I Went On Universal Studios Hollywood 60th Anniversary Studio Tour – Here Are the Highlights!

The popularity of the Universal Studios Hollywood Tram Tour led to the creation of the larger Universal theme park that we know today. The tram tour started in 1964 as a way for tourists to see the Hollywood sets in person. Pretty quickly the tram tour added special effects scenes to entertain guests even when there weren't films and television shows shooting.

Today Universal has added high-tech show scenes to augment the classic offerings during the dynamic tram tour. The tour has gone through many different iterations but has always remained the heart of the Universal theme park.

We are so thrilled that Universal is celebrating the 60th anniversary of the tram tour. I recently had the chance to visit Universal Studios Hollywood to experience the new 60th Anniversary studio tour.

Universal Studios Hollywood 60th Anniversary Studio Tour

Universal Studios Hollywood is celebrating the 60th anniversary of the studio tour from April 26th 2024 through August 11th, 2024. There are a number of additions and changes for the tram tour during the celebration. You can see all the details on the 60th anniversary tram tour in our announcement of the news.

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In honor of the 60th, there are decorations throughout the tour area, the tour onboard video has been changed around out to honor the 60th and to show highlights of historic offerings, a couple of surprise show scenes have been added, and you now get off the tram for special photo ops towards the end of the tour. A favorite show scene has also returned after a lengthy refurbishment.

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My Experience With Universal Studios Hollywood 60th Anniversary Studio Tour

The entrance area to the tour is completely decorated with diamond 60th decorations. These awesome graphics were actually created by the same graphic artist, Hayden Evans, who created some of our favorite displays at Disneyland for Christmas. It is great to see Universal grab this wonderful talent.

In the queue area – we used the Universal Studios Hollywood Express Pass to skip the line – the screens show highlights from the historic tour. Here I also caught my first glimpse of the Studio Tour trams, many of which have been redone into the classic candy pinstripe design from the original 1964 studio tour.

Once onboard the tour the video shared the interesting history of Universal first offering visits to the studio lot during the silent movie era and then later creating the studio tour. Jimmy Fallon does a fine job with this narration. The only thing that really stuck out to me during the entire video sequence is that someone who is visiting Universsal for the very first time might wish that there was more on the films and less on the history of the tram tour. That said, as a theme park fan I really enjoyed seeing the historical footage.

The first amazing moment and frankly the moment that motivated my entire visit for this tour was pulling into the Hill Valley set area from “Back to the Future”. There in front of the tram was the Delorean and a very convincing Doc Brown. We sat in the perfect seats to interact with the character who had a voice box on to talk with the crowd. You'll want to sit in car three on the left-hand side for the best view of this scene. When we were boarding we were pretty easily able to maneuver to make sure that we got these seats.

Later in the tour we also spotted this other restored Back to the Future set piece.

Next, the tram heads into the Kong section and then over to the Amity Island section where Bruce the shark is still leaping out of the water. This effect is still just as fun and impressive as it was the first time that I ever saw it. Love the fire and the massive shark lunging at the tram.

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There were signs for the 60th anniversary throughout the tour! This was a fun one at Amity Island.

Next was the flash flood area. The same goes for this show scene as the shark scene. Just a ton of fun and a very iconic moment to experience again and again. Our tram took a slightly different route than normal on our tour day because the returning “Earthquake – The Big One” scene was not quite working. I believe we also passed the runaway train which was previously a very cool scene on the tour where the train rushed towards the tram. In this instance, it is just off on the side of the tour and does not move.

Then, the final big highlight of the tour was getting off the tram at the Bates Motel section to take photos up close with the set and a couple of other photo ops. There were photo ops from Jaws, Fast and Furious, Kong, and the mini Hollywood Sign.

Here's the Fast and Furious photo op!

And the King Kong photo op!

There was also a restored studio tour tram in the style of the 1964 opening trams parked here.

The logistics of this stop were interesting. Everyone gets off the tram, though I guess you could stay on if you prefer, and then all the trams pull around to the pickup area where you can get back on after you've gotten your fill of the photo ops. I wasn't very interested in waiting for these photo ops so we hopped right back on the tram after taking it all in.

At the end of the tram tour, they had my favorite photo op which was a cut-out of the tram tour specifically featuring the 60th logo. I was able to snag a picture here without a line by hopping off the tram and moving with haste to get the photo.

Above I've mentioned all of the specific 60th anniversary offerings at the tour but didn't recap every single thing you'll see during the tour which stretches well over an hour and still comprises all the interesting stops from the standard tour. The Fast and Furious tour segment is still lots of fun. We wonder whether that will be replaced when the new Fast and Furious roller coaster debuts. Seeing all of the working bungalows and active sets is also very cool.

Another highlight from that date was getting to see the Fall Guy pre-show that's now a part of the Water World show.

What is different between the 60th Anniversary Tour and the regular Universal Studios Hollywood Studio Tour?

Overall the Universal Studio Tour delivers the same behind-the-scenes access and interesting insights while driving along the same tour route. The tour still goes through all of the show scenes that it did before the anniversary celebration.

The key differences along the route are – festive decorations throughout the entrance area and on the trams themselves, different onboard video/audio narrating the tour, the addition of Doc Brown from “Back to the Future”, some decorations throughout the tour route, the runaway train prop, and finally the stop at the Bates Motel location for the photo ops. You could also count the return of “Earthquake – The Big One” as part of this anniversary tour because it just came back but we expect that will stick around after the tour.

Generally, the studio tram tour looks like it is in great shape and I look forward to seeing what offerings they add next.

We were hosted for this visit to check out the new tram tour, but we visit Universal Studios Hollywood on our own regularly to ensure that our wide-ranging coverage is up to date.

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