Volcano Bay: General Discussion

[MiddKid]

Yet what has been added? At Bizzard: nothing.

Well, TECHNICALLY Downhill Double Dipper was added. It was not there on opening day. Just striving for accuracy...

 

[Andysol]

I'm sure part of the reason is that the trees were still growing. I'm sure Aquatica had the same issues when it opened and I think VB does as well. Give VB a few years for the trees to really branch out (No pun intended) and I think it's going to look completely different.

That specifically runs counter to what you posted just before

I was just about to post the exact same thing. I don't think that VB will ever be as well polished as TL or BB, Disney are the masters at it, case closed.

And that's been my contention the whole time. The lushness of TL is what sets it apart- no more, no less. A 22 year old Aged VB will look significantly better than TL today. Not to mention, VB will certainly have more added on in the next 2 years- not to mention the next 22 years. What's gone on- or should I say, lack of what's gone on at BB has been a joke.

 

[Brian G.]

Reminds me a little of some were complaining about when Everest opened in 2006. It looked bare because the vegetation was new and had not grown.

 

[UAN17]

It surpasses Disney's trees and rocks theming of Typhoon Lagoon already for me. There's twice as many details in this park already as Typhoon Lagoon. Seriously, do them both in the same week and you'll see what I mean.

I have...and Typhoon Lagoon is a hell of a lot more elaborate.

 

[UAN17]

I actually just come back from over 3 weeks in Florida and we did every park (other than Legoland) and every waterpark and Discovery Cove, so I think I can fairly judge everything based on hitting everything day after day for 3 weeks. My take:

- Typhoon - Very nicely themed. The small details in this park is the standard which VB lacks. Wave pool is immense, I love the slides that are built into rock work. People probably not giving the theming of Mountain / boat on top enough credit because they've seen it so often, but it's great. The walkways towards the back, walking bridges...excellent. Slides are tame.

-Blizzard Beach - Again its themed so well and is a great concept. Much better slides than Typhoon. But not enough of them. Lazy river is very relaxing if you find a sweet spot.

- Aquatica - Nice park, cheaply themed but pleasant. Slides are good but short. Roas Rapids the highlight here but the racing slides also great. Food atrocious.

-Volcano Bay - I've had time to reflect as we did go shortly after opening and suffered the well publicised operational disasters. The slides are the best in Orlando by far. I felt let down by the fast river, but we may not have had it on it's best setting, perhaps? The back of the Volcano is shambolic and shouldn't have got through planning...the structure of the Volcano from the fast river is really bad and makes the whole place look cheap. Honu and Krakatau the 2 best water slides I think I've been on. Wave Pool not on par with BB or TL (at least at BB you get floats). I would like to judge it with the new areas and touches but I was underwealmed overall so far.

 

[JaySalahi]

Being honest, the moment I saw the edge of the lazy rivers in Volcano Bay wasn't rock work i was disappointed.

Typhoon lagoon the river looks and feels like I'm transported else where, I'm on a tropical island vacation. For Volcano Bay, its instantly the nicest themed pool ever, but its not a river.

For the record VB looks amazing, and when I get over to Orlando again in a few years I will be going there not TL.

 

[Mr. EPCOT]

Rumor has it that the first thing out of Vol's mouth was the word "SCREEEEEEEEENZ"

That's the most Disney fanboy thing I've ever heard lol

:saywhat: Really? Reeeeeeeeeally? You've really never heard anything more fanatical from any Disney fan?

There are certainly elements of Volcano Bay that are better themed than Typhoon Lagoon, but it is very inconsistent. Things like having so much exposed superstructure and the generic pool tiling in the rivers knocks it down a few pegs. Typhoon Lagoon is a nearly completely consistent experience. Even most of the queues are mountain trails that go up and down rocky steps and through streams and things. Almost all of the queues at Volcano Bay are literally just bare bones staircases. At least Crush 'n Gusher makes some attempt to at least try to explain away and decorate the structure of that attraction.

I could go on and on providing more examples, but ultimately, how well each park is themed isn't really the be all and end all of how successful each park is. It really comes down to how fun they are, and as Brian and others have said, Volcano Bay has a leg up in the attractions department. TeAwa the Fearless River is probably my favorite attraction in any of the Orlando water parks now, and that's even with super crappy theming for most of it. When I was in the river at Typhoon Lagoon the other night I took notice of how much better themed it was, rock-face siding, lots of props and set pieces along the way, etc., but it just wasn't anywhere near as fun as TeAwa. I can't imagine how incredible TeAwa would have been if the whole thing had had the same level of detail applied throughout. Still doesn't stop it from being my favorite thing, though. Typhoon Lagoon will probably remain my favorite water park because I really enjoy the sense of immersion there, but I am honestly probably going to be going to Volcano Bay a lot more because there's a higher rerideability factor.

 

[Mr. EPCOT]

- Aquatica - Nice park, cheaply themed but pleasant. Slides are good but short. Roas Rapids the highlight here but the racing slides also great. Food atrocious.

AMEN TO THAT

 

[Trumen882]

Reminds me a little of some were complaining about when Everest opened in 2006. It looked bare because the vegetation was new and had not grown.

I get what you are saying in that the vegetation will make it look better in the future, however the bones of Everest are so much more solid than volcano Bay. The drop on Everest and helix have appropriate timber theming so that it looks like the supports could have been built by the local climbers. The green and Blue tube slides could have easily had bamboo/tree like supports. Yet, they have bright green steel supports. It just doesn't fit with the idea that the Waturi people built the water slides. When I went to VB, I loved certain areas such as the water coaster temple, but some parts are just so poorly designed with the allocation of resources to theming very uneven. It's not that bad in person, but lot of areas are not attractive or something you remember favorably. When riding the lazy river, I found the slide supports on the tubes/ manta racers/ water coaster to be jarring where minimal theming would make a gigantic difference. I'm a total universal fan, but I'm just looking at the park objectively. I don't think the budget needed to be increased, but I'm just puzzled by how the budget was used for theming. Sorry for the long post, I just visited recently and am a bit disappointed. I didn't expect or want slides integrated into an artificial mountain. I just would have appreciated slide supports/structures given minimal theming.

 

[Scott W.]

That specifically runs counter to what you posted just before



And that's been my contention the whole time. The lushness of TL is what sets it apart- no more, no less. A 22 year old Aged VB will look significantly better than TL today. Not to mention, VB will certainly have more added on in the next 2 years- not to mention the next 22 years. What's gone on- or should I say, lack of what's gone on at BB has been a joke.

I don't think it does at all. My first point was that overall Disney has better themed water parks. Sure on day 1, supports were visible but by the time the trees had grown, they were mostly invisible. No amount of trees are going to hide the supports in VB. Going back a few posts and comparing these photos:

In VB, you can see the plastic is sitting on top of the rock work, not in it; specifically here:



The supports are also highly visible. It's not Universal's fault, they didn't have the luxury of space so a lot of their rides are fairly condensed within the parks and can't go away and back from public view.

 

[UNIrd]

Please don't let this become like one of those antiquated threads where forums acted like they had never seen steel before when IOA was built and suddenly the theming was nowhere near Disney standards. You can't compare Big Thunder with Hulk, and you can't compare Honu with Gang Plank Falls.

Now, I think there's plenty of room for comparison... but not for slides from a park that just opened and one with tamer slides coming up on nearly 30 years now. I'd look more to Atlantis and some of the Dubai parks etc. or where they could have made improvements here.

 

[Brian G.]

I get what you are saying in that the vegetation will make it look better in the future, however the bones of Everest are so much more solid than volcano Bay. The drop on Everest and helix have appropriate timber theming so that it looks like the supports could have been built by the local climbers. The green and Blue tube slides could have easily had bamboo/tree like supports. Yet, they have bright green steel supports. It just doesn't fit with the idea that the Waturi people built the water slides. When I went to VB, I loved certain areas such as the water coaster temple, but some parts are just so poorly designed with the allocation of resources to theming very uneven. It's not that bad in person, but lot of areas are not attractive or something you remember favorably. When riding the lazy river, I found the slide supports on the tubes/ manta racers/ water coaster to be jarring where minimal theming would make a gigantic difference. I'm a total universal fan, but I'm just looking at the park objectively. I don't think the budget needed to be increased, but I'm just puzzled by how the budget was used for theming. Sorry for the long post, I just visited recently and am a bit disappointed. I didn't expect or want slides integrated into an artificial mountain. I just would have appreciated slide supports/structures given minimal theming.

I was strictly talking about vegetation, not themeing. You're getting into a different argument now.

 

[Trumen882]

Please don't let this become like one of those antiquated threads where forums acted like they had never seen steel before when IOA was built and suddenly the theming was nowhere near Disney standards. You can't compare Big Thunder with Hulk, and you can't compare Honu with Gang Plank Falls.

Now, I think there's plenty of room for comparison... but not for slides from a park that just opened and one with tamer slides coming up on nearly 30 years now. I'd look more to Atlantis and some of the Dubai parks etc. or where they could have made improvements here.

Yeah I'm not comparing it to Disney where the water slides are tame. This makes them easy to integrate into mountain theming. I'm just disappointed the slides weren't given theming similar to the Atlantis Resort Dubai with similar intense water slides. Those slides look like they could have been built from somewhat natural materials. Time and growth of vegetation won't fix the troublesome/nonexistent theming on most of the volcano bays slide structures and supports. I still enjoyed the water park but the theming is really jarring in places. I don't think I'm being picky too other people in my group were pointing out the exposed supports while waiting in line.

 

[P@n!K_Sw1tC#]

And besides, If you're really curious as to what the perimeter slides will look like in 10 years when everything grows in, look no further than Aquatica today.

 

[Scott W.]

Please don't let this become like one of those antiquated threads where forums acted like they had never seen steel before when IOA was built and suddenly the theming was nowhere near Disney standards. You can't compare Big Thunder with Hulk, and you can't compare Honu with Gang Plank Falls.

Now, I think there's plenty of room for comparison... but not for slides from a park that just opened and one with tamer slides coming up on nearly 30 years now. I'd look more to Atlantis and some of the Dubai parks etc. or where they could have made improvements here.

I don't really want to go down that route either because it gets boring really quickly.

I've said my bit and that will be it unless I find something that I feel really needs to be said.

Onwards and upwards.

 

[Brian G.]

And besides, If you're really curious as to what the perimeter slides will look like in 10 years when everything grows in, look no further than Aquatica today.

C'mon now. You know there is a lot more vegetation at VB than at Aquatica.

 

[P@n!K_Sw1tC#]

SeaWorld Parks & Entertainment arguably does landscaping better than any other parks on the planet. I think it's more of a compliment to Volcano Bay than anything.

 

[WAJAS]

SeaWorld Parks & Entertainment arguably does landscaping better than any other parks on the planet. I think it's more of a compliment to Volcano Bay than anything.

I have to agree with this statement. The comparison fits pretty well.

 

[Brian G.]

Was not saying SeaWorld's landscaping was awful. Was saying there is a lot more trees and vegetation at VB than Aquatica.

 

[Imagineer83]

In VB, you can see the plastic is sitting on top of the rock work, not in it; specifically here:

I get what you are saying and comparing, however, Volcano Bay was never suppose to integrate the slides into the landscape. The theme is that the park was ADDED to the landscape, not a PART of the landscape. Typhoon Lagoon is mostly themed to where you are riding 'natural' slides in the landscape that formed from a typhoon. Volcano Bay is a landscape where a water park was added to it. That is why all the slides and supports are exposed, they were added to the environment. This is why the rivers don't have rock work edges, they were man made and are not 'natural rivers'. As I noted earlier in the thread, there are no exposed volcano supports for the rock work, the only exposed supports are for the slides.

I understand why many think the slides and supports should be integrated into the landscape. However, judge the park on what the theme is suppose to be, not what you want it to be. This is not a criticism of what theme is better, more just to point out what the VB designers were going for. There are many other issues that were missed in VB during its rough opening but execution of their intended theme was pretty good.

Honestly, I love Typhoon Lagoon, but I think the three raft rides Keelhaul Falls, Mayday Falls and Gangplank Falls are the only slides that succeed in 'natural' themeing. The other slides, while nicely hidden in the rock work and are fun rides, truly don't make sense from a themeing standpoint. Why is there fiberglass 'naturally' occurring in the landscape? Those slides should have been made of different material to look like smooth rock if they truly wanted them to be themed in a natural landscape. Same for blizzard beach, melted snow apparently makes fiberglass. Again, fun slides and interesting theme idea and great integration of 'hidden' supports but if you think about it, it just doesn't make sense. Especially from a company that prides itself in the details...