Volcano Bay: General Discussion

[UNIrd]

You know, a quick psychological fix for guests would be to display a return time rather than the totality of minutes. Rather than saying that Honu is 240 minutes, say "Next Return time available at 3:15 pm" or something. Give the whole system more of a dining reservation feel rather than a deli counter queue feel.

Apple Genius Bar already does this through text messaging. Baby steps.

There were a lot of people having trouble figuring out just how long the waits were. "370? How long is that?" That's over 6 hours, sir.

 

[UAN17]

Why have they decided that everyone wants to wait around for hours in the wave pool, lazy river and bar...have they not considered people actually like going on the slides?

 

[rhino4evr]

Why have they decided that everyone wants to wait around for hours in the wave pool, lazy river and bar...have they not considered people actually like going on the slides?

They haven't. The "idea" was that you would be doing this instead of waiting in line. Which sounds great! If the actual lines weren't averaging between 3-5 hours.

 

[sonoma15]

Why have they decided that everyone wants to wait around for hours in the wave pool, lazy river and bar...have they not considered people actually like going on the slides?

They are still going on the slides, even without taputapu they still wouldn't be going on slides, they would still being waiting 6 hours but in a physical line.

 

[Ryan]

Why have they decided that everyone wants to wait around for hours in the wave pool, lazy river and bar...have they not considered people actually like going on the slides?

They do. The problem is that the operations just aren't there to support the way that TT should function naturally. You're right: it's not supposed to be 200/300 min. But that's because this is a brand new park with brand new ops with a brand new system. They have to let it be broken in. If the waits are 30/40 min instead, that's much more manageable, and that's the intention as long as the ops are going correct.

Let them sort out the issues. I'm willing to trust Universal's operations team on this for the moment even if some others refuse to.

 

[UNIrd]

There's too many people in Volcano Bay. TapuTapu is not the issue. There's no glitch with the system. It's working exactly as it should. The problem is there's too many people in the park and not enough for them to do outside of the slides with TapuTapu.

The expansion would more than likely have to have either a huge people-eater (the Mammoth ride), more racers, and they need to get started on it yesterday.

 

[rhino4evr]

They are still going on the slides, even without taputapu they still wouldn't be going on slides, they would still being waiting 6 hours but in a physical line.

Yes..but maybe, just maybe the lines wouldn't be 6 hours if the Tapu Tapu system wasn't in place?

Would love to see what would happen if they turned off Tapu Tapu for a weekend to see how the system operates standby only.

As many others have said...Volcano Bay has more rides than Blizzard Beach and Typhoon Lagoon, and they have never (in my memory) had a 5 hour wait for a water slide.

So something is off. It's possible that UOR is packing the park with people, but to be honest the photos I've seen don't really show wall to wall people.

 

[Ryan]

There's too many people in Volcano Bay. TapuTapu is not the issue. There's no glitch with the system. It's working exactly as it should. The problem is there's too many people in the park and not enough for them to do outside of the slides with TapuTapu.

The expansion would more than likely have to have either a huge people-eater (the Mammoth ride), more racers, and they need to get started on it yesterday.

That's not the entire issue here at all. They also have problems with guesstimating ops, getting those dispatches down, judging crowd flow, resolving issues with lost TTs, etc. There's no clock on the TT and we still don't have an actual confirmed answer about what happens when somebody doesn't show up for their reservation and those queues go empty. Remember that without a clock, time can become a state of mind. Even if the wait rapidly depletes on the TT, a guest could mistake it taking the exact same amount of time.

So while yes, crowd amount is a problem, it's not the entire problem. It needs to become operationally efficient for this system to deliver those results in return.

 

[Rico]

Why have they decided that everyone wants to wait around for hours in the wave pool, lazy river and bar...have they not considered people actually like going on the slides?

True, I may be spoiled as I live an hour away from the waterpark capital of the world at the Wisconsin Dells. All the parks get packed but the physical waits in lines never exceed an hour and those are the A Ticket Rides only on days where the parks are esspecially close to capacity. The difference between these parks and Volcano Bay is that the smaller slides like double tubed and single ride slides lines go quite fast. You get in line and slide and you move on with your day. Having to que up for every slide is absolutely rediculous for a park that has a large volume of people in a relatively small lot. And yeah I followed what most would consider the right steps, got their early at the opening for hotel guests and got a few big rides in like the watercoaster and one slide at the top of the volcano (one of the twins). But even at the largest waterparks ive been to I have been able to get on every major ride and leave by 3-4. I understand the concept of Tapu Tapu but the lazy river and wave pool arent anything special and cant subside the urge to ride slides over the course of a 1-6 hour wait. Enjoyed the lazy rivers more than the wave pool, because although you may be looking up at one of the most impressive feats of waterpark engineering the "wave" pool is just a gloried pool. The waves are almost nonexistent and lack even a smidge of intensity. Like I said maybe me being from wisconsin and having access to the best waterparks out there every summer has made me biased and I did go in with lowered expectations and the park failed to live up to even those. I found myself wishing I was enjoying the main parks instead of bumbling around a big beautiful waterpark that teases more than pleases.

 

[Mad Dog]

So you are trusting one person's review..that basically said he was "first in line" at rope drop, then the multiple negative reviews appearing all over the place? You once again missed my point. While he may have had a good/decent experience, a lot of people are not. It's situation was by no means "typical" which was my point.

How can you say the park is "not crazy busy" when multiple rides (not just 1) have 3-5 to 7!!! hour waits? That's completely unacceptable for a water park, opening weekend, or not.

Go read the "detailed" reviews over at Trip Advisor. There are plenty of well thought out reactions on there from people that were very disappointed, even though they realized it was opening weekend.

No. If you read my posts again you will see I was referring to the reviews on the IU (OU) VB review thread. Most of them are saying similar things. Issues, but still had fun, and got a decent number of rides in. I give way more weight to our Forums than the outsider stuff. There's almost always a lot of negativity from the outside internet every time Universal opens something new. And I always question how many of the You Tube reviewers, twitter lifestylers and Trip advisor etc. people actually were there and if they're just trolling or anti Universal theme park fans, or just miserable negative people that like to say negative stuff....Heh, we know there's issues because of the construction delays, but internet stuff does get overblown. I have no doubts most everything will be fine in the near future.

 

[Teebin]

No matter what calm reasoning one offers on here, there continues to be a bunch of Eeyore's and Henny Penny's pounding the white sand. Mercy...

tomorrow's headline: "VOLCANO BAY A FAILURE - SOLD TO NORTH KOREA!"

 

[MattA]

No matter what calm reasoning one offers on here, there continues to be a bunch of Eeyore's and Henny Penny's pounding the white sand. Mercy...

tomorrow's headline: "VOLCANO BAY A FAILURE - SOLD TO NORTH KOREA!"

The park itself isn't a failure. The park is beautifully designed and the slides are amazing. However I feel Tapu tapu is holding it back. It's my opinion that they either need to make it a system like FP+ or get rid of it completely.

 

[Alicia]

Ugh, you all sound like broken records. I can see all sides of the issue and where everyone's coming from. But my eyeballs hurt from reading the same things over and over.

...

Carry on.

 

[rhino4evr]

Ugh, you all sound like broken records. I can see all sides of the issue and where everyone's coming from. But my eyeballs hurt from reading the same things over and over.

...

Carry on.

yeah, I think I've made my point. Looking forward to seeing if these issues get worked out before the summer ends.

I was originally planning a trip in October around HHN, but I think I'll hold off for now.

 

[jseal777]

Everything is fine

 

[Alicia]

yeah, I think I've made my point. Looking forward to seeing if these issues get worked out before the summer ends.

I was originally planning a trip in October around HHN, but I think I'll hold off for now.

I'm waiting till September, as was my plan anyway. I'm gonna keep my eye on progress though. It certainly has been a roller coaster of a ride, and we're just a few days in!

 

[Ryan]

I will agree on this: please no more unconstructive criticism pounding in "this is a failure; I knew it; VB is gonna close" hysteria. If you're going to continue, try to make some actual constructive criticism and start a dialogue. This is starting to become old and sounding like stirring the pot. Thank you, continue on.

 

[BAC]

So for those of us that will be there in the next few weeks, I'd love to get some strategy advice. Obviously get there when it opens. Reserve Krakatau once you get in the park? Or knock out some other slides first and then try Krakatau? I'd hate to be 'stuck' with a reservation for Krkatau if the wait is too long, it limits what else you can do.

 

[Teebin]

Yep, and I found the idea of changing the tapu from minutes to time of day a thoughtful idea. I just wonder how seeing the time of return go forward or backward would effect guests perceptions. I have no idea.

 

[Brian G.]

So for those of us that will be there in the next few weeks, I'd love to get some strategy advice. Obviously get there when it opens. Reserve Krakatau once you get in the park? Or knock out some other slides first and then try Krakatau? I'd hate to be 'stuck' with a reservation for Krkatau if the wait is too long, it limits what else you can do.

Get Krakatau first.