"Be well prepared to go to Disneyland." This is a dialogue in the advertisement when Disneyland was newly opened in Hong Kong many years ago. This advertisement bought an unprecedented counter-effects as many tourists felt hesitated to go Disneyland, since they regarded themselves "not yet well- prepared".
However, if you have plan to go to Universal Studios Japan, Osaka, I can honestly say that it is necessary for you and your family to be "well prepared."
In last year, I have prepared this USJ trip for almost 3 months in advance. This preparation was really unprecedented.
Therefore, in this article, I would like to share my experience and thoughts on the process from preparation to ticket purchase, ticket purchase, may be later, experience of attractions.
1) The first thing you have to to join the Universal Studios discussion forum.
There are a lot of information sharing in the forum, which is very useful for the tourists who plan to visit USJ.
(Above is one of the USJ forum groups in Facebook - total 160,000 members in the group, they are mainly come from Taiwan and Hong Kong so their communication mostly in Chinese. If you want to know something about USJ, you can easily find the right answer. Please select to join different forum group according to your language preferences. There are many USJ experts, who are Taiwanese but stayed in Japan for many years. If you don't mind to use google translate, you can get a lot of useful information from them even though you won't understand Chinese.)
2) USJ Official Website
Then I would like to share some information about ticket. It is recommended to buy tickets in USJ Official Website because the time period of express pass for different attractions can be selected.
However, please notice that the official website is in Japanese. If you don't know Japanese (so do I), you can choose the language in English but the booking site in English is actually operated by JTRWeb LTD. - an authorized ticket reseller of Universal Studios Japan. Then means the website will be automatically move from official to JTR one when you convert the language.
Some USJ experts or local Japanese will buy the express passes via Japanese websites as all the tickets/express passes released in Japanese web several days earlier than other platform. But no need to worry about if you don't know Japanese. According to my experience, it is still alright to buy the express pass via English website.
Currently you can only buy tickets and passes online via websites in English or Japanese, No Chinese or other languages can be served.
3. Information about tickets and Passes
3.1 Studio Pass (1-day / 1.5 day / 2 day studio pass): The basic pass for entry. There are five main types of tickets: A, B, C, D and E respectively. They represent the expected amount of crowds - from slack days to peak days. D represents that there will be many visitors.
(It is quite difficult to imagine the situation of E.)
Ticket A represents the day with expected fewer visitors, but honestly there is no slack date in USJ according to my own experience. On the other hand, you can buy the corresponding tickets by selecting the right visit day. A-E are just a price reference.
For example, I bought the tickets on Aug 31, 2023, and the ticket type A will be automatically indicated when you selected.
Although the one-day admission pass does not have real-name registration, the official announcement is that it cannot be resold (Actually there is no record about your identity in the tickets).
Therefore, If your friend was unable to make the trip and gives you a ticket, you still need to check which date the ticket can be used as their selling price may not be the same.
(A-E is just a reference... USJ is so popular and full of visitors among the whole year)
3.2 Special Entry: USJ official opening time is 9:00 am in the morning. However, USJ is very special in their flexible opening time. Normally it will be opened earlier than official one every day. During summer they can even open at 7:00 am!! (How can the USJ staff get up so early with smiling face?)
For example, when I went to USJ on August 31st, the actual opening time was 8:00 am on that day.
If you have bought Special Entry Pass, you can have the right to enter USJ 15 minutes earlier than others visitors. (i.e. 7:45 am)
(I have to admire the "earning-money skill" of Japanese. It is the first time I heard "Early admission". (Now developed to other theme parks).
Probably there will be express passes for restrooms or buying popcorn buckets in the future.)
The guests who have this special entry will receive the actual opening time message from USJ two to three days before their visit. Therefore, some visitors will share this time to let other visitors know the actual opening time of USJ.
The advantage of special entry is to save the time of queuing for first and the second attractions.
The guests who have this special entry will receive the actual opening time message from USJ two to three days before their visit. Therefore, some visitors will share this time to let other visitors know the actual opening time of USJ.
The advantage of special entry is to save the time of queuing for first and the second attractions.
Generally you have to wait at least one or two hours for those popular attractions, so 15 minutes earlier entry can save you a lot of time.
However, as a tourist, if the itinerary of the day before USJ is too rich and you are not sure whether the children (or you) can get up on time.
I personally do not recommend taking the risk of paying extra for special entry. It is because if you can't arrive USJ 15 minutes before it opens, the special entry become useless. There is no priority or shortcut in queuing for special entry holders.
Undoubtedly, when I was sweating at the gate and waiting for the gate opened.
I heard the screams from the "early entry visitors", who were riding on the roller coaster, crossing on the sky. At that moment, I can only sigh with envy, "it would be great to be rich."
3.3 Express Pass: It is the priority pass in queuing. It can almost save you 99% of queuing time.
3.3 Express Pass: It is the priority pass in queuing. It can almost save you 99% of queuing time.
(except for the attraction - Mario Kart: Koopa's Challenge, which will spend you around 20 minutes in the queue even though you have express pass.)
Express Pass is something that I highly recommend to buy. Although they are really very expensive, it is indispensable for a better attractions experiences.
USJ is so popular that the waiting time for a non-popular attraction is up to an hour. For popular attractions like Koopa's Challenge and Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey, the waiting time is close to 3 hours during peak hours. Therefore, buying express pass become very important for you and me, as a tourists with an one-day pass.
There are several combinations of fast passes. Some include 4 attractions and some include 7 attractions. When buying, you should pay attention to which attractions included. Personally I highly recommend to consider the fast pass package which include two attractions - Koopa's Challenge and Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey. They are the most interesting and popular rides in USJ.
("Despicable Me: Minion Mayhem" is funny, too, recommended.)
On the other hand, the admission ticket is valid for a certain period of time, but the express pass is only valid for specific day. Therefore, if you need to reschedule your admission due to adverse weather or emergencies, the entry tickets will still be available but express passes cannot be refunded under normal circumstances.
(If the flight to Osaka is cancelled due to adverse weather. It is recommended to send an email to USJ to apply for tickets refund)
(Majority of the Universal express pass package is including either 7 or 4 attractions. I bought 7 for my family members. During the afternoon on August 31st, 2023, it took 50 minutes in queuing for less popular attraction such as JAWS. In order to have a better experience, I will recommend 7. Meanwhile, if you are eager to experience Mario Kart only and no concern for other attractions, 4 is a relatively cost -saving option.
3.4 Area Time Entry Ticket
It is a ticket for controlling the number of visitors. Currently, it is necessary to have area time entry ticket to enter the most popular zone in USJ - The Super Nintendo World. And now Super Nintendo World is the unique area that have such requirement.
(Time Entry ticket is also applicable for some special or periodic attractions - such as "Resident Evil" during Halloween 2023. Several years before area time entry tickets are required to entry Harry Potter Area, but such requirement had been cancelled now.)
(My screenshot is in Chinese but you can select English, you can easily find "area time entry ticket / standby entry on the directory of apps. Before taking the ticket, please ensure all of your admission tickets of your companions have been registered in your USJ Apps. For example, I have registered all of my family members, total 4, into my mobile apps so I can collect the tickets for 4 at the same time. )
(This is the screen shot at 8:18 am, as it is still early, so there are several available time period of entry tickets for me to select. However, please notice that you can select one of them only.)
(I have selected the time period 9:30 - 10:30 am, each ticket can have one time entry ticket only. If the available time period is too early for you, just click "back" to cancel your selection. Once you click confirm the reservation, you will collect the entry tickets to entry Super Nintendo World and it cannot be changed.
(It is the time entry I have taken in 2023. Don't try to use that for your entry.)
Please note that the time entry tickets can only be obtained after all of your family members entering into USJ. If you entered USJ later than 10:00 am, there is very high chance that all the time entry have been distributed.
If you encounter this situation, you can raise your need on the forum and see if somebody who have collected the time entry but not decide to use them.
For the standby pass, it is recommended to forget this for now as the chance of getting this is not really high.
I would like to specifically mentioned 2 more points related to tickets:
First - Registering all the admission tickets is for obtaining time entry tickets to Super Nintendo World only but NOT for USJ park entry. When you entry to USJ, show your barcode, whatever on your mobile or print out instead of your Apps. When you open the apps and review the tickets, nothing can be shown (except "Close and Remove" as below) and it is definitely NORMAL.
Second, please notice that there is a chance that you find nothing when you try to obtain time entry tickets in the early morning. The reason is that the crowds in the Super Nintendo World is NOT yet up to the upper limit for control. Then the distribution of time entry tickets has not yet actually started.
However, this situation will not be last for more than 15 minutes after the gate opened. When you rush to the attraction and open your apps again, click time entry passes and you will get this.
4. Restaurant - You have to register and reserve the table by scanning the barcode shown nearby the restaurant. Therefore, if you want to have a lunch in Kinopio's Cafe. Firstly you have to take the time entry so as to entry the World. Then you directly go to restaurant to see the queuing status and register. After that you can spend sometimes to experience the attractions in Nintendo World.
Please notice that even though you have reserved the table in Kinopio's Cafe, when you leave Nintendo, you cannot go back without time entry tickets, so mostly you have to stay in the area until you have the meal.
Of course you can spend time in the queue to buy a Super Star Popcorn Bucket. I have waited for 40 minutes for this.
5. When should you get up?
Finally there are some hints about your getting up time......
We left our hotel in Shinsaibashi at 6:19 am, no need to go by taxi, just go by Metro to Umeta Station and then walk to Osaka JR station, and take the train to Nishi-kujō eki.....not complicated way.
We arrived USJ gate at 7:06 am
It is also a very complicated to buy the express pass online. However, it is another long story so I am not going to mention in this article. Hope these information can give the all of you have some basic information about USJ. If I have time I will share more about the attractions experience.
- Universal Studio Japan (Osaka) - Basic Information and some tips - End
Next: Universal Studio Japan (Osaka) 2 - Preparation with Kids
Below are other sharing about Disney Sea and The Making of Harry Potter:
Disney Sea Tokyo 1 - Basic Information and Tips for your journey
https://patrickmakblog.blogspot.com/2024/09/disney-sea-tokyo-basic-information-and.html
Disney Sea 2 - Busy First Half with Mobile Phone (Tower of Terror / Journey to the Center of the Earth / Rapunzel's Lantern Festival)
https://patrickmakblog.blogspot.com/2024/09/disney-sea-2-busy-first-half-with.html
Dinery Sea 3 - Busy Second Half Having fun (Peter Pan / Toy Story Mania)
https://patrickmakblog.blogspot.com/2024/09/disney-sea-tokyo-3-busy-second-half.html#google_vignette
The Making of Harry Potter (Tokyo)
https://patrickmakblog.blogspot.com/2024/09/you-can-make-magic-making-of-harry.html
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