Continuation of our weekend in Nagoya! On the first day, we got a 1-day train pass and went around to a few of the major landmarks in the city like the Science Museum, Nagoya Castle and Oasis21 in the rain. For this second day, our plans were to visit Nagashima Spa Land in Kuwana - so not technically in Nagoya, but close enough for a day trip.
After our hotel breakfast, we hopped over to the Family Mart and paid for our Nagashima Spa Land + Trick Art entry tickets. It's at a machine that basically looks like an office printer/copier. I searched for the tickets we wanted and then it printed out a little slip to take to the cashier. At the register, she printed the tickets and that's how we paid for them. Super easy and a small discount.
Having already purchased our tickets at Family Mart, we just immediately got in line. At the ticket gate, if you paid for the "passport" which allows for unlimited rides, you get a wristband which the staff puts on for you.
The park didn't seem very busy when we first entered, so we didn't expect the line to be very long, but by the time we got there (10 minutes after park opening), the wait was already 45 minutes lol. We thought that was an overestimation, but actually ended up being pretty accurate.
At the wristband and height check for the ride, we were given these rubber bracelets to wear for accessing the locker area. I think this is a security thing. At the lockers, put ALL of your belongings in the locker, including anything in your pockets.
.gif)
Clip of Hakugei ride
.gif)
They will even check you with a metal detector before you can continue in line. The bracelets were returned to ride staff just before being assigned to the boarding lane.
After being super motion sick at Universal Studios Japan last year, I was super nervous about going on the rides here! I loved going on roller coasters before, but apparently something changed around when I hit 30 lol. We tried to make sure we were well hydrated and had a good night's sleep before. As it turned out, I was mostly OK after Hakugei though!
Having to put all of your belongings in the locker prior to boarding the ride, I don't have any photos of the ride itself, but it's really fun with a steep drop to start and a bunch of twists and turns.
.gif)
Next, we walked over to Acrobat which had a 30 min wait. The line was somewhat short but also very slow moving for this one. That being said, again the wait time was pretty accurate.
This ride also utilizes the locker system for your belongings, so no photos. You load in at an elevated seated position (and remove your shoes if they might come off during the ride) with an over-the-shoulder restraints. Most of the ride is in the prone position as you zip around. I enjoyed this one as well but still had some nerves about the motion sickness lol.
.gif)
We needed a little break, so we stopped by the nearby snack bar for an apparently very tiny twist potato and a ginger ale. Do not recommend the twist potato lol.
As we walked around a little more, we came across this seemingly simple ride with a pretty much non-existent wait. Feeling fairly confident about the motion sickness after the first two major rides, we figured this one should be OK after watching how the cart moved.
Okay so this ride is called the Ultra Twister lol. There's a very steep incline where you are basically flat on your back looking up at the sky and then the short drop. After that, it twists you going forward before stopping, dropping down to a lower track and does the twist in reverse moving backwards. It was after this that I realized that my motion sickness for these rides is likely triggered by going backwards wtf lol.
Line wasn't as busy here, so I got a quick shot of the lockers that these rides commonly use!
Definitely needing a little more of a break after that, we stopped for lunch at one of the sit down restaurants. I got chicken karaage and fries. My husband got the super cute duo curry hakugei set!
We decided to hit pause for a little while since we did the two major rides we wanted to do (that were open this day) and went to explore more of the park. This kids' area was really cute and so colorful!
Then we opted to go to the Impressionist Trick Art pop-up! It's located inside the park and had a small additional cost for entry (500yen). We knew we wanted to go so we made sure we got the set ticket as part of our advanced purchase ticket from Family Mart!
Fortunately, it wasn't very busy, and we were able to take our time and stop at each display, figure out what the illusion was and then snap a picture without any outside pressure lol.
Some of them are better than others, but overall we had a lot of fun just exploring all the different options and trying to figure out how to create the right effect.
If you can believe it, what I uploaded pictures of isn't even all of them wtf. There were so many that we honestly got a little tired of it at the end and skipped a handful. Since there was no wait and so much to do, I definitely think this was worth 500yen! A nice way to break up our day too.
Heading back out into the park, I chose this Peter Rabbit themed Sky Liner ride because I wanted something tame + no wait! It allowed us to get a nice view of the different areas of the park.
Then, in a similar category, we also went on the giant ferris wheel!
With the boost in height, I was able to get some good pictures of the coasters and surrounding area, especially Hakugei, which is hard to capture in one place at ground level.
So sad we weren't able to ride Steel Dragon :(
Feeling rested, we decided to ride Hakugei again with the wait still maintaining at 45 minutes.
And then, having not really any other ride we really wanted to go on, we went on Acrobat again too lol.
Arashi is the other major coaster at this park that was open this day. We almost got in line, but with a 60 minute wait and watching the free spin motion a few times, we decided it wasn't worth it and likely wouldn't be very fun for us lol.
We did another lap around the park, stopping and checking out some of the smaller coasters or other rides to check the wait times. Anything with over a 30 min wait was rejected, especially if the ride itself didn't seem all that exciting.
There are quite a few to choose from, but nothing particularly piqued our interest enough to get in line.
Until we looped back around to the swan boats, and I convinced my husband to do this one lol.
They are like the typical swan boats you'll find at small ponds in parks with the 2 sets of pedals and the steering wheel. I don't think there's officially a time limit - just seems like a honor system thing where you go around the pond once and come back, especially if there are people waiting in line.
Honestly this felt like exercise more than anything else lol.
Since the Peter Rabbit Sky Liner was right next to the swan boats with no wait, I requested one more loop lol.
And then, honestly? We felt done lol.
And then some pictures by the signage we quickly passed on our way in. It was nice that there was another group around, so we were able to get the pictures together :)
Then we exited the park at just about 16:30 (7 hours after entering and about 30 minutes before the park closed), leaving the park feeling like we accomplished what we wanted to do given the rides that were open this day.
The outlet mall is right along the way back to the parking area and lots of people were leaving around the same time as well. I would have considered browsing a bit if I thought there was a chance I'd buy something, but I decided not to waste our time.
It took us like 5 minutes of walking up and down the aisles to find our car back in the parking lot though, so if you drive/park at Nagashima Resort, be sure to note the location! lol.
We still had plenty of time left in the day, so we took the non-toll roads back into Nagoya and drove to the Sakae area to go to one of the Yamachan locations! This one was marked in a tourist pamphlet in the information center, so that's why we chose it lol. Luckily there were spots available in the paid parking lot right next to it.
This place is known for their peppery tebasaki, often seen piled up in the shape of a mountain, but we weren't super hungry and wanted a little more variety, so we just got a few different things in addition to the wings including the pork kushikatsu, tenmusu and beef croquette. It felt like a simple way to end our day out and a good way to close out the last dinner of our Nagoya visit!
After finishing writing this, I realized this way was much, much more fun experienced than written about after lol. It's hard to capture the excitement of a rollercoaster without more pictures and video, I think, especially if not from the first person perspective. There are a bunch of videos online if your interest is piqued about visiting yourself!
What I learned about Nagashima Resort/Spa Land:
- Buy (discounted) tickets ahead of time from Family Mart or 7-Eleven so you can skip the ticket line! The tickets aren't tied to a specific date and you can buy them decently far in advance if you want to or on the day of.
- We got the ride "passport" as part of our ticket. Otherwise, you have to pay per ride. If you only want to go on one or two smaller rides, I would consider going ala carte, but if you're going to ride at least 2 of the major roller coasters, I think the passport is just a lot easier and pays for itself quickly.
- Check the weather and the ride status for the major coasters if those are your main reason for going! Ride status for the day is posted about 30 minutes prior to opening. We didn't know the exact conditions when we planned and committed to this trip, but if you have date flexibility, choose carefully. I think that winds have to be under 10 kph for the Steel Dragon to run and any amount of rain could cause stoppages as well.
- We visited on a Sunday in mid-April (non-holiday adjacent weekend) where Steel Dragon wasn't running and it wasn't too crowded. But I'm sure visiting on a weekday would have been shorter lines overall. I've read that it gets much crazier during the summer season when the water park portion is open too.
- Express passes/tickets for the major coasters are available if you want to skip the line. I think these were 1000-1500yen per person.
- It might be worth getting to the park at least 15 min early if you want to get the best position in line. Know that there's about a 10 minute walk from the parking lot area too.
- Don't get the twist potato lol.
- Expect to use the lockers a lot before getting on the major rides and some of the smaller ones too. It never felt unsafe (I mean, it is Japan) but your stuff will be out of your sight and proximity for some amount of time with lots of other people passing through the same space. Anything irreplaceable should probably be kept at home.
- Lots of drink vending machines and bathrooms available throughout the park. Drinks were reasonably priced (not super upcharged). I think a water bottle was 130yen. There's also no bag check or anything at the ticket gate, so it seems like you can bring in whatever you want as well.
We would visit again - but only if we're able to ride the Steel Dragon!
No comments:
Post a Comment