After enjoying Open Sauce 2025, I flew from San Francisco International Airport to Hollywood Burbank Airport so I could be in the Los Angeles area in preparation for an upcoming international trip beginning with a flight departing from Los Angeles International Airport. However, there is a small gap of time between my inbound and outbound flights, so I decided to fill it with a tour of Universal Studios Hollywood.

I very vaguely recall going to Universal Studios Hollywood during a visit to California to see my relatives when I was much younger and still lived with my parents in the Chicagoland suburbs. Back in 2017, a portion of Tempo Storm’s Red Bull staff onboarding (back when they sponsored us as an esports team) was also at Universal Studios. However, I was never really much of an amusement park person, so I was never really too interested in carefully exploring the theme park during my adulthood.

What did recently pique my interest though was the launch of Super Nintendo World back in 2023. I’ve played a decent number of Nintendo games throughout my life, and I still enjoy watching Super Mario Maker videos on YouTube, so I was interested in immersing myself into that in-person. With that acting as a catalyst, I decided to book a VIP Experience tour to really get to know what Universal Studios is like.

Beyond just the tour, I wanted to get the full experience to the extent of also spending the night in Universal City, so I booked an overnight stay at the Sheraton Universal Hotel located within a quick walk to the theme park. This meant that I arrived in Universal City the day before my scheduled tour, so I had an opportunity to take an evening walk around Universal CityWalk Hollywood, a free-to-access area just outside Universal Studios, to prime myself for tomorrow’s main event.

Here are some photos I took around CityWalk and in the stores lining the walk: