USS Park Update: Chinese New Year 2024 event at Universal Studios Singapore, Minion Land progress

Enjoy auspicious moments as you Soar Into Fun at Universal Studios Singapore’s Lunar New Year 2024 event.

Soar Into Fun (Lunar New Year 2024) event

Celebrate Chinese New Year at Universal Studios Singapore’s Soar Into Fun event. Themed around the Year of the Dragon, the park has two new shows, refreshed and returning seasonal Meet and Greet experiences, and an indoor lantern display featuring characters from DreamWorks Animation.

Lunar New Year 2024 at Universal Studios Singapore – Park Hours and Tickets

During the event period, the park will be open daily with the following opening hours:

10AM to 8PM – 27 January to 25 February 2024

For tickets purchased online from RWSentosa website directly, you can enjoy 1-hour early park entry to Universal Studios Singapore, where selected attractions and shops will be open, offering you a head start before the crowds rush in.

With a USS park ticket, guests can enjoy all shows, Meet & Greets featured in this article:

* Redeemable at selected restaurants in the park.
** Redeemable at shops in the park except carnival games, candylicious store, and other exceptions. Stackable up to 4 vouchers per transaction.

Universal Studios Singapore Lunar New Year 2024 event highlights

Po’s Dojo: The Dragon of Dreams

Step inside Po’s Dojo, where Elder Lao Lao warns of potential threats that may disrupt the peace in the Valley of Dreams. He summons the Yang Warriors – the heroes of light – to defend the Valley, and they call upon the legends, Dragon Warrior Po and Master Tigress, into the Dojo for preparations.

You can practice some defensive stances together with the Kung Fu masters, while taking some photos at the Dojo.

Elder Lao Lao senses something amiss and sounds the alarm – which he has been holding on the whole time.

The sinister Yin Warriors sneak into the Dojo. With your new Kung Fu skills and help from the legends, the infiltrators are subdued and shifted into a state of balance – Yin-Yang.

The rest of Hollywood Boulevard is once again Cherry Blossom Street, now with signs calling for a hero.

If you stay in the park until it closes (after the Dragon of Destiny show), then you can enjoy the sight of trees with glowing lights.

Dragon of Destiny

In this 12-minute night time spectacle, join the Dragonborn as they herald the arrival of a legendary Dragon with the help of Dragon Warrior Po.

The Keeper of Legends welcomes all to witness this rare moment, which happens once in a full zodiac cycle.

The Dragonborn approaches with the Dragon Warrior.

Following closely behind, the Dragon Princesses completes the reunion – summoning the auspicious dragon from the skies.

The Dragon of Destiny soars across the streets of New York, before landing on the steps of the New York Library, bringing the Universal Blessing™ for the year ahead.

Other characters also join in the celebrations, including Shrek and Princess Fiona, the Minions, and friends from Madagascar.

It’s a dramatic show with similar elements from last year’s Stay and Lo-Hei with the Stars show, notably the finale act with dancers, acrobatic moves and the dragon dance. The key difference is that all characters (except Po) will stay on after the show for Meet and Greet.

DreamWorks Lunar Light Up

Step inside Soundstage 28 for the DreamWorks Lunar Light Up experience, available only during this seasonal event. Here you can view lantern sculptures inspired by characters from DreamWorks films, including the Kung Fu Panda series, Madagascar, and How to Train Your Dragon.

Master Shifu, Dragon Warrior Po and Zhen in the first scene.

Take epic photos with this Dragon at the Kung Fu Panda 4 backdrop.

On the other side, you can snap photos with Tai Lung and The Chameleon, a new villain in Kung Fu Panda 4 who can shapeshift and bring people back from the Spirit Realm.

The island in the middle is where you can see Toothless, Hiccup, Astrid, Light Fury, and other dragon cubs.

End your adventure with all the friends from Madagascar, plus the humourous Penguins.

Chinese New Year Meet and Greet Experiences

Celebrating the Year of the Dragon, the Minions are wearing new Dragon-themed headbands at Hollywood.

Over at New York, you can meet Sesame Street friends – Cookie Monster, Elmo, Oscar the Grouch, Abby Cadabby, and Grover plus the pals from Madagascar: Gloria, King Julien, and Alex– all wearing their auspicious Chinese New Year outfits.

You can also pay a visit to Puss in Boots, Kitty Softpaws, Shrek, and Princess Fiona at Far Far Away.

The ogre royals will also appear in New York, at the Dragon of Destiny show.

Transformers Meet and Greet will also have its seasonal programming for Optimus Prime and Bumblebee, along with the return of the popular Mandarin-speaking Megatron.

Other Park Updates

March 2024 Park Hours

USS park hours will be adjusted after the Soar Into Fun event, with the park open till 8PM on some Saturdays.

10AM to 7PM – 26 February onwards, except selected Saturdays
10AM to 8PM – selected Saturdays

This could also mean that the park’s night parade show, Hollywood Dreams Light-Up Parade, will make a return on days with extended hours.

UPDATE: Universal Studios Singapore’s park parade will be back from March 2024 on select evenings, under a new name – Universal Star Power Parade – and a refreshed presentation. For April 2024, the extended opening hours till 8PM, as well as the scheduled parade, has changed to Sundays.

As mentioned earlier, the park is offering 1-hour early park entry for tickets purchased directly from RWSentosa website. You can expect a handful of attractions and shops to be open, along with the rare opportunity to take photos in the park without the crowds.

Limited Edition Minion Dragon Dancer Dave Popcorn Bucket

Grab this Dragon Dancer Dave Popcorn Bucket at Minion Mart and Universal Studios Store for S$50. Some parts of the dragon lights up, and you can push on its horn to move its mouth. The same design is sold at Universal Studios Beijing this year.

New Park merchandise

A new range of Kung Fu Panda merchandise can be found within the DreamWorks Lunar Light Up and in the Universal Studios Store.

This Po plush, complete with a steamer basket of buns, is just too adorable.

You can also grab this giant fluffy Po head tote bag (as well as another foldable tote), scarf, tumbler and more.

Over at the Universal Studios Store, the Minions lifestyle collection has a new dedicated display area.

Seasonal F&B menus around the park

Enjoy the feast-ivities with seasonal delights all over the park. If you purchased your park ticket as a festive package, you can redeem some of these Chinese New Year combo meals with the voucher provided.

Over at KT’s Grill, you can enjoy Chili Crab Buns (Mantou) for S$16.

The Star Snacks cart will offer these sweet delights at S$8 each

Minion Land construction

After months of look rather plain, the show building for Despicable Me Minion Mayhem is now completely blue. There are also more vertical structures visible beyond the hoardings. Nearer to the lagoon would be the ‘Super Silly Fun Land’ section, with two spinning rides.

Close-up of Gru’s House, which is the entrance to the attraction. If you recall the movie (or been to other versions of this ride overseas) – on both sides of Gru’s sinister looking house are generic “good” houses.

Beside the attraction building, there is a row of facades. At this stage, I can clearly recognise that it would be a copy of Universal Studios Japan’s Minion Park. Here’s how that looks like in Osaka:

Specifically, the row of buildings on the right side of Minion Park will be replicated in Singapore.

This popular riotous building facade is also likely coming to Singapore too. Actually, by observing the proportion and height of the structure, I would say that the order of facades looks almost completely reversed from Japan’s:

The Minion Mayhem attraction should be connected to this chain of building facades and move guests towards the store, and back into the main street in Minion Land.

This means that the queue for the ride is likely between “the blue building” and Far Far Away’s castle walls.

Take some time to admire the refurbished Far Far Away Castle.

The other side of Minion Land, beside Hollywood, would be the entrance to Super Nintendo World, via a Warp Pipe. In late 2023, RWS announced that Minion Land (along with other resort expansion projects) will soft open from early 2025. Super Nintendo World would be in the next phase, after Minion Land officially opens.

Get your tickets to Universal Studios Singapore

Soar Into Fun from 27 January to 25 February 2024.

* Redeemable at selected restaurants in the park.
** Redeemable at shops in the park except carnival games, candylicious store, and other exceptions. Stackable up to 4 vouchers per transaction.