Volcano Bay: General Discussion

[Andysol]

Now, if you're telling me the only way I can ride these is Tapu Tapu the "no line system", then great! I love not waiting in line... but if you are also telling me that for that 4-5 hour wait all I can really do is eat food and float in the lazy river... no thanks!

You're having trouble following this concept though. If something says 200 minutes- it's 200 minutes. Without Tapu Tapu- if you want to ride that ride, you're standing on the stairs taking one step every couple minutes until you reach the top 200 minutes later. Or- you can float and lounge, etc for 200 minutes. The 200 minute wait never changes- it's "what are you doing during those 200 minutes".
In reality, it's going to settle down and 200 minute waits won't happen except during peak times- which is how long the wait would have been- tapu tapu or not.

But it does have an effect on the length of the lines and it does depend on it. Tapu Tapu was created so that people can have a water proof wallet on their wrists. Which is a positive but to actually convince customers to wear it, they had to sell them on "short lines" which really isn't possible.

Mike, they never tried to sell you on "short lines"- just "no lines". The short is your interpretation. I'm sure others hear "no lines" and think they can walk right up to every ride- and I agree, it's confusing verbiage. But in reality, it's all they could really say.

 

[fryoj]

I'm just pointing out the GP are not going to be pleased when they find out after they've waited an hour already for a 5 hour wait that they can't really do anything else unless it's a walk-on. They aren't going to understand the "Well technically you're waiting in line" thing, They are going to say... "I'm not in line, I have waited an hour, I have 4 hours to go, let me ride some damn slides."

Me, personally? I would not touch a slide that displays the current wait the Volcano slides are touting. Unless it's the one slide I've yet to do, and that is the reason I am coming to the park that day.

So when you were an hour in to a 5 hour wait to get a picture with Anna and Elsa and you said screw this, did you just stay in line or did you just get out and do something else?

 

[Evan]

You're having trouble following this concept though. If something says 200 minutes- it's 200 minutes. Without Tapu Tapu- if you want to ride that ride, you're standing on the stairs taking one step every couple minutes until you reach the top 200 minutes later. Or- you can float and lounge, etc for 200 minutes. The 200 minute wait never changes- it's "what are you doing during those 200 minutes".
In reality, it's going to settle down and 200 minute waits won't happen except during peak times- which is how long the wait would have been- tapu tapu or not.

I'm not having a hard time, I totally get it... I'm trying express what the problem is going to end up being. It doesn't matter if you say "Well you'd be waiting in line without it, now you can float around for 4 hours" The GP won't care, won't get it, and are going to burn the earns of the Guest Relations TM's.

If you say to someone with no knowledge of parks "This holds your place in line" they are going to be ecstatic, and won't really think much of tapuing (hehe new word!) on a 4 hour wait... but once they find out 2 hours into floating that they can't do any other slides whilst waiting, they are going to be :fight::saw::censored:

....

I think a solution would be you allow people to also wait in line for other slides if the wait of that slide is significantly less than the greatest wait of the slide their currently held in line for.

 

[sonoma15]

So when are they going to start selling custom TapuTapu's you can take home :tongue:

 

[P@n!K_Sw1tC#]

I can see Universal adopting something similar to what Disney does with FP+ for Volcano Bay. You go to a bank of Tapu Tapus at the front of the park where you essentially plan return times for the various slides - based on availability. A day planner of sorts. The park sets an expected park attendance for that day - and the algorithm dictates allotment based on slide capacity. This could also be used in conjunction with restaurant seating availability.

 

[rhino4evr]

Reading reports that the Tapu Tapu bracelet is glitching and screen disappearing.

hey guys...remember in that "other" thread when I said that opening day would be a "mess" because they haven't tested this new no-line system in the "real" world, and a few of you chimed in that they have done "extensive testing" and "will be more than ready"...

yeah.....

 

[fryoj]

I think a solution would be you allow people to also wait in line for other slides if the wait of that slide is significantly less than the greatest wait of the slide their currently held in line for.

That cuts slide capacity in half.... It makes the waits longer for all those people who would rather keep riding rides than wait for one. Only one line per person is the only way this works.

 

[wizwit]

Given that there's a ton of locals there with the same three or four slides on their minds, it makes sense that things are a bit lopsided right now. Once that crowd disperses things will flow a little more accordingly. I do like the option of giving people more than just the rivers/wave pool during the waiting period. An adult water fortress embedded into the volcano would have been a nice addition to remedying some of these issues.

Alas, this shows the importance of having high-capacity rides in parks like this. Given the hysteria, a Proslide Mammoth seems to be needed like yesterday.

Or how about some kind of entertainment (live music, streetmosphere, etc.) or a Show? That would help make the waits more bearable.

 

[Bulldog45]

I can't see myself waiting 4 hours to ride a water slide, Tapu-Tapu or not.

 

[Evan]

That cuts slide capacity in half.... It makes the waits longer for all those people who would rather keep riding rides than wait for one. Only one line per person is the only way this works.

Well in theory it can work if you figure out how much less the wait time would need to be to be able to open it up to people currently waiting in a 4 hour line. I'd say if it's 30 minutes or less, it would have a negligible effect, as once it got above 30 (for example) it would no longer be open to those waiting 4 hours for another attraction...

I just think in extreme cases, when waits do exceed an hour or two, you have to be a little more flexible... or you're going to have a PR headache.

 

[rhino4evr]

Hey guys, the actual "solution" would have been to let far less people into the park when they knew not all the attractions would be open, and that it was opening weekend.

Less People = Less Problems but also = Less $$$$

So what's UOR to do?

 

[JungleSkip]

hey guys...remember in that "other" thread when I said that opening day would be a "mess" because they haven't tested this new no-line system in the "real" world, and a few of you chimed in that they have done "extensive testing" and "will be more than ready"...

yeah.....

To be clear, they have done extensive testing of the tech, but not the application to a wide audience.

 

[Andysol]

Or how about some kind of entertainment (live music, streetmosphere, etc.) or a Show? That would help make the waits more bearable.

This 100 times over.
It would also lend more credence and give separation to this being a water theme park. It doesn't always have to be all the time either (for cost reasons)- just roll them out at VB to pound some drums when it's at high capacity and then send them back to USF to bang on some buckets and pipes when it's not.

To be clear, they have done extensive testing of the tech, but not the application to a wide audience.

That means little for VB though. They needed Softs to iron it out better but their timing was clearly way off- by a month or so. Just because you can hit a golf ball doesn't mean can go to a new course without a practice game or two and hit your best.

 

[wizwit]

Is it official that we are getting the full nighttime lava light show/eruption tonight?

 

[Miketheboss]

Or how about some kind of entertainment (live music, streetmosphere, etc.) or a Show? That would help make the waits more bearable.

This is actually a great idea. Imagine watching a show where part of the seating is actually a pool.

 

[JunoSynth]

Hey guys, the actual "solution" would have been to let far less people into the park when they knew not all the attractions would be open, and that it was opening weekend.

Less People = Less Problems but also = Less $$$$

So what's UOR to do?

That picture of the line outside with 350 wait times gives me HHN insane crowd flashbacks.

 

[fryoj]

Well in theory it can work if you figure out how much less the wait time would need to be to be able to open it up to people currently waiting in a 4 hour line. I'd say if it's 30 minutes or less, it would have a negligible effect, as once it got above 30 (for example) it would no longer be open to those waiting 4 hours for another attraction...

I just think in extreme cases, when waits do exceed an hour or two, you have to be a little more flexible... or you're going to have a PR headache.

No... If you take all those people waiting for a 4 hour line and let them fill in the spots for the shorter rides, no rides will have short lines.

Look no farther than Fastpass for proof. Now that you can virtually wait in line for a ride, the standby lines are worse than they would be if they didn't have fastpass at all.

If you go to tap and its 4 hours, you either don't get in line or you can just stand right there for 4 hours like you would have had to do otherwise.... Or hey, you can go swim, relax, go to the bathroom, eat, or whatever for 4 hours like the system is designed to let you do.

 

[Miketheboss]

 

[P@n!K_Sw1tC#]

Another great idea would of been to use the Tapu Tapu special effects to create some kind of game where you try and find the spirit of Vol inside the caves of the Volcano. So much potential to do really out of the box, "theme park-ish" stuff here

 

[rhino4evr]

so once you get your "tapu" alert....how long do you actually have to wait before you ride your slide. is there another wait when you get up to the slide?

If not, I bet you'll see more situations where the Tapu line becomes longer, so that the standby line shortens up a bit.