Inside Universal Forums

Welcome to the Inside Universal Forums! Register a free account today to become a member. Once signed in, you'll be able to participate on this site by adding your own topics and posts, as well as connect with other members and unlock our forums features!

  • Signing up for a Premium Membership is a donation to help Inside Universal maintain costs and offers an ad-free experience on the forum. Learn more about it here.

Universal Studios Japan General Discussion

There are valid reasons to praise TDR (perfect maintenance, good customer service, strong attraction lineup including classic attractions with no changes) but the resort is very idolized among the theme park community. Some of that I think is gatekeeping (it's "exotic" and not easy to travel to for many people), or first impressions reacting to the positive differences with the U.S. parks. It's different when you visit somewhere once compared to living there and going back multiple times.

TDR is a strong resort on paper but imo it has always missed the "soul" of a Disney park. There's some critical component missing which it doesn't really get and so it sometimes feels like merely a foreign imitation to me. Plus it has all of the baggage that all Japanese institutions do; reluctance to change, slow to modernize, terrible digital infrastructure, stubbornness against accommodating foreigners etc.
I think Tokyo Disneyland/Disneysea got a strong rep because of comparison to the other parks. I think Disneyland is still doing fine, but WDW is mixed, and who really cares about Paris?
 
Last edited:
I would imagine given the tickets and food are much cheaper at the Tokyo resort it is easier for them to beat people's expectations who will compare it to other Disney parks.
 
One thing USJ does that USO does not is partner with musical artists to promote the parks and IP...from Charli XcX and Galantis with Born to Play to working with popular Japanese artist to promote the parks....and then incorporates those songs into their version of RRR...hollywood dream while we can't even get an update.


If USO were to get into this, they should have The Weeknd do a song for them.
 
"Super Mario Power Up Summer" seasonal event this year, "where guests can get soaked alongside Mario and his friends visiting from Super Nintendo World. The event will occur in Gramercy Park and feature popular characters such as Mario, Luigi, Toad, Princess Peach, and Bowser Jr."

main-2.jpg
 
"Super Mario Power Up Summer" seasonal event this year, "where guests can get soaked alongside Mario and his friends visiting from Super Nintendo World. The event will occur in Gramercy Park and feature popular characters such as Mario, Luigi, Toad, Princess Peach, and Bowser Jr."

main-2.jpg

This slipped by me. Very interesting that they are comfortable letting some of the Nintendo characters exist outside the boundaries of the land itself (beyond parades).
 
I don’t think Bourne can fit into the USJ Terminator. From what I recall it’s a much smaller, landlocked building

Will be interesting to see what replaces it. There’s been no show in there since COVID, unlike Backdraft which has been in use as an anime overlay.
 
This slipped by me. Very interesting that they are comfortable letting some of the Nintendo characters exist outside the boundaries of the land itself (beyond parades).
I mean both companies want money and unlike JK, Nintendo has standards but has zero issues selling out to make a buck.
 


A look everything that'll be closed in the park come January.

If we're lucky, they'll open the T2 replacement at the same time as whatever replaces Spider-Man. Maybe NY goes away altogether and we get a new Pokemon land utilizing the 2 show buildings

Would be a shame if T2 sits empty for years
 


A look everything that'll be closed in the park come January.

If we're lucky, they'll open the T2 replacement at the same time as whatever replaces Spider-Man. Maybe NY goes away altogether and we get a new Pokemon land utilizing the 2 show buildings

Would be a shame if T2 sits empty for years

Yeah this is rough... Both JP and Spider-Man are guaranteed down throughout the entirety of 2024, unless Pokemon is quick retrofit.

Hope HHN is good this year otherwise it might be hard to justify a trip for me.
 
Yeah this is rough... Both JP and Spider-Man are guaranteed down throughout the entirety of 2024, unless Pokemon is quick retrofit.

Hope HHN is good this year otherwise it might be hard to justify a trip for me.
Pokémon is expected to be a 2 year turnaround, so expect 2026 on that. As for T2…. yeah it’ll sit for a long while :confused:
 


A look everything that'll be closed in the park come January.

If we're lucky, they'll open the T2 replacement at the same time as whatever replaces Spider-Man. Maybe NY goes away altogether and we get a new Pokemon land utilizing the 2 show buildings

Would be a shame if T2 sits empty for years

Yeah I’ve been thinking that. T2 and Spider-Man are both gone, so there wouldn’t be any need for the New York theme really. A replacement Pokémon land wouldn’t be so bad. New York in Universal parks is quite boring; aside from Sting Alley.
 
Pokémon is expected to be a 2 year turnaround, so expect 2026 on that. As for T2…. yeah it’ll sit for a long while :confused:
Didn't the now defunct Theme Park University website claim that this Pokemon attraction would reuse the same tracks and projectors as Spiderman? The fact this is taking two years to do makes me think this could very well be a fairly new build with a new track layout and maybe the newer generation SCOOP used on Jurassic World USB and MMOM at EU.
 
Yes, but it won't help.

Also, T2 and Backdraft have effectively been closed since 2020. Flying Dinosaur was also closed when I went there, and let me say, that park is absolutely rough with three downed rides. Like, worse than DCA without RSR and California Screaming rough.
Dang, that’s rough. Before VC, USJ seemed like the best Universal park.
 
Didn't the now defunct Theme Park University website claim that this Pokemon attraction would reuse the same tracks and projectors as Spiderman? The fact this is taking two years to do makes me think this could very well be a fairly new build with a new track layout and maybe the newer generation SCOOP used on Jurassic World USB and MMOM at EU.
The track layout will be the same. The ride vehicles will also be reconfigured a bit.

I should also add, the ministry of magic ride vehicle guests will sit in does not look like scoop at all. That only refers to the underlying mechanics and system.
 
Last edited:
Top