Volcano Bay: General Discussion

[Mad Dog]

When we went to Water World, BGW they also had two lazy rivers, though shorter than these. On the Rapids River they made everyone wear a vest . It was always crowded on our visits and there was almost always lines for it, and you'd have to wait until vests became available. The slow Lazy River usually also had lines, but not as long as the Rapid River. That one had tubes.

 

[BEAU2207]

Anyone else notice that they are not offering express passes at all for volcano bay.Was there any news on if they will be put back up for sale?

 

[Imagineer83]

I asked earlier but no one answered so I will try again...

Can anyone confirm if the wait time posted is the time to actually ride the attraction or the time your Tapu Tapu will tell you to return?

 

[AustinT]

I was at the park from noon to after close today. Feel free to ask any specific questions you have and I can try to answer what I can.

Overall, it was a really fun day and yes, while there were several things that could have been improved on, Universal and staff are clearly making improvements from what I've seen opening day and yesterday were like.

At noon upon arriving, most wait times were already in the 200-300 minute range. The first slide we got into the virtual queue for had a 120 minute wait but I only ended up waiting about 45 before taputapu notified me it was time to ride. The same thing can be said for every other slide. While the wait times posted were very long, I only ended up waiting about a third of each posted time. Rode all the slides aside from the three in the volcano and the punga racers which were down most of the day.

Employees were extremely patient and friendly to everyone, even the very angry guests (which there were a lot of around the middle of the day). The majority of the crowd there today seemed to be foreigners and the general public who hasn't been following the progress of this park's creation and was definitely not aware of the opening week struggles.

There were several issues and small problems throughout the day but nothing so major that it ruined the entire day. My taputapu stopped working at one point during the day so I had to get a replacement from guest services, the computers in one bar were having trouble taking debit/credit card payments for a few minutes, the aqua coaster went down at least two times during the day and people had to be extracted from the ride (took about 20 mins each time), and the quick service pizza place screwed my pizza order (bbq sauce on the hawaiian pizza instead of the bbq chicken pizza I ordered). But in each of these instances, the staff was very apologetic and did their best to correct the situation. Got the correct pizza and got to keep the one that was a mistake, got a one time express use after getting the new taputapu, etc.

The park still has a good amount of finishing touches that need to be completed like cabanas, tapu picture spots, the star gazers cavern, and some additional landscaping/ground work. Also definitely dissapointed the closing tmes got changed to 8pm because this park will look gorgeous at night. Overall, the park is presentable but it is obvious Universal could have benefitted from another 2 weeks or so of work before opening. Still, it was a very fun day, food was good, wait times dropped drastically after 5pm (Some slides even became walk ons), and the transportation situation was very hassle free with many busses on hand.

Can anyone confirm if the wait time posted is the time to actually ride the attraction or the time your Tapu Tapu will tell you to return?

See answer above. Wait time posted was much longer than you actually have to wait for most of the slides. About 2-3x longer in most cases. Once your taputapu notifies you its time to ride, the wait on the stairs was usually about 10 mins.

Are they geyser things on the yellow saucer slide already working?
Because the saucers don't really add anything at the moment.

They have lights on them but don't shoot water or anything yet.

Anyone else notice that they are not offering express passes at all for volcano bay.Was there any news on if they will be put back up for sale?

From what I was told today at noon, they were selling them from inside the park but already sold the maximum number alloted for the day.

 

[Mad Dog]

I was at the park from noon to after close today. Feel free to ask any specific questions you have and I can try to answer what I can.

Overall, it was a really fun day and yes, while there were several things that could have been improved on, Universal and staff are clearly making improvements from what I've seen opening day and yesterday were like.

At noon upon arriving, most wait times were already in the 200-300 minute range. The first slide we got into the virtual queue for had a 120 minute wait but I only ended up waiting about 45 before taputapu notified me it was time to ride. The same thing can be said for every other slide. While the wait times posted were very long, I only ended up waiting about a third of each posted time. Rode all the slides aside from the three in the volcano and the punga racers which were down most of the day.

Employees were extremely patient and friendly to everyone, even the very angry guests (which there were a lot of around the middle of the day). The majority of the crowd there today seemed to be foreigners and the general public who hasn't been following the progress of this park's creation and was definitely not aware of the opening week struggles.

There were several issues and small problems throughout the day but nothing so major that it ruined the entire day. My taputapu stopped working at one point during the day so I had to get a replacement from guest services, the computers in one bar were having trouble taking debit/credit card payments for a few minutes, the aqua coaster went down at least two times during the day and people had to be extracted from the ride (took about 20 mins each time), and the quick service pizza place screwed my pizza order (bbq sauce on the hawaiian pizza instead of the bbq chicken pizza I ordered). But in each of these instances, the staff was very apologetic and did their best to correct the situation. Got the correct pizza and got to keep the one that was a mistake, got a one time express use after getting the new taputapu, etc.

The park still has a good amount of finishing touches that need to be completed like cabanas, tapu picture spots, the star gazers cavern, and some additional landscaping/ground work. Also definitely dissapointed the closing tmes got changed to 8pm because this park will look gorgeous at night. Overall, the park is presentable but it is obvious Universal could have benefitted from another 2 weeks or so of work before opening. Still, it was a very fun day, food was good, wait times dropped drastically after 5pm (Some slides even became walk ons), and the transportation situation was very hassle free with many busses on hand.



See answer above. Wait time posted was much longer than you actually have to wait for most of the slides. About 2-3x longer in most cases. Once your taputapu notifies you its time to ride, the wait on the stairs was usually about 10 mins.



They have lights on them but don't shoot water or anything yet.


From what I was told today at noon, they were selling them from inside the park but already sold the maximum number alloted for the day.

Nice, thorough, very fair review. You answered a lot of questions people had, corrected a number of misconceptions, and placed a lot of light on the very inflated listed ride times, that in actuality, were considerably less. Thank you very much....And welcome to the Forums. Hope to hear more from you in the future. :thumbsup:

 

[AustinT]

Nice, thorough, very fair review. You answered a lot of questions people had, corrected a number of misconceptions, and placed a lot of light on the very inflated listed ride times, that in actuality, were considerably less. Thank you very much....And welcome to the Forums. Hope to hear more from you in the future. :thumbsup:

Thank you! Long time lurker, almost daily reader, not very frequent poster.


Edit: Oh yes, forgot to add that on the bus ride over from the garage, I was next to a group of guys from some analytics company who were hired by universal from what I overheard. When the employee told us that the park was at capacity (but those with tickets already were fine) while we were boarding the bus, they mentioned that "counting with the park at capacity would be much harder". So it definitely seems like Universal is working to alleviate the wait time/capacity issues as quickly as they can. Kudos to them!

 

[wizwit]

Any news on the nightime eruption "show"?

 

[12th Man]

 

[AlexanderMBush]

I'm uncontrollably happy about this, in a sense.

Express, should not at all be at a waterpark; and with the park being built with Tapu Tapu in mind, this should help them out insanely well.

 

[AustinT]

Any news on the nightime eruption "show"?

None today. Park closed at 8 and was walking out at 830 after a final slide. Asked a couple employees and they had no idea what time the park even closed much less if the volcano would erupt.

 

[12th Man]

Also, I love this!!

 

[rhino4evr]

Overstated wait times is definitely good news to hear.

 

[wizwit]

Has there been any noticeable difference in wait times at the other two parks now that many guests are hanging out in Volcano Bay?

 

[Jack Presley]

Can you wear a life jacket on the Ohyah and Ohno drop slides? I'm not a very good swimmer and would probably panic after landing in 10ft of water without one but would like to give these rides a try.

 

[BAC]

I'm uncontrollably happy about this, in a sense.

Express, should not at all be at a waterpark; and with the park being built with Tapu Tapu in mind, this should help them out insanely well.

So in a matter of months, Universal has gone from including Express Passes for all premier resort guests, to taking them away and making these same guests pay extra for it (and thinking no one would notice?) and now no Express Passes at all? I understand why they are doing this, but this whole situation reeks of management incompetence.

Its like they decided to rush the opening and figure it out later, and hope they don't piss off too many guests. You can not compare this opening to parks that opened in previous decades (like I've seen on this forum). Universal should have tons of advanced metrics, process engineers, case studies, data, etc that would have made this launch and its issues predictable. Instead it seems like a huge surprise. And Twitter is killing them.

 

[Parkscope Joe]

Can you wear a life jacket on the Ohyah and Ohno drop slides? I'm not a very good swimmer and would probably panic after landing in 10ft of water without one but would like to give these rides a try.

My understanding is no. And DO NOT ride if you are not a strong swimmer. Neither am I and I'm avoiding those slides.

 

[AlexanderMBush]

So in a matter of months, Universal has gone from including Express Passes for all premier resort guests, to taking them away and making these same guests pay extra for it (and thinking no one would notice?) and now no Express Passes at all? I understand why they are doing this, but this whole situation reeks of management incompetence.

Its like they decided to rush the opening and figure it out later, and hope they don't piss off too many guests. You can not compare this opening to parks that opened in previous decades (like I've seen on this forum). Universal should have tons of advanced metrics, process engineers, case studies, data, etc that would have made this launch and its issues predictable. Instead it seems like a huge surprise. And Twitter is killing them.

I don't think Express fits Volcano Bay. I said that, loud and clear. I wasn't meaning that to comment on resort guests. And that I would assume, this won't affect Universal Studios Florida or Islands, and that those with Express at resort hotels will have express for those two parks.

I wasn't trying to mean it in a bad thing.

Volcano Bay, was built with Tapu Tapu directly in mind. Getting rid of something that could create much longer lines in the process makes sense, atleast; until they figure something out to balance the issues going on as of now.

 

[NJBrandon]

At capacity again since 9:45.

 

[AustinT]

Has there been any noticeable difference in wait times at the other two parks now that many guests are hanging out in Volcano Bay?

Not sure of the typical Memorial Day weekend crowds but I spent all day Thursday and Friday hopping between the other two parks. In the middle of the day, most waits were 45-60 mins and at the end of the day, they were 15-30mins each. Islands cleared out significantly after 6pm and waits for JP, FJ, Dragons, Spiderman, and Hulk were 5-10 mins.

Volcano Bay, was built with Tapu Tapu directly in mind. Getting rid of something that could create much longer lines in the process makes sense, atleast; until they figure something out to balance the issues going on as of now.

Yes, agreed. Express people jumping into the lines would sometimes extend the wait of the non-express riders. For example, waits shown on taputapu would go from 15 back up to 25 on occasion. Nothing major, but still annoying when you're watching your wait time work it's way down and then it jumps back up.

 

[Teebin]

My understanding is no. And DO NOT ride if you are not a strong swimmer. Neither am I and I'm avoiding those slides.

"Strong" might be pushing it a bit. One only has to "swim" 5-10 feet and you are at the shallow end and staircase. Even a dog paddle would get you there quite easily.