting around in Sentosa doing nothing!

I got pretty excited when we got near the gates. DD commented that the open courtyard ringed by low-rise shops really felt just like the theme parks in US and I had to agree. We got in quite quickly with no fuss and I was ready for some fun. Noey on the other hand was somewhat shell-shocked by the colours, lights, and noise all around and pretty much wore this expression for the whole day:

"Hey, what sort of park is this??"

I half suspect my little kampong boy was expecting open areas, and you know, TREES in a park. All the activity and the people were not what he thought he'd be getting. Considering we only ever bring him to outdoor places, the occasional indoor playgym and very rarely to a mall, we shouldn't have been surprised. Still, we were determined to make a day of it since we were already there.

I was a bit disappointed to discover that quite a few rides were still not ready. I thought it was just the Battlestar Galactica, but actually there were others that were not running yet either. That plus the fact that Noey didn't meet the height restrictions meant that there wasn't that much he could do. The latter we had expected though, and honestly, I think he would have been quite frightened on some of the rides! Still, we had fun exploring and trying out what we could.

On the Madagascar merry-go-round. He did like it though you would note that the worried look is back.

Dino-sauring! Easily Noey's favourite ride in the whole park.

We even managed to catch a couple of smiles!

On the car ride in Ancient Egypt. He liked fiddling with the steering wheel and even laughed out loud when the steering wheel jerked round at some points. But then we rode past some buzzing beetles towards the end and he started to get alarmed and wanted out.

We also managed to catch the Waterworld show, which was pretty impressive -- lots of action, pyrotechnics and noise. I think Noey's favourite part was at the beginning when, to warm up the crowd, some of the performers came out and randomly got the audience members wet with some funny antics. It wasn't like anyone was taken by surprise -- you were asked to choose seats in 3 different zones where it was possible that you would either get soaked, wet or stay dry. Noey laughed along as people got sprayed with water guns and hoses and buckets of water -- stuff he loves to do himself! When the show started, he bravely sat through most of it, exclaiming "Bang!" and "Fire!" appropriately, but I think the noise and the shocks just got a bit too much for him at the end when he burst into tears. Poor boy. On hindsight I think we should have sat further back where the noise and action would have been less intense.

We went back in the mid-afternoon for Noey to take a nap and shower, and this time when we asked him if he wanted to go to the theme park, he quickly said "Dowan!".

Sadly for Noey, Mummy did want to go back -- we had tickets for a whole day afterall -- so back we went.

Papa enjoyed the static displays, probably more than Noey did. By this time Noey was rather wary of everything we wanted him to be on.

We arrived back at the park with about an hour to the closing of the rides at 7pm to find that the place had emptied out significantly, so we were able to hop on some rides and repeat some others without much queuing. Then, since it was clear that Noey had had enough, we went in search of food and ended up having dinner at the Hollywood China Bistro. DD commented that the food was surprisingly good for a theme park, and I had to agree -- the ee-fu mee we had really hit the spot. Even Noey gamely ate quite a big bowl.

We walked around for a bit after dinner then decided to give the fireworks a miss because they were still about an hour a way and I didn't think we could walk up and down that single street with Noey for that long.

On the whole, it was a fun outing. Being in a theme park environment made me feel like I wasn't in Singapore and I started making bizzare comments to DD about having to buy stuff to bring home and give to friends before I caught myself and realised I wasn't actually out of the country! I think our upcoming Sydney hoilday (we leave tonight!) confused me.

On hindsight I guess it would have been better if we had made the trip when Noey was a little older. For one, he would have been able to take more rides and better prepared for the experience. Also, I probably shouldn't have gone while pregnant because that meant that I could take the rides that I wanted either! I guess we'll make the trip back after more rides open after Baby #2 is born. If we can find the time that is!