Geeky Pastimes
Mega Poster
We're just in the middle of our third day here and it's chucking it down with rain so we've headed back to the hotel for some respite. As I said before, we're staying at the Park Front hotel which is literally a 2 min walk from the entrance, so it's been convenient to come and go, although if you don't have an annual pass you're actually not allowed to leave the park and re-enter, which seems crazy to me when they have a whole Citywalk full of restaurants.
Our first day at USJ we didn't arrive at the park until about 4pm. We picked up our annual pass (£100 each) and headed in. The queues for some rides were insane, possibly as it was a Saturday in lovely weather. Demon Slayer was up to 3 hours or more, and Nintendo World had no times entry tickets left. We decided to just have a wander and explored all the shops (which are much more themed to IPs and actually have different merch in each one, makes me miss the way Disney World used to be). We went for food in a Monster Hunter themed restaurant that was actually super tasty and reasonably priced (£15 for a meal, desert and drink each). Really enjoyed that and the theme, plus the staff were extremely friendly and offered to take a picture for us and gave us some stickers saying it was our first time.
After a bit more of a wander we saw the queue for Jurassic Park Flyer was down to 40 minutes so we hopped into that and the sun actually set while we were in the queue. All the queues here are terrible cattle pens sadly, but it moved fast as this was something rare, a B&M flyer still using both sides of the station.
The ride was shockingly intense. We've done Tatsu and Manta, but nothing prepares you for an insane Pretzel loop and Dive loop, taken at speeds that feel just a bit too much. In the dark it seemed to make it feel a bit faster and we both came off not entirely sure if we enjoyed how intense it was. Felt like it crossed over the line a little bit.
We headed out of the park as queues were still pretty high, exploring the shops on the way.
At night we watched the Donkey Kong coaster testing from our hotel room which was a nice treat, even though it's not opening until Fall.
The next morning we went down an hour before the park opened and still had to queue for about an hour to get in. Queues for rides jumped up pretty quick but we got a pass for Nintendo World later in the day.
We queued up for backdrop, the backwards train for Hollywood Dream, with a 55 minute queue. I sort of thought there would just be backwards seats on each train like DC Rivals. But instead there's just one out of four trains that is entirely backwards, the entire train. Ive never seen a ride run like this before so it was a novelty. I enjoyed backdrop for sure, the on board music (like rip ride rocket) was a lot of fun and it was weird going through the elements without knowing what was coming. It's definitely a mid coaster but the unique backwards stuff made up for it a bit.
We carried on going around getting food, tried actual shark nuggets at the Jaws area (they are disgusting, like musty fish), and some delicious cherry popcorn. We also watched some of the live shows like the Jurassic Park dinosaur puppets (amazing) and the Hippogriff in Hogsmeade.
It was time for our Nintendo World entry so we headed over there and by now it was exhaustingly hot outside, and this area. Just like in USH, is crazy. Universal does theming extremely well, but they don't manage crowds. There's too many people, not enough shade, and not enough water. The whole land is a bit overwhelming, and not in a great way, even for an avid video game fan like me. We'd done Mario Kart in Hollywood and didnt care for it, so we queued for Yoshi instead. The queue was another horrible cattle pen in a stuff room and the ride itself was a slow amble around a couple of fun scenes and one corner of the park. It's not a terrible ride at all but it's so short and because it's so slow you really have time to take in how each animatronic works, kind of ruining the immersion a bit. It lacked the magic that something like the Haunted Mansion of Forbidden Journey has.
With the crazy heat we decided to head into Osaka after that, so the second day was over!
Onto our third day, today! It has been raining all day today so we figured the queues would be a bit shorter. We queued up early again in the morning and annoyingly the park only opened 30 minutes early today, so we were standing out in the rain for an hour just waiting for the gates. Once we got in we did manage to head straight to Demon Slayer which was advertising a 30 minutes queue, but really it was more like 5. This is a spinning coaster with VR headsets and a Demon Slayer overlay. I'm not into anime at all, but my wife adores Demon Slayer and the whole overlay is done incredibly well, with great pre shows and queue theming. The ride itself was probably the best VR ride I've done, another mid coaster but watching the characters battle on the train in VR was exciting and the quality looked pretty good, the cartoon style fits the resolution of VR headsets much better than anything realistic.
After that we headed over to Jaws because we still hadn't tried that. It was a complete walk on and has ended up weirdly being the highlight of my time here, I absolutely loved it. We had a great host who put loads of energy into it and even slipped some English in so we'd know what was going on. The shark animatronic is legitimately huge and each scene had something exciting going on, I really liked the atmosphere and immersion on this.
After that we went to the Demon Slayer quick service restaurant and had a great hamburger steak and a beef curry, it was all delicious, presented great and again, the staff were awesome. About £15 each again.
Even though it was raining we decided to try Hollywood Dream forwards, but after 30 minutes of queuing and getting to the station, the ride went down because the rain got much too heavy. We waited a bit but gave up on it and headed back to the hotel, the rain is just too much right now.
Overall I've really enjoyed this park, but we've been lucky to be able to dip in and out. There's definitely not enough rides here (Jurassic park is down all year, Spiderman is gone now and Donkey Kong isn't open for another few months) and that means queues are insanely long, but if you're up for the food, the merch and the live entertainment, there's a lot to enjoy, especially if you like the IPs for the limited time themes. Getting to do Monster Hunter and Demon Slayer things in a theme park has been amazing for us.
Later today we'll dip back in to try and get on Hollywood Dream if it reopens, and maybe Forbidden Journey, but then we're off to Disneyland tomorrow!
Fingers crossed Fantasy Springs opens for our day in Disneysea on Thursday...
Our first day at USJ we didn't arrive at the park until about 4pm. We picked up our annual pass (£100 each) and headed in. The queues for some rides were insane, possibly as it was a Saturday in lovely weather. Demon Slayer was up to 3 hours or more, and Nintendo World had no times entry tickets left. We decided to just have a wander and explored all the shops (which are much more themed to IPs and actually have different merch in each one, makes me miss the way Disney World used to be). We went for food in a Monster Hunter themed restaurant that was actually super tasty and reasonably priced (£15 for a meal, desert and drink each). Really enjoyed that and the theme, plus the staff were extremely friendly and offered to take a picture for us and gave us some stickers saying it was our first time.
After a bit more of a wander we saw the queue for Jurassic Park Flyer was down to 40 minutes so we hopped into that and the sun actually set while we were in the queue. All the queues here are terrible cattle pens sadly, but it moved fast as this was something rare, a B&M flyer still using both sides of the station.
The ride was shockingly intense. We've done Tatsu and Manta, but nothing prepares you for an insane Pretzel loop and Dive loop, taken at speeds that feel just a bit too much. In the dark it seemed to make it feel a bit faster and we both came off not entirely sure if we enjoyed how intense it was. Felt like it crossed over the line a little bit.
We headed out of the park as queues were still pretty high, exploring the shops on the way.
At night we watched the Donkey Kong coaster testing from our hotel room which was a nice treat, even though it's not opening until Fall.
The next morning we went down an hour before the park opened and still had to queue for about an hour to get in. Queues for rides jumped up pretty quick but we got a pass for Nintendo World later in the day.
We queued up for backdrop, the backwards train for Hollywood Dream, with a 55 minute queue. I sort of thought there would just be backwards seats on each train like DC Rivals. But instead there's just one out of four trains that is entirely backwards, the entire train. Ive never seen a ride run like this before so it was a novelty. I enjoyed backdrop for sure, the on board music (like rip ride rocket) was a lot of fun and it was weird going through the elements without knowing what was coming. It's definitely a mid coaster but the unique backwards stuff made up for it a bit.
We carried on going around getting food, tried actual shark nuggets at the Jaws area (they are disgusting, like musty fish), and some delicious cherry popcorn. We also watched some of the live shows like the Jurassic Park dinosaur puppets (amazing) and the Hippogriff in Hogsmeade.
It was time for our Nintendo World entry so we headed over there and by now it was exhaustingly hot outside, and this area. Just like in USH, is crazy. Universal does theming extremely well, but they don't manage crowds. There's too many people, not enough shade, and not enough water. The whole land is a bit overwhelming, and not in a great way, even for an avid video game fan like me. We'd done Mario Kart in Hollywood and didnt care for it, so we queued for Yoshi instead. The queue was another horrible cattle pen in a stuff room and the ride itself was a slow amble around a couple of fun scenes and one corner of the park. It's not a terrible ride at all but it's so short and because it's so slow you really have time to take in how each animatronic works, kind of ruining the immersion a bit. It lacked the magic that something like the Haunted Mansion of Forbidden Journey has.
With the crazy heat we decided to head into Osaka after that, so the second day was over!
Onto our third day, today! It has been raining all day today so we figured the queues would be a bit shorter. We queued up early again in the morning and annoyingly the park only opened 30 minutes early today, so we were standing out in the rain for an hour just waiting for the gates. Once we got in we did manage to head straight to Demon Slayer which was advertising a 30 minutes queue, but really it was more like 5. This is a spinning coaster with VR headsets and a Demon Slayer overlay. I'm not into anime at all, but my wife adores Demon Slayer and the whole overlay is done incredibly well, with great pre shows and queue theming. The ride itself was probably the best VR ride I've done, another mid coaster but watching the characters battle on the train in VR was exciting and the quality looked pretty good, the cartoon style fits the resolution of VR headsets much better than anything realistic.
After that we headed over to Jaws because we still hadn't tried that. It was a complete walk on and has ended up weirdly being the highlight of my time here, I absolutely loved it. We had a great host who put loads of energy into it and even slipped some English in so we'd know what was going on. The shark animatronic is legitimately huge and each scene had something exciting going on, I really liked the atmosphere and immersion on this.
After that we went to the Demon Slayer quick service restaurant and had a great hamburger steak and a beef curry, it was all delicious, presented great and again, the staff were awesome. About £15 each again.
Even though it was raining we decided to try Hollywood Dream forwards, but after 30 minutes of queuing and getting to the station, the ride went down because the rain got much too heavy. We waited a bit but gave up on it and headed back to the hotel, the rain is just too much right now.
Overall I've really enjoyed this park, but we've been lucky to be able to dip in and out. There's definitely not enough rides here (Jurassic park is down all year, Spiderman is gone now and Donkey Kong isn't open for another few months) and that means queues are insanely long, but if you're up for the food, the merch and the live entertainment, there's a lot to enjoy, especially if you like the IPs for the limited time themes. Getting to do Monster Hunter and Demon Slayer things in a theme park has been amazing for us.
Later today we'll dip back in to try and get on Hollywood Dream if it reopens, and maybe Forbidden Journey, but then we're off to Disneyland tomorrow!
Fingers crossed Fantasy Springs opens for our day in Disneysea on Thursday...
