Transportation
· 60 min
· Express
An hour-long tram tour across a genuinely working film backlot, and the only attraction of its kind anywhere in the world.
The Studio Tour is what Universal Studios Hollywood is. It started in 1964 as a way of selling tickets to a working film studio, the theme park grew up around it, and it remains the one thing here that no other park on earth can copy. The route runs off the visitor side of the property and out onto the actual backlot — the standing exterior sets that productions still shoot on, with crew trucks and equipment carts parked where they happened to be that morning.
Tips for The World-Famous Studio Tour
- Ride in the first hour or the last two. The tour queue builds steadily from mid-morning, and unlike the show buildings, a posted 60-minute wait here genuinely means an hour before you board.
- Sit on the left-hand side of the tram. It gets the better view of Courthouse Square, the street sets and the Psycho house.
- Do not save this for the end of the day. It is a full hour of park time and people routinely run out of daylight and skip the single best thing here.
- Ask the guide a question when the tram stops. The good ones know the lot cold and will tell you what is shooting that week, which is not in any script.
- If you have a child who hates dark tunnels and loud noises, sit them on the aisle and warn them before the subway sequence and King Kong. Neither can be skipped once the tram is moving.
Full guide to The World-Famous Studio Tour →
Film
· 4 min
A Peter Jackson-directed 3D tunnel sequence built into the Studio Tour, and the loudest four minutes in the park.
King Kong 360 3-D opened in 2010 on the site of the old King Kong Encounter, which burned down in the 2008 backlot fire. It is not a separate attraction — you cannot queue for it, and there is no way to ride it without riding the Studio Tour. The tram drives into a purpose-built tunnel, the doors close, and you are inside a Peter Jackson-directed sequence projected onto enormous curved screens on both sides at once.
Tips for King Kong 360 3-D
- There is no separate queue and no way to skip it. If a child in your group cannot handle it, the decision is whether to ride the Studio Tour at all, not whether to ride this.
- Warn a nervous child at the start of the tour, not thirty seconds before. The tunnel arrives quickly and the guide's warning is brief.
- The middle rows of the tram get the least distorted 3D. The very front and the very back sit off the projection's sweet spot.
- If you get motion sick from 3D screens, close your eyes and look down. Four minutes passes quickly and the rest of the tour is gentle.
Full guide to King Kong 360 3-D →
Earthquake: The Big One
Any height
Show
· 2 min
The Studio Tour's subway earthquake set piece, running since 1989 and still one of the best practical effects in the business.
Earthquake: The Big One has been on the Studio Tour since 1989, built around the 1974 disaster film. The tram pulls into a full-scale San Francisco BART station set and stops. What happens next is entirely practical — no screens, no projection, just hydraulics, water, fire and a great deal of steel.
Tips for Earthquake: The Big One
- This is the segment to point out to anyone interested in how effects actually work. Everything you see is mechanical and it resets in under two minutes.
- Expect a small amount of water. Nobody gets soaked, but the front rows can catch spray from the flooding effect.
- Warn nervous children before the tram enters the station. The set looks entirely ordinary right up until it does not.
- Watch the ceiling rather than the platform. The tanker truck sequence is the best-engineered moment and most people are looking the wrong way when it starts.
Fast & Furious – Supercharged
Any height
Film
· 5 min
The Studio Tour's closing set piece: a projected 200 mph chase along both walls of a tunnel, added in 2015.
Fast & Furious – Supercharged was added to the Studio Tour in 2015 as its finale, in a purpose-built tunnel near the end of the route. Cast members from the films appear on screens, a chase breaks out, and the tram is nominally caught in the middle of it.
Tips for Fast & Furious – Supercharged
- This is the tour's finale, so if you are watching the clock you are nearly back at the platform when it starts.
- The projection reads best from the middle cars of the tram. Front and back sit off the sweet spot and the perspective skews.
- If 3D and wraparound projection make you queasy, this is the second of two such segments on the tour. Look down rather than at the walls.
- It is considerably less frightening than King Kong earlier on the same route, so a child who coped with that will cope with this.
Simulator
· 5 min
· Express
A cartoon motion simulator where you are turned into a Minion, with a dance party at the exit that children rate higher than the ride.
Despicable Me Minion Mayhem opened at Universal Studios Hollywood in 2014, in the building that previously held Terminator 2: 3-D. The premise is a training program in Gru's laboratory that turns the audience into Minions, which is a sensible piece of design — it gives a screen simulator a reason to throw you around.
Tips for Despicable Me Minion Mayhem
- Ask for stationary seating if anyone is unsure about the motion. It is available on request, it does not carry the 40-inch minimum, and the film is identical.
- This is one of the roughest motion bases in the park. Do not ride it back to back with The Simpsons Ride unless you have tested both before.
- The queue is part of the attraction. Gru's laboratory has more detail than anything else in this half of the park, so do not rush through it on a short wait.
- The dance party at the exit is not optional in practical terms if you have a preschooler with you. Plan an extra fifteen minutes.
- Rider switch is available, so one adult can wait with a child under 40 inches and ride afterward without queuing twice.
Full guide to Despicable Me Minion Mayhem →
Super Silly Fun Land
Any height
Play area
A carnival-styled water play area next to Minion Mayhem, with a small spinner attached, and the best thing here for under-fives.
Super Silly Fun Land sits alongside Despicable Me Minion Mayhem and is styled as the seaside carnival from the first film. The main draw is a wet play area — jets, buckets, sprayers and slides that fire on a cycle — plus a small spinning ride, the Silly Swirly, that lifts and circles on an arm.
Tips for Super Silly Fun Land
- Bring a change of clothes and a small towel if you intend to use the water area. It soaks children thoroughly and there is nowhere convenient to dry off.
- This is the single best use of an hour at this park if you have a child under 40 inches, and it costs nothing. Take turns riding the things they cannot.
- Do it in the middle of the afternoon when the heat makes it useful, not in the morning when everyone is still dry and the queues elsewhere are short.
- The Silly Swirly has its own posted height minimum at the ride entrance. Read the sign before you join the queue rather than after.
Dark ride
· 4 min
· Express
A trackless dark ride full of practical animatronics, air conditioned, gentle, and consistently the most underrated attraction at this park.
The Secret Life of Pets: Off the Leash opened in 2021 and is the only attraction built at Universal Studios Hollywood in recent memory that is not built around a screen. It is a trackless dark ride through a stylized New York apartment building and the streets around it, populated with a very large number of animated figures.
Tips for The Secret Life of Pets: Off the Leash
- Ride this in the middle of the afternoon. It is air conditioned start to finish, the wait is usually short, and it is the best available break from the heat that is not a theater.
- It is the most family-friendly real ride in the park at 34 inches, which is well below the 40-inch wall that closes off most of Universal Studios Hollywood.
- Look up rather than ahead. The scenes are built at puppy eye level and most of the jokes are placed above the vehicle.
- Do not skip this because the film does not interest you. The ride is better than the intellectual property and the animatronic work is the best in the park.
Full guide to The Secret Life of Pets: Off the Leash →
Film
· 15 min
· Express
A high-capacity theater on the Upper Lot with in-seat effects, air conditioning, and a show that changes with the season.
The DreamWorks Theatre opened in 2018 in the building that held Shrek 4-D for the previous fifteen years. It is a purpose-built effects theater — projection across a wide screen, in-seat motion, wind, water and scent — running a DreamWorks Animation property, most recently a Kung Fu Panda story.
Tips for DreamWorks Theatre
- Use this as your air conditioning strategy. The posted wait is a show time rather than a queue — a 20-minute posting usually means you are seated within 20 minutes, not standing for them.
- Sit toward the back if anyone in your group dislikes water and air effects. The front rows get the most of everything.
- Check what show is running when you arrive. The theater carries seasonal overlays and the programming is not fixed.
- Wheelchair positions do not receive the in-seat motion effects, which some guests specifically prefer. Ask at the door if that suits you better.
Full guide to DreamWorks Theatre →
Show
· 17 min
· Express
A live stunt show based on a 1995 film nobody liked, and one of the best things at any theme park in the United States.
WaterWorld has been running at Universal Studios Hollywood since 1995, which is remarkable given that the film it is based on is chiefly remembered as an expensive failure. The show outlived that reputation entirely. It is a live stunt production in a purpose-built lagoon amphitheater, with performers doing real work: high falls, fire burns, jet ski chases and hand-to-hand fighting, in front of a set that is destroyed and rebuilt daily.
Tips for WaterWorld: A Live Sea War Spectacular
- Sit outside the soak zone unless you want to be genuinely wet. The marked rows get hit repeatedly and deliberately, and there is nowhere to dry off afterward.
- Arrive 15 to 20 minutes before showtime for a good seat, not an hour. Stadium capacity is large and the queue psychology here does not work like a ride queue.
- Sit high and to the center. You get the full width of the set, the best angle on the plane crash, and enough distance from the pyrotechnics for a child who dislikes bangs.
- Do not skip this because it is a stunt show. It is the best live show at any US theme park and it is included in your ticket.
- The climax involves a real fireball with felt heat. Warn anyone sensitive to sudden loud explosions before it starts rather than during.
Full guide to WaterWorld: A Live Sea War Spectacular →
Animal Actors
Any height
Show
· 20 min
· Express
A covered-stadium show of trained dogs, birds and other animals doing film and television work, and a genuinely restful twenty minutes.
Animal Actors is a live show in a covered outdoor stadium on the Upper Lot, built around animals trained for film and television work. Dogs, birds and a rotating cast of others run through routines with their handlers, framed around how animal performances are actually achieved on set.
Tips for Animal Actors
- Use this as a rest stop as much as a show. Covered seating, low volume, no queue, and twenty minutes off your feet.
- Check the times board when you enter the park. This show runs fewer performances than WaterWorld and the last one is often early in the afternoon.
- Sit near the front if you have small children. The animals work close to the first rows and are more likely to come along them.
- Service animals are not permitted here because of the working animals on stage. Plan around that rather than discovering it at the entrance.