Super Nintendo World is absolutely swarming right now, what with it being just over a month since opening, The Super Mario Bros Movie just coming out, spring break, and the first week of good weather LA has had in months! These marketers know what they’re doing!
The Super Mario Bros Movie
We watched The Super Mario Bros Movie the night before visiting Super Nintendo World as a pre-game. While I can’t personally speak to the movie’s nostalgia factor since I don’t play video games, I know that there are a ton of references that fans will enjoy. The movie is pretty much all references and no plot, but hey, sometimes you just need something that’s not that serious! My favourite sequence was towards the beginning of the movie when Mario and Luigi were running to their first client. It was a great adaptation of the game mechanics without being too literal, and it was a great scene for characterisation as well.
Super Nintendo World
The next day, we headed out to Universal Studios Hollywood bright and early, and made a beeline to Super Nintendo World. We only had two things on our itinerary: Mario Kart: Bowser’s Challenge and Toadstool Cafe. The only other things to do at Super Nintendo World are the four mini games, which you need to buy a power-up band to play (they’re kind of like the wands at Harry Potter World), but you can just buy one for your party and pass it around if you don’t want to shill out the bucks.
Despite arriving only 30 minutes after the park opened, we snagged some of the last spots for Super Nintendo World’s virtual line. Luckily I found a link for Toadstool Cafe reservations the previous night, so we were able to book that on our drive over once the link went live for the day. Otherwise, we would have had to wait until we got into Super Nintendo World to scan the Toadstool Cafe reservation QR code, and they definitely would have been fully booked by the time we got in.
Mario Kart: Bowser’s Challenge
The wait time fluctuated between 2 and 3 hours all day. At the time we went, the estimate was 2 hours. I timed it: 2 hours and 20 minutes. I’m just glad that we made it on at all! I overheard an attendant saying how even right when the park opens, the wait times already run 1 to 2 hours — I assume because of the early access pass holders, who get to enter the park an hour early. But early access isn’t a sure bet to get on the ride either. I read online that the ride is frequently down for maintenance in the mornings. I chatted with a random lady in line and she told me she was at Super Nintendo World the previous day and lined up for Mario Kart: Bowser’s Challenge for ages, only for it to go down for maintenance so she never got the chance to ride it.
The park designers do try to make the lines more bearable though. There are plenty of rooms to weave through and decor to ogle, and from the balcony of Bowser’s Castle you get a great view of Super Nintendo World. 2 or 3 hours worth of ogling? Mmm maybe not, but appreciated all the same. I know that some people like the wait even more than the ride, and they say that speeding through via the Single Riders line defeats the experience.
Here’s a great video of the queue design + the full ride without AR + the full ride with AR.
Toadstool Cafe
While waiting in line for Mario Kart: Bowser’s Challenge, we were betting whether or not we’d make it in time for our Toadstool Cafe reservation. Luckily we had 15 minutes to spare, which we spent walking around Super Nintendo World, taking it all in for the first time since entering the park.
At Toadstool Cafe, we ordered:
- Super Mushroom Soup: creamy mushroom soup
- Luigi Burger: pesto grilled chicken with truffle fries
- Bowser’s Fireball Challenge: 1lb meatball with mozzarella and Bowser puff pastry
- ? Block Tiramisu: tiramisu cube encased by ?-printed biscuits
- Princess Peach Cupcake: funfetti cupcake, raspberry jam, and buttercream frosting
I also wanted to try the Toadstool Cheesy Garlic Knots, but they were sold out. The Luigi Burger and Bowser’s Fireball Challenge came with decorative plastic toothpicks, which we wiped down and took home. The Mario Burger also comes with a decorative plastic toothpick, but that was too much for us to order! The Luigi burger had raw green bell peppers, which tasted reallyyyy good and refreshing actually. And the truffle fries that came on the side were soooo good.
The Super Mushroom Soup came in an adorable white ceramic bowl with a mushroom lid, but the servers whisk away the mushroom lids as soon as they serve the table. I think it’s because they don’t want anyone to steal them. I had to rush my mushroom lid pics. Anyways, the creamy mushroom soup was a bit too salty and one-note for my taste. Might be nicer with bread.
Earlier in the day we had a Mario strawberry soda from a concession stand, as well as popcorn in a collectible light-up Super Star popcorn bucket.
The rest of the park
While waiting to get into Super Nintendo World via the virtual line, we killed time in the rest of the park. We weren’t in a rush to explore since we had visited only a few months ago, so we just hit up our favourites — Jurassic World and The Mummy — and also tried The Secret Life of Pets for the first time. We were curious because it’s the only other attraction that has a virtual line, and we weren’t able to make it last time. It was okay. Not worth the wait, at least not for us older visitors haha, but we were just there to kill time anyway. Glad we tried it once.
After Super Nintendo World, we were exhausted and ready to head home. We spent a whole day at Universal Studios Hollywood just to ride Mario Kart: Bowser’s Challenge and eat at Toadstool Cafe, but it’s what we had set out to do, and we were so lucky we got to do both! The rest was a bonus. I think Universal will be pretty crazy this summer, but hopefully the crowds will be more manageable after that.
Super Nintendo World, again!
I visited Super Nintendo World exactly a week later and it went so much smoother!
When we arrived, we found a crowd gathered at the escalators to the Lower Lot — where Super Nintendo World, Jurassic World, The Mummy, and Transformers are — and we were so confused. Turns out that the park opened an hour later than the previous week, which meant we arrived 20 minutes before the park officially opened! (We were aiming for 40 minutes before our 20 minute-early arrival but we were running late haha) We assumed that the park would open at the same time as it did the previous week so not a single one of us bothered checking the park’s hours. Worked out in our favour though! I think the park opened an hour earlier the previous week because of the anticipated spring break crowd. Tickets were about $25 more expensive the previous week too, but luckily we weren’t affected because we have season passes.
Super Nintendo World did not have a virtual line at any point in the day, so everyone was able to walk in. Once again, we had booked our Toadstool Cafe reservation on the drive over, so we were able to leisurely stroll over to Mario Kart: Bowser’s Challenge. It took less than an hour to get on the ride this time and I got the high score in my Kart 😎 I had no idea what was going on my first time haha. Maybe next time (yes! next time!) I’ll ride without the AR glasses so that I can better appreciate the theme design.
After Mario Kart: Bowser’s Challenge, we went straight to Toadstool Cafe. This time we got:
- Mario Burger: beef patty, bacon, mushroom with truffle fries
- Bowser’s Fireball Challenge (again)
- Super Star Chicken Salad: pretty much a Caesar salad + star-shaped croutons and star-shaped parmesan crisp
- Super Star Lemon Squash soda: honey lemon soda with mango jelly stars and popping boba
Once again, they were out of the Toadstool Cheesy Garlic Knots. Now having tried a variety of dishes at Toadstool Cafe, I’d say that my favourite is the Luigi Burger. Also, even though it comes with the same truffle fries as the Mario Burger does, the Luigi Burger’s truffle fries come with a superior pesto aioli, whereas the Mario Burger’s truffle fries come with ketchup. Glad we got to collect the Mario toothpick this time around though!
The rest of the park, again!
Walked on to Jurassic World. The Mummy had a little wait. We probably could have done Single Rider, but the wait was only 20 min max, so it was fine, and we got a photo together, which I snuck a picture of on my phone.
Did the Single Rider for Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey, which was less than a 5 min wait. Somehow I got a whole vehicle to myself, so it was just me and three empty seats. There was some kind of malfunction in the middle of the ride. Where I was at, there was just a screen in front of me and it went black. When the ride finally started up again, I was led directly into the dementor’s cave. It was a very dramatic place to experience the malfunction haha. Excellent transition. When we got to the end of the ride to disembark, the ride operators were telling the riders that they could stay on and ride again. I would have, but since my friends and I were all on separate vehicles (since we went Single Rider), we each had figured it would be too complicated to coordinate. We were all feeling a bit woozy and stuffed from Toadstool Cafe anyway.
With that, we headed out of the park and still had the better half of the afternoon ahead of us. I can’t believe how efficient the day was! Plenty of time to cram for finals…
PS: Universal Studios Christmas 2022, Disneyland Christmas 2022, Six Flags Magic Mountain