East Meets ACE – Part 15: Universal Studios Japan/ユニバーサル・スタジオ・ジャパン
On Tuesday, October 2 we headed to our next park, Universal Studios Japan in Konohana, Osaka, Japan. Operating since 2001, this was Universal’s fourth park and first outside the U.S. We arrived around 8:30 that morning and stayed until closing at 10:00 that evening. Like at Disney everyone was required to arrange their own transportation back to the hotel. This was the first of two parks on this trip not visited on the 2005 ACE trip with ECC.
It has a similar feel to the two movie based parks in the U.S., with many of the same attractions, including some that we no longer have, but it also has several unique attractions. Hollywood Horror Nights was going on, but unlike in the U.S., it is not a separate ticketed event in the evening, but rather runs as an upcharge during park hours, with scare zones coming to life at 6:00. Richard, David and I did the Horror Nights attractions, while Vanessa left the park early. We rode some rides with Vanessa.
I will review by highly themed sections.
The Wizarding World of Harry Potter™
The theming is just as good as in the U.S.
and we had an opportunity for some Butterbeer,
which is always good.
Flight of the Hippogriff
(Vekoma, Family, 2014)
This is like the one in Orlando –
1 ride.
Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey™ –
This is the same great ride as it is in the U.S. parks – 1 ride.
Hogwarts™ Castle Walk – This is a nice walk through the castle without going through the queue line, but you also see sections you cannot see from the queue – 1 walkthrough.
Hollywood
Hollywood Dream: The Ride (Bolliger & Mabillard, Hyper Coaster-Mini, 2007)
This mini hyper coaster with a height of 144’ and a length of 3,937’, is a fun ride.
It was Richard’s 1100th coaster. It has 5 tracks of music from which you can choose to listen while riding. Interestingly, they have one of the four trains that goes backwards and is called Backdrop. I really enjoyed this ride forward, but the night ride David and I had backwards in the front row (thus last row) was even better and truly amazing – 2 rides, 1 forward , 1 backward.
Space Fantasy The Ride (Mack Rides GmbH & Co KG, Spinning Coaster, 2010) This spinning coaster was equipped with Virtual Reality and called Evangelion XR; 2018: Final Fantasy. The spinning was apparently turned off. While the VR was well done and fit the ride layout appropriately, I would prefer that VR not be added to coasters as they are an experience themselves, and it usually cuts ride capacity and efficiency, which was definitely the case here – 1 ride.
Universal Spectacle Night Parade – The Best of Hollywood – We had a good view of the night parade from a restaurant where we ate. It was very well done and long, representing most of the characters at the park – 1 parade.
We did not see Universal Monsters Live Rock And Roll Show™; Sesame Street 4-D Movie Magic™; or Shrek’s 4-D Adventure™ (which was not playing this day).
Minion Park
Despicable Me Minion Mayhem – This is a redo of their old Back to the Future ride and was well done – 1 ride.
We had banana flavor popcorn in Minion Park, which was really good.
New York
The Amazing Adventures of Spider-Man – The Ride 4K3D – This is always a good ride – 1 ride.
We did not get to Terminator 2:3-D®.
Jurassic Park™
Flying Dinosaur
(Bolliger & Mabillard, Flying, 2016)
Surprisingly this coaster has two pretzel loops, one of which is called an inside raven turn, among its 5 inversions, and not knowing when to expect them made it interesting as pretzel loops are so intense.
It is a nice layout and very well themed – 1 ride.
Jurassic Park – The Ride™ – This is much like the ones in the U.S. and is fun without getting you too wet – 1 ride
Amity Village
JAWS™ – Having not ridden this in such a long time as it was taken out in Orlando, it was really good to ride it again, and it was interesting hearing everything in Japanese! – 1 ride.
WaterWorld™
We did not get to WaterWorld™.
San Francisco
Backdraft™ was not operating due to Hollywood Horror Nights.
Snoopy Studios™
Snoopy’s Great Race (Senyo Kogyo Co., Ltd., Indoor Family, 2001)
For a family coaster, this packed some punch,
has really neat theming and is located indoors among other children’s rides and attractions – 1 ride.
This area has two other children’s attractions.
Hello Kitty Fashion Avenue
This section has two children’s attractions.
Sesame Street™Fun World
This section has Elmo’s Go-Go Skateboard; Big Bird’s Big Top Circus, Merry-Go-Round; and 13 children’s attractions.
Hollywood Horror Nights
The Survival: Deadman’s Forest 2 – This started with a couple of pre-shows in the Backdraft attraction in which weird creatures have appeared following an explosion, and many people have disappeared. It then moved to an outside walkthrough with lots of scare actors. While it started slow it had a strong finish – 1 walkthrough.
Silence in the Ghost Ship – This was well done as a walkthrough of an old ship with tremendous detail and lots of scare actors – 1 walkthrough.
Insidious: The Last Key – This walkthrough was also well done through various scenes and was perhaps my favorite – 1 walkthrough.
Cult of Chucky – This was well done as a mental hospital that Chucky had taken over, and he was seemingly at every turn – 1 walkthrough.
Sadako: The Cursed Attraction – Set in the theater that does Terminator 3D earlier in the day, the pre-show starts off as usual but is interrupted by Sadako, the cursed girl in the original Japanese film that we know of in the U.S. as The Ring. In the show, she appears on stage and then all over the theater, wreaking havoc. With the seats equipped to move at opportune times, this is a very well done attraction – 1 show.
Blood Legend – Based on a true story of a countess in Hungary known as a vampire who killed young girls for their blood, this follows two young girls who go searching for the legend but find they have bitten off more than they can chew, or have been bitten I should say. Interestingly, the exit to this theater is through the screen – 1 show.
They had number of Scare Zones including the Punk Zone, Cutie Zone, Zombie Zone, Clown Zone, Pirate Zone, Prison Zone and others. Interestingly scare actors come out at 6:00 but go in around 8:30 to prepare for the Night Parade, and they don’t come back out after that, so they have a relatively short evening.
We had a good meal at Finnegan’s Bar & Grill and a small meal during the parade at Beverly Hills Boulangerie.
The Hollywood section has a covered street like at Tokyo Disneyland and in cities around Japan.
We were provided with several fast passes that helped us get a lot done and have time to do the Horror Nights attractions.
The park is nice and we had a good day.
Negotiating the subway back to the hotel seemed a little less straightforward than at Tokyo Disneyland which led to some frustration, but we made it back to the Hilton Osaka fine.
Up Next: Himeji Central Park
Ronny's Travels 