Despite being the smallest Universal Studios in the world, the attraction at Resorts World Sentosa still makes for an enjoyable vacation-like escape for kids and adults.
UPDATED: 12 November 2024
(Added latest info, deleted outdated info)
The last time we visited Universal Studios Singapore (USS) was about two years ago near the end of the pandemic and during the Christmas period. Operating hours, rides and shows at USS have now returned to the pre-pandemic levels. So here's the latest update if you're planning to visit USS!
UPDATED: 8 Dec 2022
We visited Universal Studios Singapore recently and right now its theme is "A Universal Christmas", happening till 2 Jan 2023! So Christmas-y vibes are all round at the theme park with festive decorations at its main streets and meet-and-greet characters dressed to theme.
Personally, I wouldn't visit USS just for a certain theme it's having like Halloween or Christmas because the draw of the theme park for me is still the rides. But that said, the Christmas theme does invoke a holiday mood!
Original post: 10 Sep 2021
We've been thinking of taking our kids to Universal Studios Singapore at Resorts World Sentosa for the longest time. Now at 9 and 11 years old (Update: They are 12 and 14 years old!), I feel they are at the age when they would really be able to appreciate the rides there.
If you're wondering about the pics with masks, they were taken when we were visiting during the pandemic. Much of the place and rides hadn't changed much, so I haven't updated some of the pics or vids. Anyway, if you're taking your kids to USS, here are 10 things you need to know!
1) What are the opening hours?
At the time of writing, USS is open daily at 10am-7pm and till 8pm on Friday nights. Do check the operating hours at the Resorts World Sentosa website before going as during late December 2024, it's open till 9pm.
Do download the USS app which will tell you the operating hours of various rides, queue time for each ride and timings of meet-and-greets and shows, so you can plan your time around the park.
The Madagascar zone has closed, and Minion Land is under construction but slated to open in 2025. You can sneak a peek of the new land near the Ancient Egypt zone.
Some rides may be closed for maintenance, like the Mummy ride which was closed when we visited recently. If there are certain rides that you must go for, do check RWS' website. before heading down. They don't have a page that announces these ride closures. You'll need to click on the page with the rides, then click on the ride itself to see if there is a closure advisory on it.
2) How much are the tickets?
Standard tickets sold on the RWS website are currently S$83 for adults and $62 for children 4-12 years old. For Singapore residents, they are at $59 for children age 4-12 years old, and $74 for adults. Do look out for packages and promos on its website, every now and then where there are promos with certain credit cards and packages which include meal vouchers. There are also usually packages during special occasions like during their "A Universal Christmas" event during year end. Do note that certain tickets/packages may require you to purchase the ticket at least a day in advance. So if you're going on 1 December, you'll need to buy the ticket on 30 November.
Tickets purchased from USS' websites allows you direct entry into the theme park, meaning you don't have to queue at the USS ticketing counter to exchange them for tickets. Try not to buy the tickets at the door as the queue at the ticketing counter can be long (we queued for at least half hour previously) because tourists tend to go to the park to purchase tickets. So that means wasting time to queue at the ticketing counter and then again to enter the park.
Note that these tickets are fixed-date tickets, meaning you have to choose the dates you are visiting when you book them. As many of the rides are outdoor and much of USS is not sheltered, you might want to check the weather forecast in the morning before purchasing tickets. But that said, we didn't have much of choice though it was forecasted to rain in the afternoon the day we were there and typically Singapore is rainy at the end of the year. Some of the outdoor rides were suspended from late afternoon which did dampen the fun a little. Most people just made a beeline for the indoor rides when that happened.
3) Are there other places we can buy tickets other than from USS' website?
Klook sells USS tickets too but they were slightly more expensive than those sold on the USS website when we last checked. But sometimes Klook has vouchers and promos which can give you discounts at your cart, so do a comparison before booking.
4) Are the rides suitable for young children?
We had been there when our girls were between 3-14 years old and I really think they can enjoy most of the rides now at 9-14 years old. When they were 3-7 years old, we took most of the kiddy rides like Sesame Street Spaghetti Chase, Magic Potion Spin, Accelerator and Dino Soarin. The height requirements for the rides aside (the height requirements vary for the rides, so do check before you take the little ones there!), they were also not game enough for the more thrilling rides at those age.
At 9 and 11 years old, my girls were a lot more gung ho, and we were able to try out the more thrilling rides like Transformers, Jurassic Park Rapids Adventure, Canopy Flyer, Enchanted Airways, and Puss in Boots' Giant Journey. In fact they weren't even keen on the less thrilling rides like Spaghetti Chase and Accelerator!
I think every kid has their own fear threshold when it comes to thrill rides and I'm not one for forcing our kids to try them till they are ready. By 12 year old, my younger one was ready for Battlestar Galatica, but not my 14 year old.
That said, I think there is still some variety of rides for the younger ones (though not as many as compared to those for the older kids) like those I had mentioned above. The little ones would also still be able to enjoy the atmosphere and grandeur of the attraction which feels very magical even for adults.
There are also lots of character photo opportunities - we saw Po and Tigeress from Kungfu Panda, and the minions from Despicable Me.
Check your USS app for the timings of these meet-and-greets. The queues to take pictures with the characters at the meet-and-greets are quite long but they move very fast!
There are also a number of shows that are pretty entertaining like Waterworld.
We also caught a Puss in Boots dancing.
Show timings would all be in the USS apps too.
5) How crowded is it?
We were there recently on a weekday during a school-designated holiday, so it wasn't crowded at all, and most there look to be tourists.
We didn't want to wait for rides that had long queues, so the app was helpful in letting us know how long the queue is for each ride and you can go for the rides with the shorter queues. Our waiting time for the rides during our visit ranged from 5-25 minutes. In the afternoon some queue rides could be as long as 40-50 mins. Compared to pre-pandemic days when some queues could take up to 60-90 minutes, I guess the current weekday queues are still considered reasonable and very reasonable when compared to the more popular Universal Studios like Universal Studios Japan where queues can be a few hours long.
I can't say how much more crowded it is on weekends as we deliberately avoid weekends whenever we visited as they are likely to be more crowded compared to a weekday.
6) Do you need an express pass?
If you're going on a weekday, I don't think you need an express pass as you can see from above, the queue rides are not long. If the queue ride happens to be long, you can also opt to go for single rider queue if your group is okay with it.
Riders in the single rider queue are slotted into empty seats in rides. E.g. If a ride has four seats, a group of three gets on those seats, staff will slot a single ride into the empty seat. Do note that single rider queues are NOT available for ALL rides.
Single ride queues are generally shorter than the normal queues but there also had been times where I waited for quite a while at the single rider queue because a number of people also happened to have the same idea.
But note that if you queue the single rider queue as a group, your group will likely be seated separately. When we were in Universal Studios Japan, My girls were initially a bit concerned about sitting the ride alone (we went for the single rider queue at the Spiderman ride as it was about half the queueing time of the normal queue), so what we did was we let hubs go first, followed by my two girls, and then myself. This is so that Hubs will be waiting at the exit of the ride for the next girl and I would still be in the queue with the other girl.
So, after going once for the single rider queues, my girls realise it was no big deal even if we couldn't sit together cause we really cut short a lot of the queueing times. That said, it's also because my girls are older at 10 and 12 years old. The youngers ones might still need to have a parent with them. So if you have older kids, this is one strategy you can employ if you don't have an express pass.
7) Is dining available?
There are quite a number of dining options at USS. The food there is generally nothing to shout about and are easily close to $20 per person. USS no longer allows for re-entry, so you won't be able to exit the theme park to dine outside but it's probably more convenient to dine in the park as dining outside means walking all the way out.
Personally I feel the food at Star Bots Cafe in the sci-fi zone is the best in the park, and while Mel's Drive In is pretty and iconic, I find their food rather ho-hum.
8) What to bring?
Do bring raincoats and umbrellas as much of the attraction is not sheltered. Brollies and caps will also be handy when it gets really hot. The raincoats will also be useful on the Jurassic Park Rapids Adventure if you don't want to get wet during the ride!
9) How much time to budget?
We had arrived around 10am and we had taken most of the rides by 2pm, so we just re-took some of the rides we enjoyed. By 630pm the kids were already pretty beat. I've heard kids who could go on till 10pm during the late night events at USS in the past, but doubt we would have the energy to hang out till that late!
10) Can you bring food and beverages in?
You're not allowed to bring food and beverages in. I'm not sure how strict USS is on water bottles but of the many times we've been, they've either not checked our bags or prevented us from bringing the water bottles in our bags in. There are also water coolers in the theme park which you can refill your bottles with.
That said, I noticed some people have very bad hygiene practices when using water coolers. When we fill our bottles we usually leave a gap between the tip of the dispenser and the mouth of the bottle, but during our latest visit I saw some people filling their bottles with a large part of the dispenser of the water cooler INSIDE their bottles. That totally put me off using water coolers with long dispensers. If you're as put off as me, you can just purchase bottled water at the park.
We're looking forward to returning to USS when Minion Land is open!
What other attractions have you visited this school holiday? Do comment below!
Disclaimer: We paid for our tickets, and my opinions and reviews here are strictly my and my family’s own.
©Vivian Teo. All content and photos are copyrighted to Vivian Teo unless otherwise specified.
Comments