Day 9 – Mario, Dinos and City Streets
April 23, Osaka
Another fun day at USJ! We wanted to rope drop the other rides before fast passes, so we woke up early again and made our way to the park. Well, we tried. About two stops later, Elijah realized that he forgot his phone. Nate realized he forgot his band. He wouldn’t be able to play any of the games or going to any of them lands without it. So we made our way back. I waited impatiently, and then we tried again. And once we finally got through, Juli wanted to rent a wheelchair for the day but then also forgot her phone at the counter. So we had to go back to the exit to find the lost and found. It was super funny because I joked about losing my phone and how bad it would be, and then everybody else forgot theirs. But it was fine. Again, most people wanted to go to Super Nintendo world in case they closed down. So there was really only a 20-minute wait at the first coaster…
Hollywood Dream
I’m not saying I had my eyes closed the whole time… But I’m not not saying that. It’s just the drops. The drops always get me, but man what a great coaster. Its very long and very wild and got our blood pumping and us ready for our day two at the park. Our next stop was going back into Jurassic world to try the flying coaster. Not sure why this one isn’t as popular as the others. And, since Juli had the wheelchair, once we waited a majority part of the line, we jumped to the first car. We all started getting nervous and so you watched the cars go from regular to on your stomach. And we would be doing the first row.
Soon, it was our turn. We got in and just like the others, the car flipped us to our stomachs. What were we doing? We climbed higher and higher into the Air air. Drop ahead looks so daunting. And we were going to go face first.
What a ride. I kept my eyes open the whole time this time! Honestly, it wasn’t the drop on this one, I think it was because of how we were oriented. It was the inversion. Usually loop-de-loops do nothing for me, but this time I had to close my eyes as we went up. The G-forces were just too strong.
Again! Again! So we rode it again. Then we decided we probably should make our way Mario World and go check in for our fast passes.
Back to Super Nintendo World!
Next ride was Mario kart. We weren’t sure what to make of it. They gave us helmets to wear, and we knew we were about to ride a roller coaster. We went through the line and took plenty of pictures because it just looked so cool, and got into the car. Best I can describe this ride was like a roller coaster mixed with virtual reality. So we played Mario kart while on the coaster. Obviously, we couldn’t control which direction the track went, but we can steer those certain ways and the track would go that way along with the virtual reality track. We got shells and shot each other and other cars and also try to shoot the bad guys. Team Luigi won it, but we all still had a great time.
Our next ride was Yoshi’s Island. This was basically a little kids ride that took you through all of the Yoshi games and through the park. It was super cute and we loved it. I absolutely would not have waited 140 minutes that was posted but since we had the fast passes it was very nice. There were also little Yoshi eggs hidden throughout the ride that we can hit on our cart and unlock it on our watches.
Next, we rushed to go back to donkey Kong country. This was the ride we had been waiting for. Because it’s so new, there’s not much out about it online. We heard rumors that it jumped the tracks and we’re super curious to see how. First, we went through a temple dedicated to the Golden banana that donkey Kong love so much, but we’re getting on the ride. Spoiler alert… It does jump the tracks. Remember playing Donkey Kong country on the original Super Nintendo? Yeah it’s like that. You don’t just jump the track. You jump sideways on the track front and back. Avoiding the moles and the gators…. Absolutely wild ride. Especially since we didn’t know what to expect. That one was absolutely worth the wait.
Time to Split Again
Juli was going to go have a leisurely lunch at the discovery restaurant in Jurassic Park while we finished getting our badges and playing our games. We had lunch at donkey Kong country, getting some kind of hot dog that they seem like they just put all kinds of things onto it. Doritos cheese and some kind of mustard ketchup mix thing. That was really good. After scarfing those down, We played a few more games, got into Bowser’s challenge a couple more times and then said sayonara to Mario world.
After meeting up with Juli, we made a game plan for the rest of the park. We now had fast passes to Harry Potter. This was more Juli’s cup of tea as none of us were really into Harry Potter. It was a very well-done Park though. Even not knowing where I was, I could appreciate the attention to detail. Everything had. It was like we went into an Old English village. Juli, explained things of the story as we got into the line of the forbidden Journey. Elijah was absolutely amazed at the painting is on the wall would come to life… seemingly with no screens or projectors to make the magic happen.
This ride was insane. Since we had no idea what to expect, it was even more wild. It was almost like story as the fact that it would push you into a screen and you would go through a cutscene of sorts with Harry Potter and Friends. But then it was like haunted Mansion is that it would take you into the animatronics of ghosts and other things throughout the ride. All while turning you upside down right side up spins and versions… We had no idea what the heck we were doing. Absolutely wild.
The next one, was flight of the Hippogriff. We were warned that this was for younger kids, and that the seats were smaller. But they didn’t tell us is that it’s FOR young kids so the ride was way less intense. Super short and would have been super disappointing if we had waited instead of getting the fast passes. People were waiting 70 minutes for that ride… and several without kids. Absolutely wouldn’t have done it without the fast-passes, but with them it was fine. Juli then showed and taught us about wants and of course, we had to try a butterbeer. Really good. It was like actual cream soda, complete with cream on top. Elijah wasn’t sure how he felt about it, but Nate and I enjoyed it.
It was getting late. Despite Elijah’s objections, it was time for us to go. We decided to take on the flying dinosaur again since collectively that was absolutely our favorite ride… And it still had a really short wait time. I think people are legitimately afraid of this ride and so didn’t ride it. Oh well. More ride slots for us. Then we decided to end our time at universal the same way we began it… That’s super random ride that we had no idea about. Good fun but it stopped halfway through… Presumably because the conveyor belt ahead was paused. I remember sitting there thinking…I thought this ride was a lot longer than that? Right before it flung us wants more into the asteroid field. Man. That ride is fun.
Relax at home
Juli and the boy were tired, but Nate and I wanted to go back out. So we came to a compromise of we would go pick up the food from across the street. That was an experience. How they do it is you order from a ticket machine and pay and then bring the ticket in for the cooks to make you the food. However, these ticket machines are VERY poorly done. (sorry, tech nerd coming out)
You take longer than a few seconds to look at the menu it times out and you have to start all over again. Payment method incorrect? Start over. Don’t order fast enough? Start over. Change your mind about and item? Start over. Also, weirdly, about halfway through, it changed from English to Japanese, but a majority of it is in kanji instead of hiragana, so I definitely can’t read some of it fast enough…start over.
Fourth time’s the charm. We finally got it and handed the tickets to the cook. after short wait, we brought the food back to our apartment. Super delicious! We weren’t sure what we got since I had a blaze through it very quickly, but everyone was satisfied with their meal. After dinner, and Juli and I, now inspired by our time at the theme park, challenged each other to Mario kart. It was a great way to end the night.
