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My 6-year-old son played Mario Kart once with an older friend, and he's been talking about all things Mario ever since.
I thought it'd be a good idea to take him to Super Nintendo World at Universal Studios Hollywood, but I was overwhelmed by the many reviews that said the section of the park was always packed and impossible to navigate.
While on the Universal Studios app, I saw an option to buy an early-entry pass just for that section of the park, and I decided to try it out.
It was the best decision I made.
Before traveling to Los Angeles, I purchased a GoCity pass, which allowed us to visit several sightseeing attractions in the city for a bundled price, including Universal Studios Hollywood.
Since I already had our tickets, I just needed to buy early-access passes to Super Nintendo World, an add-on that lets guests enter the park an hour before it opens — 8 a.m.
Prices can change depending on demand, and on the day we went, they were $25 per person. I paid $50 for both of us on the Universal app.
The app recommended arriving before 8 a.m. since the park's doors open 30 minutes earlier, and it can take a while to walk to Super Nintendo World.
We got to Universal at about 7:20 a.m. to go through security, waited a little bit before our tickets were scanned, and then proceeded to walk with about 80 to 100 more people toward the Super Nintendo World.
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The rest of the park opens between 9 and 10 a.m., so we got to walk through it while it was empty, which was kind of neat.
The park employees made sure no one was running to be the first into the section, which I appreciated since there were not a lot of little kids like mine doing early access.
When we arrived at the Super Nintendo World, it was awesome to see it free of crowds. We were able to take plenty of photos before walking into Mario Kart: Bowser's Challenge — the only ride in that section of the park.
I had seen photos online of wait times over two hours for the ride, but going in so early meant that we were on it minutes after walking in through the entrance.
After the ride, we were able to meet characters and take photos with them, which blew my son's mind. The lines were incredibly short, so the characters were able to take plenty of time with each person for the photos.
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Another highlight of the Super Nintendo World is Toadstool Cafe, which was also highly reviewed online. However, most of the reviews I'd seen ahead of time said it was so popular that it was nearly impossible to get a lunch reservation, which was our goal.
But because we were in the park so early, I was able to use the QR code at the entrance to book a reservation for lunch. Since reservations can only be made the day of, you can save the link ahead of time and open it the day you go to the park.
The restaurant is heavily themed and has several screens around the dining-room area showing Nintendo characters making your food.
There's even a change in the animations and a mood shift as Bowser approaches the restaurant. This experience was fun at first, but our food took so long to get to our table (about 45 minutes) that I was kind of over the animations by the time we left.
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That said, my son loved the food and was so excited when I told him we could keep our mushroom bowl and Mario figurines and take them home with us.
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Since we also had express passes — which allow you to go through a shorter and faster line for rides — we were able to go on Mario Kart again after lunch despite it having a 65-minute wait.
But the park was way more overwhelming now that it was officially open to all other ticket holders. This time, since there were more people riding, the experience had its ups and downs.
Last time, we basically walked right onto the ride so it was nice that we were able to take our time going through the castle leading up to it. It was filled with Nintendo characters and instructions on how to play the interactive ride.
On the other hand, the ride stopped several times on our second turn, leaving us stuck between screens (which prompted my son to ask what was happening over and over again). Also, the steering wheel of my kart didn't seem to work properly — I didn't really care about it, but it would've been a big deal for my kid.
By the time we got off the ride, Super Nintendo World was packed. Navigating through crowds of people was difficult, and the lines for every character meet-up were now hours long.
This section of the park doesn't have a lot of shade, either, so we quickly left to enjoy other areas of Universal that were less crowded.
If I were to visit the park again, I would definitely pay for early access because it made a huge difference in experiencing the highly popular Super Nintendo World.
