A Big Day at USJ

Today was a big one. Up at 630. Out by 7. At Universal Studios before opening time at 830.. along with thousands of people. Even this early, the was beating down relentlessly, baking us.
We eventually passed through the gates and finally into the park. A little initial confusing accessing the Super Nintendo World area of the park, which generally requires separate timed reservations. There didnt appear to be anyway to do this via mobile, staff waving us through "its free, free". Given everyone had the same idea and the crowds were already massive, we thought we'd come back later. The boys (Ryland and Axel) and I headed straight for Jurassic Park the ride first, to get it done before crowds. It was the main we'd all looked forward to, a splashdown water adventure. We all loved sailing around, seeing all the different dinos, escaping the raptors and trex, before the ride stopped, and seemed to malfunction, right at the top of the final drop. Not ideal but we passed unscathed.
We noticed that return to Super Nintendo World now required a time reservation. We booked an immediate one, but its nonreturns, and wed spend the next few hours here crammed in to get the attractions done.
Unfortunately for Zander there wasn't much 1yo-friendly adventures for him at this park. Ryland Axel and I got through the following -
- Yoshis Adventure (60min wait) A rather underwhelming, slow, flat, 5min loop. No idea why Zander couldnt ride or it warned of fear of heights, fast movement or causing preterm labour... of boredom?
- DK Mine Cart Madness (Around 2hour wait) A fast, mine cart adventure through a temple to find the golden banana. Probably the fastest ride either Ryland and Axel had done and they both genuinely loved it.
- Mario Kart: Koopas Challenge (Around 80min wait), you slap on headgear and 3D goggles and spin around steering and trying to collect 100 coins. I though I got 116 but apparently we still failed the race. It was OK.
We escaped Super Nintendo World just in time for the Waterworld show at 3pm. Hard to follow the story being all Japanese, but still a great stunt show of good guys vs bad guys, with waterski stunts, machine guns, rocket launcher fire and massive explosions. ALL the boys were intrigued and loved this, including little Zander, clapping pointing and laughing.
Via a Jurassic Park themed snack/refreshment we continued on to Minion Land, by around 4pm where we could all get on Illuminations Villain-Con Minion Blast (30min wait). This slow shooter ride could accommodate prams, moving along a slow travelator while shooting bad guys.
Zander had no idea what was going on but loved the colours. Nat picked up the high score on this one!
Next it was back to me and the boys for the
Despicable Me: Minion Mayhem ride (40min wait). This wasn't bad a 3d glasses, moving vehicle adventure that seemed to rock and tilt more than say Star Tours and Disneyland. As we headed towards Elmos Kids land with Zander in mind, announcements over the park PA. "Warning in 10minutes, at 6pm zombies will be released around the park. Mind your kids or seek zombie-free zones. You may get wet". The last part was a little weird, with warnings of zombie-induced wetness, but Ryland and Axel were quite excited to see Zombies, a park Halloween themed event.
As the clock struck 6, we were actually right at the middle of the Hollywood area where they were released. The kids enthusiasm quickly faded. Loud Japanese announcements of
.. someone running fron zombies... screaming.. then sounds of... disembowelling, evisceration, gurgling? Loud horror music, zombies stumble out of buildings... in clown costumes? Recurring Loud sounds of roaring, footage on screen of zombies mauling people? Ryland in particular was terrified. We left the roaring behind for the pleasant childrens music and voice overs of Elmo. No zombies could reach us here. Unfortunately for Ryland many rides here have the age range of 3-6, so he was actually too old and there was still little for Zander! Nat took them on a hot air balloon ride, and Axel was unjustifiably awarded a drivers licence for causing traffic chaos on a mini car ride.
Even indoors Elmos Bubble Bubble ride, was too 'hardcore' for Zander. Ryland lied about his age to get on a slide.
The plan was to finish with taking Ryland and Axel on the Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey ride, but read that Axel wasn't tall enough, and Ryland was too scared to go out with zombies around, so I ran off next door and did that area solo around 7pm. It was probably around an hour wait but the area, even queue were zo good it flew by. The ride itself was easily the best of the day. You're suspended in a moving upright seat that rocks, turns and tilts you around a track, passing through rooms with 3D and others with effects, escaping a dragon and death eaters?
I returned to the family, to carry Ryland past zombies and head towards some souvenir shopping. Spontaneously the zombies went from roaring and menacing, to dancing which took the edge off.
We finally headed out around 9pm (before 930 close) getting to the train home just before rain started to drizzle.
We picked up a few supermarket snacks for dinner before turning in, all of us exhausted.
It was a great Park, but just extremely overcrowded with annoying long waits (even on a Weds) and had very little for young children.
Tonight would be our final sleep in Osaka, with tomorrow being a travel day, hauling our things back to Tokyo via bullet train for the final third of our trip.Læs mere