TICKETS for Universal Studios theme park went on sale at 9am on Wednesday morning.

Despite the morning rain, there were at least 20 people queuing in line at the box office in Resorts World Sentosa.

The overwhelming demand to book tickets on the phone and online caused the website to crash in the morning and the hotline was perpetually busy.

Engineer Basheer Hamid, 38, was unable to get his tickets and resorted to going down to the site office to get them.

He said: 'I started calling at 9am sharp on two different phone lines and didn't get to speak to anyone despite being on hold for half an hour. I tried the website but it was also down.'

The theme park is slated to open on March 18.