One of my friends is in the Los Angeles area for a trip, and during her visit, she wanted to watch the Los Angeles Dodgers play against the St. Louis Cardinals at Dodger Stadium during Hello Kitty Night. I also happen to be in Los Angeles County right now in preparation for an upcoming international trip departing from LAX, so I agreed to go along and watch some baseball.

She really wanted the limited-quantity Hello Kitty co-branded merchandise that they give to attendees, so much so that she wanted to show up and get in line early. I did not think they would run out of merch packs, but I had never been to one of these special nights where they give out gifts; I didn’t want to be wrong and lead her stray, so I agreed to accompany her to the stadium a few hours before the game.

With that being said, I didn’t want to just be there unreasonably early and do nothing, so I suggested that we do a stadium tour while we wait for the game to start. She agreed and added on a game day pre-game tour. Usually, I end up being the one to arrange travel itineraries and event logistics because I tend to be the most well-traveled, but for Hello Kitty Night at Dodger Stadium, I entrusted her to organize everything. (Yes, I am mentioning this as a form of foreshadowing.)

 
When you purchase tickets to an event, there is usually information on the confirmation page, or at the very least, a “know before you go” email that is sent afterwards so you have a general idea of what to expect during the event. These informational emails usually include tips on how early to arrive, where to enter the event, and a map of the venue, among other things. I was not forwarded any of this information, even after asking a few times. The only thing she forwarded me was a receipt for the purchase so she could ask me to pay her back for my portion of the tickets (which I found to be ridiculous because I cover her portion of tickets, meals, and other costs of activities we do together an overwhelming majority of the time, so it is silly that she could not pay for something this one singular time… but that’s beside the point).

Yesterday at around 3 PM PDT, I called a Lyft to take us to Dodger Stadium. Again, note that I have no information about what’s going on. I looked on the Lyft app and noticed that the only drop-off spots I was able to pick were near Gate A. However, apparently they moved the rideshare drop-off location to Gate B (and the entrance to the pre-game tour was near Lots F and G, which were very close to Gate B). If I had known this ahead of time, I would’ve just asked our driver to drop us off street-side near Gate B, but instead, we were dropped off at Gate A and had to walk.

Fortunately, I pulled up Google Maps and noticed that there was a side street that took us straight to Gate B, so it wasn’t that big of a deal. I said we should take that shortcut. However, she insisted that it did not have access to Gate B and that we have to walk all the way around. After a ⅔-mile (1-kilometer) trek through the heat and direct sunlight, we made it to the entrance of Gate B (and promptly discovered that taking my suggested shortcut would have indeed worked just fine).

At this point, we spent another 15 minutes or so walking from checkpoint to checkpoint trying to figure out where to actually enter for the pre-game tour. I was dripping sweat, basically had just given up on everything, and was following her around with half my brain in hibernation as to not continue overheating. Eventually, we found the entrance (which was disclosed in the informational guide) (the same one I did not have a copy of).

Our tour was scheduled to start at 4 PM PDT. However, in typical Los Angeles fashion, the tour doesn’t actually start at 4 PM. I later found out that the suggested arrival time for a 4 PM tour was at 4 PM, but they expect everyone to be late, so as to not cause people to miss their tours, they instead use a first-come first-served grouping system for everyone that gets you on the next available tour. Us arriving at 3:50 PM meant that we were there in time to be included in a group that started at 4:20 PM.

There was no waiting room, no water, no snacks, and even no concessions available for purchase yet. What there was plenty of, though, was heat, on the hot day. At least I was able to wait in the shade this time.

 
The tour eventually started, and we were taken to the northeastern side of the stadium near the outfield. The tour guide explained some history about the Los Angeles Dodgers and Dodger Stadium while we were able to watch the players prepare for the day’s game.

By this point, fans were already lining up to enter the stadium. Apparently there was a ticket add-on just to be able to enter the stadium early (even without a pre-game tour). The game wasn’t scheduled to start for another almost 3 hours at that point, so I found this to be somewhat mind-boggling.

After seeing the outfield, we looped around the back and into the indoor section of the stadium.

After seeing what was basically a bunch of baseball-related art hung up in hallways, we popped out right behind home plate and was able to watch the players warm up some more, but this time from a different angle.

After several minutes, we were brought into a room that had a bunch of trophies and awards on display.

We were then led out a floor that had a bunch of baseball memorabilia. From this, I learned that the Dodgers were originally from Brooklyn. Apparently this area is accessible to the public, so being able to see these was not exclusive to the paid tour.

After seeing the indoor section, we were brought back outside and up near the outfield again. On this path, I saw this graffiti-style mural painted on one of the concrete walls.

To conclude the one-hour tour, we were brought back to where we started on the upper-most floor of the northeast deck overlooking the outfield. By this point, the players had swapped and it was now the visiting team that was warming up.

The tour was absolutely not worth it whatsoever. The only thing that I think you get special access to is the room with the trophies and awards; otherwise, I believe a majority of what we saw was already viewable by and accessible to the general public anyway. Keep in mind that the stadium is just an open building, so once you actually get into the building, it feels like you can sort of just walk around wherever you want.

By this point, the lines were getting substantially longer. However, there were still about two hours left until the game started.

There was a cabinet of bobbleheads near the entrance to the indoor section of the stadium; here is one of Vin Scully, a former commentator for the Dodgers.

In order to get the full baseball stadium experience, I decided to buy some stadium food. I decided to get two regular hot dogs and a small soft drink, which came out to US$23.01. My friend said she wanted to walk around a bit and check for some other food options, so we temporarily parted ways. I grabbed my hot dogs and drink and tried to find a place to eat.

There are no tables or eating areas in the stadium (which I guess makes sense, because that wouldn’t be an optimal use of the space). I tried to sit down somewhere so I could eat, but every time I sat down, a stadium employee would come up to me and ask to see my ticket to ensure that I had purchased the use of that seat. I kept on trying to sit down in seats that were not mine, so I kept getting turned away.

So you might be wondering at this point, why didn’t I just go straight to my own seat? Well, including not receiving any information about the tour or game, my friend also did not send me a copy of my ticket. The tickets were in her digital wallet, and I literally had not seen them, so I didn’t even know where my seat was. I texted her letting her know that she had doomed me, but she did not respond for a little while, so I was just standing in the hallway awkwardly holding two hot dogs and a drink for several minutes.

When I did finally get a copy of my ticket and the location of my seat, I found out that they were booked way in the back, apparently in the “nose bleed” section. This involved going on a literal hike up many flights of stairs (still with my two hot dogs and drink in hand) to get to my seat.

I eventually made it to my seat and unwrapped my hot dogs, just to discover that they had about half the girth that I was expecting. Considering the quite small volume of the hot dogs, I finished them fairly quickly and was left sitting there for another hour and a half before the game was scheduled to start. I pulled out my phone to reply to emails and messages during the wait.

Here are some photographs (with maximum optical zoom on my camera, and then further cropped pre-export) of the field.

A bit before they started playing, they did some pre-game activities, such as calling in a bunch of Hello Kitty fans and running a round of trivia.

Eventually, Hello Kitty came out to throw the first pitch.

Once the game started, I got a little bored and went to get some more food.

After walking shoulder-to-shoulder in hallway congestion and standing in a line for what I believe was around half an hour, I finally purchased an all-beef hot dog, garlic fries in a helmet-shaped souvenir bowl, and a large soft drink in a souvenir cup for US$37.86. I didn’t actually want any of the souvenir items, but those versions of those items were the only ones they had available at that particular concession booth, and I didn’t want to wait in a new line all over again.

Apparently the Dodgers were doing quite well, including a back-to-back home run (or something close to it). The crowd was very frequently very excited.

Around the sixth inning, I decided to get some dessert. I headed back out into the concession area, only to discover that everyone else (including on every other floor of the stadium) had the same idea that I did. The shortest line I could find to a dessert concession was about 300 people long. I ate a grand total of zero dessert, though I guess that’s fine, because I had already spent US$60.87 on food so far anyway.

My friend wanted to leave early as to not get stuck in the traffic and congestion of people exiting the stadium after the game, so we departed during the seventh inning.

This was my first time ever going to a baseball stadium on a general admission ticket, and it was an absolutely miserable experience. I genuinely cannot comprehend how people manage to not go insane in this environment. Dodger Stadium is not built to accommodate even half the attendees as the number of seats available in the stadium.

I later looked up the cost of getting a suite or other private area at Dodger Stadium to watch the baseball game and discovered that it was fairly affordable—far cheaper than what you’d expect at a stadium or venue in Las Vegas where I’m used to. Of course, in order to split the cost and make the price reasonable, you would have to put in the extra effort to gather up a group of friends to share the suite with you, but I’d rather do that and watch the game with 10-20 other friends rather than tens of thousands of sweaty, smelly strangers. On top of that, suites come with some decent-looking catering options where I could’ve literally gotten an entire tasting menu for only a few dollars more than how much I paid for my hot dogs, fries, and drinks (with no refills).

If you know me, you probably know that I am very flexible and somewhat indifferent person, and although I have certain strong preferences, I am generally adaptable to most situations. Thus, for me to reach this level of frustration, you know that things had to be mismanaged pretty badly—both on our side and on the venue’s side.

If you are a huge baseball fan, extremely patient, and on a very tight budget, then this might make sense for you. However, at least for me (and I am fully aware that I probably sound extremely spoiled right now), this was a mildly torturous experience. To be clear, I don’t regret having gone one time just to have the first-hand understanding of what it’s like. But in the future, I will most likely never watch a sporting event in general admission again, or at least, not in a stadium as inefficient and unaccommodating as one in Los Angeles.

This all happened yesterday, and somehow, I still feel dehydrated.

For part 3 of 3 covering my visit to Universal Studios Hollywood, I’ll be giving an overview and a bit more insight into their VIP Experience. In case you missed it, I already posted some photographs two days ago from Universal CityWalk Hollywood, which is the free-to-access area outside Universal Studios that is lined with shops and retail attractions.

Yesterday, I shared my thoughts of the Studio Tour, a behind-the-scenes look at what goes on at Universal Pictures. The VIP Experience was split into two portions—the Studio Tour and the theme park. My tour started with the Studio Tour as the first portion, and then we moved on to getting expedited access to rides for the second portion.

Even before that, the VIP Experience started with priority admission by way of a side VIP entrance with no line. I was greeted and specially escorted to the VIP lounge, in which there was a selection of food and beverages comparable to that of a premium continental breakfast. After finishing check-in and having a chat with our dedicated assigned tour guide to get an overview of what we can expect from our day, we gathered out on the balcony with this nice view of the park entrance to group up and walk towards the Studio Tour.

After the Studio Tour, we walked back to the main theme park and started with the Wizarding World of Harry Potter.

After sightseeing the architecture, we were taken to our first ride, “Flight of the Hippogriff.”

… It’s time for a story.

I am very prone to motion sickness. As a kid, I would get motion sick pretty much everywhere. Every time my parents brought me somewhere in a vehicle, I would get car sick. Every time I rode on a plane, I would get airsick. Even when I play first-person perspective video games, I’d get motion sick.

I’ve solved some of this in my adulthood. I found that I get less carsickness in larger body-on-frame vehicles, so I drive a pickup truck (among other reasons, the primary of which is just the versatility and capability of pickup trucks). When I’m riding with friends, I usually sit in the passenger seat and recline all the way back. When I call rideshare services, I usually call a “Black” or other premium-tier service to increase the chances of me getting a large SUV with captain’s chairs in the second row so I can recline back. On aircraft, I try my best to book business or first class tickets so I have a more comfortable seat with greater recline.

In general, I get more sick when I’m upright, and my motion sickness diminishes when I’m leaning back or laying down. Another strategy I’ve used to help with motion sickness is to eat a lot. I noticed that I get worse motion sickness on an empty stomach, so if I eat enough to refuel my body and give myself enough energy, that usually helps. (I still haven’t found a solution for FPP video games, though.)

Even then, things sometimes catch me off guard. As part of the VIP Experience, I agreed to go on this Harry Potter ride because I figured that I had a hearty breakfast that morning and assumed I would be fine. However, I was horribly mistaken, as Flight of the Hippogriff triggered an intense sense of motion sickness that kept worsening.

At first, it was a bit jarring and I felt a bit dizzy, but I was mostly fine. I got off the ride (which tilts you at an angle at high speeds and, I presume, makes the blood rush down and away from your brain) and walked it off. However, as time passed, I got increasingly dizzy and my urge to vomit got worse and worse. The VIP Experience was less than halfway over though, so I decided I would power through it and assumed that I would start feeling better soon.

The next ride was “Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey.” For this ride, the tour guide specifically pointed out that a lot of people get motion sickness and have sometimes even had their days ruined from it, so I wisely opted out from the ride. I was still able to walk through the castle though, which was nicely decorated.

While the rest of the tour group was on the ride, I sat on a bench off to the side. I was still feeling worse and worse, and after staying seated for a while and standing up, I had a fairly severe and lengthy bout of orthostatic hypotension where everything in your vision flashes white for a while before gradually going back to normal. Still, the VIP Experience had a lot more to it, and I kept hoping that I would soon start feeling better.

I was so confident in my ability to slowly get better that I even agreed to go on “The Secret Life of Pets: Off the Leash” because our tour guide said that it is a very mild ride and it barely goes five miles an hour. I agree that it normally would’ve been perfectly fine, except the fact that my motion sickness had already been triggered meant that even the slightest movement and spinning of our seats meant that I felt even more sick.

Regardless, I thought the ride was enjoyable and heartwarming. It tells the story of two sheltered puppies that get adopted, and the ride brings you through the process scene-by-scene until you’re at the end in your new home with your new family.

It was time for lunch. The VIP Experience comes with access to a private restaurant with a premium buffet with an amazing selection of food. However, by this point, I genuinely felt like any kind of sudden motion would make me vomit. Even turning my head too quickly made my stomach lurch. At this point, I could do nothing but sit rigidly still and just enjoy the comedy of the fact that a roller coaster that took barely over half a minute to finish managed to absolutely knock me out for a few hours.

I ate nothing during lunch, but at the very least, managed not to vomit. At this point, I realized that I was most likely not getting better anytime soon, especially if I were to remain upright and keep moving around. I decided to make the call that I should head back to the hotel and lay down for a bit.

I checked in with my tour guide and confirmed that basically the entire rest of the VIP Experience was just going from ride-to-ride and being able to skip all the lines. That was a relief to hear, as I think the rides are the least appealing part of an amusement park for me, so it felt like I wasn’t missing out on much by surrendering and leaving the tour early.

I walked back to the Sheraton Universal Hotel, returned to my room, washed my hands and face, changed into my pajamas, and laid down. After a few more hours, I still had a mild headache but was no longer anywhere close to vomiting. I headed over to the Bonvoy elite lounge to get some snacks and determined that I was back to a level of reasonable functionality.

The great news about the VIP Experience is that it also comes with general admission to the park. My designated tour time was 11:30 AM, and I was out of the park by 3 PM. After resting and recovering for a few hours, I re-entered the park at 6 PM and still had three more hours left before closing time to walk around and enjoy the sights.

The part of Universal Studios Hollywood I was most looking forward to seeing was Super Nintendo World. After having a little bit of difficulty finding the entrance (because it was hidden at the end of a long path that originally appeared to only go to the Transformers area, but in reality, turned off into a large green pipe from Super Mario Bros.), I entered into the magical world of Super Mario.

For a little while, I thought that Super Nintendo World was a completely covered indoor area because of how pure and empty the sky happened to be at that time. I’m sure you can imagine how confused I was when I eventually noticed the moon.

Super Nintendo World is an amazing environment. I tend to be known as someone who doesn’t really consume much mass media, but the Super Mario series is a franchise with which I am very familiar. It gave me a lot of nostalgia seeing everything built life-sized around me, and it triggered one of those “inner child” moments where I just stood there looking around with a gaping mouth and happy eyes. There were a lot of people around who were interacting with the exhibits, and those interactions activated Super Mario sound effects that added to my immersion.

I liked this environment so much that, if this was a publicly-accessible location back in Las Vegas, I would literally come here at least a couple times a week just to look around, enjoy the sound effects, people-watch, and eat lunch. I’ve never really had a “happy place” like a lot of other people do, but I think Super Nintendo World is as close as I can get to something like that (alongside something similar to this, but Pokémon-themed too).

I also took a walk through Bowser’s castle. Normally this is the area for “Mario Kart: Bowser’s Challenge,” but because of my VIP badge, I was able to just enter the castle on the side and sightsee without having to wait in a long line. Once I got to the end, I was able to turn around and exit without needing to partake in the ride.

After soaking in as much of the Super Mario joy I could, I headed out and towards the main entrance of the park, as it was approaching 9 PM and closing time was imminent. For my last half hour remaining, I walked around Super Silly Fun Land and the Despicable Me area.

On my way to the exit, I walked through Universal Plaza where they had a live DJ and a bunch of costumed characters dancing and having fun with the kids. I thought this was very nice, as it was basically the equivalent of a family-friendly rave for children.

Before exiting, I snapped a photo of the statue at the front entrance. You can see the VIP sign on the right side of the photograph, affixed under the balconies upon which I started my day.

The VIP Experience is very worth it. I paid US$489.00 for my ticket, which seems like a lot, but regular tickets were already US$149.00 per person that day, and upgrading to Universal Express was US$299.00. If you’re already spending that much money, then I think adding on an additional US$190.00 to upgrade to the full VIP Experience is very good value. (Note that pricing is dynamic, and the VIP Experience during the off-season can go as low as US$359.00 per person.)

The number and amount of lines my tour group was able to skip because of our VIP credentials was insane. Out of the rides and experiences that I was there for, I would’ve already saved about two and a half hours of wait time, and that’s even with me having left early and missing out on a vast majority of the rides. The lines for rides are so ridiculously long that it seemed like a no-brainer to get Express or VIP, and it even went as far as to make me wonder whether Universal Studios was overselling general admission tickets.

Also keep in mind that VIP also comes with free breakfast and lunch, and even though I didn’t eat due to my motion sickness, it’s actually pretty good food by the looks of it. It’s also really helpful to have an unlimited stream of cold water bottles wherever you go so that it’s one less thing for you to worry about. Add on the free valet parking that otherwise would be US$60.00, and the VIP package gives you a lot of convenience-based add-ons that makes your trip very comfortable.

Would I go again? Of course not. The VIP Experience doesn’t really make much sense for people who would go on zero rides. If you’re just going there for sightseeing, then a general admission ticket is plenty. But do I regret going? Absolutely not. Even though I wasn’t able to milk full value out of the VIP Experience, I still really enjoyed what I was able to do.

A lot of people are surprised when they hear this, but I’ve never been to Disneyland Resort before. I spend nowhere near as much time in California as I used to back when I was helping set up the Tempo Storm esports team houses, and when I am in California, I’m usually only there for a specific purpose before heading back out and don’t have much time to take a leisurely trip to a theme park. Whenever people have invited me to Disneyland, I’ve been somewhat avoidant in going because it didn’t really seem particularly compelling to stand out in the sun all day surrounded by children. However, after my overall positive experience at Universal Studios, I feel like I’m more agreeable now to visiting Disneyland to see how it compares.

After exploring Universal CityWalk Hollywood yesterday evening and then spending the night at the Sheraton Universal Hotel, I woke up (relatively) early this morning for my VIP Experience tour at Universal Studios Hollywood today.

I have enough photographs from the tour that I decided it would make sense to split it up into two separate blog posts. I’ll give my general overview of the VIP Experience tomorrow, but for today, I decided to focus specifically on the Studio Tour.

The Studio Tour starts in one of the lower areas of the theme park near the back. We descended down this escalator tunnel towards the entrance.

The wait time for a tour was 25 minutes…

… but our VIP Experience admission allowed us to skip the line and get directly onto a special bus.

One of the first stops was at a sound stage. Although this one was empty and not actively being used to film a production at that time, we were still able to see all the soundproofing and some of the tools they use to hook up the lights, cameras, and other equipment.

Outside the sound stages, we were able to see some trailers where actors, actresses, and other stars are able to rest between shooting sessions and get touch-ups on their hair and make-up.

The next part of the tour brought us to multiple different backlots, which are outdoor locations where scenes are filmed. As expected, they had a lot of backlots, all resembling the architecture of different countries and time periods.

As a quick intermission, we entered a building that was disguised as a sound stage, but was actually a 3D immersive experience based on King Kong.

The 3D glasses made it seem like King Kong and various dinosaurs were jumping right up to our faces. The bus inconspicuously drove up on a track that locked it in place and swung it around side-to-side, so it felt like we were actually being picked up and thrown around in sync with the visuals. They also added mist effects for even more immersion.

I don’t know if this is just because I haven’t really gone to amusement parks or ridden on many roller coasters so I don’t know how far the technology has come, but this was my favorite part of my entire visit to Universal Studios. I thought this immersive experience was amazing. I did not expect the immersion to be this advanced, and if there are more 3D experiences like this, I’d be happy just going on them back-to-back for my theme park trip.

Unfortunately, even though I took a few photographs, none of them were worthy of being shared because they were all very blurry due to the high amounts of motion, and the contents of the pictures were unidentifiable due to my camera lens obviously not having a 3D attachment on it.

After King Kong, we drove past some other sound stages and into even more backlots.

For our second intermission from looking at backlots, we entered another immersive sound stage. Although this one wasn’t 3D, it was still fun—it emulated what would happen during a catastrophic earthquake where the infrastructure fails and we enter a pseudo-apocalyptic state.

I don’t have too many photos to share from this one either, again due to the blurriness from the motion and the bus rocking back and forth in unison with the destruction that was happening around us, but I did manage to capture this one of a tanker truck that had fallen through a collapsed concrete floor and set off a fire.

After coming out of that sound stage, we went through some backlot sets that were designed to serve a greater purpose than just a backdrop for filming. For example, this one was rigged to dump out a substantial amount of water to emulate a flood.

We saw some more backlots and learned that apparently the ground on some of these is fake. Our tour guide said that most of it is just asphalt, and there are companies that specialize in moving in large amounts of dirt, sand, snow, or whatever else is needed for a filming session to cover the ground in the applicable material before removing it when they need to redress the backlot.

Having grown up in the Chicagoland suburbs, suburban neighborhoods are so common that it did not occur to me that they still need to make suburban backlots to have a controlled environment in which to film shows and movies that take place in the suburbs. It was very amusing to see what is basically an entire fake subdivision here.

Here is a collection of some famous vehicles that were used in various different shows and films.

As part of Jaws’ 50th anniversary, they had a fake themed Hollywood sign at the end of one of the roads on the Studio Tour. I don’t think it served any particular purpose; it seemed like it was just there as a decorative piece.

We drove right up to what I believe they referred to as the Chicken Ranch house. I’m not familiar with any of the movies that were filmed on this set, but I suspect they were in the horror genre, as there was an actor with a fake knife there that ran up to our tour bus right as we drove off.

As one of the final areas we saw as part of our tour, we got a close-up look at a plane crash scene used for War of the Worlds (2005), consisting of a real Boeing 747 airliner disassembled and strewn around for the set.

As we circled back to the beginning and towards the conclusion of our Studio Tour, we passed by an area that was closed for active filming. I’m not sure if this meant a portion of the tour was cut short, but even then, the it was already very thorough and comprehensive.

About a year and a half ago, I went on a comparable tour of Sony Pictures Studios. My feedback of Sony’s tour was that it was fairly underwhelming and a bit uninteresting for someone who isn’t really too passionate about movies.

With that being said, and even with the same context, I thought the Studio Tour at Universal Studios was great. It is clear that they iterated on the tour to make sure it is as optimally exciting and captivating as possible. It was also satisfyingly long and had a wide variety of things to enjoy (including some things that were off-limits for photographs that I did not include in this blog post, such as a warehouse of props, some of which were tagged with code names to be reserved for upcoming use in films).

I think the tour guides were also far better at Universal Studios, both in terms of their knowledge about the topic and the way in which the program was run. The tour guides provided commentary about what we were seeing in a way that catered to people of all degrees of interest.

Prior to the tour, the guides asked us all what our favorite shows were, and it was clear that they remembered our answers because they made sure to focus on and point out those areas of interests on the tour to ensure the tour was made more relevant for that particular set of people. Even for someone like me who doesn’t really watch TV or movies much, the tour allowed me to appreciate the general cinematography, technology, and logistics behind film production without ever needing to be a fan of a particular series or franchise.

I’m not sure how much of this Studio Tour experience was enhanced as a result of having a VIP ticket, and I don’t know what the differences are (if any) between this VIP Experience Studio Tour and the one that is offered to general admission attendees, but based on what I saw, I think this would be a great sightseeing addition to your day at Universal Studios as a break between going on rides across the rest of the theme park.

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:

During one of the days on my trip to the East Coast, I went together with my friends to American Dream, the second largest shopping mall in the United States.

Because of my abnormal sleep schedule, I wasn’t able to wake up in time to carpool together with them from Burlington County to Bergen County, so I drove over on my own after I was ready to start my day. My GPS directed me to the Pearl Lot, so I parked there and started making my way to where my friends were, taking some photographs along the way.

They were playing Angry Birds Mini Golf, so I joined them and helped them capture footage of their gameplay for a video.

After finishing all 18 holes, we headed back out into the mall.

Our next activity was the Nickelodeon Universe Theme Park. It had an eerie vibe to it, which was probably attributed to the fact that there were not very many people there and a lot of the rides were out of service. My friends also apparently had some issues with management because their filming permit for American Dream allegedly does not extend to the theme park due to it being a separate and independent entity from the mall.

After a fairly underwhelming theme park experience, we headed back out into the mall once again to walk to our next destination.

Apparently American Dream has the one and only physical Mr. Beast Burger location, and my friends wanted to make a video of them trying every item on the menu.

I ordered a Nashville hot chicken tender sandwich for myself. The lettuce was shriveled, the pickles lacked juice, and the bun resembled a bun you’d find on the clearance shelf at your local grocery store because it is about to expire at the end of the day. With that being said, the chicken itself was unexpectedly passable. I probably would’ve actually enjoyed this meal if it was just served as standalone chicken tenders instead.

There was one final thing my friends wanted to see before the end of the day, so we headed back out into the mall.

My friends are video game YouTubers, so they wanted to see the Minecraft installation and take a picture in front of this tall, angry-looking shrub.

After a long day of filming and exploration, we parted ways and I headed back to the Pearl Lot on the opposite side of the mall to return to my rental vehicle, again, taking more photographs of interesting things along the way.

American Dream was strange. Maybe it was because we were there during the daytime on a weekday, and maybe it’s because I’m just used to stores back at home on the Las Vegas Strip always being pretty busy all the time, but American Dream felt way too empty compared to its size.