Any thoughts, Maurice? Curious to hear what you thought of their version of WaterWorld.
Sorry for the long wait. Life is really busy and I had to take the time to write all this:
Waterworld was hard to follow. First of all we sat at the wrong side of the stage (complete right) and we were constantly looking into the bright sun. Then ofcourse the Japanese language which made the show hard to follow.
I have only seen the WaterWorld show once at Hollywood and it's been years since (2009). From what I remember the show in Japan is different, specially the moment when the planes crashes in. In Hollywood it happens somewhere during the show before the end fight with Deacon. In Japan it happens when Mariner and Deacon are fighting whle Deacon holds the rocket launcher, and during their struggle it goes off.
In Japan the show felt more campier. When Deacon enters for the firest time the song Peter Gunn Theme is played. From my memory this didn't happen in Hollywood.
The thing about the park is that it's really strict about photography and filming. While in Florida I could film the entire Jaws ride, here I was immediately stopped. I wasn't even allowed to film in the queue area of Back To The Future. In Terminator I was just filming the lobby (area before the queue area) and I was immediately approached by a crew member. After I told her the story that I was a big Terminator fan from the Netherlands, she looked doubtful and contacted the manager who came to speak to me. After explaining again she allowed me to film in the queue area but only with her next to me. She told me if she wasn't with me, then I wasn't even allowed to enter another closed waiting row to make a picture of one of the posters on the wall. So with her next to me, I took some photos. The manager was a really nice person. It's just that everything is really strict there. From one side it also felt annoying as with most employees didn't know any English words, but then suddenly the only English they can say are "no camera" or "no filming". If you had any other questions, then they didn't know any English. This was specially the case at the Harry Potter entrance.
For Harry Potter, because it's so crowded, you get timed entry tickets. So you can enter between a certain time window. We had 15:00 - 16:00. The only problem with this system is, that it turns out to be the entrance to that area instead of the attraction. So people with early tickets can enter the park early and get in the queue area line. Most people spend an entire day only in the Harry Potter area, so when we finally entered the area at 15:00 it was enormously crowded that the whole area wasn´t even fun anymore. We walked to Forbidden Journey but there was a waiting line of 170+ minutes. We didn´t want to wait 3 hours for a ride of 4 minutes, so we spoke to an employee who told us we should return at 18:00 because it would become less crowded. We asked if we would need new tickets as we had to give our tickets to an employee when we entered the area. This was not necessary. So we walked away with the idea of returning there at 18:00. When we walked out of the Harry Potter area, I asked an employee there for confirmation if this 18:00 story was correct. He told me that this was not correct and I would need new tickets and could not return. So I was surprised and told him another employee had told me that I could return, and then suddenly he didn't know any English anymore. It was really frustrating, specially when they start to laugh and start talking Japanese to you, knowing you have no idea what they are saying. So I walked angrily away from him.
I experienced Biohazard the Real 2 there. Known in Europe and America as Resident Evil. It's really nice, but they don't explain in English. I'm a Resident Evil fan so I know the story etc, but the lack of English explanation how to acquire new ammo for the gun resulted in my being dead quite quickly. Also annoying if you are a fan of the games (not the movies) and want to experience Raccoon City as being a real city overrun with zombies. Also the zombies are played by human people which makes it very realistic. The only thing is that I fired my shotgun point blank in a zombie's face and the actor didn't even react.
Still it was a nice thing to finally experience. The actors are dressed very nicely. You even Nemesis with the gattling gun, Tyrants stabbing people. It's great but it's also very hectic. Everybody is shouting in Japanese and I noticed that Japanese people are easily scared. They start running into while you're standing next to them when a zombie appears.
Very nice experience. Too bad it has a 60 minutes waiting line to just get a timed entry ticket.
About the other attractions.
Terminator 2 3D
I saw the show twice. The show wasn't crowded as in Orlando, so I sat in the front left and in the middle center. I realised it was my first time in the front and man, you're right in the middle of the action. Fans blowing, searchlights going into the audience, water falling down. I had not experienced this show before so intense. I liked it. As you may know I have never seen the show in Hollywood, but the sound in Japan is great. Make Orlando looks really poor in that aspect. The shotgun sounds like a canon. The negative side on the audio is that gun blasts are just sound effects instead of prop guns firing blanks.
The theming is great. It looks and feels like a sci-fi company. The Japanese Kimberley Duncan talks to people before starting her show, compared Hollywood and Orlando immediately starting the shown when Kimberley appears.
I say Japan has the best theming in this attraction.
Jaws.
It's nice. I have only seen the Florida version long time ago (2008) but I thought it looked the same. I'm doubting about the ending now. I recall that Florida had a more explosive ending than then one in Japan.
What's with the queue line to take a picture with the hanging shark? There's a long waiting line to take a picture with the hanging shark and you have to give your photocamera to an employee so she will take a picture. Why? We didn't want to wait 20+ minutes to take a picture with the shark so unfortunately I don't have a picture with the shark. :-(
Spider-Man.
Same as Florida. We took the single riders lane to avoid a long waiting time in the normal queue. I liked it.
Jurassic Park.
It's the same as Florida but mirrored. Hollywood still has the best version. I think Japan misses a few dino's when you're going up the ramp in the building. We also took the single riders lane here to avoid 40 minutes of waiting. The ride stop early. The park was open 'till 20.00 and we couldn't enter JP anymore at 19:30. Lame :-(
Space Fantasy
Some kind of weird Japanese indoor roller coaster. There are buttons on your car but I have no idea of it's function. It has a nice effect in the ride but I'm not sure if people with epilepsy will like it. It has a room with very bright and heavy light flashes. Again we took the single riders line to avoid losing time at this attraction.
Back To The Future
I had never experienced the show so this was my first time. I liked the effects (fog) and that the car has the timeline etc on it, but this show felt really dated. It didn't make the impact I would have expected. Specially the screen and movie look old and very dated. Too bad.
Backdraft
This was also new for me and I had no idea what to expect except a lot of fire. It's just a demo show and nothing special or so. Since it was also completely in Japanese, I had no idea what the next room was going to bring me. Or what this show was about. So I experienced this as a boring show.
Hollywood Dream
A rollercoaster we couldn't ride because the waiting line was 140 minutes. They have 2 waitings lines, one for going forwards and one for going backwards. Both lines have 140 minutes of waiting lines. We skipped this one.
Forbidden Journey
Nice ride. I think it's exactly the same as in Orlando.
In general & random thoughts:
It's a nice park. It has the old school attraction that we all love: Terminator, Jurassic Park, Jaws, Back To The Future.
It has the nice new attractions: Forbidden Journey, Biohazard the real.
They have 2 entry arches!!
When we visited it was really crowded. 30.000 people. Therefor we first had to go to the Resident Evil timed ticket waiting line which was then 40 minutes. After that we quickly headed to the timed entry ticket line for Harry Potter. It's annoying that the first things you have to do in a park are getting new entry tickets. Specially with long waiting lines. So the first 1 1/2 hours of your visit in the park, you're only standing in lines for entry timed tickest. Not my fun way of starting a day in a theme park. For a long part of the day, I feared I was not able to visit all the attractions that I really wanted to visit. Because of a lot of luck, good planning and taking a lot of single riders line, we were able to experience the attractions we wanted to see. But we couldn't try other things like the Hollywood Dream or the whole Sesame Street/Snoopy area. it was just too crowded while it was a normal workday and there was no holliday going on. We had to miss Shrek, all the (music) live shows, the complete Universal Wonderland area...
Language is a big problem in the park. Nothing is in English. Not even subtitles. Park employes don't talk English and when you ask them something you're getting weird situations (not only the Harry Potter thing, even in the stores with buying items).
Photography and filming is not permitted in a lot of attractions. I wanted a photo of a poster in the guest services. It could only be done if the guest service's employee could control my photocamera and take the picture himself, after asking a manager in the room behind him if a photo was ok.
It's also weird that you're not allowed to film in Back To The Future as the whole ride has already been released legally on Bluray. There are tons of videos of the Terminator 2 3D preshow in America, yet here you're not allowed to film.
The employees are also very strict with the rules. They will not bend them. If anything will be out of the line of normal or regular, then they won't do it. For example I asked if it was possible to take a picture with the Japanese Kimberley Duncan. If I wanted to do 1 special thing in the park, then it would be that. That's because the character of Kimberley is in Japan a completely different character with even a different name. But it was not allowed because it was not regular or normal to do this. These were the rules and they didn't even want to try. Don't get me wrong. I'm not angry or criticizing this, but it shows how strict the rules are in the park. And completely different with the 2 parks in America where they will at least try their utter best to contact at least someone for a request.
What's the deal with the closing time? The park would close at 20:00. Jurassic Park already closed at 19:30. Why?
We tried a lucky shot for Forbidden Journey as we didn't return at 18:00 and we could enter the attraction at 19:55. 5 minutes before closing time. And not waiting line at all. We left the attraction at 20:03 and walked to entrance/exit of the park. We could enter all the gift shops there. We left the park eventually at 20:45 so I have no idea why they list the closing time at 20:00. Specially when Jurassic Park closes at 19:30 and you can still enter Forbidden Journey at 19:55.
Why did they change the Terminator gift shop into a Sesame Street/Snoopy giftshop? Specially when they have a complete area in the park called Universal Wonderland dedicated to these figures and show? They have gift shops in that area so I surprises me that a Terminator gift shop was changed into Sesame Street and Snoopy. Feels weird when leaving the show you enter a shop full of pluche figures not related to the show at all. I know the Terminator gift shop in Orlando didn't have much Terminator stuff, but at least it has something related with a lot of other movie merchandise like Batman, Star Wars, Transformers etc.
I will show more of Terminator 2 3D in Japan in my upcoming Terminator documentaries.