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Universal Studios Japan: General Discussion

Jurassic Park has reopened and the queue is only 20 minutes!

Of course reopening a water ride on a Wednesday in January when it’s a maximum of 7C might have something to do with that…
 
The park have announced the opening of a major new ride this summer!

Unfortunately it is not the one many of us were hoping for and in terms of location seems like it puts the Pokemon rumours to rest.

It is in fact an expansion to Minions with a walkway shooter attraction ( I believe this exists in the US already).

tdrexplorer.com

Universal Studios Japan Announces Major Expansion of Minion Park with New Shooting Attraction Set for Summer 2025

Universal Studios Japan has announced an exciting expansion of its popular Minion Park area featuring a new attraction, shopping, food and more
tdrexplorer.com tdrexplorer.com
 
Got my tickets for my unexpected return to the park this summer! Attempt #2 at Donkey Kong.

Interestingly fast pass was sold out on the official site to my horror but my friend managed to get them on the Japanese language version so I guess they have different or priority allocation. Was probably cheaper without the tourist tax too.

Hoping to get on some of the attractions we missed last time but fast pass only covers 7 rides and being peak summer I don’t know how tolerable queuing is going to be in terms of both temperature and length.
 
In a very unexpected move, Universal Studios Japan has announced the reopening of their Snoopy indoor area on 18th July to celebrate the 75th anniversary of Peanuts, and the new area will include the addition of a new junior coaster named Snoopy’s Flying Ace Adventure: https://www.usj.co.jp/web/en/us/campaign/snoopy-festival

This came out of the blue! Hopefully it’ll be a fun addition to the park!
 
Matt N said:
In a very unexpected move, Universal Studios Japan has announced the reopening of their Snoopy indoor area on 18th July to celebrate the 75th anniversary of Peanuts, and the new area will include the addition of a new junior coaster named Snoopy’s Flying Ace Adventure: https://www.usj.co.jp/web/en/us/campaign/snoopy-festival

This came out of the blue! Hopefully it’ll be a fun addition to the park!
Click to expand...

Wow that’s interesting!

The Minions new ride opened today too.

Technically that means since I last visited in Sept 2024 there will be 4 extra coasters for me to ride plus Jurassic Park, Minions and Snoopy land!

Don’t tell Alton Towers ;)
 
Bowser said:
Wow that’s interesting!

The Minions new ride opened today too.

Technically that means since I last visited in Sept 2024 there will be 4 extra coasters for me to ride plus Jurassic Park, Minions and Snoopy land!

Don’t tell Alton Towers ;)
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How do you reach four? Were there some existing ones you didn’t ride on your last visit?

As far as I can tell, only Donkey Kong and this will have opened in the last year.
 
Universal Japan needs all the capacity it can get. It’s been getting lots of flack ib recent years for the fact it’s one of the most visited parks in the world but doesn’t have the capacity to match. Especially with the amount of rides they have closed without replacements in the last 5 years.

Hopefully this is a sign of more to come. I am surprised we have not heard anything yet on the Spider-Man replacement (expect to be Pokémon).
 
Matt N said:
How do you reach four? Were there some existing ones you didn’t ride on your last visit?

As far as I can tell, only Donkey Kong and this will have opened in the last year.
Click to expand...

Yes those two and then Griffin was broken plus the VR one has been rethemed as Spy vs Spy (didn’t ride due to queue length last time anyway)
 
Matt N said:
In a very unexpected move, Universal Studios Japan has announced the reopening of their Snoopy indoor area on 18th July to celebrate the 75th anniversary of Peanuts, and the new area will include the addition of a new junior coaster named Snoopy’s Flying Ace Adventure: https://www.usj.co.jp/web/en/us/campaign/snoopy-festival

This came out of the blue! Hopefully it’ll be a fun addition to the park!
Click to expand...
Hopefully the junior coaster has a fairly high throughput as USJ seems to lack rides with high throughputs, an example being Minecart Madness, which apparently often falls below 900pph, which is unacceptable at such a highly-visited park.
 
Only in Japan can a major theme park drop a new coaster without anyone knowing!

I’ve been checking queue times in anticipation of my visit recently and they do seem better than before so hopefully these further additions continue that trajectory though the Nintendo area remains hideous.
 
My return to Universal is over... and it was an incredible success!

Managed to get on 10 attractions including lots i hadn't ridden previously and despite the gruelling 35C sunshine all day.

We arrived not long after doors opened and there was a hefty queue to get in. Naturally everyone runs to Nintendo but as we already had a timed entry for later in the day we went to the new Minions attraction which was practically walk on.

The interior queue area was very nice, though i mostly got videos rather than photos.

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I thought this was great! Easily the best shooting attraction i've been on. The screens were gigantic with incredibly high resolution alongside actual sets and the guns worked flawlessly despite dozens of people shooting simultaneously. Took me a while to realise each gun had a unique target symbol to help you identify.

After this we headed to Jurassic Park where i got to return to my beloved Flying Dinosaur.... it remains my number one rollercoaster but we'll see what Phantasialand brings later in the year.

The Jurassic Park boat ride was new to me. I went on the Florida one about 15 years ago so i think it is fairly similar but suffice to say it was a lot of fun. The final drop was surprisingly fast and steep! And best of all i was completely drenched from head to toe which was a very welcome relief in this weather.
We grabbed an early lunch nearby after this which was prudent as we walked straight in whereas by the time we finished there was a big queue. The food was pretty good and surprisingly large portions for Japan ( I actually ordered 2 sides which were completely unnecessary). You can sit by the window where Flying Dinosaur rushes meters away from your face which is great.

Next we had a bit of time to kill before Nintendo so the 3D cinema seemed the only viable queue:

1755619176944.jpeg

This was a massive surprise. I've been to lots of similar attractions but this was simply on another level. The screen quality was incredible and the 3D popped out like nothing i've ever seen before. It felt more like AR. There was also real actors interacting seamlessly with the film and one amazing effect i won't spoil.

Then it was time to head to Nintendo! We did Mario Kart again which is fun but tbh i think i get more enjoyment from being in the land itself and walking through the queue. It's well executed but i cant help comparing it to DUEL where it being a dark ride rather than a shooter would be preferable.

Time for the main event... Donkey Kong!

The land is brilliant, as to be expected. It all looks perfect and the sight lines are brilliant as the mine cart goes all around the area and you constantly see them jumping about.

1755619705596.jpeg

The ride? Well, much like Mario Kart, the execution is technically impressive, the theming sublime but as a coaster it's fairly average. Glad i got to go on it but not something i'd ever queue to go on again.

We did Harry Potter stuff after this. Griffin is fine, a fairly standard childrens coaster but nice enough. Forbidden Journey was my favourite attraction previously and whilst i still think it's great, i did notice how dated it looked this time. I think a big part of that was Minions, Conan 3D and even Peter Pan at DisneySea having such great screen quality whereas these are.... not. The ride system is still a marvel and i was happy to do it but i wonder if it can be updated at some point. And that locker room is still a disaster.

Finally, i did the VR coaster! My first ever one. The theming changes for this every year and this year it's the Spy vs Spy anime.

1755620152941.jpeg

Last year the queue always hovered around 3 hours but late in the day it was down to 60 minutes so seemed like a good way to finish. After 30 minutes of cattle pen misery, we entered the first of about 4 pre-shows that made up the remaining 30 minutes of queuing. I actually think this is great, such a better way to spend your time waiting.

The staff stopped everyone twice to explain how the VR works (albeit in Japanese only) plus there were screens displaying it along the way in both languages. I think Japanese theme park goers in general are much better at following instructions so a ride like this can maintain a respectable throughput. This was boosted by the station which was a rolling one but the longest i've ever seen! So there was plenty of time to get in your seat, be handed your headset and to confirm it was working.

Once it started it was a fairly standard Mack Spinner from what i could tell but as with everything else the VR was high quality and worked flawlessly! So i thought it was a lot of fun, another very pleasant surprise.

Unpopular opinion but i think i prefer USJ over DisneySea. Now, i may be biased as i had FT for more rides at Universal but overall i think it's a more pleasant experience. Yes it's very busy but it felt like there was more room to exist, places to sit, you could easily grab food and drinks etc and plenty of rides have reasonable queues if you keep an eye on times. Plus there are a lot of single rider options. I spoke to some people and they said they were smashing everything. Only Nintendo is a nightmare but i think everyone knows that going in. Both my visits were August weekdays with identical weather so i think quite comparable in that regard.
 
I forgot to say, i'm fairly sure Mario Kart has as many if not more staff members working on it than every ride combined at any Merlin park! The station alone must have had 15-20, then there are multiple merge points with several staff each, the pre-show section and entrance staff, it's amazing to see.
 
Anyone got any tips for this Universal Park we have Nintendo World separate entry ticket.

Also when we visit it will be Halloween Horror Nights here how different is it to the USA versions.
 
Hid said:
Anyone got any tips for this Universal Park we have Nintendo World separate entry ticket.
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As I mentioned above most major attractions have single rider. Otherwise if you want to ride together and only have one day id get FT as the Nintendo rides never seem to drop below 2 hours and will end up eating half your day. You can either head left and get Minions/JP done or head right and get Hollywood Dream/Harry Potter.

As you have Nintendo timed entry head straight to whatever other ride you want the most and you’ll likely get a very short wait.

Eat outside of popular times if you want a sit down meal otherwise snacks are readily available.

Lots of attractions have lockers but only Flying Dinosaur is mandatory (metal detectors and wands). Though your possessions will get VERY wet on Jurassic Park.

We missed Waterworld again! The shows are quite irregular, think the last one is 3pm for some reason. It’s next to Nintendo so one to time prior to entry if you can.

Enjoy!

PS don’t know about the US Halloween nights so can’t compare but they tend to have Japan specific events. When I visited last year it was Resident Evil and they just announced this:


From: https://www.instagram.com/p/DNkRs-uM904/?igsh=eHM3eGhqNzg4c3pq
 
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