The Studio Tour
The heart of the park is still the tram: a guided roll through a genuine working backlot, past the Psycho house, Jaws' dock, whole city streets you've seen a hundred times, and the wrecked set pieces of War of the Worlds. King Kong 360 wraps the tram in a 3D brawl, and a Fast & Furious finale sends it home sideways.
No other park on Earth has this — when a production is filming, the tour reroutes around actual working sets. It's the rare theme-park attraction that's also, quietly, a documentary.
Take the first tram of the morning — shortest waits, best light on the backlot, and the whole upper lot is still quiet when you step off.
The Upper & Lower Lots
The park stacks onto a hillside in two lots joined by the famous escalator canyon. Up top: Super Nintendo World's Mario Kart, Hogsmeade with Forbidden Journey, the Secret Life of Pets dark ride, and WaterWorld — the stunt show that has somehow never missed. Down below: Jurassic World's splashdown, Transformers, and the Mummy's launch in the dark.
New for 2026, Fast & Furious: Hollywood Drift gives the park its first true headliner coaster — cars that rotate as they race. It's the biggest ride addition here in a generation, and it's exactly why this stopped being a “half-day park” conversation.
Buy Universal Express here without agonizing — it's a one-day park, and the single-day time savings is the difference between doing everything and choosing.
One perfect day
Hollywood is genuinely doable in one well-planned day — tram first, Nintendo next, shows in the afternoon heat — which makes it the perfect anchor for a bigger Southern California itinerary: Disneyland is 35 miles down the freeway, the beaches are an hour west, and CityWalk Hollywood handles dinner.
We fold it into SoCal trips constantly: two or three Disneyland days, one Universal day, one beach or studio-city day. One rental car, one hotel base, five days of very different magic.
Pair it with Disneyland and stay put in one hotel — we'll route the days so the freeway works for you, not against you.
What we handle for you
- The one-day touring order that fits the tram, Nintendo, and the shows
- Express-Pass advice for the single day it actually matters most
- The full SoCal itinerary — Disneyland, Universal, beaches — booked as one trip