A five days trip to Osaka has been planned because my family wanted to go to Universal Studio. We bought entry tickets plus Super Nintendo World timed pass a month in advance to avoid long lineups (at least what we hoped for). I checked the online website every day for over a month for the release of the entry tickets (ticket sale time opens at 9/10pm Japan time). It was quite a frustrating and nerve wrecking time. I remember I was getting bit anxious the day before the tickets will be opened for sale. I grabbed the tickets plus Nintendo timed passes as soon as the green light was on. Surprisingly I saw that only 2pm time passes were left for sale. Other time slots were sold out!! Honestly!! The ticket sale was opened to public for only few minutes! I swiftly clicked the BUY buttons and grabbed (literally) the tickets available without any hesitation. What a relief! I GOT the tickets! I think the prices of the entry tickets plus the Super Nintendo world timed passes were on the high side. This was a catch 22 situation: you pay $$ to avoid long waiting time. But it is worth it to spend $$$? Thank goodness we did not buy the 7 express passes package. The large rides like Hollywood coaster and the Jurassic park ride were out of action the day we visited the Universal Studio. Can you believe it?? Paid big bucks and no rides ?? So people swarmed to the remaining rides and queued up; so there were huge lineups everywhere!! However most of these rides were not huge or exciting rides at all.

Anyway, we arrived one hour before the park opened. As soon as we got in we rushed to the Harry Porters world. That was great cause we were the first few groups got there before the big crowds. We rode the ride without any queuing up and enjoyed a wonderful time wandering around the village. However we did not buy any souvenirs cause they were too overpriced. We already bought a magic wand in Harry Potter world In Orlando.

The food is, like other theme parks, overpriced and unappetizing. We had lunch at the Harry Porter theme restaurant, the three broomsticks. We ordered 2 roast beef sandwich, fish and chips. The bill of course was quite expensive; however the meals taste surprisingly appetizing!

We tried the butter beer at the Harry Porter world; well, it tastes way too sweet and basically it is a cream soda drink. If you don’t like sweet drink, then this is not your cup of beer!!🤣

Thanks goodness we bought Super Nintendo World timed pass. Basically no pass no go. How hilarious! I saw some YouTubers tips : you arrive 1 or 1-1/2 hour before the opening time, and run as fast as you can towards the Nintendo World. The staff will let the first few groups get in without any questions. You have to run like an olympics runner 🏃 to be the winner at the Nintendo World. We entered into Nintendo World right at 2pm. Believe it or not, we still had to wait for an hour till 3pm before we got on the ride!! We did not buy the watch to play the games cause it costs C$200 each! (The entry ticket is only $80 each)! Anyway apart from the long wait for the ride, we spent a great time there.

Three downsides though : too crowded and the size of the theme park is small as compared with the one in Orlando or other theme parks. The majority of the rides, excluding the dinosaur ride and harry porters ride, are not intriguing or impressive at all.