by Kim Miller

Created on: October 04, 2010   Last Updated: August 05, 2011

My family and I visited Universal Studios in Hollywood, California during the summer of 2010. We had been extremely excited to go there but ended up very disappointed in the experience. First of all when we entered the parking area we were told that it would cost $14.00 to park several blocks away or $20.00 to park close to the entrance. We chose to park close. The attendant told us that the $14.00 parking was not in the Universal Studios parking area but outside the park area.

We entered the park and we were impressed by the City Walk. It was a fun area with shops and food. We then ventured on to Universal Studios. We were so excited to visit Universal since I hadn’t been there since I was five years old, and my children had never been there. Upon entering the park I felt it to be a bit claustrophobic. The walkways between attractions and stores were very narrow and crowded. There were little concession stands set up all along the way making it look like a carnival. But we decided that was ok and we planned to enjoy our day.

As we walked around the park though we noticed that it was filthy, there was trash everywhere. The trash cans had trash overflowing and on the ground. They were disgusting too. The restrooms were filthy as well. We never noticed anyone cleaning up as we walked around the park.

We wanted to go on the tour first of all but it was an extra hot day and the line outside was an hour wait, with another hour wait once you got inside. We decided to check out the rest of the park and save the tour for later in the day.

We moved on to the Haunted House. It was ok. We did enjoy the live actors inside, but some teenagers ruined that experience for us. They were screaming and pushing us the whole way through. Their screams were not because they were scared, they were just being obnoxious. That experience was not the fault of the park operators, as I know they have no control over how the patrons behave.

Next we went to Shrek 4D. The wait time said 45 min. We got in line and as we would think we were almost to the ride, there would be more twists and turns ahead. The wait time ended up being 90 minutes. The show was very cute and we did enjoy it.

We ventured to the lower level to ride Jurassic Park. We were very excited for it because we had heard such great things about it. The wait time said 45 min and this time it was two hours. The wait for this ride was miserable. They had concession stands throughout the line where people held things

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