Nick's April 2023 Anaheim/LA Trip Report

[Nick]

Just got back from what pretty much amounted to a 4-day trip in Anaheim and Los Angeles. Could've easily have had an extra day had we left earlier from Orlando, but the people I left with booked a later flight so we got in late. A fifth day would've helped allow us the extra day we really needed to see some other things that we weren't able to get to that we sort of had on our list.

This was not my first time by far taking a trip out here (it was my fifth time and second in the last eight months), however, the friends I was traveling were going for their first time, so we did a bunch of really touristy things. Some I had already done many years ago and was glad to do again, some that were knew, and some that I had done before that I hope to never have to do again. Wish we had left early and gone home late instead of the reverse in retrospect.

Anyway, here was the itinerary we ultimately decided on:
4/11: Arrive late
4/12: DCA
4/13: Disneyland
4/14: Universal Hollywood (first time for me since January 2013)
4/15: LA/Hollywood with no set plan
4/16: Leave from LAX early

We stayed at King's Inn in Anaheim for the whole trip despite the back half of our trip being in LA. King's Inn was great for what we used it for which was basically as a place to sleep and in walkable distance to DLR for our first two days or if we wanted to go to DTD at all the other days (although we were a bit bummed to find out they no longer offer a complimentary breakfast).

We rented a car for a pretty decent price and only had to refill once the whole trip so it wasn't too bad and the car was most certainly worth it over just doing rideshare considering how expensive rideshares are in those tourist areas and going to and from the airport. We got the car off of Vumo instead of a standard rental place. Saved money, had plenty of space and had a nice care for far less than what the big companies charge.

I have a lot to say about the Disney Parks, Universal Hollywood, Super Nintendo World, and all new-to-me (and some old) things. I'll also work in what my friends thought about different things and give what their takeaways were. I'll continue starting with DCA later on.

 

[Jake S]

looking forward to hearing more about the trip! for simplicity's sake, I think you made the right call by picking a home base hotel and committing to a bit of driving.

 

[Nick]

So Day 1!

We planned out two days to go to Disneyland with one day passes since the friends I was going to had never been to either park so we wanted to spend a full day in both parks originally. Tbh, I kinda wish on the DCA day we bought a park hopper so we could get a head start on Disneyland, but that's something we can learn from. A bit of backstory quickly on what my friends wanted to see here... One friend was pumped to see Avengers Campus (I tried to lower his expectations as much as possible) and another is a bit more of a fan of how things work and really enjoys practical effects, cool AAs and really intricate and fun rides (or even cool and simple attractions).

We got to the park a tad later than we wanted to. Park opened at 8, we got there at 9:45. I wasn't too worried about it though with DCA since it's a park that is relatively small compared to Disneyland in terms of the amount of things to do, especially bigger stuff. We didn't all get Genie+ on this day since we didn't think it was worth it. My Marvel loving friend did get it, but only for the photo pass that's included with it so he could get all the pictures he took with the Marvel characters (some of which turned out really cool).

We did the park in an odd order and just sort of explored and if we deemed a wait time too high we came back later. We started at Mission Breakout and everyone agreed they liked it as a more FUN experience than Tower, although it's still hard to compare if it's an overall better experience to the DHS version since this doesn't have the fifth dimension scene. We then looked around Avengers Campus quickly, checked out the construction at Pacific Wharf/San Fransokyo, and then did Mermaid, Incredicoaster, watched the Spider-Man AA Stunt show, and had Lunch at Pym Test Kitchen before heading back to the hotel to grab something for a bit.

For lunch we I had the Pym-ini Sandwich and split the cost of the Bavarian Pretzel with a friend since that Pretzel is too big for one person anyway. While eating lunch we also watched the Black Widow vs. Taskmaster show which I somehow missed during my last visit. I got my picture taken with a few characters I hadn't seen before and showed Shang-Chi some love since no one seemed to care that he was out there (granted his superhero costume makes him blend in with the regular CMs in the land). After we got back from the hotel (needed a better sweatshirt and Jeans), we sort of wandered for a little while before landing at RSR. This is where our troubles for the Disneyland trip as a whole began.

We got in the Single Rider line since the Stand-By was a lot longer. I believe Stand-by was around 80+ and we were told SR was around 30. While waiting, the ride broke down around 3 times based on how many times they told us it was down in line after telling us it was working again. It was around 45 minutes once finally getting on. Then once on, we all broke down. I made it all the way to the final scene before you go out on the track before stopping, friends stopped a bit earlier. They tried to make us leave without giving us anything for the breakdown, finally with enough people complaining they just reluctantly let us all re-ride properly.

It was starting to get later in the day at this point so we went and did the Pal Around, Golden Zephyr, Redwood Creek, Soarin Over California (which was refreshing to see), Mike & Sulley, WEB Slingers, and then hit RSR one last time at about a 5 minute wait in stand-by. We had enough time to do something like Mater's Junkyard Jamboree, but we didn't really care enough since we have Swirling Saucers in Orlando. Same reason we didn't do TSMM while we were there. We would've done it if it had a shorter line, but oh well. No loss. Also didn't do Grizzly River Run given it was a pretty chilly day and didn't do Sky School since it was a 70 minute wait and Single Rider was closed. It also wasn't a big loss though since once you've been on one wild mouse, you've sort of been on them all.

Last for the day was watching World Of Color: One. This is the third different version of the show i've seen as i've previously seen the original (most recently in September) and I also saw the 60th anniversary show twice. I had sort of low expectations for whatever reason and I still came away feeling just "meh" on the show with a bit of a negative slant.

Nothing in this show felt like it cohesively went together to form a show that was telling a story unlike prior versions of WoC i've seen. This felt very much like they just slapped a clip show together and said it's a new version of World of Color. The odd part about it I felt was it is a 100th anniversary show, but almost everything in it is new within the past five years or something Disney purchased. The original WoC is still probably the best, but that one feels dated whereas this version felt too modern and included a bunch of things that doesn't resonate deeply with people aside from Moana, Mulan, Avengers, and Star Wars. It seemed like that was a lot of parts in the show where it was meant for there to be applause and it was just dead silent.

Anyways, fun long day at DCA. Disneyland is next. I'm thinking that might be a two-parter for the day as we were there pretty much from 9 to midnight and crammed as much as possible into those hours and while I just absolutely love the park, it also has some issues i'll address. Oh, forgot to mention, Marvel loving friend said he actually liked Web Slingers more than IOA Spidey ride. Idk if that's recency bias and they are two completely different ride that I both find fun, but also very tough to compare since they are so different. He said he liked that in this ride you got to actually be Spider-Man.

 

[CyborgDinosaur]

My family and I went to DCA for the first time last month, and they also thought Web-Slingers was better than the Amazing Adventures of Spider-Man. They all also seemed much more impressed with it and IncrediCoaster than Radiator Springs Racers. It honestly made me feel like I was living in an alternate reality, but I guess they really like gameified rides (Toy Story Mania and MarioKart were also some of their favorite rides of the trip).

 

[Nick]

My family and I went to DCA for the first time last month, and they also thought Web-Slingers was better than the Amazing Adventures of Spider-Man. They all also seemed much more impressed with it and IncrediCoaster than Radiator Springs Racers. It honestly made me feel like I was living in an alternate reality, but I guess they really like gameified rides (Toy Story Mania and MarioKart were also some of their favorite rides of the trip).

Ah, wait until I get to the USH part of the trip! Marvel loving friend is also a HUGE Nintendo fan.

On the topic of Incredicoaster, it is insanely rough and the track looks so dang worn out. It’s a 22 year old coaster that has run every day for 12+ hours per day outside of the Covid closure and you can really feel that. It needs a retrack badly.

 

[Clive]

Ah, wait until I get to the USH part of the trip! Marvel loving friend is also a HUGE Nintendo fan.

On the topic of Incredicoaster, it is insanely rough and the track looks so dang worn out. It’s a 22 year old coaster that has run every day for 12+ hours per day outside of the Covid closure and you can really feel that. It needs a retrack badly.

It’s been experiencing a lot of downtime, too, so it isn’t just you.

 

[Tobias]

Nice report so far! Though there is something I do wanna' mention.

We had enough time to do something like Mater's Junkyard Jamboree, but we didn't really care enough since we have Swirling Saucers in Orlando.

I know I'm not alone on this one, out of the two, Mater's is the better version. It honestly feels like it runs faster so it has more of a kick to it.

 

[Nick]

Nice report so far! Though there is something I do wanna' mention.


I know I'm not alone on this one, out of the two, Mater's is the better version. It honestly feels like it runs faster so it has more of a kick to it.

I've personally done MJJ plenty of times and tbh while there may be slight more kick to it, it wasn't memorable enough to the point that I wanted to make it a point to ride it if no one else cared to. We only had about 5 minutes left of the park being open or so and we were headed to go out and get a spot for WoC anyway.

Day 2 report at Disneyland coming soon!

 

[Nick]

Day 2 - Part 1

Day 2 was our Disneyland day and we had an aggressive and daunting task ahead of us in terms of what we wanted to get done. To make sure we got as much done as possible, we purchased Genie+ as soon as entering the park, got a Genie+ reservation for Indy (for around 2pm I believe), and then went ahead to do the Castle walkthrough, head over to SWGE, have an impressively lengthy and fully in character conversation with Rey, and then got in line for Rise. Even though we have SWGE in Orlando, one of my friends still had not been so this would be his first time on the ride.

Unfortunately, after our run in with breakdowns at RSR the day prior (and WEB Slingers being down part of the day), we were evacuated from the line after getting all the way to the First Order base. We were given a Lightning Lane return time however, so not terrible, although it did cost us some valuable time. So after that, it was already 11:30 and we still hadn't ridden a single ride and had only done that castle walkthrough so it was time to put the gears into motion. After leaving SWGE, we stopped at the Davy Crockett Explorer Canoes which was a virtual walk on and even with this being my fifth time in Disneyland, this was my first time getting a chance to do this attraction. When I went in 2013, i'm not sure I even knew it existed and in 2016 and 2017 the ride was down along with everything on the Rivers of America while they reconfigured the waterway in preparation for SWGE.

Next we did Splash Mountain while it was still relatively warm out for what is now officially my last time on the ride as Splash. We got on pretty quick as we were able to book a quick Genie+ for it and it was time for it by the time we walked over to the ride. Having now been on the DL version of the ride enough times now, i've decided I like the seating style in the DL version much better (1 person per row) rather than MK's 2 per row, even if that means lower capacity. It feels a lot more like a real log flume should since the RV isn't as wide. After Splash, we finished off Critter Country by doing Pooh quickly.

We then went and did Pirates at a 20 minute wait (I think it was a little less). Absolutely love this version and makes our version in MK look pitiful in comparison. After Pirates it was after 1pm so we all met up at Rancho del Zocalo for lunch. This was the first time I had eaten here and I really liked the menu selection. Ended up choosing the three tacos which I enjoyed. While at lunch we booked a Genie+ for the Haunted Mansion which was right before out Genie+ time for Indy. After this ride, were were somehow able to book a 3pm Genie+ for Space Mountain even though it was all the way up to 6pm earlier in the day.

So we went and did Indy quickly and did Space Mountain by 3pm. Considering the fact that we didn't actually get on a ride until 11:30a, I felt pretty good about where we were at by 3pm after Space Mountain, although i'll admit this would not have been possible without paying for Genie+ (given we knocked out 5 attractions with fairly long lines with Genie+ just in this part of the day). By this time we had pretty much finished everything along the Rivers of America since Big Thunder Mountain was closed for refurb and the only ride left in Adventureland was Jungle Cruise. We were saving Fantasyland for at night anyways so we had a plan for later in the day to get the other things on our list done by this point.

After Space Mountain, we used a quick Genie+ to get Star Tours done and then that sort of ends the first half of our day. Some things I did want to note here. One of my friends I was with (more familiar with Disney than the big marvel fan I referenced yesterday) did say he "liked" Indy, but felt a bit let down after all of the hype surrounding it. He actually said that given Indy and Dinosaur are so similar, he actually prefers Dinosaur. Also said he preferred this version of Splash and Pirates.

Speaking of Splash, it was fun riding it one last time, but man was it sort of in rough shape in some spots. The AA's were fine with the exception of a few, but the lighting was very, VERY dimly lit inside the attraction making it hard to actually see some show scenes. Unfortunate that it seems they've given up on it with the closure coming up.

Part 2 of the day at Disneyland will be next later on!

 

[Nick]

Day 2 - Part 2

Continuing with the day the three of us had at Disneyland, we stopped for a little bit to watch Magic happens during it's 3:30 performance. Didn't watch the whole parade since we had other things we were trying to do, but I saw about 5 floats while waiting for them to let us cross the street and it was enjoyable enough for a daytime parade.

From here we were heading back to SWGE. This is where our day hits some bumps again. First we went and I saw Mando and Grogu for the first time as i've yet to do that at DHS. Then we headed back over to Rise to use our Lightning Lane only to find out it was broke down AGAIN and not only that, but the ride was only open until 9pm even though the park (and SWGE as a whole) was open until midnight. So at this point we were freaking out a bit that we may not get on. Wouldn't be that big of a deal usually since i've been on it quite a few times, but my friends hadn't so I really wanted to see their reactions.

Anyways, next we left out the Critter Country exit and hit the Disneyland Railroad at the New Orleans Square Station where we got a good look at the Tiana's Palace work. Unfortunately with overall train capacity down (to only two trains on the track at a time) the wait was longer than one would hope, but we waited as one of my friends is a big train geek and also likes Dinosaurs so he wanted to see the Primeval World part of the train.

We got on the train with about a 15 minute wait or so (roughly about 4:45pm at this point, so quite a bit of time had been lost by having to go to SWGE and then find out Rise was closed again). We got on the train with a goal of doing a full circle tour. We took the nice scenic route over the Rivers of America, stopped at Toontown and continued onto Tomorrowland. Here we were told that the train was indefinitely down. We waited it out a few minutes and once we realized it was our train causing the issues, we just got off and moved on. Another breakdown.

So now it's after 5pm, we only have 7 hours left in our day and we also were planning on watching both nighttime spectaculars so we didn't exactly have a full 7 hours left to do rides. We had what I thought was a pretty decent plan from here out though. We went BACK to SWGE again since we wanted to make sure we got on it before the 9pm close and while it actually worked. This time we actually got on Rise and with the LL they gave us we were in the preshow within 5 minutes so at least there's that. Review from friend who hadn't been on it said he was worried it wouldn't exceed prior to the hype before riding. After he said it actually EXCEEDED his expectations, mostly because while he was expecting it to be a really cool ride with lots of practical sets, he wasn't expecting the drop portion.

After Rise, stopped quickly to grab a Ronto Wrap, and then headed to Single Rider for Smugglers Run. I had two kids driving on my ride and wow, what a dang bumpy ride. Consensus was that Star Tours kind does it better although it's cool to be inside the Falcon. Again, one of my friends had not been on the ride which is why we did it (it was a literal walk on with no one else in SR queue anyway). During this time we were in SWGE, we grabbed a Genie+ for the Matterhorn for 7:30 I believe.

This was a long day and this post is running long so i'll just post this and then do a Part 3 shortly after. Makes it easier to read than one long essay.

 

[Nick]

Day 2 - Part 3
In the mean time we quickly stopped and grabbed the new recently announced specialty version of Blue Milk called the "Mon Carla Swirl". We grabbed them and walked over to the Red Rose Tavern to sit down and drink them since it was starting to get pretty chilly out and the sun hadn't been out all day. I've never been a big fan of either Blue or Green Milk at all. I'd say i've bought either kind a combined less than five times. I mostly preferred the Blue Milk if I had to choose so I decided to get the Mon Carla Swirl although there was a Specialty for Green Milk as well.

Coming from someone that really doesn't like Blue or Green Milk, the Mon Carla Swirl is MILES better than regular blue milk, actually refreshing, and it has a much more distinct taste as it's soury sweet. I'd go as far to recommend it as a dessert option and say it's one of the best dessert options on property now. Not sure if DHS has this version but if so, i'll be spending a lot more money in SWGE.

After finally leaving SWGE for good (although i'm glad we went back or I never would've gotten that Mon Carla Swirl!), we went to hit our Matterhorn Genie+ return. This is sort of where we split off as a group for the night. On of my friends wasn't feeling all that great but wanted to see Fantasmic so he went to just people watch and grab a spot. My other friend and I kept going and actually would do the later Fantasmic. When I went in September, Matterhorn was down for refurb so this was my first time being able to ride since 2017 and it was exactly like I remembered. Friend said it's everything that you'd hope a 60+ year old ride would be like and was surprised by how small of a footprint it took up in the park.

After that we sort of got on a roll a bit going from Matterhorn, Buzz, and IASW all with quick G+ return times. We wanted to see Wondrous Journeys at 9:30 and by this time it was about 8:45. We waited about 10 minutes for Jungle Cruise, did that ride and went under a rope for a pretty decent spot for Wondrous Journeys. Unfortunately, it started to get a bit breezy out and the fireworks got cancelled for the show (a Disneyland first for me, maybe i'm lucky it took this long though ).

I thought the show was fine as a clip show and can totally see how it could've been great as a fireworks show. We just didn't have any fireworks. Thankfully the Blue Fairy and Baymax still flew though which was cool, especially Baymax. Even with fireworks I can guarantee this doesn't rank as high as DL Forever as far as DL firework shows for me. Asked friend if he liked this show or World of Color: One better and he honestly couldn't answer the question in the moment, although he did say he thought the was more of a story/theme with this show so just comparing clip shows Wondrous Journey's won out even without fireworks and I sort of agreed. Eek.

After the show ended, we rushed to the Subs and got on pretty quick. Third member of the group went home after castle show so it was just me and one other friend for the rest of the night. Friend really enjoyed Subs having done 20K as a kid and liked that they kept certain bits. After Nemo we did Pinocchio as we were walking through Fantasyland and pretty much walked on (as per usual) just to get it out of the way and then we made it over to Rivers of America just as the 10:30pm Fantasmic! was starting. We tried to get as center of a spot as possible so I had my mind on the Pirates bridge location and there was still room.

This was only my second time seeing Disneyland's Fantasmic!, part of that due to it being closed in 2016 and 2017 when I visited last before last year. Imo it blows ours out of the water (pun not intended). Friend wasn't as overly impressed, but still said he liked it more. The Pirates sequence and the Dragon really pushed it over the top, but he was also geeking out over the most technical aspects of how the show runs logistically in terms of getting all the performers to the island, if there's dressing rooms on the island etc (he's an entertainer for a living).

After Fantasmic!, we were entering our final hour of park time. Friend wanted to quickly get some night photos of SWGE, then we walked over to Fantasyland to do some damage. We closed out the night by doing Casey Jr., Mr. Toad, Alice, and CARtoon Spin. The hope was we'd have time to fit in MMRR as a last second ride, but it wasn't to be. Oh well. It's a ride we have in Orlando and by the end of the night my friend actually said this made him want to get an AP at WDW for the first time in awhile to do the many things he hasn't done there.

MMRR was the only major ride in the park we missed. We didn't get everything done that we wanted. Second trip in a row I missed the DL Monorail and Autopia is a lot more fun than the Tomorrowland Speedway. We also skipped Peter Pan since it has a (worse) counterpart in Orlando and Snow White since I didn't particularly care and friend had been on the Orlando ride before it closed. The main things we cared about that didn't get done were Monorail, Storybook Canal (although you can see most of it from Casey Jr.), Tom Sawyer Island/Pirates Lair, or either of the two ships.

However with only one day to do Disneyland, I think we did pretty dang good to hit as much as we could and we would've been able to fit a few more rides in for sure had there not been those ride breakdowns. Was a great day at Disneyland regardless. Good night, Disneyland. Until next time.

 

[Jake S]

Then we headed back over to Rise to use our Lightning Lane only to find out it was broke down AGAIN and not only that, but the ride was only open until 9pm even though the park (and SWGE as a whole) was open until midnight.

this is common for a reason I have yet to discover, and it's extremely frustrating.

 

[Nick]

this is common for a reason I have yet to discover, and it's extremely frustrating.

Given how often it seems to breakdown just from my trip alone, is it possible they are still tweaking the ride to get it to work more reliably?

 

[Jake S]

Given how often it seems to breakdown just from my trip alone, is it possible they are still tweaking the ride to get it to work more reliably?

that's my best guess. I don't think it has anything to do with fireworks, nor to do with long waits at the end of the night, which makes me think that protecting it from a reliability standpoint is a fair guess.

 

[OrlandoGuy]

Nice report! I agree you did pretty well for one day

I haven’t been to Disneyland in years but always found they seem to have a notable amount of ride downtimes in a given day, which is frustrating. But it’s also consistently open 17 hours a day which is definitely not normal and I guess has something to do with it. Rise closing early, kind of reminds me of how Transformers and Gringotts have to close early on HHN nights—some rides just need more sleep I guess.

Looking forward to more!

 

[Jerroddragon]

Sounds like you had a pretty good trip, sorry about the fireworks and rides breaking down sadly apart of DLR since it reopened and wish hey would get the rides look at more like back before covid.

Next time if you have time I'd check out Snow white, while I do miss the forest the ride now to me is pretty dam good. So if you have time next time I'd go on Snow White because of the new effects and ending

 

[Nick]

Nice report! I agree you did pretty well for one day

I haven’t been to Disneyland in years but always found they seem to have a notable amount of ride downtimes in a given day, which is frustrating. But it’s also consistently open 17 hours a day which is definitely not normal and I guess has something to do with it. Rise closing early, kind of reminds me of how Transformers and Gringotts have to close early on HHN nights—some rides just need more sleep I guess.

Looking forward to more!

I do wish we had gotten a park hopper on the DCA day even if just to be used for a few hours. We stayed all the way until the last WoC and past park close, because we only had a one park pass, but honestly we were pretty satisfied with what we did in DCA by around 8pm and tbh we took it fairly slow. Had we moved faster and had a better plan of attack earlier on, we could easily have shifted over to DL for a bit before WoC, saw the 9pm WoC, and then went back to Disneyland until midnight.

Doing that would've allowed us a jump on the next day and got us to knock out a decent amount of rides (probably *almost* all of fantasyland and Toontown) and our main Disneyland day we wouldn't have been so rushed. Oh well, it was still plenty fun though.

Sounds like you had a pretty good trip, sorry about the fireworks and rides breaking down sadly apart of DLR since it reopened and wish hey would get the rides look at more like back before covid.

Next time if you have time I'd check out Snow white, while I do miss the forest the ride now to me is pretty dam good. So if you have time next time I'd go on Snow White because of the new effects and ending

I have actually done the updated Snow White (did it on my trip around Labor Day). So by the end of the night I was just letting my friend call the shots and sort of acting as a guide to help him with best route to do the things he wanted since it was his first time doing a bunch of those rides in general. That's why, while he wanted to do as much as possible, things like PPF, Snow White, Disneyland Monorail, Autopia (although I tried to talk him into it), MMRR, and a few other things were less of a priority because we either have similar versions or used to.

No fireworks was definitely a bummer, especially because Halloween Screams would be performing again if my family goes through with a tentatively scheduled trip later this year. I'm kinda trying to push them toward an Early December trip though so we can see the park in Holiday decor but sort of moderate crowds.

 

[Nick]

Day 3 - Universal Studios Hollywood!

Another day a going to a theme park and another day getting there one hour and change after it opens lol. Honestly, we did leave a lot earlier on this day than the Disneyland days however, knowing that we wanted to get to the park early-ish to get reservations for SNW. We left our hotel in Anaheim right around 8 on a Friday (which had us worried about traffic big time). It took about an 60-70 minutes to get there and then we stopped for breakfast to go quickly before entering the parking garage. It was around 9:20am by the time we started walking from the ET garage and then about 10 minutes to walk from the garage to when we were in the park.

As soon as we walked into the park, all three of us made reservations for three people into SNW at different times throughout the day so that we could go back multiple times if we wanted to. I was actually really surprised they were allowing each person to make reservations for more than just themselves and not restricting reservations to one entry per day per ticket. Anyway, I hadn't been to the park since New Years Day 2013 and friends had never been. With all the changes, a good chunk of the park was new to me as well, especially counting certain things that I didn't do a decade ago.

First thing we did was the Studio Tour. Got on it extremely quick, maybe a 5 minute wait. Quick question: Why the hell the Studio Tour still listed as being "hosted by Jimmy Fallon" when he's only on screen for about 30 seconds at the beginning of the tour? I'd think calling it Studio Tour "featuring Kong 360 and Fast & Furious: Supercharged" would work better, but I digress. Tour was pretty much as I remembered it. It's more of an experience than a Studio Tour, but still cool to have in the park.

Of note, Kong actually seemed like a worse experience on the tour and F&F seemed better. I think that's because the Kong ride at IOA actually adds to the 360 section and fully immerses you beyond the tunnel and it also has a killer queue. I say F&F seemed "better" because for waiting only 5 minutes to get on this Studio tour, I got a 45 minute experience that just happened to include Supercharged. No skin off my back that it stinks. with a 5 minute wait for Supercharged at USF, literally you are pretty much getting no notable queue, an awkward preshow, and then pretty much just a copy and paste of the tunnel sections on the tour with a few added scenes where nothing happens in the beginning.

After we got off of the tour, it was approaching 11 and our first return time for SNW, so we headed down the escalators, I stopped at the Nintendo store outside the land to buy a Power Up band because I had made up my mind I was going to earlier, and then we scanned into the land. I've seen enough pictures that I had a good idea what the land looked like, but it's still a really cool looking area with a ton of moving objects and really feels like a Super Mario game come to life as intended. They did great in that aspect.

Unfortunately, we were too late by the time we had checked to get a Toadstool Cafe reservation so lunch in the land wasn't happening, and I almost instantly regretted the Power Up Band purchased as with it being a slap on band type of thing, it kept trying to fall off my arm. I complained about it and they sent me to a team lead at the store that Bowsers challenge exits into and they gave me a little rubber piece that imo should come packaged with the band. It was free, but I had to jump through hoops to get it. From there on out it did fit nicely however.

So far to this point in the day, I wasn't overly impressed with the land. We started to commit to waiting an insanely long time for Mario Kart, but we decided with it getting close to when we wanted to eat, we might as well wait. So at this point two out of the three of us left the land (with the friend who stayed until midnight leaving with me). Other friend really likes Nintendo so I left him my Power Up Band and he stayed to take in the area.

We left to go next door to Jurassic World. Figured we'd try and knock this one out when it was still about as warm as it was gonna get for the day since it was gonna be pretty chilly at night. We only had about a 15 minute wait off a listed 30. I do enjoy our JP version of the ride and am a bit conflicted on if I think the Mosasaurus part anything much. However, what I am quite sure of in my own opinion at least is that pretty much everything inside of the showbuilding was leaps and bounds better the the Orlando counterpart. The finale of the ride being the I-Rex and the T-Rex battling was great too. This version just seemed more fun too.

We then went to the upper lot looking for lunch and we weren't trying to wait in long lines and search for tables, so after basically walking around the whole upper lot, we decided on a hot dog stand on one of the escalator platforms. It was then time for our next time slot for SNW so we went in again. Our other friend was still in there and had ate(!) since he was able to find his way into Toadstool Hall without a reservation. As much as we were jealous, as soon as I looked at the menu and the prices, a lot of that went away since it seemed like a lot of it was pretty generic theme park food with huge price markups since it was Nintendo.

This post is running long so i'm going to cut it here, but next post will start off with us going on Mario Kart and i'll give a bit of a review of the land in it's entirety after having experienced that.

 

[Nick]

Day 3 - Universal Studios Hollywood! (Part 2)

So jumping back into this, we got in line around 2pm with a wait that said 150 minutes. I thought a lot of this queue looked really good overall with the only questionable part being what I can only assume is a part of the queue that is meant to be extended queue space that they are now having to use every day currently. Over the coming years this will probably ease up and they won't have to use that part all of the time i'd assume. One thing I thought was really cool was the screens that literally looked fully glasses-less 3D. Does James Cameron know about this and why is it not being implemented in premium movie theaters???

One we finally got to the preshow, I have to admit, the video made the ride seem a lot more confusing than it really is. I didn't find that load seemed too slow imo although extra seconds here and there if someone needs help putting on the glasses have to add up over time. Once it was finally our turn to ride, I was ready to go. with my expectations in check. Everyone found the glasses pretty easy to put on which was good. Once we got going, it took a few seconds at most, but it really comes natural in terms of aiming and of course simply turning the wheel. I guess Men In Black is sort of a good comp here and honestly I need more rides on MK to determine what i'd say is better although I think MIB may still take it. My team did win, btw.

That being said, I did highly enjoy the ride, it was longer than I thought, I also didn't have an issue with the speed as I felt the simulated speed with fans etc was pretty good. Was it worth a 2 hour+ wait? No. But was it a fun ride and will families absolutely eat this up not only in Hollywood and Japan, but in Orlando for years to come? Yes. Would I wait that long for the ride again? No, i'd do single rider.

As far as SNW goes as a whole in Hollywood, eh. Great theming and fun enough Mario Kart ride, but the only other free thing in the land to do besides stare at the theming or wait hours to go on the ride is to meet the characters, of which there's only a Mario & Luigi M&G and a Peach M&G. Everything else is pay-to-play. Toadstool, the Power-Up Blocks, and quite literally four entire mini attractions cannot be done without the purchase of a $40 Power-Up Band (The Key locations and then the Bowser Jr. area). Not a fan of that at all. I do realize that the SNW in Hollywood is essentially going to be the worst version once Epic opens so I may not mind the pay-walled mini games there as much because there will be two extra rides.

Anyway's, moving on. We showed up fairly last minute to catch the 4:45 WaterWorld. I've never seen it before this so I was extremely excited since i've only heard great things and it did not let me down. Best theme park stunt show i've ever seen easily and the only theme park show that rivals the quality put on here is DCA's Aladdin & Frozen when I saw those, albeit musicals are so different from a stunt spectacular that it's like comparing apples and oranges.

Directly after doing WaterWorld, we hopped over and did Dreamworks Theater. I didn't really have any expectations here, but I had heard good things in the past. I kinda liked what was teased a bit in the preshow for an idea of a show (a bunch of different Dreamworks characters coming together for a show), but this was fine. Was sort of like if Shrek 4D had been made with today's technology which was really the extent of my expectations.

From here, the rest of the night sort of filled in although we had to wait it out a bit since we forgot to get VQ's for SLOP early in the day (we quickly realized this mistake around 11am. I want to say). We just sort of wandered the upper lot going through and checking out Super Silly Fun Land, Minion Cafe (mostly so we could compare it to ours in Orlando when it opens), and the whole area leading to SLOP which I was impressed with how well themed it was. We asked the ride attendants if it would go to Standby at all and they said it should around 8:30 or 9. So we filled time by going down to the lower lot again.

We got in line for Mummy which said 60 minutes on the sign but was probably closer to 25-30 mins. I enjoyed that this version strayed away from the movie set theme and that it was doing it's own thing story-wise, but the ride was just not as good as the Orlando counterpart and felt like it came to an abrupt ending. That old ET ride building is pretty big so why does it feel shorter than Orlando's? Anyway, after Mummy, we did single rider for Transformers, and then when we got off, SNW was open for anyone to go in so we went in for some night photography quickly before heading up to go ride SLOP.

After taking in the Lower Lot at night, we mercifully took the escalators for the last time of the night (it really is a pain getting between the upper and lower lot), we took some night pictures on our way to SLOP and then got in line. Absolutely loved the queue for this ride. So many physical set pieces and AA's all around you and best of all, it's not a tease situation where the queue is better than the ride! The queue is a setup to get you ready for the kind of ride it's about to be, which is how it should be. I'd never even seen SLOP, and I was smiling the whole time on this ride and I enjoyed it so much that i've since watched the movie due to how much I liked the ride. More of this kind of ride please!

Lastly, we quickly went into WWoHP for the first time all day to watch the Dark Arts show. Thought it was pretty good with a solid run time. Overall on the day, WaterWorld and Secret Life of Pets were my favorite things that we did. Both short wait for a high quality experience. Super Nintendo World like I said looked really good and the ride was fine, but i'd have rather waited 2+ hours for SLOP than for Mario Kart if we're being honest and the rest of the land left way too much to be desired knowing what Japan has and what EU is getting. It felt like a poor man's attempt at the land.

We didn't do Minion Mayhem, Simpsons, or either ride in WWoHP since all are exact clones of their counterpart in Orlando. Overall it was another fun day and can't wait to return once the F&F coaster is open. After leaving, we finished the night off by stopping not at the packed In-N-Out near our hotel, but at the delicious falafel place across the street from In-N-Out with very few people there. Their fries were probably better, too

 

[OrlandoGuy]

Really enjoying reading this. Glad to hear that long waits in Nintendo didn’t keep you from doing everything you wanted to do and overall it sounded like a nice day at the park.

I’ve often wondered what I was missing in terms of the “pay to play” nature of Nintendo World; given this board’s disdain for the Galaxy’s Edge upcharge options I figured I was missing something but seems based on your review that they’re real similar in that regard. I agree that a couple of extra rides will help with that aspect in Orlando.

Also surprised to hear the Mummy was a little unimpressive relative to Orlando—I’ve never ridden it but was under the impression it was more roller coaster which I think I would like.

Looking forward to more!