The Universal Studio Park is a mish-mash of styles because facades from various movies have been combined to create a world of half forgotten memories. Rocky, the Blues Brothers and Transformers all live on the same block. Everything seems strangely familiar. I just couldn’t quite place which storefront belonged to which movie. 

Corinne said “Let’s try one of the park’s rides.” She sometimes experiences motion sickness so we thought we would try something tame. What about the “Minions” ride? Cute little cartoon characters with goggles - they make jokes about bananas and farts, what could be more harmless? It’s a simulator ride. You wear 3D glasses and sit on a bench that moves. After we sat down, it was a little disconcerting that we were being strapped in quite tightly. The thing about a simulator ride is it can mimic the most terrifying  roller coaster imaginable. Not only that, it can defy gravity. It was a wild time bordering on the hallucinatory. We experienced impossible twists and turns as well vertical drops. Occasionally, I was distracted by a screaming woman but for the most part I was giddy with the thrill of it all. A mechanical press threatened to squash us as flat as a cartoon pancake and we were assaulted by absurd projectiles. I enjoyed the whole experience almost as much as the onscreen Minions did. Oh, and yes, the screaming woman was Corinne.