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Volcano Bay: General Discussion

I wonder, if Universal were to do extra evening hours for resort guests as opposed to early admission, if that would help with spreading the crowds by enticing the hotel guests to come later.

It might. EMH at Disney increases park attendance at the park where it is offered - both in the initial day attendance and in the case of night EMH attendance jumps again a few hours prior to normal closing.
 
It's funny you mention this, I was just there yesterday and a concierge TM said that there are new wearables coming next month.

It's a temporary fix... having guests wear Bushie-Bushies, which they carry from the "reservations" patch on the side of the park to various locations. Your time is measured in how long it takes you to place your Bushie-Bushies in an appropriate hole and cover the root ball with soil and mulch.. and give it a light watering. Then you can ride Zika Moana Casio Mombatsu all you want all day.

In other news, they expect to finally be done with landscaping in a few months.
 
It's a temporary fix... having guests wear Bushie-Bushies, which they carry from the "reservations" patch on the side of the park to various locations. Your time is measured in how long it takes you to place your Bushie-Bushies in an appropriate hole and cover the root ball with soil and mulch.. and give it a light watering. Then you can ride Zika Moana Casio Mombatsu all you want all day.

In other news, they expect to finally be done with landscaping in a few months.
Took me a minute. Brilliant post.
 
Just got back from a quick staycation to Orlando to try out VB. Longtime lurked who finally decided to join to bask in the HHN goodness (going w/ 5 "virgins" in late September and staying and Royal Pacific--3 of the "virgins" are screamers, so it should be entertaining no matter what happens)

Don't believe the hype! (The negative hype, that is.)

We planned our trip around three weeks ago and made reservations at Cabana Bay, bought tickets to VB, and Premium Seating for 8/11/17.

We were able to get a Volcano View room in the Beachside Tower and it was great!!! Three large windows overlooking VB with Honu close by. It was surreal seeing the TMs getting ready for their shifts with a "staff meeting" Friday morning as we got ready to head down. (Reminded me of my early morning shifts in the hotel biz).

We got down to the Cabana Bay entrance to VB around 7:10 a.m. and there was one couple in front of us. Within a few minutes there were around 20 of us. We all had to wait for the "Special Event" Family Foundation folks to be let in, but by 7:30 were going through security and heading to the turnstiles.

Our Premium Seating was in the Rainforest area, just where Ohyea and Ohno are. While the seating is great, they need to work on developing less fragile lockers. It took us three tries to get seating that had a workable locker. I think their system isn't ready to handle the abuse/sand/moisture. That was about the only hitch we encountered.

We didn't do all of the slides, but focused on doing Krakatau, Honu, Tai Nui, and a few others (Taniwha Tubes, Punga Racers, etc.). The two rivers were great, for relaxation and fun. Never saw a "line" to get into the rivers during the whole time we were there and/or walking about. As people entered the river, they got tubes from folks exiting...no fuss no muss.

The slides were all great in their own ways. I will admit that the Taniwha Tubes may chap your keister, so lift it up a bit... ;) The Tai Nui slide was by far the most intense for my husband and me-- by the end, water was in every orifice and we didn't know which end was up.

Were the wait times long mid way through the day? Yup.

Are they going to be long in any water park? Of course. Especially with a new park and intense rides.

I'd much rather have the option of spending time in the rivers, wave pool, or eating/drinking than standing in line for three hours watching the varicose veins of the person in front of me grow longer with each step . . . It's all perspective in my opinion.

We stayed for four hours then headed back up for a "cool down" in the AC, etc. Headed back around 3 for a few more hours of fun. We talked to Security then and found out that they'd yet to reach anywhere near Capacity for the day.

We did Islands/US yesterday (So long Dueling Dragons *sniff*). The park looked to be about just as busy as we came and went to the parks/hotel. They did have to clear everyone out of the water around 4 or so due to lightning/thunder. Same thing around 8 or so. By then, folks just headed out, I suspect. (Boy, I'm glad we went on Friday--the Florida Weather Gods smiled us for once)

With a little planning and a good attitude, all can go your way. We both had a great time--MUCH BETTER than we thought we'd have with the "dog pile on VB" that the internet has been over the last few months.

By the way-- the chicken sandwich and paprika fries we had were streaks ahead of other counter fare we've had in the parks at Universal or Disney. We're now pricing the monthly addition for adding our FL Preferred Annual Passes. W/ some prior planning w/ friends a Cabana Rental for the day wouldn't be too much.

Thanks for the review!

The issue we had w/ the lock box at the seating was that you must push the button straight down with the Tapu. My wife would always hit it at an angle and that would push the chip from the top of the button and impossible to unlock...until the chip/sensor thing could be moved back to the top of that silly soft plastic button cover.....
 
Does anyone know of any 1 day Volcano Bay ticket discounts, like through AAA or Florida Resident? All the discounts I've found through google have all been package deals (I already have a hotel). I'll only go once this year so I don't want to upgrade my AP.
 
Does anyone know of any 1 day Volcano Bay ticket discounts, like through AAA or Florida Resident? All the discounts I've found through google have all been package deals (I already have a hotel). I'll only go once this year so I don't want to upgrade my AP.
Now that universal is at the disney price scale, they usualy try to punish you for going one day. I would expect it to be a rarity to get any one day discounts across the resorts in general anymore. Also when the park is hitting capacity many days as it is, it would be wise to discourage one day guests so the people with packages that included Volcano Bay can get in easier.
 
Thanks for the review!

The issue we had w/ the lock box at the seating was that you must push the button straight down with the Tapu. My wife would always hit it at an angle and that would push the chip from the top of the button and impossible to unlock...until the chip/sensor thing could be moved back to the top of that silly soft plastic button cover.....
We tapped straight down and it wouldn't work. Even on the one that we ended up getting it was a bit hit or miss. As for the first one we were assigned, the entire "door" had been broken off. . . I think as time goes on they'll get a better handle on devising a system that is less fragile.
 
Is it possible to link the tapu tapu to a hotel room charge/keycard instead of straight to your credit card? I like getting one giant itemized pamphlet of charges from the hotel with one charge on the credit card instead of having 200 credit card charges. Just makes it easier to figure out vacation costs for me
 
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