Universal: NintendoLand Koopa Challenge

We hit NintendoLand to tackle the last three rides of our day: the MarioKart Koopa Challenge, the Yoshi Adventure Ride, and Donkey Kong's Minecart Madness. We were allocated between 3-3.30pm for MarioKart, 3.30-4pm for Yoshi, and 4-4.30pm for Minecart Madness. I was a bit nervous that we weren't going to make all the entry times, given MarioKart had a 150min wait in the regular line, Yoshi had a 60min wait, and Minecart had a... 220min wait. So I told Michael no dordling, no photos, just mad dashing to make this schedule happen.

It was SO SMOOTH. We hit MarioKart at 3.05pm and it only took 25 min to get through via express. The inside of this ride before you got to it was super cool. The theming in USJ before the rides are exceptional. Once we got on the ride, we had an absolute blast. It was go-carts on a track where it mixed real world animatronics with glasses that had augmented reality in them, and you had to steer your carts together and then use your buttons on the steering wheel to shoot items like shells at the other cart racers in your augmented reality glasses. Where you turned your head and looked was where you shot. Super super fun!

Yoshi's Adventure was a very basic kids ride where you were on Yoshi's and just gallivanted about animatronics over the top of the park with a view out at everything. It was a welcomed relax, and Michael loved the set design and animatronics.

After this, it was on towards Donkey Kong Country, which gets multiple posts on its own.Read more