Volcano Bay: General Discussion

[darkridelover]

Does anyone know the metrics of the other Orlando water parks? Aka how many people fit inside Typhoon Lagoon/Blizzard Beach? How many slides do they have? I feel like the capacity is way off at Volcano Bay or something.

Volcano Bay has more slides than Blizzard Beach and Typhoon Lagoon.

 

[Mad Dog]

Is that the review that basically said you needed to be at the park before it "officially" opened in order to actually ride the slides? I mean that's great, but it's not realistic to expect everyone get to the park at 8am. Especially if you aren't staying at a resort.

He got there early but he stayed until mid afternoon and said he was riding all along. If someone doesn't show up at a newly opened park until after noon, they're kind of bound to meet the same situation you would walk into MK if you showed up that late, namely long lines for everything. And a new park, like a new land (Pandora) is just asking for long lines....Not to say the construction problem hasn't caused issues, just that all this stuff is really sounding overblown , aka Gringotts, Frozen, Kong, Sapphire etc. Negativism just starts feeding on itself until it reaches the point that things start getting looked at a little narrow minded, and people lose sight of most of these issues will probably go away within a matter of weeks, or even days. The park hasn't even been opened to the public for a week yet, and death notices are being issued. I'm calm about this. I think everything will be fine. The park has 30% more attractions than the competition, so capacity issues should work out once everything settles.

 

[JunoSynth]

Is that the review that basically said you needed to be at the park before it "officially" opened in order to actually ride the slides? I mean that's great, but it's not realistic to expect everyone get to the park at 7:30 am. Especially if you aren't staying at a resort.

I don't see why not. This is the norm at HHN and any other park you go to. You have to get there early to ride the rides/houses first with little wait times. Once you start getting later in the day and the park fills up and the lines get a lot longer.

 

[adjjb]

For a water park having to be there for 7:30 to get to go on a slide and ride everything one after the other until 10. I agree isn't realistic. People want to cool down during the day and enjoy their entire day.

 

[rhino4evr]

I think you guys missed the "before the park officially opened" part of my comment. I think the review said that by 10am (when the park actually opens to the public) the slides had long waits. He had already ridden the most popular ones, so it didn't effect him.

He also mentioned very long food lines.

I really appreciate a positive review after reading about 30 ultra negatives ones on TA, but his review isn't really what the "typical" guest will experience.

Did anyone else read the multiple reviews that the water was "freezing cold?"

 

[Ryan]

Hearing that lost TTs are leading to duplicate reservations (upon replacement) since there's no backtracking unlike MyMagic. So that begs the question (directed to those who have been there): what happens when nobody shows up to the slide to collect a res and their current physical queue dries up? Does an operator shift reservation times or do they just take any passing guests for standby?

Either way, it's a new system. Let's let them try to figure it out. Some of y'all aren't even giving them a week. Cmon.

 

[Teebin]

Does an operator shift reservation times or do they just take any passing guests for standby?

I would assume the system is logic solved by computers. If people don't show up then people next in the taptu line are alerted that their reservation is ready. Everyone else taptus get 5-10 minutes subtracted from their wait times. Mass no-shows will result in mass taptu updates.

I am assuming that folks have to tap in when they enter the ride queue thus removing them from the list?

 

[Mad Dog]

I think you guys missed the "before the park officially opened" part of my comment. I think the review said that by 10am (when the park actually opens to the public) the slides had long waits. He had already ridden the most popular ones, so it didn't effect him.

He also mentioned very long food lines.

I really appreciate a positive review after reading about 30 ultra negatives ones on TA, but his review isn't really what the "typical" guest will experience.

Did anyone else read the multiple reviews that the water was "freezing cold?"

The reviewer said he stayed until mid afternoon both days and it never got crazy busy.
The other reviews on the IU review thread aren't the dire Twitter type reviews either. They tell somewhat similar stories. And I trust our Forum reviews way better than Twitter & You Tube stuff. Fallon & Kong are good examples of our reviews being more right on than these Twitter people that we don't know if they ever actually were in the parks. Some problems, of course, it's a new park, that had construction issues . And just about every major water park I've ever been to, if you don't get a lounge chair by 10 or 11, good luck. People come to water parks in mornings and then they start emptying out at 3 or 5 in the afternoon. Showing up at a brand new park in the afternoon, first week, holiday season, is just asking for issues. Heck, afternoon slide lines get pretty long everywhere. And, some reviewers said the listed VB ride times were inflated.

 

[quinnmac000]

So someone prominent on the other site is saying that people are getting serious injuries but I don't know where they are getting that.

 

[Latveria]

Volcano Bay has more slides than Blizzard Beach and Typhoon Lagoon.

I'm sorry - but I've been to both Blizzard and Typhoon on July 4th weekend before and never saw a 5+ hour wait for their headliner attractions. Something is definitely wrong at VB in regards to operations/capacity.

 

[UK-Trigg]

Any new business has teething problems, restaurants, stores our hotels, non of these have ever opened without a single hitch probably lots of hitches, this is inevitable as people cannot count for every eventuality.

Now look at VB, how many different variables are available of things that could go wrong or been over looked?

Yes it is a bummer that some things are incomplete and the lines were so long, but guys it's new, they had little to nothing really to go off to help forecast opened a water theme park.

They will eventually install the missing themingand attractions and lines will eventually even out, although I think a certain level of waiting is to be expected with any new opening.

Tapu Tapu needs some work too, but you can bet your bottom dollar that folk are crunching numbers and running models behind the scenes.

As much as people are feeling angry and frustrated no one is feeling the pain more than uni are right now, they will be desperate to get this right, give it a month and the kinks will be ironed out, the lines will be fixed and volcano bay will be a happy smiley place.

 

[Ryan]

I would assume the system is logic solved by computers. If people don't show up then people next in the taptu line are alerted that their reservation is ready. Everyone else taptus get 5-10 minutes subtracted from their wait times. Mass no-shows will result in mass taptu updates.

I am assuming that folks have to tap in when they enter the ride queue thus removing them from the list?

Now this is the exact answer I was hoping for, I'm praying it's indeed true.

 

[BAC]

I know they are no longer selling Express Pass, but are they honoring Express Pass right now at the park?

 

[Ryan]

I know they are no longer selling Express Pass, but are they honoring Express Pass right now at the park?

If you bought it prior specifically for VB before it was taken away, yes it will be honored. Wonder if any eBay pirates caught wind

 

[Mad Dog]

Any new business has teething problems, restaurants, stores our hotels, non of these have ever opened without a single hitch probably lots of hitches, this is inevitable as people cannot count for every eventuality.

Now look at VB, how many different variables are available of things that could go wrong or been over looked?

Yes it is a bummer that some things are incomplete and the lines were so long, but guys it's new, they had little to nothing really to go off to help forecast opened a water theme park.

They will eventually install the missing themingand attractions and lines will eventually even out, although I think a certain level of waiting is to be expected with any new opening.

Tapu Tapu needs some work too, but you can bet your bottom dollar that folk are crunching numbers and running models behind the scenes.

As much as people are feeling angry and frustrated no one is feeling the pain more than uni are right now, they will be desperate to get this right, give it a month and the kinks will be ironed out, the lines will be fixed and volcano bay will be a happy smiley place.

UK Trigg, "Volcano Bay will be a happy smiley place". ...Our UK friends have such a good way of finding the common denominator. :wave: :thumbsup:

 

[P@n!K_Sw1tC#]

Maybe it's not so much about him being from the UK and more his personal demeanor?

Nobody is saying that Volcano Bay, or any new addition for that matter, can't have teething issues and has to be 100% perfect from the get go. That's a strawman's argument. They opened a water park that, to be quite honest with you, isn't much different from others that we've seen aside from the virtual queuing. There's no first-of-its-kind technology in the park, all of the slides are out of the box, the rivers have been done before, and the wave generator isn't anything new. Let's be honest with ourselves here. A lot of this was avoidable and that's why, in my opinion, a lot of this is inexcusable. There were many warnings on these forums as early as December talking about the domino effect of certain contractors not being able to get their work done because of hold ups from others. Universal knew this but insisted on a Memorial Day opening anyways. They chose to inconvenience guests and admit people at full price without completing the park. They chose to sell cabanas knowing they wouldn't be ready in time. They chose to stress test their virtual queuing on opening day with no prior real-world testing. That's all on them. That's what this is about. It's not about the ride breakdowns, it's not about how popular the park is.

We all know that new rides have downtime and are extremely popular when they open - which can lead to longer waits. We're not talking about that, we're talking about Universal's inability to provide paying customers with a show-ready deliverable.

 

[BAC]

If you bought it prior specifically for VB before it was taken away, yes it will be honored. Wonder if any eBay pirates caught wind

Thanks for the response. Getting information from customer service is like pulling teeth. I actually had a customer service manager tell me not only are Express Passes not for sale, but they aren't honoring them either. I found this hard to believe. That would mean mass refunds.

 

[adjjb]

I saw in one of those Tripadvisor reviews that when the guest complained they were given an Express Pass for the following day, so I think they're honoring them if they're handing them out.

 

[JunoSynth]

Maybe it's not so much about him being from the UK and more his personal demeanor?

Right.

I see all this back and forth as this.
Some people like to be pessimistic about things and some people like to be optimistic about things. That's it. Simple as that.

And I'm not saying either side is right or wrong. Both sides have valid opinions on this subject.

 

[Joel]

I'm sorry - but I've been to both Blizzard and Typhoon on July 4th weekend before and never saw a 5+ hour wait for their headliner attractions. Something is definitely wrong at VB in regards to operations/capacity.

Yes, you're right. It's the first week, they messed up by not doing any softs. I've been trying to read past the same thing posted over and over but it's getting very irritating. Poorly trained, inexperience, etc. All Universal's fault, let them figure it out. It's not going to stay at 5 hours, just like we're not waiting 7 hours for Gringotts anymore. It's not TapuTapu's fault (mostly not) that the lines are this long, people would be waiting in the same lines no matter what as you can see from there being physical lines on every slide.