USS Park Update: It’s Showtime! Premium Experience, Trick or Thrills event additions, Battlestar Galactica returns

Halloween might be over, but spooky fun hasn’t ended at Universal Studios Singapore. Check out what you may have missed at this year’s Trick or Thrills event, and get the details on the latest It’s Showtime! Premium Experience!

It’s Showtime! Premium Experience (Halloween Edition) Information

Photo: Resorts World Sentosa

A new separately-ticketed event, It’s Showtime! Premium Experience (Halloween Edition), will take place on 7 November 2021 from 4:30PM to 9PM.

Essentially this up-charge event will have the park open exclusively for Premium Experience guests, with regular park attractions and Meet & Greet available from 4:30PM to 7PM. Thereafter, the Gruesome Grub Crawl kicks off, bringing guests through “exclusive food experiences” at three restaurants, with some themed entertainment happening along the way. Guests can also enjoy free-flow alcohol from the bar cart and receive a gift to commemorate their ‘premium experience’.

The park’s RIP Experience guides and themed hosts will be part of this experience, along with a cast of new characters for the various shows littered throughout. The experience ends off with the ‘Monster Mash Bash’ finale at New York Library with characters from Sesame Street, Minion Monsters and Universal Monsters. See more photos at the Klook link above. According to my research on two booking websites, here are the operating venues:

It’s Showtime Premium Experience (Halloween Edition)
Attractions available until 7PM: Transformers: The Ride, Revenge of the Mummy, Jurassic Park Rapids Adventure, Canopy Flyer, Puss in Boots’ Giant Journey, Enchanted Airways
Gruesome Grub Crawl restaurants: Mel’s Drive-In, KT’s Grill, Loui’s NY Pizza Parlor

Commentary
With the park’s expansion plans on hold and government restrictions preventing big events like Halloween Horror Nights from being held, creating somewhat-new seasonal experiences with existing infrastructure is perhaps another way forward for the park. Size down and keep it exclusive. The price and free-flow alcohol drinks service also mean it caters to different target audience from the typical theme park crowd.

I don’t know what is the capacity limit for this event, but making a few assumptions based on the prevailing rules and the three restaurants’ already reduced capacities (I’m guessing about 15 to 20 tables, so 30 to 40 guests), rotating across the “grub crawl” – I roughly think attendance could run between 90 to 120 guests. That seems exclusive enough.

The price tag ($248) upsizes each Premium Experience guest revenue by about 5 times that of an ‘After Dark’ guest ($49 before discounts), but with the added benefit of guaranteed guest spend on dining, as it is already included in the ticket. Now imagine if the park could scale up to run more sessions per night. Thank you for attending my mini Ted Talk.

Trick or Thrills Halloween event – new additions and changes

This year’s Halloween event had some adjustments after it opened in early September 2021. You may have missed some of these upgrades:

At the entrance of Universal Monsters Scream Alley, the lighting has improved with the use of a white light for Dracula’s hot set.

Inside the Scream Alley itself, there are two new “sets”.

One for this villager chap, just across from the “Frankenstein’s Lab” scene.

Just before the Wolfman’s set, the unaware will encounter the Gravedigger.

Unlike the rest of the characters, he has much more “space” to work with. With him and the occasional thick fog around, Scream Alley does feel like a scare zone…

BONUS: SCREAM ALLEY Walkthrough Video

Step inside Scream Alley in this walkthrough experience, now available on my YouTube channel!

Over at the Streets of New York and the iconic New York Library facade, the Zany Zombies sometimes roam about.

This very short physical comedy/ stunt show revolves around a supervisor zombie (in green vest) getting the rest of the zombies in check.

This weekend will be your last chance to check out the Trick or Thrills event, including the Halloween Horror Nights Exhibition (but now extended till 14 November!) The DIE-ning with The Dead experience was completely sold out sometime from mid October, but you can still see photos of this haunted restaurant and its devilicious food in this other article.

BONUS: Full Walkthrough Video of the Halloween Horror Nights Exhibition

A complete walking tour experience is now available on my YouTube channel!

In the HHN Exhibition, the circular Hall of Icons now sport a new sign – Icons of Horror. In case you never knew.

Also a surprising “addition” to the park, and a good sign: The crowds have returned, and an incredible number of park guests are in costume!

I’ve not seen the park this crowded since 2019. Feels like Horror Nights.

Trick or Thrills’ After Dark tickets seem to be a very popular choice, with an extremely long line and wait time just to get in, due to the process of verifying vaccination status.

Battlestar Galactica: HUMAN vs CYLON returns

After suddenly closing in May 2021, the park’s iconic dueling rollercoasters have returned in October 2021 – intermittently.

On 21 October, the CYLON side resumed operations, with the HUMAN side returning on 28 October. However, just a day later, CYLON went down again. Only BSG: HUMAN is operating as of 29 October onwards.

Both rollercoasters were closed for nearly 4-5 months of maintenance. I went on the Battlestar Galactica: HUMAN rollercoaster and saw that many parts of the train looked rather grimy, the tracks have faded into this dusty maroon tone at several sections. The ride experience never felt smooth even when the park was young, but it felt like the ride could do with a bit more work. When the time is right, perhaps.

Next Park Event: Universal Christmas 2021

RWS has announced that Universal Christmas event will start from 25 November 2021. There are no further details available but I found out that the park hours will be 12PM to 9PM during this season.

Photos from around the park

The Universal Globe has been boarded up since early September for refurbishments. I wonder if they will update the globe with a new appearance, as seen at Universal Studios Beijing.

I’m sure some of you may wonder if the Halloween Horror Nights exhibition feature these containment cases for the icons, as seen in the posters. Unfortunately no, but at this photo spot you can pose with the Paper Effigy (HELL House, 2015) Serpentine Spirit (Curse of the Naga, 2019).

Parts of the canopy at the entrance of Jurassic Park were repainted with a darker, copper colour. Not sure if this is just a base coat or the canopy is losing its classic “orange faux-wood” look.

Here’s a photo of the Sesame Street Goes Bollywood stage. Unfortunately the show was not available during my visit. This is the only official “show” available at the park. The floor markings in the viewing area suggests that this show has a capacity of about 20 guests.

Megatron (now also a Tiktok Celebrity for his roasts) Meet & Greet experience is almost like a show, but yet the crowd control here isn’t that structured.

For the corn dog fans: The Frozen Fuel F&B cart now sells myriad corn dogs at $6 each.

There’s also this Halloween corn dog going for $7 each.

Merchandise update

The Universal Studios Store‘s big display window is still in Tropical Thrills mode! I guess we’ll see an update for Christmas.

Without a real Halloween Horror Nights event, the “seasonal merchandise” display for Halloween looks more like a counter brought to you by Spirit Halloween.

The main store area is still highlighting Minions, with the Minions Zodiac collection back on the racks.

Speaking of Minions, there are some new additions (by new I mean new on this website) including this Kung Fu collection, and a range of smaller items from Takara Tomy.

Takara Tomy Minions merch: giving a hint of Universal Studios Japan.

Trick or Thrills at Universal Studios Singapore – ticketing options

The Halloween Horror Nights Exhibition, Universal Monsters Scream Alley and other outdoor park Meet and Greet experiences are available to all park guests during the Trick or Thrills event.

As an advanced booking is required for admission to the HHN Exhibition, please make your booking at the RWS Reservations website using your park ticket ID.

Buy USS Tickets with SingapoRediscover vouchers

Klook is offering Halloween Tickets and Packages for Trick or Thrills at Universal Studios Singapore. The listed products are all SRV Eligible, which means you can use SingapoRediscover vouchers for your purchase.

All packages include admission to the Halloween Horror Nights Exhibition (advanced booking required). Universal Monsters Scream Alley is only available on Fridays and Saturdays.

Note: Halloween Packages available while stocks last. Entitlements and pricing subject to change. Please click the links for latest rates.

Klook is one of the authorised booking partners of the voucher programme, and you can easily use the website or App to redeem your voucher for attractions. Just make sure the ticket you are booking is marked [SRV Eligible].
(Purchases made via Klook links will help support Dejiki.com at no extra cost to you)

NOTE: Reservations Required for Tickets purchased from Official Partners

For all tickets purchased from official ticketing partners, making a reservation prior to visiting the park is required. Please go to the RWS Attractions Reservations website to do so.