Day 19 - Universal Studios Osaka Japan - July 13

Universal Studios Osaka

Got up at 6:00am to go to Universal Studios. We wanted to go to Super Mari Land there. If you don’t buy a special pass, which were all sold out, you can get a timed entry pass but only when you are in the park. It officially opens at 9am, unofficially at 8am and the lines start at around 7am. I love how complicated it all is.

There was already an ocean of people queuing when we got there.

I honestly didn’t think we were going to make it, but we did.

We managed to walk onto the Super Mario Cart ride. The queue grew to a few hours shortly after.

Alese bought a wrist band that allows you to punch different Mario type gizmos throughout the area and collect points you can see on a phone app or various displays through the land. 

Some of the lines were 160 minutes, that is a good chunk of a work day just for one ride! And they didn’t get much shorter throughout the day. Unlike parks elsewhere, you can line up 1 minute before closing and you will still get to ride. We always do this. Not in Japan. If there is 160 minutes wait the ride will close 160 minutes before the park does, and sometimes even earlier. We learned this the hard way at Disney Sea saving one of the best rides for last. Ugh.

It was around 35 degrees, so the girls were melting. Even Jaws tank was boiling. There is basically nowhere to sit, inside or out, other than restaurants and even then, there are long lines just to get in. During the day we tried to pick indoor lines up for rides to stay cool.

Check out this pic of the Water World show. It was completely packed, except for the seats in the sun (top middle).

Holy smokes, this place is expensive. For example, 6,900 for a pizza, no drinks included. That is about $67 CAD. Must be my Dutch genes, but seeing that poster I almost past out! Much worse than any coaster.

It was good day out. In true Boonstra style we stayed till they kicked us out.