A few Japan theme park questions

[chriskq]

Hi All,

 

Long time TPR member but haven't been able to take a tour since our midwest trip in 2007 which i still have fond memories of.

 

So myself and the missus are heading to Japan in mid march to early april this year and have pretty much booked everything, but i have a couple of 'planning' questions so we might be able to avoid any pitfalls. I have checked relevant threads so have got the jist but some more detail can't hurt

 

Fuji-Q Highland.

We are staying at the Highland hotel which means discounted entry and 30mins of early entry before public. It is school holidays at the time though, we will be there 31 March

1. Does anyone know if rollercoasters would be operating during 30mins early time or if you can buy fastpasses from the Hotel?
   
2. From researching wait times i think we will try and get 4 fastpasses (Eejanaika, Takabisha, Dodonpa & Haunted Hospital) each as soon as we get into the park from area near Carousel/Mouse, will the rides/times written down but will try and speak Jap also. I have a feeling fastpass booth will be not be open with our early entry, if so plan to queue for Eejanaika then check back for fastpass after or is that risky?
   
3. Thoughts on this plan after getting fast passes and riding Eenjanaika (hopefully): Queue for Takabisha (without fastpass) then do Fujiyama and then onto whatever is shortest before using the 4 fastpasses for rest of day and riding smaller attractions

 

Disney land/sea

Staying at a hotel about 20mins away on bus & plan arriving 30mins prior to opening time 9am. We will be there 26/27 March which is school holidays and will buy a 2 day pass online.

1. Any preference on which park to visit first? We have never been to any Disney parks
   
2. How many fastpasses for disney sea E.G. 1) Journey to the Center of the Earth, 2) 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, 3) Indiana Jones & 4) Tower of Terror
   
3. How many fastpasses for disneyland E.G. 1) Pirates of the Caribbean, 2) Splash Mountain, 3) Big Thunder Mountain & 4) Haunted Mansion?
   
4. We actually do not know what rides would be good for us so any suggestions would be great (we both like high-thrill rides the best)

 

Universal Osaka

Staying at a hotel about 30+mins away on train & plan arriving 30mins prior to opening time 9am. We will be there 17 March

1. Where do you buy express booklets from?
   
2. How much are they and should we get a 4 booklet each?
   
3. Recomended rides/order to see them in?

 

Any other tips would be appreciated if i have missed anything. Also please feel free to respons to individual park questions and not everything of course

 

Many thanks,

Chris

[robbalvey]

Here's a couple of quick answers....

 

[*]Does anyone know if rollercoasters would be operating during 30mins early time or if you can buy fastpasses from the Hotel?

Don't know either of these, sorry. I do know that I don't think I've ever seen any of the coasters operating with people when we get there (they are barely testing them), which is usually about 30-40 minutes before park opening. I'm guessing you won't actually have real "ERT", you'll just literally be able to "enter" the park early.

[*]From researching wait times i think we will try and get 4 fastpasses (Eejanaika, Takabisha, Dodonpa & Haunted Hospital) each as soon as we get into the park from area near Carousel/Mouse, will the rides/times written down but will try and speak Jap also. I have a feeling fastpass booth will be not be open with our early entry, if so plan to queue for Eejanaika then check back for fastpass after or is that risky?

Risky. VERY VERY VERY Risky. Especially during school holiday. It's VERY likely the Eejanaika won't even be open when the park opens and you'll be waiting outside. I've also seen the FastPass tickets sell out INSANELY QUICKLY and in all the times we've been there, they are completely sold out by 11 or 12 (sometimes earlier)

 

I would go directly to the FastPass kisok and camp out there until you get the tickets that you need. I would also get one for Fujiyama. On our last visit, it wasn't even that crowded and Fujiyama had well over an hour wait (90 minutes I think at one point) due to running one train. When the park is crowded, it's 3 hours, easy.

 

[*]Thoughts on this plan after getting fast passes and riding Eenjanaika (hopefully): Queue for Takabisha (without fastpass) then do Fujiyama and then onto whatever is shortest before using the 4 fastpasses for rest of day and riding smaller attractions

I couldn't even imagine doing ANYTHING in that park without FastPass. Even when Takabisha had NO LINE (read: about 10 train wait) when the park first opened during our last visit, we still waited 25 minutes for it.

 

Disney land/sea

Staying at a hotel about 20mins away on bus & plan arriving 30mins prior to opening time 9am. We will be there 26/27 March which is school holidays and will buy a 2 day pass online.

During School holiday? Get there 60-90 minutes before park opening. Not joking. At 30 minutes prior to park opening you will see MASSIVE CROWDS camping out in front of both parks, and it's not uncommon for some rides FastPass times to jump until 3 or 4pm 15 minutes after park opening. You want to be IN FRONT of that huge crowd.

 

[*]Any preference on which park to visit first? We have never been to any Disney parks

My "preference" would be DisneySea, but it depends on what you're into.

[*]How many fastpasses for disney sea E.G. 1) Journey to the Center of the Earth, 2) 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, 3) Indiana Jones & 4) Tower of Terror

[*]How many fastpasses for disneyland E.G. 1) Pirates of the Caribbean, 2) Splash Mountain, 3) Big Thunder Mountain & 4) Haunted Mansion?

[*]We actually do not know what rides would be good for us so any suggestions would be great (we both like high-thrill rides the best)

During school holidays you'll be LUCKY to get one FastPass for all of those. But it sounds like you already have a pretty good list of rides you want to get on, so I'd just go with that. At DisneySea, Tower and Journey will go the fastest on your list. Indy will sometimes have a Single Rider line open.

 

Universal Osaka

Staying at a hotel about 30+mins away on train & plan arriving 30mins prior to opening time 9am. We will be there 17 March

1. Where do you buy express booklets from?
   
2. How much are they and should we get a 4 booklet each?
   
3. Recomended rides/order to see them in?

 

I'm not sure how much or where to get them as we've always worked with group sales at this park for them and they've brought them to us. I would suggest one of the bigger books that has more attractions in it, though. I'm sure you can get them right at the front of the park or just inside somewhere. Recommend rides: Jaws, Jaws again, Jaws a third time, and after you've ridden Jaws a fourth time, I would consider Hollywood Dream (forwards and backwards), Space Fantasy, Spider-Man, Jaws, and then anything else you want to do. I really like Space Fantasy a lot and thought Hollywood Dream was just "ok", but people's tastes are different.

 

]

[chriskq]

Wow thanks for the detailed response Rob - big help esp with Fuji Q!

 

Fuji Q

In light of you saying risky to do anything without Fastpasses, i am thinking we forgo paying the 50,00 yen all day ride fee (as we get free adminision via Hotel) and just pay for 9 fastpasses for each of us and hit the big 4 rides (all twice) and the haunted hospital. Will camp at fastpass booth after park opens before going anywhere.

 

Disney

OK great info - will try and get to sea and land at least an hour before opening time

Fastpass Sea rides: Journey, Tower > then whatever else we can do after What order would someone recommend, I.E. run first to Journey?

Fastpass Land rides: What order would someone recommend, I.E. run first to Splash?

 

Universal

Also will try and arrive an hour before opening time. If anyone knows where abouts you purchase the express booklets from that would be great. Also what booklet would suit us for these rides (from what i gather you cannot pick and choose rides in the booklet, they are set?): Jaws, Space Fantasy, Hollywood Dream (forwards and backwards), Spider-Man and Jaws again

 

Big thanks again all, hopefully i can get the last few areas sorted and then need to start documenting everything in English and Japanese

Cheers - Chris

[robbalvey]

Fastpass Sea rides: Journey, Tower > then whatever else we can do after What order would someone recommend, I.E. run first to Journey?

I'd recommend run first to Tower and get a FP and then run to Journey and do Standby. If Journey is posted at 30 minutes or less, it usually goes by a bit quicker than that anyway.

[SharkTums]

One thing I see missing here (unless I overlooked it) is Toy Story Mania at DisneySea. If you care about riding it (basically a clone of the two in the US) that is actually where you need to run first as it's still the 'new hotness' at the resort and gets crazy lines and sells out on FastPass.

[chriskq]

Toy Story Mania at DisneySea

 

Just read a review of Toy Story Mania - it looks great with all the theme-ing - the popularity makes it a little scary to line up for the fast pass. Did read in some reviews it gets a lot quieter at the end of the day so might try and wing a fast pass a few hours before park close time.

 

Still really interested in find out details on the Universal express booklets. Where to get them, and with a 7 ride pack do you get to choose multiple of the same ride?

 

Thanks again!

[SharkTums]

^Two answers.

 

You can get the Universal Express books at the ticket booths and a few of the larger stores in the park. With the 7 Pack it gives you a few choices and you may be able to get two rides on something, but not Hollywood Dream if I recall because it's too popular.

 

You will NOT be able to get a fastpass for Toy Story Mania towards the end of the day. They were selling out around 10am when we were there for the whole day. You can standby later at night, but when they say it 'gets quieter' that probably means a 90-120min wait during busy season.

[Garet]

With Fuji, don't judge anything by line lengths, I was there on a cold February when the park was dead (by Fuji Q standards) before opening and Fujiyama was testing right up until 10am opening time and the line was way out of the station within minutes of opening, I went back later in the evening and ended up waiting almost 2 hours because they'd pulled a train halfway through the day down to one train. Eejenarka and Takashiba didn't upen until an hour after opening and Dodonpa was the first one I hit which opened 45 minutes after opening. So honestly your best bet as others have said is the fastpass booth, i'd planned it but I lost my credit card on the morning of my trip. Here's my TR where I broke down how I tackled the park: http://themeparkreview.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=65226

 

Also of interest maybe to you is this which will help you learn which rides are down for rehab on which day etc and fastpass information etc: http://themeparkreview.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=1142982#p1142982 Those links were kindly given to me by Robb&Elissa before I went and I had to flip my whole trip so i flew into Osaka and left via Tokyo instead of the other way round to avoid Journeys closed dates and Jaws closed dates. Google translate is your friend for the japanese pages since tide names will translate literally. Hope that helps.

[chriskq]

Thanks Garet - more great tips

 

From the looks of when we will be there on March 17 the ride idle information still shows February so i guess will check back later

March park schedule

 

thanks for the info on the booklet also, i doubt we will be back in Japan any time soon will prolly get a 7 day pass unless for some strange reason the park is not busy.

 

Happy friday all - I still need to read your TRs Garet. Cheers ALL!

[Garet]

Thanks Garet - more great tips

 

From the looks of when we will be there on March 17 the ride idle information still shows February so i guess will check back later

March park schedule

 

thanks for the info on the booklet also, i doubt we will be back in Japan any time soon will prolly get a 7 day pass unless for some strange reason the park is not busy.

 

Happy friday all - I still need to read your TRs Garet. Cheers ALL!

 

Just to add for the 7 ride booklet at Universal you want you can get them at the main gates when you enter and they do sell out sometimes like most Japan parks, just be firm, i've been once where I got one no problem and 2 other times the people on the kiosks seemed to think I was confusing them with entry tickets and I had to be firm that I understood they were separate and also wanted one. Although once inside the park you can get them. One thing to note on those is though they don't have times on them, unlike some other Universal parks i've visited, Japan had an annoying habit of shutting the fast pass & single rider lines if the line was 30mins or less when I had brought them since I only had a half day and then couldn't use some (I didn't want to wait 25 mins for jurassic but I would happily have hopped on) so keep that in mind towards later in the evening. Single Rider was pretty good I think the only ride there that doesn't have it is BTTF if you don't mind splitting up your group.

[Nrthwnd]

I have found, that "Toy Story Midway Mania" in Disney Sea is equal to Monsters "Hide and Go Seek" in Disneyland. That is, the FastPasses for these two attractions, go really REALLY fast.

 

So, go right on Midway Mania, then get FastPasses for Tower, which will probably put you later into the lunch time zone. Then you have time to catch the rest of Disney Sea, come back for Tower, have lunch in the Waterfront area, and so on..

This was at 0930 after I had ridden Star Tours. Midway Mania would/will probably be about the same.

[Garet]

^ Great advice although if you're willing to split up your group just remember that ToT, Raging Spirits and Indiana Jones all have single rider whereas Journey doesn't if they are all busy, the day I visited Journey was on its second from last fastpass slot of the day by mid-day and those rides seemed to have similar lines on the busy day I visited, It was the first non-snowy day in 3 days and lines were 3 hours pretty much until closing. They closed some of the lines quite early to try and stop the fantasmic crowd from joining and making the lines run into midnight