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Korea and Japan - Part 10: Universal Studios Japan
- Thread starter Gavin
- Start date
Pretty much. Some of them are quite clearly trying to push tourism to the country, some are "look how amazing our country is!" and others don't seem to know what they are.
So, when I said I’d get this finished “tomorrow”, I meant in 5 days’ time.
I’d been to Universal Japan twice before and had a really good day both times, but people more recently have given it less than glowing reviews, mostly due to crowd levels and queue times, so I was slightly apprehensive about a revisit, especially since there’d be two of us, so being overly reliant on single-rider lines might make it all a bit s**t. Fast passes it is then.
Because I’d left it a bit late, trying to get one of the 594 different fast pass packages just wasn’t happening through their English website or other online agents because everything was sold out, but it was doable through their Japanese website because they’re racist. The priority was Nintendo, so I got a package that gave us timed entry to the land itself, which turned out to be unnecessary, as well as the three rides there. It also included Forbidden Journey and Hippogriff (not arsed) and then two options: Flying Dinosaur or Minions, and Jurassic Park or Jaws.
Since we had timed stuff for Nintendo, we didn’t feel the need to rush to get there early, but arrived not too long after opening. Everybody was obviously rushing for Nintendo and Hogsmeade, so queues nearer the front of the park were quite short.
I’d never properly done Space Fantasy. I’ve got the cred through riding it once, but it was during one of its frequent VR overlays. This time, they were just running the original ride, and it’s sooooooooo much better. I was worried about queues for this given that they were horrendous during the VR stuff, but it was pretty much a walk-on at that time and stayed below half an hour for most of the day from what I saw.
A reride was quickly followed by two back-to-back rides on Hollywood Dream, one each backwards and forward. The signs had it posted at around half an hour I think, but realistically we were on in about 15 minutes each time. They’ve devised some extra faff at the station now. You cross the platform, put your crap in the box, and then have to stand there and get wanded down before you can take your seat. Total bulls**t, obviously, and probably implemented because one guest was caught with a key in their pocket 3 years ago, but it was being done quickly and didn’t seem to have a huge effect on the queue.
I’ve always liked this ride, and that didn’t change on this visit. Contrary to what some people will argue, it does have airtime, and it’s just generally a fun ride.
It was our time for Nintendo entry, but they weren’t actually using the timed entry system that day. It was FAR from quiet, but I guess much quieter than it could have been. Mine Cart Madness and Mario Kart were hovering around the 2-hour mark for most of the day, so it was definitely worth getting the fast passes. The whole land is amazing to look at and very dynamic, but also feels a bit claustrophobic thanks to crowd levels
Mario Kart was up first. Hmmmm, it didn’t do a lot for me to be honest. I didn’t like the game element; it was all just a bit clunky, not particularly intuitive and already felt a bit dated. I’m sure with rerides the gameplay would be better, but with 2-hour lines, that’s not about to happen. When I next ride one of these, I might just forget the game altogether and enjoy the theming.
Yoshi’s Adventure was an unwanted addition to our fast pass, so it was ridden. I can’t imagine ever wanting to get into the one-hour queue for it though.
And then onto the only new-for-me cred at this park, Donkey Kong Mine Cart Madness. Like I said before, the queue hovered around the 2-hour point, but operations were very good. The station has a conveyor belt and the cars are getting dispatched literally a few seconds apart.
The visual effect of “track jumping” works very well from both on and off-ride, though it’s obvious to see how it all works without having to look too hard. It’s a really fun ride, but it’s also quite rough in parts. At first, I thought that was a very clever, deliberate effect based on it supposedly being a mine cart jumping the tracks, but I don’t think that’s the case; I think it’s more to do with how far away from the actual track the cars really are.
Jaws was closed, which was disappointing but not a surprise since it was on the park calendar, meaning that the only option for the fast pass was Jurassic Park. This was fine, but a bit annoying seeing as the queues are never too bad anyway and the single rider option is a pretty much guaranteed walk-on. It's a good ride though, and unlike that moth-eaten thing in Orlando has been maintained very well and doesn't feel too dates yet.
Our other fast pass was a choice between Flying Dinosaur and Minion Mayhem. Neither one of was arsed about Minion Mayhem – I’d done this one already and we’d both done the version in Beijing – and the BF didn’t want to to Flying Dinosaur. He’d done it already and found it to be a bit too much. This meant that I used both my and his fast passes (they’re just QR codes) for a couple of rides. I’d done 5 or 6 rides last time using single rider. Two was more than enough this time around. It IS all a bit too much.
We had a timed entry for Hogsmeade as well, but this was also not necessary. I could’ve happily skipped Forbidden Journey – a bit f**king sick of it at this point – but we’d paid for it, so…
At some point we did a reride on Hollywood Dream, but weren’t really in the mood to queue up for rerides on anything else, opting to have a look around the relatively new Sesame Street area and catch a couple of the shows. I had no idea that the Terminator 2 3D attraction had gone from this park as well. It’s been replaced by “Detective Conan”, whoever the f**k that is, and is still very good - again a combination of 3D screens, live actors and other effects - but not a patch on T2. I’d also never seen that Monster’s Rock ‘n’ Roll thing, or whatever it’s called, but now I have and I don't need to do it again.
It was a good day then, but would probably have been quite different without those fast passes. We would have been fine for most stuff to be honest, especially since we didn’t arrive early and left before closing, but there’s realistically no real way to not spend up to half your day at Nintendo World if you want to do the two main rides and don’t have the fast pass. Having that freed us up to enjoy the rest of the park, but it was quite a hefty additional cost.
Jaws and Spiderman were missed. One was only down for scheduled maintenance, but Spiderman being permanently closed currently leaves a pretty big hole, or at least it does if you’ve been to the park before. Anyone visiting for the first time would have no idea anything was “missing” really. Obviously, that leaves a huge show building for something new. The building that had an indoor Snoopy area is also closed. It’s probably a similar size to the Spiderman building, so there’s another opportunity for something major there.
Anyway, yeah, get a fast pass.
The end.
Finally.
NemesisRider
Roller Poster
Lol. But also deeply unsurprising.
Glad to hear you had a good day, even if Fastpasses are basically mandatory to facilitate that. Sad to remember that Spiderman is gone from the park though - it was easily my favourite dark ride in the place when I went in 2023.