Universal Studios - Studio Tour

We had 2 days to spend in LA. We started day 1 by having a nice breakfast with the family. Evan considers it as the most important meal of the day so he made oatmeal for everyone. I have to confess it's been a while since I had some oatmeal, and I wonder why. Maybe I'm just too lazy to prepare it (or maybe it tastes better when my mum prepares it ;) ).
Evan kindly provided us with a list of things to do in LA. According to him LA is a great place to live (especially in the Pasadena area) but does not have much to offer when it comes to visit it as a tourist.
Still we browsed through the list and decided to go to the Universal Studios, conveniently located 20min from my cousin's place.
Universal Studios are a theme park built around the real Universal Studios where many movies and series are shot.
Entrance ticket and parking are pretty expensive (like in Disneyland) so it's better be worth it. Once again, who knows whether I would have the chance to come back to LA one day...
We started by the absolutely unavoidable picture in front of the Universal Studios globe (you must have seen this one before).

Once we entered the park and found a map, we took a quick look at the duration of the queues for all the attractions. When we saw only 20min for the Studio tour, a must seen, we quickly walked to it, especially based on the description:
"Go behind-the-scenes on the legendary Studio Tour to explore where Hollywood movies are made. Experience the largest movie set street expansion in Hollywood history built with creative consultation from Steven Spielberg himself. Be immersed in the full backlot experience from the comfort of our new trams with built-in state-of-the-art HD monitors"
These are the trams they are talking about:

And the line was 40min and not 20 like announced. I guess there was an update on the board right after we passed it.
Here we go, in our tram, ready to go behind the scene.
This tour left me with mixed feelings. Reason is that you do not see much of what's behind the scene. Movies are shot in huge warehouse and that's basically all you can see. Except every now and then a glimpse inside when the door is open. Realistically I was not expecting George Clooney to be there and give me the tour, but a bit more than warehouses would have been nice.

You do get a chance to see the fake streets or building that have been and are used in many movies, customized whether the street is in New York, Paris or London.

Not to mention the Far West streets for Western movies or the traditional Latin America village (apparently used in the latest Indiana Jones).

Enough buildings, we've also seen some cars, some more famous than others.

The Studio Tour also offers some attraction (where something is actually happening). The latest one is King-Kong 360 3D, the world largest 3D experience. The tram goes through a tunnel made out of screens. Equipped with your 3D glasses it feels like you are in the jungle with the dinosaurs. Add a bit of shaking and water spray and you can feel King-Kong jumping on the tram.
Fast and the Furious attraction reveals to you how they created one of the scene:

Another attraction reveals how they create rain (just like in the shower) or a wave of water in the street of a village:

And a few more things:
- Wisteria lane (yep, the one from Desperate Housewives)

- the wreckage used in War of the Worlds (impressive)

- the most famous haunted house (not so scary in daylight)