Blog Space for Bitbit Gems: 2015/03

Probably this is the only place where I could have less stress in mind except for planning on how to get to USJ from hotel and there is only subway not JR.

GOOD MORNING! It was a beautiful morning, no expected shower and will be sunny. Good day for USJ. We choose to have a hearty breakfast at the hotel before heading out because things at USJ would be costly.

View from our hotel unit

Grill salmon for breakfast, yum!

Since we already have our pre-printed tickets, we took our own sweet time. Time to leave the hotel after the breakfast!

For our case, we stayed at Shinsaibashi, so we took subway from Shinsaibashi on the Nagahori-Tsurumi-ryokuchi Line (N or Green Line) to Taisho (subway). Get out of Taisho-subway and change to JR Taisho station. JR Nishikujo is just 2 station away.

After figuring out which direction from Shinsaibashi subway and where to change to JR (Subway transfer to JR), it was not that difficult getting to Universal City. At worst case you can try tagging a group of youngsters or students. The possibility of them going to USJ is almost 99.9% when you are at JR Nishikujo station running on the JR Yumesaki line, just 2 stations away from Universal City.

At JR Taisho station

We reached Universal City Station. Both sides lined with the USJ hotels and shopping mall, walk through and you will come to the gate of USJ.

First thing after entering USJ, we passes all children parks and cheong to get the time-pass for Harry Potter (HP) theme park before we go around other themes of the park. Don't call us Kiasu, everyone did the same irregardless of your citizenship! Too crowd that day due to many students having their winter holiday visit, I guess, the park is quite full. I am sure every visitors want to visit HP if they go to USJ.

We have only 1 hour prior to our time slot for HP, so we went around without other rides. We went to The Jaws, then we stopped at Jurassic Park. Well, guess what, we recee first, see what we want, hahhhaa...

The Jaws

Jurrassic Park The Ride

Jurassic Park

We only managed to get into the World of Harry Potter park around 12noon. You have to queue even after getting the time pass. If you want to ride, get the express pass (even so, 30 minutes waiting) or else you will be stuck in queue for 3 hours wasting your precious time! We gave the indoor ride a miss (which I felt very pity). This indoor ride (Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey) is awarded the Best Dark Ride, but no chance to ride due to very very long queue.

A little bit of your imagination is fun if you would visit this wizarding world of Harry Potters. This is how we enjoy!

1. We first arrived at "Hogsmeade Station", Hogwarts Express stopped at this station.

2. We then walked to the Owl Post & Owlery.This is a real owl. He is NOT sleeping in the day but he is looking all round 360 deg at us!

3. Hogsmeade is a village where wizards reside. The village has an array of shops, with snow-covered rooftops, which are frequented by students of Hogswarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.

4. We walked further in and came to Hogwarts Castle, which stand on steep rocky mountain.

5. Inside Hogwarts Castle, we can sell and explore the classrooms and corridors of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.

Hogwarts Express

We need to queue in order to get inside the Hogwarts Castle as well without the indoor ride. A bit eerie inside, when you look at those confiscated goods in Filch Emporium, but don't think too much, just walk and peep and don't stare too long at the pictures because I believe there are "things" inside. LOLx.

There were wind and snowflake in this room and you can see HP and his friends up there.

Even the toilets appeared to be old and a bit scary with that kind of deco and colour. You won't want to be alone in there.

Even the toilet looks eerie

Butterbeer should not be missed. Buy 1with the mug and try!

Cheers to Hogwarts Castle

After the beer is another round of queuing. This time REAL queuing, *shake head*, 2 hours for an outdoor ride (Flight of the Hippogriff) which will take you in spirals and dives around the pumpkin patch and zoom pass Hagrid Huts. The 2 rascals insisted since we did not go for the indoor. Heck the strong wind stopped the outdoor ride for another 30 mins when it was already our turn! Nice view while waiting though...

Outdoor ride - Flight of the Hippogriff

It was fun inside HP theme park and we did not want to leave, but there were other parks to explore so we decided to leave. Once you go out, you cannot come in again without the time pass.

We queued (ya queue again for about 40 mins, while having riceballs bought from convenience store earlier) for the ride to experience with The Jaw. Alot of action pack on board, hahaha. I think it was fun. Abit shocked when the Jaw suddenly came out of the water and alot of kerosene burning smell and heat from the fire. You can't be too excited when the lady on board was narrating the whole scenario in Japanese, you can't understand anyway, but when the loud Jaw music came, you know the Jaw is coming out of the water. We saw the fin, hahaha lolz.

Decided to quit queuing cause wasting alot of time, so we walked pass Jurassic Park The Ride. All itchy-backside say only but cannot control. Walked in to peep at the queuing time. 1 hour. OK lah we gave ourselves excuses to queue again! This was going to be a REAL wet game when the boat would dash all the way down from a 10-storey height. Guess what, the poncho (in case of rain) we brought along was put to use not because of rain, but because of this ride! We put on our poncho when we saw everyone queuing put theirs on. They did their homework in advance huh...

Well, really no regret for riding but abit disappointed when we saw that the sky had already turned dark before we could complete the park. It was not late, about 5pm only.

Anyway, we continued to walk and again told ourselves NO MORE QUEUING FOR RIDES! (Do you think you should believe itchy butts?)

Since everyone, mostly, was drawn to the Winter Caroling (which you need to pay extra), we went elsewhere and spotted Spiderman. Spidey in New York wanted to save the World from bad guys so we were invited to the ride. (A lady was shouting "Spiderman ride 5 mins Q" in Japanese). All itchy-backsides went in for the ride and start queuing again. This is a 4K3D technology ride, No.1 in 7 years straight leh, cannot miss!

After out from the Spiderman ride (same like "Transformer" in USS), the Grand Christmas Carolling almost came to an end. Just luck, we stand far behind and watch the highlight of the show. "The Prince and Princess were finally together ever after" then the finale, FIREWORK!!!

We dispered asap because we were expecting crowds after the finale. We came to "Hollywood" and around. Our butts didn't stop at Spidey Ride, but went on to Space Fantasy, I confessed. This time was my idea.

Space Fantasy! Can't bring anything in and even had to lock our bags and camera in the locker! Actually we were not aware of the thrill part until we were halfway into it. No turn back already. 2 front 2 back, 4 to each coaster, back to back, turning up and down, dashing into indoor space and then turned in degree and angles suddenly, a sudden fall from height then up again. Basically a roller coaster which will turn 360 degrees from different angles. Still within my limit but the 2 men were feeling giddy after that. My fault. I promised this is the FINAL ride in USJ for that night!