Hello Reddit world, first post here. Hopefully doing it right. I wanted to share my recent experience at USJ, especially Nintendo World.
After watching a bunch of videos on social media, I, and probably like you, was worried about not getting in. But thanks to tips I read here on Reddit, our trip was super successful and we are so grateful I had to summarize our trip and share as well!
We are on a 12 day Japan trip from Toronto. Flew in via Narita. 4 nights in Tokyo, 3 nights in Osaka, 3 nights in Kyoto, and 1 final night in Tokyo (where we’ll do Disneyland before we head out!). Arrived Monday May 1 in Tokyo. Right at the start/middle(?) of Golden Week. (We hadn’t realized it until we already booked lol – but it was the time that worked best for us anyways).
USJ was right in the center of our trip. Saturday May 6th. And again, lots of preparation was required and thankfully it went well! We stayed in a hotel near Osaka Castle, so our commute to USJ wasn’t bad (25-30min by train).
We got to the station at 7:05AM. And arrived at Universal City Station by 7:35AM. Already a pretty big crowd there – but we sped walked, and went around and passed the slower crowd to get to the front. By 7:39AM we were in a line to get in. There were probably 100 people in front of us already. And there were maybe 6-8 lines of the same size. In hindsight, we should have kept walking to the right (further from the initial entrance) as I think the lineups were shorter, but we couldn’t see from our spot and we didn’t want to risk it. Turned out the lines on the right were in fact shorter I believe, and they moved faster – maybe that was just luck. Opening time this day was at 8AM, but they do open them sooner.
I bought our tickets on KKday – because the official website wasn’t accepting my Canadian credit cards – which I believe is a known thing. So highly recommend KKday. No express pass or early entry for us as it was sold out. The Saturday was one of the more expensive days (pricing is tiered) so it cost us $98 CAD per person. Which is a fair price compared to Orlando. Smaller park at USJ, yes – but still!
In order to reserve timed-entry tickets to Nintendo World, I’ve read you need to be there in person, as the app uses your GPS location. So I tried to book, while in line – but it didn’t work! It turns out, you your actual admission ticket/QR code needs to be scanned by the park once you enter first. This will then activate your ticket which can be linked to your account in the app. Long story short – wait until your inside the park, and then you can reserve.
After waiting a few minutes in line, the gates finally opened, and people were slowly trickling in. By 7:55AM, we were inside and the first thing I did was open the app. The first slot I saw was 8:50AM! So I immediately booked it. Success!!!
We had an hour to kill, so we walked around trying to find something to eat for breakfast. Most things were still closed – but we found the Pokemon stand that was selling Pikachu butt pizza buns. Similar to a pizza pocket lol. Not bad. And super cute. Also opted for a Bulbasaur melon Fanta slush drink. Tasty and refreshing. We hung around the Pokemon stand to eat and watched some Sesame Street characters come out of the side fence – they were entertaining.
At 8:40AM, we went to Nintendo World, and they happily accepted our ticket despite being 10mins early. Note: they do actually scan a barcode, so no way to sneak in. It was overwhelming right from the start! – we firstly lined up about 10mins to take a photo at the entrance Mario pipes.
At 9:07 we went to the Toad Cafe – there was a lineup, but after asking the staff which time is better; now or later- she advised it would be better and less people right now. Took us 18min til we got to the front and ordered, (not bad!), And we were then headed to our table where we waited for food to arrive. Ordered food at 9:27AM and food arrived at 9:39AM. Food was really cute and decent tasting for a theme park brunch. Two meals, a drink and dessert cost us around $65 CAD.
By 10:15AM, we were outside again, and Mario and Luigi were out. Long line for pics, so we just took pics from afar.
We then went to Yoshi’s Adventure which had the shorter wait time posted at the time. It was 10:21AM, and we didn’t get on til 11:05AM (~45min wait time). A bit long, so recommend having a drink ready at hand. The ride was easy going, cute, clearly made for kids, but a great way to see the park and the all the crazy Nintendo details. Overall it was fast, less than 4 mins to a do a quick loop around the area.
We headed outside again to take in the atmosphere. At 11:22AM we headed to the second ride, Mario Kart: Koopa’s Challenge. The line was long, but the inside of Bowser’s castle and the details were super cool and entertaining. We kept taking pics and the line was moving moderately. We were riding by 11:46AM (the line moved faster than posted!) – and wow that was an awesome ride. A must do. By 11:56AM we were in the gift shops browsing and appreciating the area one last time. We were out of Nintendo World by 12:30PM.
It was super relieving being able to do all this right away. We spent the rest of the day in relax mode and any other ride/experience we got to go on was gravy! This included the dinosaur meet & greet @ Jurassic Park, seeing the parade and a 4D Jujutsu Kaisen ride. My wife is an anime fan lol and it was fully in Japanese, so we both couldn’t understand. I had no idea what was going on – and the ride itself was pretty underwhelming, having been on other 4D rides. If I watched the show, I’d probably appreciate it more.
We were also fortunate enough to do Universal Orlando last year – so we had already done Harry Potter, so we mostly skimmed through that area, passed on the butter beer , but opted for these Hogwarts Meat Pies – these were awesome, would recommend! By 3PM, we were exhausted and it started to rain a bit – so that was our cue to call it a day. And what a day it is was. Mission accomplished ✅.
Happy to answer any questions you all might have!
8 comments
Happy to hear it went well! What a coincidence as we’re from Toronto too.
We ended our day at around the same time — Nintendo World really takes a lot of energy 😅
Do you know if it’s possible to go to the toad cafe and make a reservation for later during the day?
Did you end up with an upset stomach with the meat pies? I had 2 and ended up with VIOLENT mud butt.
Probably obvious, but worth noting – we opted out of the wristbands. They were pretty pricey and the line ups for all the related activities were all very long. Would have taken much more time had we opted in. So take this into consideration! FYI: You could still ‘interact’ with the various iconic Mario Mystery blocks around the park – but without the wristband it makes more of an ‘error’ sound vs the traditional ‘coin ding’. It’s pretty funny.
Thanks for the write up.
Do you know whether they were allowing reentry into the park? There doesn’t seem to be any rhyme or reason when they allow it.
Hello fellow Torontonian! Thanks for the advice on the Canadian credit cards; will save me a headache for my own purchase later.
One suggestion: unless there’s something specific at Tokyo Disneyland you want to see, don’t bother with it – it’s close enough to a Magic Kingdom clone that you won’t see the value.
Tokyo Disney**Sea**, however, is unique in the world. Spend your day there.
I’m here in Osaka right now and trying to decide if it’s worth going to. I’ve read mixed reviews so I’m debating. I’m thinking of going on Tuesday. Would you say it lived up to the hype? And are there more games there or more rides?
I’m from Toronto too. Great write up. Thanks for the tip about kkday. Glad to know that you can get in and do the rides too without the express pass. A lot of posts here say that an express pass is a must and one is like double the price of admission, which kind of turned me off a bit.