Super Nintendo World - Hollywood (General Discussion)

[BriefCasey]

How's Grand Opening merch looking? Going to CityWalk with a friend in a couple of days, and since we won't be entering the park I kinda wanna know what to expect.

Speaking of which, on my last visit a week ago, I saw items that weren't on the IU tweet, like a magnet, a lanyard pouch and (not pictured) some small towels. That said they also had the selection in the CityWalk store, much to my surprise.

After asking when I went, it seems anything with the colorful art that's in the poster is part of this grand opening lineup. The MK stuff and new lanyard shouldn't be part of that if I heard correctly. They just happen to be on this shelf, it seems.

 

[theblueblurr]

Went yesterday. As previously mentioned by others, don't bother with Toadstool Cafe' if you're not there before a certain time. If you have early entry, use it for the cafe', which is what we did. There was no line but as soon as the park opened, the line became insane (even on a rainy Monday in February). Previously I was told the cafe' would not be open during this early hour but it was.

Wife and I spent the entire day going around and around on Mario Kart trying to improve our scores and get achievement stamps. Here's how I looked at park close:



The only stamp for Mario Kart I am missing now is the "get 20 consecutive hits on enemies" stamp, which I'd be grateful for any tips on. Do the giant dry fish and giant lava Bowser count as "enemies"? Because if they do, I can save my shells and only fire in those two moments. But if they mean strictly the Koopalings, then it'll be a lot tougher for me.

Here's a fun bit of information I didn't previously know and may help folks in a similar situation with other achievement stamps: the TMs walking around the land with the iPad-like devices actually have the ability to award any stamp to your power band. I imagine this is mostly for glitches or folks who maybe forgot to collect a key coin after completing a challenge, etc. For me, I was wondering why I hadn't been awarded the "Get into the top 10 daily score" stamp despite clearly being number 3. Especially since the "Get into the top 10 for Mario Kart score" was awarded to me almost instantly when that one happened.

So I spoke to a TM and we weren't sure if it was an achievement that was awarded at the end of the night, or if I was suffering from some kind of glitch. In order to not chance it, she awarded me the stamp. But I'd be curious to hear from folks here who've gone for this specific achievement: did you need to wait until the end of the night for it to appear? Or did you get it as soon as you made it into the top 10 daily leader board?

 

[baconwhiskers]

Here's a fun bit of information I didn't previously know and may help folks in a similar situation with other achievement stamps: the TMs walking around the land with the iPad-like devices actually have the ability to award any stamp to your power band. I imagine this is mostly for glitches or folks who maybe forgot to collect a key coin after completing a challenge, etc. For me, I was wondering why I hadn't been awarded the "Get into the top 10 daily score" stamp despite clearly being number 3. Especially since the "Get into the top 10 for Mario Kart score" was awarded to me almost instantly when that one happened.

So I spoke to a TM and we weren't sure if it was an achievement that was awarded at the end of the night, or if I was suffering from some kind of glitch. In order to not chance it, she awarded me the stamp. But I'd be curious to hear from folks here who've gone for this specific achievement: did you need to wait until the end of the night for it to appear? Or did you get it as soon as you made it into the top 10 daily leader board?

I've been cheated out of that top 10 stamp for bowser jr so many times now.

The others randomly happened to me the next time I went back or at the end of the night, it seems to be all over the place.

 

[chris.g]

Some good news - I've heard feedback has much improved on more minuscule details and guest satisfaction, especially on Mario Kart amongst pass holders, and Toad's Cafe is insanely high in terms of GSATs all around. Weird enough, one of the stranger feedbacks came through the lack of diversity in merchandise - some guests feel that much of the products throughout the park almost feel unnecessary when shopping within SNW as there does not seem to be a draw for the 1-Up store within the land.

Have heard they still will be addressing some bigger focuses within the coming months, especially in terms of activities and variety among them and offerings.

 

[Brian G.]

Some good news - I've heard feedback has much improved on more minuscule details and guest satisfaction, especially on Mario Kart amongst pass holders, and Toad's Cafe is insanely high in terms of GSATs all around. Weird enough, one of the stranger feedbacks came through the lack of diversity in merchandise - some guests feel that much of the products throughout the park almost feel unnecessary when shopping within SNW as there does not seem to be a draw for the 1-Up store within the land.

Have heard they still will be addressing some bigger focuses within the coming months, especially in terms of activities and variety among them and offerings.

The lack of baby merch was pretty surprising.

 

[Clive]

I'm still waiting to hear if they managed to implement the planned custom conversations for the meet and greets. Scanning your power band for those encounters is supposed to be about more than getting your stamp - it's also supposed to signal topics of conversation that Mario, Luigi, and Peach can acknowledge.

 

[BriefCasey]

The lack of baby merch was pretty surprising.

As in merch for babies or the Baby Characters?

 

[Brian G.]

As in merch for babies or the Baby Characters?

Both - though I get why they don't wanna feature the Baby characters when they aren't in the land.

 

[salismetho]

Some good news - I've heard feedback has much improved on more minuscule details and guest satisfaction, especially on Mario Kart amongst pass holders, and Toad's Cafe is insanely high in terms of GSATs all around. Weird enough, one of the stranger feedbacks came through the lack of diversity in merchandise - some guests feel that much of the products throughout the park almost feel unnecessary when shopping within SNW as there does not seem to be a draw for the 1-Up store within the land.

Have heard they still will be addressing some bigger focuses within the coming months, especially in terms of activities and variety among them and offerings.

This is all very good to hear. GSATs going up for the ride makes sense because that ride really rewards rerides. I've definitely felt (and heard) the lack of merch variety. Frankly there's just hardly anything I want and this is definitely highlighted by the insane amount of SNW stores there are in the park. More activities is nice, what I feel the land really needs is another key challenge but that's probably impossible. Still crazy to me that you can't get most of the drinks in the land, hopefully that's something that gets fixed soon too. Good to see that USH is trying to right its wrongs!

 

[theblueblurr]

On one of our many trips through the Single Rider queue yesterday we did see a team of Universal execs and folks with "Super Nintendo World Project Manager" on their jackers holding clip boards and pointing down at various areas of the land while discussing amongst themselves.

They're definitely thinkin' about fine tuning something.

 

[BriefCasey]

Both - though I get why they don't wanna feature the Baby characters when they aren't in the land.

The funny thing about that is that when the Feature Presentation for the land first opened, they actually had the Hot Wheels Toys among the midst of misc. Mario merch first being sold. There was a large amount of Baby Luigi for some reason.

I think they could get away with it since Yoshi's Island is technically already represented in the queue since there's music from that very game. More variety in general would be nice.

 

[captainmoch]

I'm officially set to go to Universal Hollywood at the end of March! From what I can gather, my group will need to create a virtual line reservation as soon as we enter the park to enter the land, and once you leave the land from reservation, you can't go back in? Just want to make sure I spend my time in the land properly, as I really want to experience everything. (Mario Kart with my group, then a second time single-rider, Toadstool Cafe, Power-Up Band activities)

 

[Gartooth]

Definitely remember watching the Japan videos and being more impressed at the merch variety there than what I saw in Hollywood videos so far. I think 1-Up Factory as the land's main shop could benefit from having a marquee item there too. (Something akin to Japan's Tokotoko Mario)

Also the baby characters aren't in the Hollywood park so it makes sense why they wouldn't be there in merch. Baby Mario and Baby Peach are featured on the Yoshi ride in Japan at least.

 

[AlexanderMBush]

I'm officially set to go to Universal Hollywood at the end of March! From what I can gather, my group will need to create a virtual line reservation as soon as we enter the park to enter the land, and once you leave the land from reservation, you can't go back in? Just want to make sure I spend my time in the land properly, as I really want to experience everything. (Mario Kart with my group, then a second time single-rider, Toadstool Cafe, Power-Up Band activities)

Are you guys planning on spending the extra cash for early entry?

 

[captainmoch]

Are you guys planning on spending the extra cash for early entry?

We probably won't be able to timing-wise, unfortunately. How much will not having it affect things?

 

[Clive]

We probably won't be able to timing-wise, unfortunately. How much will not having it affect things?

It just makes things harder. You need to be inside the park before 10am if you want any shot at getting a virtual queue slot on a crowded day. If at all possible, I'd consider reconfiguring your plans so that you can either invest in the early entry (which does not appear to have been oversold at all) or be at the turnstiles when the park opens to the general public.

 

[captainmoch]

It just makes things harder. You need to be inside the park before 10am if you want any shot at getting a virtual queue slot on a crowded day. If at all possible, I'd consider reconfiguring your plans so that you can either invest in the early entry (which does not appear to have been oversold at all) or be at the turnstiles when the park opens to the general public.

I'll keep that in mind and tell my group, we might be able to make it work. Thanks!

 

[baconwhiskers]

Yeah early entry is a must if you want to experience the power up band games without long waits and get into toad's. Mario kart is just the typical hyped ride, it'll be there regardless.

 

[BriefCasey]

Yeah early entry is a must if you want to experience the power up band games without long waits and get into toad's. Mario kart is just the typical hyped ride, it'll be there regardless.

So is it possible to get a Toadstool reservation during early access then? I'd really like to know this since once I take some friends to the park, I'm dead set on getting early access, but knowing the ropes would be good to know.

 

[theblueblurr]

So is it possible to get a Toadstool reservation during early access then? I'd really like to know this since once I take some friends to the park, I'm dead set on getting early access, but knowing the ropes would be good to know.

I don't think it's possible based on my experience yesterday but maybe if you pushed the right buttons you could? We got into SNW right @ 8am and I was surprised to see that Toadstools was even open since a phone call with Universal told me it would only open with the park. There was no line so I wasn't 100% sure they were open or not, walked up to the greeter TMs and asked for/if I needed a reservation to head inside and they responded with "Nope! Head right on in!".

Leads me to believe they truly only go to that system once it gets too busy. Which was immediately at 9am. We were seated and dined during the early entry hour and stepped back out into the land just after opening and by then the queue wrapped all the way down the exit hallway (where the Thwomp Challenge exits) and back out past the entrance of Mario Kart. -and again, this was on a rainy Monday.

Maybe if you ask the right person or really pressed for it they could hand you a return time? I'm not sure but in case not, I would cozy up to the idea of short rib and pasta for breakfast like we had. Even with hardly anyone seated it took quite a while for our food to come out. I can't imagine what the inside of that restaurant must've felt like later in the day.

Games had long lines all day too, even in the rain. Use your early hour to play games and head into Toadstool Cafe'. If the Mario Kart line gets bad you can always single rider it (we never waited more than a few minutes each time). I can't stress it enough.