Upper Lot (formerly known as Entertainment Center from 1967 to 1999)
Located just inside the studio gates, the Upper Lot is the largest of the two lots in the park and has seen the most growth and transformations throughout the park's busy history. The Upper Lot is where you will find a variety of streets filled with tons of entertainment.
Universal Boulevard
Throughout most of the park's lifespan, there was not an official main street, for lack of better term. However, that would change in 2016 with the opening of the beautiful Universal Boulevard. The Art-Deco-themed entryway is inspired by buildings that you would expect to find in Los Angeles and pays homage to Golden Age Hollywood legends, including makeup artist Jack Pierce, producer Irving Thalberg, and Universal founder Carl Laemmle. The centerpiece for Universal Boulevard is the breathtaking Universal Plaza. It is the perfect location for designated dining, character meet and greets, musical performances, holiday events, and kick-ass cars from the Fast Family.
Since this area opened to the public, the newest ride to open is Kung Fu Panda Adventure, a slightly altered version of Motiongate Dubai's Kung Fu Panda: Unstoppable Awesomeness. While definitely not a must-see attraction, the exterior and interior design of the theatre, the projection mapping, and the LED lighting effects (as well as the air conditioning) are indeed the best parts of the entire experience. Although Universal Parks and Resorts has had many DreamWorks Animation rides and attractions that came before this one (most of which can be found in Universal Studios Singapore), this is the first to be created for a Universal park after DreamWorks Animation was FINALLY owned by NBCUniversal. And it is located inside the DreamWorks Theatre, which is intended to be main location for the latest DreamWorks-themed ride, with Kung Fu Panda Adventure being the first.
Universal Boulevard is also where you will find the post-apocalyptic stunt show, Water World: A Live Sea War Spectacular. The story takes place in a world without land, after the events of the 1995 film WaterWorld. What makes the show truly unique for the theme park industry is that it's based on a film that pretty much came and went, and was nowhere near a commercial or critical success. Yet and still, the show itself became a massive hit and won the 1996 Thea Award from the Themed Entertainment Association. It is by far Universal's most popular stunt show to date. It is also the most complex combination of death-defying stunts, pyrotechnics and one the most high-tech special effects ever attempted. If you're lucky, you may even recognize an actor or stuntman from the big and small screens during the show.
Streets of the World
Streets of the World opened in 1989 and is a classic area that currently combines the real-world streets of Europe and North America, and the animated world of Illumination Entertainment. Going clockwise, past Universal Boulevard, Baker Street is the first section that you will see. For the longest time, it was based on the Baker Street from the City of Westminster in London; as seen by Sherlock Holmes, anyway. But with so many changes that occurred since debuting in 1989, is the now smallest part of Streets of the World, as it is limited to the facades of the following fictional businesses: Perkins Fine Arts, Forsyth & Sons Antiquarian Books, Imperial Tea Company, Westminster School of the Dramatic Arts, and Baker Street Music Hall.
Next stop is Pets Place which reuses the buildings and facades that were originally a major part of the Baker Street area, and is now themed to Manhattan as seen on the Illumination film The Secret Life of Pets. Representing this revamped street is The Secret Life of Pets: Off the Leash, a ride that is just so adorable (for an Omnimover ride, that is). Next stop is Minion Way. This entire whimsical street is based on the hit franchise Despicable Me, starring Illumination's mascots, the Minions. The main attraction for Minion Way is Despicable Me Minion Mayhem, found inside the replica of Gru's house. Exit the ride through the gift shop, and you will enter the seaside amusement park Super Silly Fun Land. This is a much-needed water zone with three carnival games (Minion Mashup, Space Killer and Mini(on) Toss) and the aerial carousel Silly Swirly.
The next two streets are mainly dining areas. First there is the cozy French Street which includes a handful of characters exclusively made for the park: from the French Gendarme, to the Can-Can Girls, and the French Stilt Girls. Within French Street is the cobblestone-paved Parisian Courtyard. And then there is 1950s America, where you'll find the iconic Mel's Diner (a replica of Mel's Drive-In, which was seen on the 1973 Universal comedy film American Graffiti), a façade of the fictional Faber College from the 1978 comedy Animal House, and the Palace Deli & Market, ending our tour of Street of the World.
Streets of the World
Streets of the World opened in 1989 and is a classic area that currently combines the real-world streets of Europe and North America, and the animated world of Illumination Entertainment. Going clockwise, past Universal Boulevard, Baker Street is the first section that you will see. For the longest time, it was based on the Baker Street from the City of Westminster in London; as seen by Sherlock Holmes, anyway. But with so many changes that occurred since debuting in 1989, is the now smallest part of Streets of the World, as it is limited to the facades of the following fictional businesses: Perkins Fine Arts, Forsyth & Sons Antiquarian Books, Imperial Tea Company, Westminster School of the Dramatic Arts, and Baker Street Music Hall.
The next two streets are mainly dining areas. First there is the cozy French Street which includes a handful of characters exclusively made for the park: from the French Gendarme, to the Can-Can Girls, and the French Stilt Girls. Within French Street is the cobblestone-paved Parisian Courtyard. And then there is 1950s America, where you'll find the iconic Mel's Diner (a replica of Mel's Drive-In, which was seen on the 1973 Universal comedy film American Graffiti), a façade of the fictional Faber College from the 1978 comedy Animal House, and the Palace Deli & Market, ending our tour of Street of the World.
Production Plaza
North of the park's decision hub is a street all about the art of making movies: Production Plaza. While most of the Upper Lot is dominated by pop culture franchises, Production Plaza is probably the most generic, as it is made up of two sound stages that house the oldest live shows in the history of Universal Studios Hollywood: Special Effects Show based in Stage 56, and Animal Actors based in Stage 57. Both live shows emphasize hard work, teamwork, concentration and cooperation on set.
Special Effects Show, the third longest-running attraction, is where the movie magic really starts and imagination plays a very important role during the making of a motion picture. When the show debuted in 1980, it was originally where Transformers: The Ride currently stands, and was only accessible through the Studio Tour until the Lower Lot opened as a theme park expansion in 1991. For the first 30 years, the show would go through several names and updates, before moving to Production Plaza in 2010 to make way for Transformers: The Ride. These days, the show is better than ever. It has toned down the cheesy pop culture humor that screamed "the 90s" and now features some awesome physical combat sequences and a scary fire stunt, neither of which are EVER to be tried at home.And then there is Animal Actors, which opened in 1967, and would become the park's second longest-running attraction TO DATE! It also had a different name for a short time, when it was presented by the cable television network Animal Planet. Dedicated to the philosophy that life is better with animals, Animal Actors mixes videos, live animal performances and audience interaction for all ages. Of course, it's no surprise that things in the show will not always go as scripted, because the animals run the show, no matter what!
Studio Tour Plaza
Step through the Studio Tour Plaza past Springfield, U.S.A. and The Wizarding World of Harry Potter and you are led to the glamour trams of the world famous Studio Tour. My advice to you: start your day here! The trams give you an opportunity to ride through the historic Universal Studios Lot, in which more than 8,000 movies and countless TV shows, commercials and music videos have been produced within more than a century. This often-imitated yet never duplicated attraction marked the beginning of Universal Studios Hollywood as a theme park back in 1964, just three years before its surrounding area Upper Lot would officially open to the public. It is also the very first Universal Park and Resorts attraction to feature actor and comedian Jimmy Fallon.
Once you leave the loading station, you are immediately taken to Timeline Drive, which is a long line of posters of Universal's theatrical films from 1914 to the present day. It's worth noting that many film posters will come and go to make room for the newest movie posters. Leaving Timeline Drive and moving past the Front Lot, which currently has less than 40 soundstages, the next stop is the iconic Metropolitan Area. This backlot area features 3 streets - New York Street, Brownstone Street and Courthouse Square - which have doubled for San Francisco, Moscow, London and several other cities. The nice stroll around the streets leads to King Kong 360 3-D, based on the 2005 remake of King Kong. This is Universal Studios Hollywood's first ever ride (as Shrek 4-D and Terminator 2: 3-D were actually shows) to incorporate the use of 3-D glasses for better or worse. Moving on, you'll drive through Greens Road featuring a section called Picture Cars - a display of recognizable cars from some of Universal's well-known films - sets from The Lost World: Jurassic Park and Jurassic Park III. Then you'll find yourself through Mexican Street where you endure Flash Flood predicted by TODAY Show star Al Roker, followed by two western streets where so many Hollywood western films and silent films were created: Denver Street and Six Points Texas. And just like Metropolitan Area, our next locations Little Europe, Court of Miracles and Mediterranean Square easily double for any other location in the world. This leads to the tour's next major attraction located in Stage 50, Earthquake: The Big One, inspired by the 1974 disaster flick Earthquake, where are you subjected to an earthquake measuring 8.3 on the Richter Scale. Unlike the movie, this attraction (and the stand-alone attraction at Universal Studios Florida) is set in the Embarcadero subway station in San Francisco, instead of taking place in Los Angeles.The next set is the peaceful town of Amity Island, even with the unfortunate encounter with a familiar shark in the attraction Jaws on Fire. Then you arrive to the immersive neighborhood Colonial Street. It's one of the most popular and relaxing areas within Universal Studios Lot. Throughout the 20th century, the houses were all white and grey as the films produced were black and white. But starting with the making of Desperate Housewives, every house was repainted to have a more colorful and inviting presence. Many TV shows have been filmed in this specific street; from Leave it to Beaver, to Matlock, along with Munsters, Parenthood, Kenan and Desperate Housewives. Some of the buildings are practical sets meaning you can film inside of them, but the rest are facades. And while the exterior sets in Colonial Street have gone through many changes, three exterior sets outside the neighborhood remain mostly unchanged: The Bates Motel and Psycho House from the psychological thriller Psycho, the War of the Worlds Set and Falls Lake. And the final attraction in the Studio Tour is the one of the most divisive thrill rides of all time: Fast & Furious: Supercharged based on Universal's most successful film series to date, Fast & Furious. This ride's story is actually intertwined with the tour, starting as soon as you are leaving Colonial Street and ending in a massive fictional warehouse called Sullivan Truck Repair. And that's a wrap on the world famous Studio Tour, and you've heading back to the loading station to Studio Tour Plaza. After seeing where the movies are made, you can finally experience the excitement for yourself.
Lower Lot (formerly known as Studio Center from 1991 to 1999)
Once you've left Springfield U.S.A. and walked into a series of escalators known as StarWay (aka the best theme park attraction that ever lived), you've left the Upper Lot and set foot in the Lower Lot. Because it takes place in what was formerly part of the front lot for Universal Studios Lot, the Lower Lot is the smallest lot in the park, but has went from being a section about filmmaking to a land for the thrill junkies, for the most part.
Jurassic World
Best believe, if any Universal franchise from the 20th century will stand the test of time in a theme park, it is most definitely Jurassic Park.
Even in an area which already had very limited amount of space, Universal always managed to immerse us in a time before man by way of Jurassic Park since 1996. In 2019, the immersion continued when Jurassic Park became Jurassic World. To say that this was a long time coming for Universal Studios Hollywood was most definitely an understatement.
What sets the Jurassic World area apart from its previous era as Jurassic Park is that Jurassic World is based on a theme park that actually did open to the public, whereas Jurassic Park was based on a theme park that never opened at all. The entertainment in Jurassic World can be a very daring experience (Raptor Encounter) or a very delightful experience (Tripceratops Encounter), depending on how well each person can handle standing next to a dinosaur. And Dino-Play, which also received a Jurassic World update, is a perfect play area for the little ones.But of course, the real treat is Jurassic World: The Ride, formerly known as Jurassic Park: The Ride or Jurassic Park River Adventure. It's a wondrous adventure 65 million years in the making, with the biggest highlight being the T-Rex Kingdom scene, where you encounter some of the franchise's most memorable dinosaurs, including the Dilophosaurus, the Velociraptor, the Indominus Rex and of course the T-Rex, before going down a steep 84-foot drop.
Studio Center
This little section of the Lower Lot maintains its front lot roots and architecture from its past, easily blending with the rest of the movie studio. So it can easily be seen as a transition point from the theme park half (with Upper Lot dominating that role) to the working film studio, Universal Studios Lot.
Just like Production Plaza, each attraction in Studio Center takes place in a soundstage. This time, however, each soundstage is enclosed and the exteriors are painted and/or decorated to match the movie it represents. The first attraction is Revenge of the Mummy: The Ride, a launch roller coaster that is actually housed in a FAKE soundstage and is set in 20th century Hamunaptra, the city of the dead. This was branded as a 'psychological roller coaster' and is the very FIRST roller coaster ever made for Universal Studios Hollywood. Most people don't like this ride because of how short it is; I'm not one of those people.And then there's Transformers: The Ride 3-D, an action-packed dark ride based in Stage 30. It is one of the largest and loudest rides in the entire theme park, but thankfully it's not as loud as Fast & Furious: Supercharged. It is also the park's best thrill ride, but it doesn't need to be in 3-D. Take off the 3-D glasses midway through the ride, and you'll realize that the footage looks exactly the same. Based on Allspark's live-action Transformers franchise, Transformers: The Ride 3-D allows guests to witness the ultimate battle between Optimus Prime and Bumblebee. According to director Michael Bay, "The ride envelops the audience and makes them feel like they're in the world of Transformers!" And it really shows when you experience it in person. It is a fun ride for thrill-seekers, fans of Transformers, and fans of action and science fiction, including me!
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And that's every area that Universal Studios Hollywood has that isn't The Wizarding World of Harry Potter, Springfield, U.S.A., or Super Nintendo World! I would have talked about those areas, but by now, everybody knows something about Harry Potter, The Simpsons and Nintendo. I hope you enjoyed my geeking-out session on Universal Studios Hollywood and I'll see you next time!
