Photo Trip Report: Fuji-Q

As promised, here is my trip report from the recent trip to Fujikyu I took in Japan.

I did a lot of research before I went on both this site and tripadvisor.com, and the general consensus was that the park in the summertime would probably be overwhelmingly crowded. The general advice I discovered was to stay at the on-site hotel (Fujikyu Highland), as they offer early admission to the park. I didn't do this because the cost was too expensive, but I discovered another hotel down the street called West Inn Fuji-Yoshida. This street (along with the hotel exterior) looked peculiarly American to me.

I walked down the street to talk to the manager at the Highland Hotel to ask him if I could buy a ticket from them, and join them for the early admission the next day, even though I wasn't staying at the hotel (maybe I shouldn't have told him that part). He said no, so I bought a ticket from my own hotel instead. Upon walking around the park that evening, it seemed that there were not "droves" of people leaving as the park was closing. It seemed to me like an unbelievably light day. Talking with some people, they had told me that the waits were only on average about 20 minutes.

However, I wasn't going to take any chances the next day (Friday), so I woke up early, and went to the Highland Hotel to join the rest of the early-bird admissioners (I figured it was worth a shot to try to get in early anyway). I joined the lineup, and as I passed through, I saw the same manager who had denied me a ticket the night before. I just waved at him and passed on through anyway (albeit with a reluctant expression on his face).

I was worried that I wasn't going to be let into the park because my ticket was different from the hotel-guests' tickets. And as I walked up to the entrance booth, I thought the attendant was saying "no". But it turns out that she was pointing to the ticket booth, where I needed to exchange my voucher for a real ticket before entering. Happily, the ticket booth was already open, and I was able to exchange my voucher and successfully enter the park early!

From all the research I had previously done, I heard that the first thing you need to do is to run to the priority-ticket kiosk and buy up your priority passes for the day, as a way to avoid the so-rumored abominable queues. Therefore, I bought about 8 tickets (there was a limit of 9).

Looking at the queue for Fujiyama "King of Coasters", as the park opened, it seemed as if the queues would indeed be long for the day. However, I quickly discovered that the coasters had simply not yet begun operation, and that the park would be practically empty this day!

I guess you can say that I don't regret buying the priority passes - I tried to get a refund, but of course there are no refunds. And the priority booth stayed open for the duration of the day. But even though the queues seemed very light, the operations of all the attractions were quite slow (particularly Eejanaika, the 4-D coaster).

It seems that the Japanese are highly concerned about safety, and therefore quite thorough with their pre-check operations. You have to put EVERYTHING into a locker (which I can understand). But they also check you to make sure you have taken all your loose articles off (at one point, I had to proove it by turning my pockets inside-out). In addition, they check each restraint one-by-one, and even ask you to check it yourself before moving on to the next person. You also don't have a choice to where to sit - they assign you, and if you're sitting alone, you have to sit on the inside seat. For Eejanaika (as well as Tondemina, the "Big Pizza"), they even require you to take your shoes off! Therefore, lines that seemed would be 5-minute waits actually turned out to be 20-minute waits.

Fujiyama: King of Coasters! View from outside the park the night before.

What a great entrance plaza!

"Takabisha" is not only the most unique coaster I've ever ridden, but also very beautiful from a distance

"Eejanaika" is a very unique ride!

The queues all looked very short. It must be the ride operations!

"Dodonpa" was up and running when I was there! From what I understand, it had been running for only one week.

Re-opening celebration

The queue for "Eejanaika" looked like a Ghost-town. I was almost upset that I bought priority passes for this. Yet the ride ops were still taking their grand-old time!

Fujiyama: King of Coasters graveyard!

Fuji-Q is a beautiful park in a beautiful setting

Takabisha's 90 degree lift and 120 degree drop!

Takabisha's got some great curves!

Dodonpa's loading station was quite energizing with the LCD screen and music...but I almost felt bad for the op who has to listen to it on a repetitive loop all day long!

The car slowly leaves the station and turns before taking off

Very unique combination of pizza and soft-pretzel (yet no mustard available)

Has anyone been in this? I heard there are many different possible directions to go, just like an actual maze!

This sounds like a cool game - anyone tried it?

Dodonpa really establishes the main landscape for the park - it's seen just about everywhere!

train coming out of the loop

A close-up of the new car design.

Dodonpa from a distance - takeoff can be heard just about everywhere!

Beautiful Mt. Fuji

View of the park from top-floor of the Highland Hotel

This looks just like an American street! There's even a Bob's Big Boy!

View from my hotel nearby

I walked down the street to talk to the manager at the Highland Hotel to ask him if I could buy a ticket from them, and join them for the early admission the next day, even though I wasn't staying at the hotel (maybe I shouldn't have told him that part). He said no, so I bought a ticket from my own hotel instead. Upon walking around the park that evening, it seemed that there were not "droves" of people leaving as the park was closing. It seemed to me like an unbelievably light day. Talking with some people, they had told me that the waits were only on average about 20 minutes.

 

However, I wasn't going to take any chances the next day (Friday), so I woke up early, and went to the Highland Hotel to join the rest of the early-bird admissioners (I figured it was worth a shot to try to get in early anyway). I joined the lineup, and as I passed through, I saw the same manager who had denied me a ticket the night before. I just waved at him and passed on through anyway (albeit with a reluctant expression on his face).

 

I was worried that I wasn't going to be let into the park because my ticket was different from the hotel-guests' tickets. And as I walked up to the entrance booth, I thought the attendant was saying "no". But it turns out that she was pointing to the ticket booth, where I needed to exchange my voucher for a real ticket before entering. Happily, the ticket booth was already open, and I was able to exchange my voucher and successfully enter the park early!

I'm sorry but I find this rude, horrible and obnoxious and I'm banning you from our forum for it. You knew DAMN WELL that you were not allowed into the early morning ride session, you were told no, you weren't staying at the hotel that allowed it, but instead you pushed your way in and snuck into the ride session anyway, and you were even smug and rude to the person who told you no. What kind of a complete ass does shit like that in a respectable foreign country?!?!?

I'm sorry but that is just awful and you're an example of the kind of park guests we hate.

As I said, you're banned from TPR for being a complete waste of humanity and I really hope next time you're in a foreign country you'll have some respect for their rules.

Goodbye. Don't ever come back here again.