Another Amtrak day and I’m afraid to say that it was much the same as my first experience a few weeks ago except the dining car staff were a lot nicer!! We started off on time but had to go on to another track to drop off an engine! This took a few hours and very sarcastic apologies were made over the loudspeaker. My roomette had not been cleaned so I went up to the observation deck to sit and watch the world go by. All travellers on the train are very friendly and there are a few train buffs who love travelling this way. The menu was identical to the one on the Californian Zephr and even if you’re on the train for a few days, it stays the same! The main objective of me taking the train from San Francisco to Los Angeles was to see the coastal scenery. I did see some of the scenery but with the train being so delayed, it was dark when we passed some of the scenic coastline. So instead of getting in to Los Angeles at 9.11pm we only arrived at 11.28pm and then I had to get to my hotel. Typical that I was upgraded to a suite but didn’t get any use out of it as I didn’t get into the room until midnight and was then up again at an early hour to make the most of my day at Universal Studios!
Los Angeles is full of very odd people and like San Francisco there are homeless everywhere. Too sad to see this and it seems that a lot of these people have mental issues. Also a little scary. Especially on the metro. I decided that today I was going to indulge the inner child within me so I headed off to Universal Studios, and fortunately the metro was near my hotel and I got from A to B on the one line (the red line).
I had a great day running from one ride to another so as not to miss anything. I bought a ticket that gets you to the front of the queue once on each ride. It’s called an Express ticket and there is an express queue at each ride. As some of the queues were 45 minutes wait time this was well worth the extra money and I managed to get to see everything that I really wanted to.
The main street and shops in Universal Studios shown below..
I loved the Wizarding World of Harry Potter, especially the ride where we were soaring above Hogwarts castle. Such fun and I couldn’t help smiling to myself!!! I think all the people on the rides were wondering what someone like myself was doing there on her own on all these rides!!
My favourite part of Universal – the Wizarding World of Harry Potter
Below are some of the sets we passed on our studio tour.
I also went on the Revenge of the Mummy ride, the 3D Transformers ride, the Simpsons ride, Despicable Me Minion Mayhem, Jurassic World and the Secret Life of Pets!! There was a tour of all the sets used in various movies and we were driven around the movie sets in a tram. Jaws leapt out of the water as our tram went past. King kong was fighting the dinosaurs and as we passed by and we were involved in one of the Fast and Furious movie sets! All very Hollywood and very interesting.
The Secret Life of Pets and Nintendo World!
Now sitting at the airport in the Lounge getting ready to fly back to Oz to meet my new granddaughter. I am so excited!! And of course I’m looking forward to giving little Duke and Blake, and Holly and Lachy big hugs. Next blog will be very different!!!