Burbank, Ca to Anaheim, Ca

It's all getting rather glamorous in L.A. as we went to Universal Studios, Hollywood! Not just a tourist destination, they actually make films and TV here as well! Hoping to see a celebrity or two...

On the Studio Tour, one of the first attractions is a series of famous car props from Universal films and TV. This is the Firefly (pretty much the best TV series ever) 'mule' - and yes, in the background on the left is Magnum PI's Ferrari.

Marty McFly: "Wait a minute, Doc. Ah... Are you telling me that you built a time machine... out of a DeLorean?"
Dr. Emmett Brown: "The way I see it, if you're gonna build a time machine into a car, why not do it with some style?"

Going past the actual Bates Motel - made up for this evening's Halloween Night shenanigans - this actor took his work seriously. Seriously enough for Morag to grip my arm in terror, as he almost caught up with our tour carriage!

The original Psycho house. It doesn't look half as scary during the day, in colour... but look at that window closely! Is that a woman's shadow I can see?

This is one of the biggest sets at Universal - the War of the World's plane crash set. Steven Spielberg wanted a realistic set, and this is what he got! Because it was dressed for the Halloween evening however, zombies (and parts of zombies!) are scattered throughout this set. Can you see them? It's like playing a Where's Wally, but with the undead!

Falls Lake - constructed in 1926, and used in many films such as Godzilla, Jaws:The Revenge, National Treasure: Book of Secrets, and Evan Almighty.

Sometimes, life is just surreal. We round a corner, and the Mystery Machine (from Scooby Doo) just happens to be parked by a film set. A runner probably got it for giving a director a cup of really good coffee at the right moment... bah, Hollywood!

We rounded a curve, and BAM! evidence that King Kong was in the house. Is it me, or do these passengers actually look worried? This ride/show was amazing - 360, 3-D, jets of water and air, and the entire tram was shaking! We liked it so much (and Jaws wasn't working) that we did the entire studio tour again later that day (both times, skipping the lines! woo-hoo!).

In front of Falls Lake is the Log Cabin house from The Great Outdoors. Also the house in Shooter. Also the house in... well, you get the idea.

After the studio tour, we were off to get to the first show of the day - Waterworld. We had read the tips (good research the night before) and sat in some great seats (just lucky). It was a great set, and the smell of gasoline and chlorine just added to the atmosphere!

The star of the show comes in to save the day - a Kevin Costner double. I'm sure he had a name (all of the cast worked on big TV shows and films), but stunt people don't usually get on the cover of US weekly...

The end of the show - much gunfire, explosions, and a giant plane coming over the wall towards the audience!

Just another day at the office. I even look bored! (the look I was going for was cool badass)

At the SFX show, we got to see lots of Special Effects (and some Visual Effects) live on-stage. This is chromakey in action - the volunteers were asked to watch the stickball, which was replaced with a CGI dinosaur on the big screen. Lots of waiters in the audience, and one of the volunteers acted up a hammy storm, providing even more fun!

The SFX show also had some motion capture - difficult to pull off live, but it looked seamless to me. Using the classic ping-pong balls and spandex, the host took us very quickly from skeleton man to fully-animated (okay, he was dancing - or at least, butt-wiggling in time to the music) troll in just a few short seconds.

After a 10-second wait (woo-hoo! we should have bought a lottery ticket today), Morag was excited as we headed for the Shrek 4D ride/show. It had a few animatronics, some outstanding 3-D, hairy spiders running by our feet (really!) and some well-written jokes (try saying "am I giving you the heebie-jeebies?" in a thick Scottish accent - we did, more than a few times). Outside, Donkey was in his waffle van, interacting with the live audience.

Krustyland - this was easily the best ride in the park (much better than the one-shot-drop 'Jurassic Park' and 5 second 'The Mummy' rollercoasters, which for various reasons I didn't have to queue for either one - woo-hoo!). We rode it right at the end of the day, so only waited about 5 mins - woo-hoo! You ride in one of a set of 8 motion-controlled rollercoaster cars (I peeked around), with an IMAX screen in front (but you wouldn't know it, the peripheral immersion is so persuasive). A number of times the animation and tilted cart absolutely convinced me I was about to land - hard - and then we didn't. The lead-up was great showmanship also, with short video segments and a fictitious Krustyland map - we thought it must be another theme park the size of Universal Studios!

Morag and Ian take two different viewpoints of the same photographic opportunity. What does this say about our inner psychological profiles?

This is the incredibly scary House of Horrors. When we asked an outgoing tourist if it was good, they answered very shakily "yes..." - what a great recommendation! When we went in, there were screams from start to finish - I was freaked out more than once. The group in front of us even asked us to go in first! A combination of real actors, dark cobwebs and creaks gave both of us the willies. And the heebie-jeebies.

The long walk back to the carpark, along the 'buy me now, I want this' boardwalk. Weirdly, more people were arriving (for the Halloween Horror Night) than leaving.