Finally getting my passport! Yay!!!!

[red dragin]

2 hours ago, rac2703 said:

You do know you can wear glasses on Scooby ?

No I didn't.

I refuse to pay for a locker though. My car key,  license and credit card go in my shoe under my foot for Superman 

[grrofunger]

30 minutes ago, red dragin said:

No I didn't.

I refuse to pay for a locker though. My car key,  license and credit card go in my shoe under my foot for Superman 

What about the glasses?

[rac2703]

21 minutes ago, grrofunger said:

What about the glasses?

You can wear your prescription glasses in the superman queue and then hand them to a staff member once seated on the train. 

[red dragin]

1 hour ago, grrofunger said:

What about the glasses?

Leave them in the car. Only need them for distance and they are not that powerful. I can see enough to drive during the daylight without them in an emergency. 

Don't want to have to carry cleaners (they are frameless ones). The stunt show is more bearable without them 

[grrofunger]

I've been to Singapore many times but have never taken the kids. Just got back from a week there with the kids. Went to USS again but also made the journey to Malaysia for Legoland which was well worth it.

USS:

Got there at about 9:30am and the queues at the main entrance were well back beyond the universal globe, have never seen the lines that long before.

Thought stuff it and splashed out on unlimited express passes for all 5 of us (2 adults, 3 kids)  

$800 later and being able to skip the queues at the main gate we were in the park and exchanging the express tickets for green wrist bands in the main shop (They are very anal about having the whole group present before issuing the green bands and one of the kids was in the toilet when i was buying the tickets)

Park is all decked out even moreso than usual with Minions for Despicable Me 3 so after many photos and stops up main street we headed left to Madagascar Crate Adventure, jumped the 20 minute queue (how was this bloody thing 20 minute wait already!?!) and i felt like a smug wanker internally justifying the $500 i blew on express passes. I was pumped for a big day.

3 minutes into the darkness on the boat and the 4 year old shits it, scared as all hell, and screamed the whole way around. He loves the movie and we really thought he would love USS and this ride in particular.  Justice for feeling like a smug wanker?

So now i felt like i wasted $200 on the passes as the wife would have to babysit the sook all day.... He didnt want to go on anything ...not even the Madagascar Carousel !!  UGH !!  He wanted to go back to the hotel already !!

Work around to Far Far Away and even the express line wait for the Enchanted Airways roller coaster is 30 minutes ... jeez gone from smug wanker to really questioning this purchase lol (though 30 is better than 60)

We skip it thinking of coming back later and get the sook an ice cream - then risk it and drag him to puss in boots... the 8 and 10 year old are getting impatient.. Just a 10 minute ride in the express line for this one... I think this is an average ride and pretty rough.... yep the 4 year old cries and screams again ...lol

Go around to Jurassic Park buy the sook more sugar and sit him and the wife down under a tree and take the other 2 kids to the rapids... GET FUCKED !! 40 minute express line wait...sigh... believe it or not its about 12:40pm now so we decide to skip this as well and just go wait for Waterworld 1pm show.

The waterworld show is very very good, they do a good job prepping/entertaining the crowd with soaker guns and buckets of water before it starts and once it does start there is plenty of action and explosions/jumps/stunts etc- also the girl was hot

This is one thing we thought the 4 year old would hate.... LOVED IT !! ..... wtf?

Back to the rapids straight after Waterworld and only 10 minute express line wait.... i weirdly felt uncomfortable riding it.. have loved this type of ride all my life dating back to australia's wonderland as a kid... but i couldn't help think of the Dreamworld incident... I didnt enjoy the ride at all... was a weird feeling.

Somehow whilst we were on this the wife got the 4 year old on the dino soarin which is similar to a ride at adventure world he loves... ooh we could be back in business here...

Look at Canopy Flyer (no express line) and someone has thrown up on it (what?) 1 hour wait ... pass

Leave the wife and 4 year old in Jurassic Park to eat and look around and take the older kids to mummy

Straight on... YES ! green wrist band you beauty.....  MADE THE 8 YEAR OLD CRY !!!! LOLOLOL 

Mummy is such a great ride.. well themed..great twists and drops etc in the dark.. love it... so did the 10 year old but i was wondering now when i would make her cry as well today....

Those stupid treasure hunter cars... no express line either and a 60 minute wait?? really for them?  PASS !!

Go back find the wife to palm off the crying 8 year old and the 4 year old has been repeatedly riding dino - soarin with her... lol

All head off towards BSG and transformers (which i have constantly bitched out from going on every time i have been here) 

Express wait on both sides BSG - 30 minutes... ok we will come back

Get on transformers in 10 minutes with the express line with the 10 year old and the now recovered 8 year old.... THIS.RIDE.IS.AMAZING!!

i did feel a little queezy in sections but wow what an amazing experience.. the way the screen tricks your senses is awesome.. such a clever ride. Glad i toughed it out lol.

All 3 kids, even the 4 year old .. jumped on for an immediate accelerator ride.. i may be tough after transformers but fuck this spinny nonsense.

Head to New York for a mega sized pizza for a somewhat late lunch and then Sesame street Spaghetti Chase.. a ride surely every 4 year old would love.... lol nope.. screamed cos it was dark and "is this really space"  wow i need to take him to a doctor or something... what have i done to this kid?

toilet breaks all round and thats pretty much a lap done ,

oh we watched the shrek 4d adventure back at far far away too (without the wife and the 4 year old) they really need to do away with the pre show nonsense for this.. its dark.. loud.. stupid staff yelling to everyone to move this way and that yet nobody can see a thing.. staff trying to tell a story in broken english and then an overly long crap pre story with pinocchio, the pigs, the mirror and gingerbread man... its too long and just garbage... without fail heaps of people now try and leave as they think this is it.

anyway - 1 lap done of what i had planned as being many.. park is open to 8pm today its about 3pm-ish from memory and there is a minion show at 4pm so we plan to stick around closeish.

Try the Carousel and 4 year old laps it up this time so we all get on.

THEN IT BUCKETS DOWN !! - Typical Singapore BUCKETS !!!! no problem i think , i've been here heaps of times , it will stop in an hour at most i tell everyone..

POURING , POURING... 4 pm comes and goes.. no minion show obviously... POURING.......5pm.......6pm.....slowing up to pretty much nothing but there is lightning around so all outdoor rides are not operating.

This pretty much limits everything to Madagascar Crate ride, Mummy, Accelerator and Transformers

I sit with the 4 year old who refuses to go back in the dark whilst the wife and other kids repeat the crate ride then we meander around , most people have left so we spent the last 2 hours splashing in puddles and alternating looking after the 4 or 8 year old depending on which ride we go on which was just a marathon of mummy and transformers. This last 2 hours despite a bit of disappointment due to the lengthy rain was pretty fun and saved the day.

Never got on BSG or Enchanted Flyer due to the lightning... our last stop was lights camera action which i think is pretty average so sat out with the 4 year old.

Spent a small fortune in the shops and headed to Hard Rock Cafe for dinner.

Dont know why but i have never seen the park that full before  (pre rain) and i have been before and seen 2 hour wait times but this was a bit crazy.

LEGOLAND MALAYSIA:

Later in the week after much advice from local friends we book a private car to take us to Malaysia for Legoland.

Hour and half journey (about 40 minutes at the border) after being picked up at 8:30 got us there right on opening. The staff advised us to try the water park first as it closes in the afternoon if it rains.. oh we know about rain... lol

The water park is smallish but well themed with lego.. lazy river with floating bricks to collect and play with along the way is a nice touch.. there is nothing here out of the ordinary that you wouldn't find at any other water park but there are a couple of clever stations like build a lego boat and race it down a small "river" on a long table and other lego themes all over the place.

Every kid loved it, even the 4 year old liked the dark covered slides (weirdo) probably used to them from adventure world.

We stay here about 3 hours which was enough to do everything more than once.. very very small crowd... practically walk on for everything.

Get changed and head over to the main park which is a small walk away for lunch and the rest of the day. Average food selections but so so cheap even if they are ripping you off with a 3-1 ringit to sgd conversion for cash.

Not sure if it was exaggerated by being a near on ghost town and absolutely everything being a walk on but we all found this place amazing, so much lego theming, too much to be able to explain (well... it is LEGOland after all eh)

No over the top thrill rides but a couple of nifty little coasters, a mighty mouse and a couple of pretty standard non inverting family type coasters but again with clever theming.

The park is broken up into themed lands

Ninjago which has a tame transformers type ride where you can sling your arm to throw ninja stars and kill ninjas on screen - didnt work very well.

Imagination which has a kids duplo playground including ride on train, a big room to play lego in and an observation tower which goes up very high but disappointingly doesnt rapidly drop lol also has a massive walkthrough lego star wars attraction which was amazing

Technic which has the mighty mouse with a pretty steep fast drop and a teacup type ride 

Kingdoms which is amazing ! - A big castle which houses a roller coaster which starts off mummy esque through the castle and plenty of lego statues etc then ends up outside and is a decent size with some nice headchopper moments and a big dip

another smaller family coaster, a lego horsey ride which goes around on a single rail but was cool and merlins challenge which reminded me of wizards fury from my time as a kid at australias wonderland... a quick spinny carousel-esque ride.

This area also housed a giant wooden fort playground which i thought was a great addition and would soak up crowd on a day when people came (if they ever do??) 

Adventure - which has a flume ride that you get absolutely soaked on after the final drop, an indoor playground not disimilar to every other kids inside playground you find around the place in warehouse type setups just much smaller and a cool dark ride that takes you around in a train and you shoot targets with laser guns this was a hit (but not with the 4 year old... dark!)

City - which just has a couple of kids rids, small boats, small cars

Minland - Which is so so impressive - a huge area of lego displays of asian landmarks and cities... simply amazing.. incredible detail but sadly this park is only 5 years old and the sun and rain is already taking a harsh toll on the bricks.

By now its nearly 6pm we have done 1 lap of the park and its about to close.. we could have spent much much more time here and luckily everything was a walk on.  Spent another small fortune in the shop but was better value for similar items than USS (eg T shirts and souvenirs) and lego was cheaper than in Australia so bought a bit.

We had an absolute blast here and the ride home was only about 50 minutes as there were hardly any holdups at the border.

I would highly recommend legoland and would consider staying overnight in the themed hotel rooms for more lego goodness and to allow 2 full days across both parks. Also if coming from Singapore definitely do a private vehicle as its quicker at the border than buses and you dont have to get out of the car... dont forget the passports !!  (and you have to fillout the stupid Singapore white card when coming back)

......

TL:DR?

Universal.. Wasted money on express passes..rain ruined everything for a big chunk ...my kids are weird

Legoland... Simply amazing...wonder if people ever go as it was empty (was a weekday) ..worth a visit.

 

 

 

 

[iwerks]

Wow, great TR, @grrofunger. I've been tempted to go to Legoland Malaysia, but have never been because of the border crossing and the fact there's so much to do in Singapore. I have only bought fast passes once at USS and it wasn't that bad. It seems insane to pay that much and still have to queue for such a long period of time. I think the vomiting on the canopy flyer must have happened with someone travelling backwards - it's a very different experience.

It sounded like ridiculous sized crowds. It wasn't August 6? I'm glad you survived the process. 

[Redboost]

Awesome advice here guys - thinking of going to Singapore for the next family holiday as wife is sick of going to the GC for the last 8 years (next year will be the last visit for a while as I told her I want to ride DC Rivals). Legoland is definitely a must visit for me and the kids as we are all massive Lego fans so to see someone has actually been and given their viewpoint is great help.

[grrofunger]

29 minutes ago, iwerks said:

It wasn't August 6? 

Nah was Thursday 17th

29 minutes ago, iwerks said:

have never been because of the border crossing  

I used this guy http://www.sgmytaxi.com/ 

Ended up with a 10 seater , paid extra for a luxury vehicle cost $280 for the return trip

I'm sure you could get cheaper but it was a pretty straightforward process and professional service. Driver was good, car was good

Name the place and time you want to be picked up both ways and pay cash.

Allow plenty of time to get there as a safeguard that's all.

Oh you can buy your legoland tickets off him too but he is overpriced on them.

Edited August 25, 2017 by grrofunger