The Life of a VIP - Adventures By Disney Backstage Magic About This Page:

[PrincessSharon]

I wandered around for a bit, enjoying the park.



I saw Shrek and Fiona, and since there were only a couple of people waiting, I queued up to meet them.





My nephew is a big fan of Spongebob, so I went into that store and bought him a gift. I also saw Spongebob greeting guests and I knew DN would love to see a picture, but there was a long line, so I skipped it.

I called Celebrity Helicopter and wondered if it would be better to take the tour the next day, but she said the forecast for Monday was rain, so that meant I needed to do the helicopter tour that day at 2:30. Which meant I wouldn’t be doing the Universal VIP tour. That meant that I needed to do the tram tour, so I went there next.









I arrived just in time to catch a tram. I ended up with a row to myself. I really enjoyed the tram tour. We rode past sets that I recognized from a lot of TV shows and movies. During the tour, when we passed certain sets, we would see a little film clip of that set in a film or tv show. They told us that CSI (the original), Parenthood and Desperate Housewives were among the shows currently in production on the lot.

The studio is so large they have their own fire department.



There was a major fire at the Studio in 2008 that destroyed New York Street and the King Kong ride as well as a film vault. The film unfortunately cannot be replaced, but New York Street is being rebuilt, as is the King Kong portion (now in 3-D!).



The courthouse section (famous from the Back to the Future films) survived the fire and has recently been used in many productions, including Ghost Whisperer.







A number of new highly detailed sets are being constructed. This is because the old sets show their faults in high definition. There was a lot of construction going on in this area.




This will house the brand new King Kong 3-D attraction, opening this summer



I was excited to see a glimpse of the sun. I hoped that was a good sign for my helicopter tour. The tram came to a display of cars used in films and tv.















And then we saw how they make cars go flying through the air once they get blowed up real good.







Then we went through Jurassic Park.





Then, we came to this.



And it started to rain!



No worries, it was just movie rain.



The rain caused a flood.







Then we went through the western area. They actually have four streets that can serve as four different towns, because each one has its own bank, sheriff’s office, tavern, etc.





There was a big tank filled with water that they use for filming underwater scenes.



The actors go inside, and the crew and director stay nice and dry outside. You can see there’s a window they can use on the side of the tank. We passed Lyon Estates, home of Marty McFly.



Then we came to this lake.



Aside from being used for countless productions, it was blocking the way! Luckily, the tour guide knew how to part the waters. Unfortunately, because I was in the back of the tram, I couldn’t really see all that well.




The view from the back

We also passed Skull Island (they never used anything larger than this in the remake of King Kong).



Next on the tour was Earthquake (which was used recently in Bones).


I loved the orange juice poster





Continued…