Day 8. Universal
We'd all been looking forward to today, especially the 12yr old. He loves Harry Potter, has read the books, and watched the movies about 3 times each. This was his day!
I'd bought entry tickets and Express tickets online. You can only buy them through the Japanese website, so it was a bit difficult, but with lots of research and a bit of luck, I was able to buy the tickets. I printed them in both Japanese and Google Translated English so I knew which rides were at which time.
We arrived about 8.20am. The gates were scheduled to open at 9am. There were hundreds of people ahead of us, but I wasn't too worried seeing we had Express Passes, which also gave us a timed entry to Harry Potter, and also the new Flying Dinosaur ride. I wouldn't have to compete running with the masses ahead of me. I got chatting to an American lady who lived in Japan and had an annual pass. It was nice to chat, but she didn't give me any more information than I'd already researched.
It was the start of the 15th Anniversary Rebooooooooorn celebration a few weeks before we arrived.
The gates opened at 8.45. We wandered in and passed the line to the Flying Dinosaur, which already showed a wait time of about 3 hours. I believe it got to 5 hours later in the day. Our first ride was Back to the Future. With our Express pass, we waited maybe 5 mins. The wait time showed 90 mins (at 8.55am).
Next was Spider-Man ride. Again, about a 5 min wait with the Express pass. 120 min wait when we exited. Then we went on Hollywood Dream (forward version). Don't think there was any wait here with the Express Pass. 180min wait at about 10am. When we got to Jurassic Park at 10.25, they were only allowing timed entry tickets in. Not sure why. Maybe there was a lineup earlier that gave out timed tickets. Anyway, we had our Express passes. We got straight on and were out by 10.40.
Gorgeous Easter decorations
Cookie Monster!!!
We decided to have an early lunch. Firstly to avoid lineups at the food places, but also because our timed entry to Harry Potter was at 11.50. We had burgers and turkey legs.
We then headed to Harry Potter world. (WWOHP). They allowed us in 10 mins before our set time. It was magnificent. The Harry Potter music played as you walked through the forest. Hogsmead was all there with all of the shops from the movies. The Three Broomsticks Pub, the Owl Post, Zonkos Magic Shop, Olivanders wand shop. The main ride in this area is Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey. It's 3D and was fantastic. It has you flying over Hogwarts and playing Quiddich. A great ride, but not quite my favourite. Maybe a 15 min wait. Standby 180mins
We then did the small coaster, the only other ride in this area. No wait, 70 mins standby. We also watched the wand show. The cast member was an Aussie. He spoke in both English and Japanese, so we understood this more than any of the other rides! It was cute, but not worth much of a wait. The kids got some butterbeer. One cold and one hot.
Once we'd seen enough here, we headed back to do more rides in the main part of the park.
Hagrids Hut
We finally went on the Flying Dinosaur ride. It had opened about 2 weeks before we were there. It is now our families favourite ride....ever....anywhere! It is the best coaster we have ever been on. I just wish we could have done it again. We waited about 15mins with our passes. Standby was 180mins.
You basically lie facing the ground. It feels like you're really flying!
We debated what else to do. We ended up doing Backdraft, which wasn't on our pass. We waited the longest for this ride, and it was the biggest snore. I'd seen it back in 1997 in LA, but forgot how boring it was. Oh well, we had plenty of time on our hands.
We then got some afternoon tea. I had a chocolate, banana and marshmallow Minions pizza. The kids got ice cream and popcorn. We sat watching all of the young girls taking selfies, seemingly endlessly. So many of them were dressed the same. Some very unusual too. It was quite entertaining.
My Minions pizza
A special 15th Anniversary vending machine. You had to pay, and hope you could jump high enough to press the button! Lucky my boy plays basketball.
We wandered around the park waiting for WWOHP to open back up without a timed entry.
It opened up at about 7.40, so we went in to see it in the dark. It was lovely.
Heading out of here, the Starlite parade was about to start. It was quite nice, but nothing on the Disney Electrical Parade. It was quite weird seeing 20something boys/men waving at the princesses and getting excited if they thought the princess looked at them!
We headed out before the end of the parade. We had dinner at Hard Rock, then took the train back to our hotel.
Sorry if there's a bit too much info, but I thought anyone planning a visit may want some info on the difference in times with and without an Express Pass. I would never want to visit without the pass.
We'd done Universal in LA in 2013, but did the VIP pass. It was similar in many ways, but USJ doesn't have the backlot, and USLA doesn't have Harry Potter....yet.