On Day 2 we headed back to Sentosa to celebrate my mom and my aunt's birthday at Universal Studios Singapore. The truth is I would like to spend my birthday in Tokyo Disney Sea, but I am in no position to make that happen and will never be, so the closest thing I could get is spending someone else's birthday here.

My mom thought going somewhere different for her birthday this year would be nice. That was perfect for me, of course, but I also decided this was a good opportunity to get her to go on rides she has always avoided or didn't get to ride before because she had to look after our stuff. This time I was determined to get the most out of these expensive tickets!

I read somewhere that you can redeem a small gift at the Guest Services Lobby if it's your birthday. I didn't expect a lot from this. I thought they'd just give you a badge or something, which they did, along with some coupons for discounts and popcorn! The pins have really strong magnets and are kinda kiddie, but I'm assuming this is because they don't really think of Actual Adults celebrating their birthdays here. Even if it's not much, little things like this are still pretty cool to me.

By the way, the birthday girls were also wearing a shirt I designed that says, "It's my birthday!"

My plan of attack was getting to USS as early as possible to avoid the crowd taking photos at the entrance, and heading straight to the Transformers ride as soon as we were let in. Rushing to the ride turned out to be unnecessary that day--it was a Monday on a week after school holidays in Singapore and before the Holy Week in the Philippines--so there were very few people in the park. The longest waiting time we had was probably about ten to fifteen minutes at Jurassic Park Rapids Adventure and we got to ride Transformers twice with no wait time at all the second time. We could've gone back for more if we wanted.

The Jurassic Park area didn't open until around 10AM so we were able to walk all the way around the park back to the Guest Services Lobby to claim their birthday gifts and still have time to take pictures at the castle in Far Far Away. A lot of people were already waiting by the entrance as 10AM neared. As soon as it opened, almost everyone rushed to line up at Rapids.

Universal Studios Singapore hasn't changed a whole lot since I last visited around four years ago. The biggest change is probably the Trolls thing which I didn't take a single picture of because I don't like them. There's also a Hello Kitty shop that I don't recall being there before. I don't remember if there was already a Minion Mart back then because we didn't really get to explore the place as much as we were able to this time, but I do remember there were already Minions merchandise and those costumed people you can take photos with.

We rode the Puss in Boots ride that I definitely don't remember being there last time. I think it was fun, if a bit short! It's probably based on a movie I never saw and do not have any interest in ever seeing. I do like the aesthetic of the whole ride, though.

This visit by far is the best one. I suppose my only regret is that I didn't go on the Mummy ride just because it was a rollercoaster. I had a suspicion that it's similar to Disneyland's Space Mountain, which I enjoyed, but the idea of having mummies jump out at you in the dark scared me off of trying it (I don't know if this would happen at all but why would it be a mummy themed ride if there aren't any mummies?!). Also, since I don't wear contacts and I have really bad eyesight, getting on this ride would mean having to leave my glasses with someone who isn't riding and have a companion guide me through the line. I missed my chance to ride it with someone! I probably could have gotten my cousin to ride it with me... Do you think I can do it alone? Is there a way I can secure my glasses in a pocket or something so I can see on the way in and out without having to worry about it falling off the ride?



It started raining a little before closing time, which was 7PM that day. (Always check the park's schedule when planning your trip!) We had to wait a while for it to stop before leaving and then we waited another hour for the Crane Dance. There were seats downstairs by the entrance of the casino, but they were really weird benches that are definitely not for people with no butt like me.

I took a lot of pictures of the Crane Dance, but all of them came out bad. How do you night photography, yahoo answers please tell me.

We were treated to dinner at Din Tai Fung where all my xiaolongbao dreams came true. Eating xiaolongbao is probably what I was looking forward to the most in this trip, so I'm very thankful. There's no decent xiaolongbao where I live, so please don't judge me.






The next day's schedule is Gardens by the Bay and ArtScience Museum. It turns out I took a lot more pictures there so I'll be splitting the day in two posts. That works on my favour because with those, there'd be two more blog entries this year than last year! It also ensures that there will be entries for April. Hooray for surpassing 2017!

Little goals are also goals. I'm thinking it's fine to be happy about reaching them sometimes.