Our Family’s Honest Comparison of Universal Studios Singapore vs Orlando

An honest review of USS from a family with tweens & teens

Planning a family stopover in Singapore? You’ve no doubt got on your list a visit to Resorts World Sentosa, the centerpiece of which is Universal Studios Singapore (USS), one of five Universal theme parks currently found around the world.

Having recently taken on a trip with our tweens and teens to Universal Orlando (which presently consists of Universal Studios Florida and Islands of Adventure – Epic Universe is coming soon!), we were keen to get more of our theme park fix and see how Universal Studios Singapore compared – plus the recent release of Despicable Me 4 and Minion advertising put this attraction front of mind for our family day out in Singapore.

So, let’s take a look at what to expect at Universal Singapore and how it compares to its international competition.

Some familiar faces, on the other hand, that are very similar to Orlando include:

• Shrek 4D (Note, this is no longer at Universal Studios Orlando)
• Transformers The Ride
• Revenge of the Mummy
• Accelerator – spinning ride similar to Storm Force Accelatron

What you won’t find in Singapore, a big divergence from other Universal parks is anything about Harry Potter. Whilst this might be a deal breaker for you, my lot could take it or leave it.

The Cons Of USS: Where We Felt Let Down

Let’s be clear: Universal Orlando sets the bar high in the theme park world. However, overall, USS didn’t live up to our expectations, but let us talk you through why—they may not necessarily be deal breakers for your family and certainly don’t mean we had a terrible time—we’re coming at this as worldwide theme park connoisseurs!

Minionland isn’t open yet

There’s a huge advertising push and signage everywhere in Singapore showing Minions, so naively, I guess, we assumed that was the star attraction of USS. But it’s still a construction site. The expected opening date is ‘2025’, though you can see many rides, from outside at least, look close to completion.

If you want your Minion fix, there are daily shows, character meets, and plenty of theming around Minions, but sadly, there are no Minion or Despicable Me rides, yet.

The Park is Cramped and Busy

Because of this large-scale construction, there’s currently only one way around the park. This makes it feel quite crowded and a little tricky to navigate – you’ll be doing lots of doubling back on yourself.

We went on a weekday, mid-summer and it still felt very crowded, I dread to think what a cooler weekend day would be like.

There’s No Marioland

Again, not a deal breaker; we did know this beforehand, but the Mario extension was touted around five years ago in the media. It seems that in the post-COVID world, these plans have been shelved (anyone got the official word on this, we couldn’t find anything?!).

If this is high on your kids’ dream theme park list, try Tokyo Universal Studios instead, or Universal Studios Hollywood.

The queues in the heat

We knew this was an issue, so we thought we were prepared. We were willing to buy Express Passes on the day, only to find out they were $140 SGD each ($107 USD)!

We’d price-checked online a couple of days before at $80 pp (bearing in mind the entry tickets are already around $70 SGD). I know this is comparable to Orlando, but note they cannot be packaged with your hotel – more on that to come.

It was simply out of our budget for a day out, so we had to join the regular queues; we were in the gate within minutes of opening and bee-lined to the most popular rides but within an hour, these rides had 60 minute + queues.

And that pretty much repeated the story of the day. You can expect lengthy queues to form across all sections of the park, particularly at

• Transformers
• Battlestar Galactica
• Revenge of the Mummy
• Jurassic Park Rapid Adventure

Well, basically, at all rides. Event the not-so-thrilling kiddy ones.

The complete inaccuracy of queue timings

To add to the woes of queuing was the complete inaccuracy and discrepancies between what the USS app was telling us and what was displayed on the ride entrances. We’d beeline it across the park to a ride we thought was quicker, only to find out 50 minutes was 90 minutes.

Needless to say, we spent waaay more time walking between rides and queuing than enjoying anything, in the Singapore humidity.

What’s with the single-rider lines?

Single-rider lines are a godsend for theme park enthusiasts who want to get their thrill on and pack as many rides in as possible without spending all their time in line. But don’t be fooled into thinking they work the same way in Singapore as in Orlando.

(For those unfamiliar with the concept, Single Riders are used to fill the gaps on group rides, so if you have, say a group of 3 on a 4-person ride, instead of calling up someone to the regular queue and splitting a group, they’ll fill the gap with a ‘single rider’. We frequently use these separate queues in Orlando when we’re not fussed about sitting together or kids want to ride alone – it’s often quicker than even the Express Pass lane.

So what’s the go in Singapore? Well, it seems they are trained to use it as an absolute last resort. Many rides had the sign for single riders, but the queue was roped off (you could sometimes ask an attendant to open it, and they would).

The few times we tried a Single Riders queue, it was painfully slow; granted, on the rides with 60-minute+ lines, it’s a little faster. But we waited for 20 minutes at one ride where not one person was taken from the single-rider line. The attendants would constantly walk through the queue, looking for smaller groups to put together. They only moved our queue along after a fair amount of angst and exasperation from the SR queue to get things moving again after the ride malfunctioned and we’d waited 30 minutes.

So don’t be fooled into thinking you can strategize your day at Universal Singapore with teens taking single-rider queues.

There are no theme park & accommodation bundles

If they do exist, we couldn’t find them! Staying on-site is one of Universal Orlando’s biggest perks; it can bring significant savings and convenience.

Accommodation for families in Singapore is super expensive, so we really hoped we could package things up, but this is not something we found possible as a last-minute booking through Resorts World Sentosa (as at summer 2024)

Tips To Make Your Life Easier at USS

• Express Passes are 100% worth it if you have the budget and they’re available.

• As with theme park rides the world over – the early bird gets the shorter queue; don’t worry too much about being VERY front of the queues; just be in line before opening time, have your tickets ready, skip everything along Hollywood and New York and head straight to Sci Fi City and the ‘coasters if that’s what your teens are after. Next up Revenge of the Mummy & The Lost World.

• Parents with small kids, you can hire the fairly basic Universal strollers, always a relief vs carrying tired cranky kids in the heat or BYO your own and leave parked outside rides. Singapore is a very safe city and USS is no exception.

• Although Singapore is hot and humid year-round, October to February are the cooler, more pleasant months for being outside.
• A small hand fan will definitely help keep your cool. Cooling towels might be an idea too, as well as umbrellas for the sun, and definitely have hats for everyone – we failed on that one. Just be mindful of how much you’re carrying, though, as you will need lockers every time you go on one of the motion/thrilling rides.
• The lockers just after Battlestar Galactica are free for an hour; everywhere else, we had to pay. It can be done on card (tap and pay works absolutely everywhere in Singapore), but just be mindful of this extra cost.

What’s Good About USS vs Orlando

So it doesn’t look like a pile of negatives (honestly, it wasn’t that bad!!). A few things we did like about Universal Studios Singapore:

• Waterworld live show is entertaining (the queue in the heat, not so much), you can elect to sit in the splash zone if you don’t mind the possibility of getting totally drenched!

• Far Far Away is brilliantly themed, even my older kids ‘past that age’ enjoyed it and appreciated the little touches
• It is amazingly clean – like much of Singapore – but so is Orlando.

How we Booked Tickets for Universal Singapore

We booked our tickets online through the third-party ticketing app Get Your Guide rather than directly with Universal.

I did this largely because they are one of my affiliate partners (yep, that’s an affiliate link there), and I’ve used and trusted their platform, I like to try and book through the platforms I recommend and the price per ticket was comparable.

The one thing you don’t get when booking through third parties is a physical ticket. I still had to collect this from the Resorts World Sentosa vending machine, which was quite conspicuously hidden in the locker area to the right of the main entrance.

Do allow an extra 5-10 mins on your arrival for this, or at least get your family queueing straight away

The disadvantage to booking this way was I couldn’t automatically add the Express Pass (some third-party apps like Klook DO allow this), so we went on the assumption we’d just upgrade at the gate – well, you read what happened!

Should You Visit Universal Studio Singapore With Teens?

This answer will depend completely on your family’s interests, ability to travel internationally, ages, and budget.

This is purely our opinion, based on well-travelled kids aged 10, 12, 14 – we wouldn’t bother again UNTIL the new Minionland is open AND we have tickets with an Express Pass.

I think it is more suited to younger kids, in the 5-10 age group would get the greatest thrill out of the themeing and rides.

If this is you one and only chance to experience a Universal Studios, by all means, you’re bound to get a lot of joy from the day. However, if you’re weighing up Singapore vs Orlando, Orlando wins hands down every time (and with the ability to package tickets with hotels, it won’t necessarily cost you more).

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