We should have been the target market for the new Super Nintendo Land at universal studios Hollywood. Three generations of Mario fans culminating in DS(7) who is absolutely obsessed. But it is SHIT and here’s why:
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The cost of the wristbands, $40 each. Outside the Mario area, these are marketed as a fun add-on. Actually they’re a necessity, the only thing you can do without them is walk around and eat.
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Eating. There is one cafe and if it’s booked up that’s it. Not so much as a kiosk selling ice cream. If you leave the area you have to queue to get back in, so you can’t leave for food and come back.
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The queue to get in. Joining a virtual line gives a time slot but there’s still a long entry queue.
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The sheer awful overcrowdedness. It was a small area anyway and crammed so full of people that we could barely move. There was nowhere to sit out of the way and assess what to do next. The wristbands collect points via an app but there was no chance for the children to sit and look at this, no rest, because the (very few) places to sit were so crowded.
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The actual premise. Queue to tap a few blocks with your wristband and hence “defeat” a koopa or similar. Fine in theory but not with the EPIC queues. Repeat x4, each queue 30-60 minutes. Not like Disney where you queue for a decent length ride, this is a queue for something that takes literally seconds.
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Bowsers Castle. The big ticket item. The queue when we were there was up to 180 minutes. In addition and what they don’t highlight beforehand, is that you must have completed at least three of the previous queues to be allowed entry. We had completed two and DS was distraught at the thought of queuing hours more to complete a third and then to get in to the castle (which I can only assume is as crap as the other challenges). Of course, he was also distraught at leaving, so ultimately I took out a sobbing child from what was supposed to be the highlight of his holiday.
(By contrast/ by way of proving it’s not us that’s the problem, we loved the Harry Potter bit of Universal- the only other bit we had time for- and loved Disneyland. If you’ve already booked your holiday, don’t make it worse by spending another £40 pp on Mario wristbands, save your money there is so much better stuff.)
Tl;dr: Super Nintendo Land was fucking awful, don’t go. Unless you want to put your child off the entire Mario franchise, which this very nearly accomplished for my previously obsessed DS.