Still, we reached Universal City-Station before 9am and we thought we were early. We were not. Deep down, I know queues would have already been formed, but I did not expect every queue to be that insanely long. Oh my gosh. What time do those people reach USJ?!
Looking at how madly crowded it was, we decided to purchase the express pass, which ended up slightly more expensive than I expected it would be. But, nonetheless, we still went ahead and purchased the Universal Express Pass 4 (Premium), which include a timed-entry to the Wizarding World of Harry Potter, the Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey ride, the Hollywood Dream ride, Spiderman ride, and the Terminator 2 3D ride.
*Note: Prices for the Express Pass differs every day if purchased onsite. On some days, it may be cheaper, and others, more expensive. So, it is probably best to purchase it online beforehand.
At 9:30am, the gates into USJ opened (for the day I went), and many can be seen running once they pass the entrance turnstile. We simply just took our time and, first, absorb the ambiance around us as we stepped into the Hollywood Zone.
We strolled our way to Amity Village and took our first ride, Jaws, as the reflected waiting time was 5 minutes. I guess that was probably because half the crowd went to The Wizarding World of Harry Potter Timed-Entry Ticket Booth to get their ticket first (according to the guide I read online). Well, we ain't complaining since we basically didn't even have to wait to get onto our ride.
The best part was that we even managed to take a few photos with a clear background since Amity Village was still quite empty.
USJ is easily at least 2 times bigger than Universal Studios Singapore, with 9 different zones - Hollywood, New York, San Francisco, Minion Park, Jurassic Park, Waterworld, Amity Village, The Wizarding World of Harry Potter, and Universal Wonderland. I think most of our time was spent on walking from one spot to another, and taking photos here and there because the most rides looked too thrilling for us. Plus, the waiting times were insanely long (minimally 60-minutes).
Though, I have no idea what had gotten into me when I decided to give the Hollywood Dream Backdrop, which had a 75-minutes waiting time, ride a try. What made it worse was that, at that point of time, I did not realise that we could use our Express Pass for that ride, and we joined the queue and waited 75 minutes for the ride. I only found out about it much later.
Anyway, I would just like to say… A backdrop roller coaster ride is a lot scarier than a normal roller coaster ride. Definitely not less scary just because you can't see what's ahead. Those who like thrilling rides would probably find their liking to this ride as well.
Before lunch, we managed to catch the Show Attraction, Sing on Tour, at the Hollywood Zone. Other than the fact that we did not understand what the characters were saying as they were speaking in Japanese (duh!), the show was really good! No photos and videos were allowed to be taken, but we were so glad that we managed to catch it.
After the show, we had our late lunch at the Happiness Café located in the San Francisco Zone, which was known for its minion theme burger and fried chicken plate that also happen to be the only 2 items on the menu. As usual, boyfriend ordered the burger and I had the fried chicken, which I regretted ordering. Should have gone for the burger instead. The fried chicken was meh and it was really oily.
 |
| Minion Burger Plate |
 |
| Minion Fried Chicken Plate |
When we were done with our meal, we walked back to New York Zone and took the Spiderman ride, which was similar to the Transformer ride at Universal Studios Singapore. The waiting time for the normal queue was approximately 90-minutes, but with our express pass, we waited less than 15-minutes to take the ride!
Initially, I wanted to catch the show attraction, WaterWorld, but had second thoughts about it as I guessed that the show would be pretty much the same. So, we gave it a miss and went to queue for some churros instead. We both got a chocolate churros each, which was alright. Nothing amazing.
As both of us were not that into thrilling rides, all the waiting times for the rides put us off quite a bit. Basically, almost every other ride was minimally a 65-minutes wait. So, we ended up roaming up and down the park until it was time to head for the Wizarding World of Harry Potter.
The Wizarding World of Harry Potter is one of the main highlights of USJ. To me, I found that it was mad crowded when we were there, but we were told that that crowd was considered average. WOW.
We toured one round in the Wizarding World before heading over to the Hog’s Head, where boyfriend got one of their specialty draft beer, which was a little pricey even though we get to keep the mug. But, what to do? We were in a theme park. Also, since we ordered the drink to go, we weren’t allowed to get a seat (understandably why) but were still allowed to head in to take some photos, where there was a nice view of the Hogwarts Castle.
Our first ride at the Wizarding World was the Flight of the Hippogriff ride. The wait time was about 40-minutes, not as long as I expected it to be. The good thing was that the queue cuts across Hagrid’s Hut, so the view while queueing was pretty good.
Up next was the Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey ride, where the waiting time for the normal queue was about 135-minutes long. Lucky for us, the wait time for the express line was only approximately 15-minutes. So again, with our express pass, we skipped the 135-minutes queue and before we know it, it was our turn for the ride. Though the sad part for me was that I did not manage to take in the Hogwarts Castle interior design! Yes, the queue for the ride snakes inside the Hogwarts Castle and they really replicate it accordingly. Though I only get a glimpse of it since we had to constantly move forward so as to not jam up the line, it was still amazing. On the plus side, the ride was really exhilarating! No wonder it received so many awards.
A stop at the souvenir shop in the Wizarding World was a must-do for us. But we did not buy any items because everything that caught our eyes was really expensive, and I’d rather spend the money elsewhere. At least we’ve got 1 souvenir from the Wizarding World – the mug from Hog’s Head.
Also, a photo with the iconic Hogwarts Castle was also a must-have. We took a lot of photos in front of the Hogwarts Castle during the golden hour (aka sunset), and we were so lucky to be offered help with getting our photos taken from a guy who was super understanding and even helped us to snap our photos at many different angles. He sure knows his stuff. I can't be thankful enough. Of course, we returned his favour by helping him and his family with their photos as well. It’s always so good to meet nice people.
After a long day, we finally made it to Minion Park and since it was getting late, there were much lesser crowd as compared to earlier in the day. We headed for the Despicable Me Minion Mayhem ride as it was only a 15-minutes waiting time, and boy, it was so fun! After the ride, we went to play a game of Space Killer (payable per game) because I wanted the iconic stuffed unicorn, but we didn’t manage to win, so… No unicorn for me. But we got a sticker for playing though.
Our last stop to conclude the day was the Universal Wonderland, which essentially had Sesame Street, Hello Kitty, and Snoopy. At a glance, I thought we were in Sesame Street land because everywhere we looked, we saw Elmo, Cookie Monster or Big Bird. Since the rides at Universal Wonderland were mostly catered to kids, we didn’t get to sit or play at any attractions because we did not have any accompanying kid with us. A chill time for us to take in all the night lights in USJ before calling it a day.
In all, we kind of regretted getting the Express Pass because it was not that worth it for us and we'd rather use the money to buy souvenirs instead. Probably it was because of the fact that both of us are not that much of a thrill-ride fan. So maybe, the express pass will be worth it for those who want to maximise their time in the theme park on the rides. But, for us, we were mostly just roaming here and there, taking photos at every corner, and shopping at the souvenir stores. The number of rides we took can be counted with just one hand.
Still, we enjoyed ourselves at Universal Studios Japan a lot. The best was probably The Wizarding World of Harry Potter. We truly felt that as though we were in Harry Potter world. Magical.
No comments:
Post a Comment