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- Loved the Pokemon stuff at the park. That's the one piece of Japanese media that I consider a fan of. Like I mentioned I ended up waiting for the stage show, doing meet and greets with all of the 5 Pokemon they had (the little costumes were very cute and well done!), waiting 1 hour(!) for the Pokemon restaurant and of course, buying a lot of the merchandise. If this is what replaces Spiderman at USJ, I'm looking forward to seeing what they do with it!
- Not sure if B&M bid on the HRRR project but man, I wish they'd been selected instead of Maurer. Hollywood Dream was a fantastic, graceful B&M mini hyper with some great airtime.
Overall, I really enjoyed my trip. I loved staying close to the park which let me beat the heat and head back to my room for a couple hours to get some good AC. The park itself seemed like a greatest hits type park with some of the best parts of IOA (Spiderman, JP, Hogsmeade) with the highlights from USF (Jaws, Despicable Me) and SNW!
Did 3.5 days here (spent one morning at Hirakata Park nearby) staying at the Park Front Hotel in a park view room. I think the only thing I missed that I would've liked to see was the Curious George show. Rode everything else in the park over my 4 days.
- Jaws is even better than I remember. I was a teenager when Jaws closed in Orlando and I remember it fairly vividly but I don't remember it being this good. I ended up riding it 10 times over the course of my trip with most of them being in the dark when the ride was basically a walk on. The boathouse shark wasn't working the first couple of days and then the last shark wasn't working the last two days so I never got to see a 100% complete run but I don't care. It was amazing. I think it's my favorite ride ever. I love modern rides but there's something special about an old fashioned mechanical shark jumping out of the water at you.
- Like my visit to TDR, it was *hot* on my trip. It was low 90s, sunny and humid. The water situation was much better here with most of the stands having water and soft drinks. Still felt a little faint after sitting out in the sun a little too much.
- The houses here were not what I expected. So first, they weren't as detailed as the ones in Orlando or Hollywood as far as sets. But they had some unique elements (I'll spoiler them just in case you're planning on going)
The Monsters maze felt pretty Orlando-esque. All the monsters have their little sections and they pop out of their boo holes. The first part of Chucky is pretty standard HHN stuff but when you get to the end, you split into two lines of about 5 or 10 people a piece and line up in a hall. A massive, body part Chucky pops out of the wall behind you and chases you out of the room. The Resident Evil maze was part maze and part game. They had zombies that chased your group in between rooms which was very cool (and a little creepy since I always ended up at the end). You have to memorize or deduce some code throughout the maze and if you do that and shoot a monster with fake guns you win? I think. I don't speak Japanese so I didn't really follow. I won once and then lost twice in my 3 runs.
They also weren't nearly as crowded as the ones in Orlando. I booked two days of HHN express expecting that the lines would be hour+ all day (they open at 10am). Chucky and Monsters I didn't see get above 20, maybe 30 once or twice for Chucky.
- The scare zones were very weird. Guests basically ended up lining up in a massive oval around the scare zone, standing on the sidewalk while the monsters walked through the streets. But you were allowed to walk through the street? My first couple times walking through, I tried to push my way through the sidewalks but once I figured it out, I just started walking through the middle of the street. Lots of good reactions from guests too.
- Like my trip to Disney, I figured that I had tons of time at the park and so I took it pretty easy. Most days I'd stroll into the park around 15 minutes before the posted 9am open time. The one day I got in early (8:15am), I headed right over to the stage to get front row seats to the 10:30am Pokemon stage show. Glad I did since I wanted pics (coming soon when I get home to my PC!). I wasn't alone too, I wasn't the first one at the stage and the entire front row ended up being full an hour before the show. If you want to get the best seats for shows, prepare to wait!
- As far as food goes, I ended up eating at Finnegan's and the Park Side Grill. I didn't have a reservation for either, just walked up to the greeter, put my name on the list and came back when they told me to and got a seat pretty easily.
- Loved the Pokemon stuff at the park. That's the one piece of Japanese media that I consider a fan of. Like I mentioned I ended up waiting for the stage show, doing meet and greets with all of the 5 Pokemon they had (the little costumes were very cute and well done!), waiting 1 hour(!) for the Pokemon restaurant and of course, buying a lot of the merchandise. If this is what replaces Spiderman at USJ, I'm looking forward to seeing what they do with it!
- Not sure if B&M bid on the HRRR project but man, I wish they'd been selected instead of Maurer. Hollywood Dream was a fantastic, graceful B&M mini hyper with some great airtime.
Overall, I really enjoyed my trip. I loved staying close to the park which let me beat the heat and head back to my room for a couple hours to get some good AC. The park itself seemed like a greatest hits type park with some of the best parts of IOA (Spiderman, JP, Hogsmeade) with the highlights from USF (Jaws, Despicable Me) and SNW!
Considering the size of backdraft building is bigger overall than the VCMB building in USF and the fact it presumably won't have to share any space with a black box for HHN, I would hope that they would go with something a bit more substantial than a moving walkway attraction. At the minimum I would hope for something like Pets but with a different IP attached to it. Or it could be something entirely different.
Considering the size of backdraft building is bigger overall than the VCMB building in USF and the fact it presumably won't have to share any space with a black box for HHN, I would hope that they would go with something a bit more substantial than a moving walkway attraction. At the minimum I would hope for something like Pets but with a different IP attached to it. Or it could be something entirely different.
What if they did something like Pets, but with a moving walkway instead of the size restrictive Omnimover? Something like "Trolls World Tour: The Ride". It could be like Small World but with glitter farting Trolls and an even more annoying Justin Timberlake soundtrack.
What if they did something like Pets, but with a moving walkway instead of the size restrictive Omnimover? Something like "Trolls World Tour: The Ride". It could be like Small World but with glitter farting Trolls and an even more annoying Justin Timberlake soundtrack.
I obviously don’t know what all they’re doing to Jurassic Park, but large parts of the ride area are tarped and there was a very large crane placing what looked like small shipping containers backstage.
we could probably have an entire thread dedicated to the excellent merch available at this park, but these just might be my favorite. too much to go for a fully jaws-themed bathroom?
