[Travel Advice] Super Nintendo World and Harry Potter in Japan

Lessons Learned from planning and going to Super Nintendo World and Universal Studios Japan in Osaka

Random Observation/Comment #884: The first step into Super Nintendo World is so cool. You’re literally transported into the movie.

Things to Know

• USJ app is a little crappier than the Disney one - The registration with scanning the QR code from the PDFs does not work smoothly. It’s fine to just screenshot the QR codes and scan them at the door. It’s also annoying that the map dashboard does not show the wait times for the rides immediately. You need an extra click to see the details of the wait times, so it’s much harder to determine the next steps immediately.

• Planning ahead for tickets isn’t intuitive - I tried very hard within the USJ app to buy advanced tickets for lines directly via the website, app, and Klook. None of them worked for me, so we figured we’d just go straight to Super Nintendo World and hang out there for the morning. I still haven’t figured out how to do the tickets that skip the lines.

• Get there by 7:45AM if you want to go to Super Nintendo World - I don’t think the first batch of early visitors risk missing the first entrance wave, but I wouldn’t want to take the risk. It was better to get there early and just casually walk with purpose to the Super Nintendo World. I think you just need to be the first ~600 people.

• Universal Studio Japan Ride review - I think if we went through more of the rides together like we did with Disneyland, we would have felt less stressed to get there early. Evie would have also saved herself some nightmares from that Harry Potter ride.

• Buy the Power-up Band (3200yen) for Super Nintendo - Since you’re there, it makes sense to spend 2-3 hours in the area and play around with the different power-up interactions. There are some crazy adults that care too much about the leaderboard and can crush all the games.

• Don’t over plan if your kiddo doesn’t like rollercoasters - There aren’t really that many rides specifically for a motion sick 7-year-old. I feel like a thrill seeker rollercoaster rider will have a completely different agenda.

• Bring a parasol and reapply sunscreen - It was a hot and humid day in June. Definitely have cash so you can buy little drinks from vending machines throughout the day.

Universal Studios Japan

TL;DR: We’re happy we hit Super Nintendo World (getting in via the first wave), but we wish we went straight to buy the powerband and do the Mario Kart ride. Enjoy the area for a few hours with the power-ups. Harry Potter world is awesome for lunch and beer breaks. Everywhere else was better for those who like rollercoaster rides, but Jurassic Park could be a good break.

Arrived at 7:30AM and went through lines to wait for entrance, which opened at 8:15AM. The commute was within 30 minutes where you take the JR Yumesaki Line from Nishikujo Station to Universal-City. To be honest, just follow the people with kids.

From there, everyone rushed to the Super Nintendo World immediately. This was the longest walk. Vinessa followed the crowd and went into Donkey Kong, but we should have instead went to Mario Kart.

Super Nintendo World

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Yoshi’s ride - This can probably wait after Mario Kart, but we did it right away without a wait. It’s a lovely view of the entire park area and super slow.

Mario Kart was such a long line even when we were there so early. I didn’t really do well on the shooting of shells during the race, but it was unique and such a huge area. The preparation for the ride had a bunch of fake-outs of lines on top of lines.

When you have the power-up wristband, you can connect to the app and see your points and leaderboard. There’s a lot of little games everywhere that could be pretty fun for kids. The points don’t matter, so the kiddos can run around while the adults wait for food or drinks.

Harry Potter World

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TL;DR: Loved coming here for lunch and exploring. The wand is a bit of a rip-off because the lines for the interactions were way too long by the time we got there in the afternoon.

This place is so cool. Definitely come here after you’re fully done with Super Nintendo (because you won’t be re-entering the Super Nintendo World after leaving).

Really immersive Hogsmead area through Diagon Alley. It really feels like you’re in the experience.

Lunch was delicious. Butter Beer does not need to be in the special cheap plastic cup (1800yen vs 800yen). A regular beer in a plastic cup was good enough.

We wound up doing the “Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey” ride so we can walk around the Hogwarts Wizardy School setup itself, but it was obviously too scary for Evie. She probably had her eyes closed through the whole thing. In retrospect, we should have looked through the entire walkthrough to make sure it wasn’t scary. It was definitely scary.

The rest of the time was fun. We bought a wand for ~$40 (but without the interactive). It was honestly a good idea because we weren’t going to stay to go through all of the interaction areas.

Universal Wonderland with Hello Kitty

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We did get tricked into doing a photoshoot with Hello Kitty, but luckily there was no line. We just walked through and took some photos. Nicely air conditioned.

The rest of Wonderland wasn’t really that exciting. A few shops and some teacup-type rides. We got a bit tired after a while and just decided to walk around.

If I were to do this all over again, I’d follow:

1. Super Nintendo World - No need to rush. Get the power-up wristband (3200yen) and go to the Mario Kart line. Stay the morning with collecting points for fun. Definitely do the Yoshi ride.

2. Harry Potter World - Really fun seeing Olivander’s wand experience and just walking around. Come here for a delicious lunch (because the lunch place in Super Nintendo had a crazy long line). I think we could have skipped the ride because Evie will have fear of giant spiders and trees.

3. Jurassic Park - Walk around to take more pictures of Dinosaurs with shows.

4. Wandering around but not many more rides that Evie would like. Super low stress to hit any major rides.

~See Lemons Love Universal Studios