The park entrance is located near a shopping/dining complex. There is the obligatory Universal spinning globe out front of course. The cleanliness of the park is the first thing that struck me about USS. (Of course it is relatively brand new, and Singapore is renowned for keeping it's city squeaky clean, so no real surprise there.) Po from Kung Fu Panda was out front of the entrance gates for the pre opening meet and greet and got the crowd stirred up. This was a non-holiday Friday so I was not expecting big crowds. This turned out to be the case as we never had to wait more than 10 minutes for a ride. I did purchase Express Pass tickets as I wanted to make sure I got on all the rides, but they were not really necessary on this day. (Note- Express Passes at USS do not come with a stay at the Hard Rock or any other Sentosa hotel. They can only be used once per ride as well, so some research on possible crowd sizes for your planned park dates may be needed before purchasing. The price for the Express Passes was approximately $45 USD. Park tickets as well as Express Pass tickets are valid only for a specific date, so plan well.)
In the New York section of the park is Sesame Street Spaghetti Space Chase. The official description from the USS website says "Go on a space mission with Elmo and Super Grover 2.0 to stop Macaroni the Merciless in his plot to steal all the spaghetti from Earth in the world's first Sesame Street Spaghetti Space Chase." The outside theming of the ride is excellent. I found myself taking several pictures of the ride sign as it so colourful and well done. This is a dark/kiddie ride of course and I was not expecting to be wowed much. The ride vehicles are 4 seat rocket ships that are suspended from a large beam and glide smoothly through the scenes as in Peter Pan's Flight. (This raised my expectations a bit as I think the ride mechanism in PPF is used very well to simulate flight.) You are tasked to help Elmo and Super Graver 2.0 to defeat Macaroni and save the spaghetti. Along the way you get to see all the Sesame Street favorites, including Big Bird, Oscar the Grouch, and the Cookie Monster. The ride is very colorful and well done and I found myself enjoying it more than I thought I would. (Later in the day I would ride it again as it was so enjoyable.) At one point you are launched into space and the surrounding star field is quite an impressive sight. I think they could have done a bit more to make you feel as if you were 'flying' along in the rocket ship as in the over London scene in PPF, but overall I really enjoyed the ride. I think it will be a favorite among kids and adults for years.
More soon...
