Volcano Bay: General Discussion | Page 97 | Inside Universal Forums

Volcano Bay: General Discussion

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Happy that Universal is continuing to work on Volcano Bay. Also happy that my family and I aren't going until August.
 
Now those glowing fountains and the tapu tapu wall lights, are what I'm talking about! This was more of the stuff I was expecting. Hopefully they will add more before we go in April.
 
What did you expect?
Sulphuric gas that knocks you out cold and burning lava that turns you to a crisp. Come on Universal- we want authenticity!

I don't get why all the water features in the park change to colors like purple, blue and green. Isn't supposed to be a "lava" effect?
I agree with this. I'd rather it just be the fog effect and yellow, orange and red water lights that go on and off.
But until I see it in person, I'm not going to judge it. Also- keep in mind who those little fountains are for. It isn't you. It's the toddler crowd.

That said, the fish is cool, right? And there's definitely no interactive lights in the shape of a fish squirting water.
 
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We went to Volcano Bay a few weeks ago, Tuesday the 13th. I wouldn't normally go to a new park within the first few months of opening but we happened to be in Florida for a wedding (we live in MO) so we thought we would hop to Universal and add Volcano Bay as part of the 3 park ticket package Universal was advertising in the winter.

My take? Very cool park with very cool slides. My kids had a great time. However. We stayed at the Hard Rock, which meant we had early entry into the park. We got in line right at 7:30AM and entered at rope drop. The kids had a great time walking on just about every ride from 8am to approximately 9:30AM. We rushed to do as much as we could. By about 1pm it was super crowded and the wait times were pretty crazy (these are the wait time pics seen on twitter). Overall, we had a really good time but had we not had early entry I'm not sure our experience would have been so positive. A few other takeaways:
- The employees at VB were super helpful.
- My Tapu pay stopped working, right as we were paying for lunch. A manager came over to troubleshoot it and couldn't. Rather than hold up our lunch she let us sit and enjoy and come back and pay later. I asked the manager if this happens a lot, and she shrugged her shoulders and said 'yes'.
- Themed water park or water theme park? I know there's this debate. My two cents. Whenever you climb to go on a ride, you get a panoramic view of hotels, stores, roads and highways. You don't feel immersed. Does this bother me? Not really, but it does take away from the whole experience of being taken away to a new place.
- Park could definitely use more signs to show how to get to slides. Again, this is where the VB employees were super helpful with directions. The names of the slides were also confusing. We kept asking "how do you get to the orange slide?" or how do you get to the big blue slide?". We heard other guests using colors and not the names for slides.

Bottom line, we had an enjoyable experience. Would I go in July without the advantage of early entry? No way.
 
Also- keep in mind who those little fountains are for. It isn't you. It's the toddler crowd.

I disagree with this. I had a wonderful time exploring the caves of Camp Jurassic (which this reminds me of) when I was 44! All ages will love it. Artistically, I agree that the wacky colors are a bit much. Give me fog and bubbling red and orange lava. Too, I hope they have more fiber optic Tapu effects than just the silly fish that has been advertised to death!
 
I disagree with this. I had a wonderful time exploring the caves of Camp Jurassic (which this reminds me of) when I was 44! All ages will love it. Artistically, I agree that the wacky colors are a bit much. Give me fog and bubbling red and orange lava. Too, I hope they have more fiber optic Tapu effects than just the silly fish that has been advertised to death!
Ditto on Camp Jurassic. One of the all time great exploration/interaction areas, for all ages. A must stop for us a couple of times each vacation... Great idea for VB.
 
What did you expect?

Read what @Teebin says above. It reminds me of something you might find at City Walk, for some reason, and isn't exactly representative of anything Volcano related. Remember, this is going off the idea that this is a water theme park.

"Look ma', I found World of Color lite inside the volcano!"

Exactly lol. And not to hurt the fanboi feelings on here either, its just that everything about this park is hodgepodge... or thematic potpourri. It's fun and some of it is pretty, but there is zero cohesiveness.
 
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I think it looks really good, it's all about giving things for people to do/discover when they're not waiting in line. I think the reviews would be less negative if there was plenty to do to keep you occupied while you were waiting for the slides.
 
I agree that I love the fountains. I guess it's because although I'm closing in on 30, I still go to theme parks to feel like a kid again. If I wanted an adult vacay, I'd go back to Jamaica to sit on a beach and drink unlimited cocktails while my hubby chainsmoked cigars next to me. However, I like playful things and this was what I expected to find inside the volcano. A scavenger hunt to find Vol would be cool too considering he's yet to make himself known.