VOLCANO BAY.....INFO AND QUESTION THREAD........

[Music City Mama]

When was that? I was able to do it on the 30th no problem. Was in virtual line for Honu and went on the Tiawahna tube (Dark blue).

I was able to do the same today.

 

[pcstang]

They don't currently have a walking path behind the resort. Maybe that will change as they go along, but it seems the only way to get to the parks from the resorts not named Cabana Bay right now is by bus.

So the security area I saw next to SF is not open?

 

[finucane]

We were absolutely not allowed to do this. The people stationed at the entrance/totems at the line would NOT let us do so.

I'll second this. The day we were there, even if it said ride now, we were being required to tap before getting in line. Best bet was to hit all the ride now lines, then tap in to one of the big attractions, and hit the wave pool, or rivers, while you wait for that.

 

[finucane]

Cabana report: We reserved a Cabana in Wave Village for Monday June 26 (while they were still taking reservations.) We were going to take advantage of early entry, but the rest of my family were apparently a little to worn out, and wanted to sleep in a bit, so I ventured on alone to get things organized.

Note: The day was a little nuts and photos became an afterthought. I forgot to take certain photos of details, and what I do have is a well lived in cabana with my family strewn about. Enjoy.



We stayed at CBBR in the Continental building. Our room was closer to the lobby elevators, and the walk from there was less then 10 minutes, if the pool is open it's even quicker when you cut through to the Americana side. If you get your choice, the Americana building has the easiest path to the resort entrance at VB. I've already mixed up the new tower names, but the one at the end of Americana (believe it's Beachside) sits right at the entrance. I ventured out at about 7:15, was the only one at the security bag check, and arrived in line about 7:25. I only had my print out for the cabana reservation and took this to the customer service desk next to the line, and they were able to process that in to the reservation ticket I needed for the concierge desk inside. After this, this put me 4th in my line at 7:30. It could be worse during weekends, but for a weekday arriving in line around 7:30 looks like a good sweet spot.

The lines opened promptly at 8:00. Assigning Tapu wristbands, along with greasy sunscreened fingers on the print readers, made getting in feel a little clunky, and I felt bad for anyone who arrived this early that found themselves at the back of the lines. Lesson here, in for a penny, in for a pound, if you're going to show up early, make the extra effort to try and be there 7:30ish, particularly if you are going to get a cabana, or premium seating.

Next line I got in was at the concierge desk. I was third in line here and had a minor wait. The que behind me filled up quick, and I could see having to waste nearly your entire extra hour just getting through this process. lesson here, send one member of your party to take care of this, and let the others go explore, and hit some attractions. When my turn came, and handed over my ticket then saw some mumbling and huddling around a map and computer. Finally my concierge looked up and asked if I had any children with me, when I told him a 13yo and 5yo he looked relieved and said they were moving me to the River Village. I'm not sure what confusion could have already occurred this early in the day, but that was fine with me since this was our first choice when we had made the reservation, but it was already booked.

I remembered a lot of names of the people that took care of us that day, but the gentleman that brought me to the cabana (who's name I can't recall) couldn't have been nicer, in fact, that was our overall impression of the team members at VB, save one...clipboard girl. When we got to the cabana it was inside of Runamuka village. The 5yo was going to lose his mind since it sat right at the play area. This was nice for us as well since it's likely one of us would have spent the bulk of the day here anyway. The cabana is very comfortable and has the long chaise-style bench along with two more recline-able chairs (a foot rest, or ottoman here would have been a nice touch) There is also a towel cubby, a good size mini-fridge, and locker. A rolling table and your Tiki tablet round out the features. For those of you with teenagers, yes, there is an outlet to charge devices What the cabana was lacking at this point was any amenities. No towels, water, fruit basket, etc. My guide said the cabana attendant should be along soon and could take care of that. I said I was going to round up the rest of my party and he thought it should be taken care of by my return. I locked our bag in the locker and headed out back to the hotel. I had to return my Tapu and I let them know I had locked my belongings up and was told it was tied to my ticket, not my particular Tapu.

When we finally all arrived, our cabana was still bare. This is where we started learning the structure of service. You have people who clean the cabana, your food service attendant, and finally your cabana attendant. At this early point we had no idea who to ask for what, but we had no water, towels, etc, and I couldn't get the locker open. The girl that asked us how things were (we thought she was cabana attendant, but was cleaning staff) said she would get someone right away. Things finally started trickling in and my locker issue was eventually resolved, note: cabana lockers are on a different system than the general lockers and ARE tied to a particular Tapu. Only one person in your group can open a lock once it's locked so pick the person that plans to make most use of the cabana.

We began munching on the fruit/snack tray that included some Danishes, banana's, grapes, an apple, an orange, and a wonderful banana cookie. The 5yo was already exploring Runamuka and we could mostly keep an eye on him from the Cabana. Up until now it had only been cleaning staff and our server (who we thought was the cabana attendant) taking care of these issues and it wasn't until much later that the person, who turned out to be the actual attendant, came along. We were only able to refer to her as clipboard lady, as she never introduced herself, and thought she was a supervisor that was seeing if everything had been taken care of. When we had gone through with her what had happened with the lack of amenities and locker issue, she left and came back with her supervisor, who apologized and offered us a set of express passes that we could pick up at the concierge desk. This would have involved standing in that line again and we thought it best to wait until later during peek hours to claim that anyway, and we should start getting wet.





The tiki tablet is a great feature of the cabana. It is a centralized spot where you can tap in to any attraction from the cabana, as well as to see the current wait times, and ride now lines. Our 44" 5yo however, could not reach the Tapu scanner and we had to keep picking him up for it, a little step stool here would have been nice. We selected Krakatoa Coaster and hit the lazy river. A few attractions later we headed back to the cabana for lunch.



Edit: There were several discrepancies between the tiki tablet and the "official" universal app where attraction height was concerned. Several of the rides on the tablet said 48" minimum where the app said 42". We asked some of our attendants and they thought the tiki should be the accurate one, but no one knew for sure. We skipped several because we didn't think our 44"er could ride. It wasn't until later in the day we discovered the app was more accurate and the tiki was incorrect.

Our food service attendant was fantastic, trouble is, it seems there is currently staffing issues at VB and particularly where the premium seating and cabanas are concerned so he was being stretched thin across the park. Once he was able to get our order we had to wait on him to return with the food. With no time table of how long it might take we were tied to the cabana. When it did arrive, it was fantastic. The boys both had burgers that I had a hard time not eating the left-overs of, my wife and I both had chicken sliders, that were pleasant as well. We also had an appetizer sampler that included coconut shrimp, and my favorite of the day, conch hush puppies.

Now the real trouble started when the afternoon storms rolled in. It was nice to have your own shelter to wait out the elements. Security also likes to really get to know you at this point as well, (never a bad thing.) Then when things were back up and running we chose our next attraction. Moana (whale) raft ride and headed over since our Tapu said 10 minute wait. By the time we arrived it said ride now. It apparently also said ride now for everyone and our virtual line became an actual 70 minute line. This happened over and over and finally we gave up and just played at Runamuka and hit the lazy rivers. It was also at this time my locker wouldn't open again, and again, until they offered us one of the general lockers to use (kind of defeated the purpose of a central location in the cabana, huh?) Having to wait for maintenance to bring the master key for the locker again tied me to the cabana for extended periods of time.



While we loved the comfort of the cabana, it feels to cumbersome to fit in to the day. We would have been much better off arriving at 7:30, claiming a nice spot, and going about our day. A family with young children where one adult, or grandparents are going to hang out, sip tiki drinks, supervise, and take care of lunch/dinner orders would make great use of a cabana. Having to wait for staff to come around (there is no service button on the tiki tablet, FYI) when you wanted to place an order, or had a service issue, tied you to the cabana when you could be off doing attractions. I know it's a first world problem to be stuck in a comfy cabana, but overall we felt like we spent $429 to be in a beta test.

 

[soniam]

@finucane Thanks for the report. I felt kind of similar about the premium seating. You are absolutely right about the locker being tied to that Tapu. That's how our premium seating worked too. Since I have been before, for our late July trip, I plan to send DH and DS ahead to go have fun while I do the premium seating grunt work. We already bought EP, so they will have to come back to the hut at some point to get that though. I think you are right about who the best customers are for the cabanas. Even the premium seating has a wait to get.

 

[bobbie68]

Cabana report: We reserved a Cabana in Wave Village for Monday June 26 (while they were still taking reservations.) We were going to take advantage of early entry, but the rest of my family were apparently a little to worn out, and wanted to sleep in a bit, so I ventured on alone to get things organized.

We stayed at CBBR in the Continental building. Our room was closer to the lobby elevators, and the walk from there was less then 10 minutes, if the pool is open it's even quicker when you cut through to the Americana side. If you get your choice, the Americana building has the easiest path to the resort entrance at VB. I've already mixed up the new tower names, but the one at the end of Americana (believe it's Beachside) sits right at the entrance. I ventured out at about 7:15, was the only one at the security bag check, and arrived in line about 7:25. I only had my print out for the cabana reservation and took this to the customer service desk next to the line, and they were able to process that in to the reservation ticket I needed for the concierge desk inside. After this, this put me 4th in my line at 7:30. It could be worse during weekends, but for a weekday arriving in line around 7:30 looks like a good sweet spot.

The lines opened promptly at 8:00. Assigning Tapu wristbands, along with greasy sunscreened fingers on the print readers, made getting in feel a little clunky, and I felt bad for anyone who arrived this early that found themselves at the back of the lines. Lesson here, in for a penny, in for a pound, if you're going to show up early, make the extra effort to try and be there 7:30ish, particularly if you are going to get a cabana, or premium seating.

Next line I got in was at the concierge desk. I was third in line here and had a minor wait. The que behind me filled up quick, and I could see having to waste nearly your entire extra hour just getting through this process. lesson here, send one member of your party to take care of this, and let the others go explore, and hit some attractions. When my turn came, and handed over my ticket then saw some mumbling and huddling around a map and computer. Finally my concierge looked up and asked if I had any children with me, when I told him a 13yo and 5yo he looked relieved and said they were moving me to the River Village. I'm not sure what confusion could have already occurred this early in the day, but that was fine with me since this was our first choice when we had made the reservation, but it was already booked.

I remembered a lot of names of the people that took care of us that day, but the gentleman that brought me to the cabana (who's name I can't recall) couldn't have been nicer, in fact, that was our overall impression of the team members at VB, save one...clipboard girl. When we got to the cabana it was inside of Runamuka village. The 5yo was going to lose his mind since it sat right at the play area. This was nice for us as well since it's likely one of us would have spent the bulk of the day here anyway. The cabana is very comfortable and has the long chaise-style bench along with two more recline-able chairs (a foot rest, or ottoman here would have been a nice touch) There is also a towel cubby, a good size mini-fridge, and locker. A rolling table and your Tiki tablet round out the features. What the cabana was lacking at this point was any amenities. No towels, water, fruit basket, etc. My guide said the cabana attendant should be along soon and could take care of that. I said I was going to round up the rest of my party and he thought it should be taken care of by my return. I locked our bag in the locker and headed out back to the hotel. I had to return my Tapu and let them know I had locked my belongings up and was told it was tied to my ticket, not my particular Tapu.

When we finally all arrived our cabana was still bare. This is where we started learning the structure of service. You have people who clean the cabana, your food service attendant, and finally your cabana attendant. At this early point we had no idea who to ask for what, but we had no water, towels, etc, and I couldn't get the locker open. The girl that asked us how things were (we thought was cabana attendant)l, but was cleaning staff) said she would get someone right away. Things finally started trickling in and my locker issue was eventually resolved, note: cabana lockers are on a different system than the general lockers and ARE tied to a particular Tapu. Only one person in your group can open a lock once it's locked so pick the person that plans to make most use of the cabana.

We began munching on the fruit/snack tray that included some Danishes, banana's, grapes, an apple, an orange, and a wonderful banana cookie. The 5yo was already exploring Runamuka and we could mostly keep an eye on him from the Cabana. Up until now it had only been cleaning staff and our server (who we thought was the cabana attendant) taking care of these issues and it wasn't until much later that the person, who turned out to be our attendant, came along. We only referred to her as clipboard lady and thought she was a supervisor that was seeing if everything had been taken care of. When we had gone through with her what had happened with the lack of amenities and locker issue, she left and came back with her supervisor, who apologized and offered us a set of express passes that we could pick up at the concierge desk. This would have involved standing in that line again and we thought it best to wait until later during peek hours to claim that anyway, and we should start getting wet.

The tiki tablet is a great feature of the cabana. It is a centralized spot where you can tap in to any attraction from the cabana, as well as to see the current wait times, and ride now lines. Our 44" 5yo however, could not reach the Tapu scanner and we had to keep picking him up for it, a little step stool here would have been nice. We selected Krakatoa Coaster and hit the lazy river. A few attractions later we headed back to the cabana for lunch.

Edit: There were several discrepancies between the tiki tablet and the "official" universal app where attraction height was concerned. Several of the rides on the tablet said 48" minimum where the app said 42". We asked some of our attendants and they thought the tiki should be the accurate one, but no one knew for sure. We skipped several because we didn't think our 44"er could ride. It wasn't until later in the day we discovered the app was more accurate and the tiki was incorrect.

Our food service attendant was fantastic, trouble is, it seems there is currently staffing issues at VB and particularly where the premium seating and cabanas are concerned so he was being stretched thin across the park. Once he was able to get our order we had to wait on him to return with the food. With no time table of how long it might take we were tied to the cabana. When it did arrive, it was fantastic. The boys both had burgers that I had a hard time not eating the left-overs of, my wife and I both had chicken sliders, that were pleasant as well. We also had an appetizer sampler that included coconut shrimp, and my favorite of the day, conch hush puppies.

Now the real trouble started when the afternoon storms rolled in. It was nice to have your own shelter to wait out the elements. Security also likes to really get to know you at this point as well, (never a bad thing.) Then when things were back up and running we chose our next attraction. Moana (whale) raft ride and headed over since our Tapu said 10 minute wait. By the time we arrived it said ride now. It apparently also said ride now for everyone and our virtual line became an actual 70 minute line. This happened over and over and finally we gave up and just played at Runamuka and the lazy rivers. It was also at this time my locker wouldn't open again, and again, until they offered us one of the general lockers to use (kind of defeated the purpose, huh?)

While we loved the comfort of the cabana, it feels to cumbersome to fit in to the day. We would have been much better off arriving at 7:30, claiming a nice spot, and going about our day. A family with young children where one adult, or grandparents are going to hang out, sip tiki drinks, supervise, and take care of lunch/dinner orders would make great use of this location, but we felt like we spent $429 to be in a beta test.

Thank you so much for that wonderful detailed report about the cabanas. I feel so confused about what to do. I have one for our trip in a couple of weeks and I am hoping I won't feel it was a waste. There will be nobody there all the time we will be in and out. I have rented cabanas before at other parks and have enjoyed it. It seems like the cabanas are not ready staff wise. I am paying the same as you and that is a lot of money to spend. I have some thinking and plannign to do now.

 

[finucane]

Thank you so much for that wonderful detailed report about the cabanas. I feel so confused about what to do. I have one for our trip in a couple of weeks and I am hoping I won't feel it was a waste. There will be nobody there all the time we will be in and out. I have rented cabanas before at other parks and have enjoyed it. It seems like the cabanas are not ready staff wise. I am paying the same as you and that is a lot of money to spend. I have some thinking and plannign to do now.

I really could have gone on several more paragraphs, but thought it was too long as it was. I probably should have included that if our cabana was anywhere else I probably would have been more vocal with management. Our cabana only had one other next to it and even being in the kids area, it never felt like anyone else was on top of us. The other areas of cabanas, particularly "cabana row," look like cabana condos being piled so close together. I'm glad we had the the experience, I just wish we hadn't had to pay that much for that level of service. I would t talk you out of it, just take in consideration how you plan to use it and if it will fit what you want to get out of the park.

 

[Vaninou]

Thank you so much for that wonderful detailed report about the cabanas. I feel so confused about what to do. I have one for our trip in a couple of weeks and I am hoping I won't feel it was a waste. There will be nobody there all the time we will be in and out. I have rented cabanas before at other parks and have enjoyed it. It seems like the cabanas are not ready staff wise. I am paying the same as you and that is a lot of money to spend. I have some thinking and plannign to do now.

We have the same concerns... don't know what to do with the cabana we have booked...

 

[macraven]

We have the same concerns... don't know what to do with the cabana we have booked...

It is a tough decision
Just read as many reviews you can find and go with your gut feeling
Besides the dis check out other sites where posters share their experiences

Look at trip advisor, dis trip report sections, universal informer, etc

I participated in sharing a cabana at hrh before and it was well worth it for me
Had it from opening to pool closing

Did parks early morning and back at the Cabana by noon
Food service and pool time and a bit of lounging visiting with the other 7 in our group
Hit the parks at 4 and back to the cabana at 6
Spent rest of the evening in the pool and cabana
I thought it was a fantastic way to spend 14 hours that day
A little bit of park rides and lot of pool time

I loved that we had the cabana and always had somewhere to spend time, pool/parks/city walk
We could come and go easily
There was at least one person at our cabana the entire rental time so we left our belongings and had no worries


I know renting a hotel pool cabana is not the same as renting one at a water park
But it is similar in knowing you have a secure place for the day and can feel at ease (lockers) to come and go from
Cabana to water rides

 

[Eddie512]

Hi, we went to VB this morning! Didn't get out to the RPR buses as early as I wanted to, so arrived at VB maybe 5 minutes before open. Security took ~ 5 min; And getting the tapu another 10. We were able to grab 5 loungers together without issue, and there were plenty available (at least 3-4 of ours were fully shaded at all times, although of course the sun moves around). Rode Krakatau, a 5 person raft ride and Oh No slide as "walk ons"...by that time it was 9 am. We Were then able to do Oh yeah slide with 5-10 min wait and the crazy plunger ride of death (actual name??) with "no wait" although it takes a while to walk up to the top of the volcano and we stood in line for about 20-25 min. After those 5 rides, this gal was DONE for a while...was able to watch kids in the wave pool and we did the 2 lazy rivers. Got in line for lunch at somewhere with "Bambu" in the name...great food and line was super efficient even though it was close to noon (rookie mistake to get in line for food at noon, but it went quickly to both order and get food). My son had a pretzel dog with some kind of fruity chutney that I tried to steal, and I don't even like hot dogs! My fish sandwich was also good, just not as good as that . Left by 1 pm and I was thrilled with all that we got done
To summarize: I went on July 4th, got there at 8 and everything went smoothly! The sea of humanity arrived between 9 and 9:30, so I'd recommend you do all that you can asap...I would not waste this precious time. After 9:45/10 am you're looking at 60-90 wait per slide at minimum.

 

[soniam]

Hi, we went to VB this morning! Didn't get out to the RPR buses as early as I wanted to, so arrived at VB maybe 5 minutes before open. Security took ~ 5 min; And getting the tapu another 10. We were able to grab 5 loungers together without issue, and there were plenty available (at least 3-4 of ours were fully shaded at all times, although of course the sun moves around). Rode Krakatau, a 5 person raft ride and Oh No slide as "walk ons"...by that time it was 9 am. We Were then able to do Oh yeah slide with 5-10 min wait and the crazy plunger ride of death (actual name??) with "no wait" although it takes a while to walk up to the top of the volcano and we stood in line for about 20-25 min. After those 5 rides, this gal was DONE for a while...was able to watch kids in the wave pool and we did the 2 lazy rivers. Got in line for lunch at somewhere with "Bambu" in the name...great food and line was super efficient even though it was close to noon (rookie mistake to get in line for food at noon, but it went quickly to both order and get food). My son had a pretzel dog with some kind of fruity chutney that I tried to steal, and I don't even like hot dogs! My fish sandwich was also good, just not as good as that . Left by 1 pm and I was thrilled with all that we got done
To summarize: I went on July 4th, got there at 8 and everything went smoothly! The sea of humanity arrived between 9 and 9:30, so I'd recommend you do all that you can asap...I would not waste this precious time. After 9:45/10 am you're looking at 60-90 wait per slide at minimum.

Sounds like a really good day on what's got to be one of their busiest days this summer.

 

[RalphinSC]

So the security area I saw next to SF is not open?

Could of changed since I went down there a couple of weeks ago. Sapphire was running buses then. I'm sure the eventual plan is to have walking access from both Sapphire and RPR. Maybe that's coming to fruition!

 

[macraven]

Totally agree with ralphinsc!

Things change quickly at the darkside
if something does not go smooth or a better way is possible it will be tweaked for improvement

 

[TheConsciousness]

I've got a weird question, as I've never been to a water park before. Can we bring pool toys for the wave pool? Like these.

 

[ultimatefans]

For anyone looking for images of the family cabanas (16 people), you can get some glimpses in this video between 5:10 and 6:20, he walks towards them from a couple of different angles.

 

[pcstang]

Could of changed since I went down there a couple of weeks ago. Sapphire was running buses then. I'm sure the eventual plan is to have walking access from both Sapphire and RPR. Maybe that's coming to fruition!

I could see the security area completed a month or two ago behind sapphire. No idea of it was going to be open or not. I only saw from the road as I drove in to stay at Royal.

 

[finucane]

Note: The day was a little nuts and photos became an afterthought. I forgot to take certain photos of details, and what I do have is a well lived in cabana with my family strewn about. Enjoy.



We stayed at CBBR in the Continental building. Our room was closer to the lobby elevators, and the walk from there was less then 10 minutes, if the pool is open it's even quicker when you cut through to the Americana side. If you get your choice, the Americana building has the easiest path to the resort entrance at VB. I've already mixed up the new tower names, but the one at the end of Americana (believe it's Beachside) sits right at the entrance. I ventured out at about 7:15, was the only one at the security bag check, and arrived in line about 7:25. I only had my print out for the cabana reservation and took this to the customer service desk next to the line, and they were able to process that in to the reservation ticket I needed for the concierge desk inside. After this, this put me 4th in my line at 7:30. It could be worse during weekends, but for a weekday arriving in line around 7:30 looks like a good sweet spot.

The lines opened promptly at 8:00. Assigning Tapu wristbands, along with greasy sunscreened fingers on the print readers, made getting in feel a little clunky, and I felt bad for anyone who arrived this early that found themselves at the back of the lines. Lesson here, in for a penny, in for a pound, if you're going to show up early, make the extra effort to try and be there 7:30ish, particularly if you are going to get a cabana, or premium seating.

Next line I got in was at the concierge desk. I was third in line here and had a minor wait. The que behind me filled up quick, and I could see having to waste nearly your entire extra hour just getting through this process. lesson here, send one member of your party to take care of this, and let the others go explore, and hit some attractions. When my turn came, and handed over my ticket then saw some mumbling and huddling around a map and computer. Finally my concierge looked up and asked if I had any children with me, when I told him a 13yo and 5yo he looked relieved and said they were moving me to the River Village. I'm not sure what confusion could have already occurred this early in the day, but that was fine with me since this was our first choice when we had made the reservation, but it was already booked.

I remembered a lot of names of the people that took care of us that day, but the gentleman that brought me to the cabana (who's name I can't recall) couldn't have been nicer, in fact, that was our overall impression of the team members at VB, save one...clipboard girl. When we got to the cabana it was inside of Runamuka village. The 5yo was going to lose his mind since it sat right at the play area. This was nice for us as well since it's likely one of us would have spent the bulk of the day here anyway. The cabana is very comfortable and has the long chaise-style bench along with two more recline-able chairs (a foot rest, or ottoman here would have been a nice touch) There is also a towel cubby, a good size mini-fridge, and locker. A rolling table and your Tiki tablet round out the features. For those of you with teenagers, yes, there is an outlet to charge devices What the cabana was lacking at this point was any amenities. No towels, water, fruit basket, etc. My guide said the cabana attendant should be along soon and could take care of that. I said I was going to round up the rest of my party and he thought it should be taken care of by my return. I locked our bag in the locker and headed out back to the hotel. I had to return my Tapu and let them know I had locked my belongings up and was told it was tied to my ticket, not my particular Tapu.

When we finally all arrived our cabana was still bare. This is where we started learning the structure of service. You have people who clean the cabana, your food service attendant, and finally your cabana attendant. At this early point we had no idea who to ask for what, but we had no water, towels, etc, and I couldn't get the locker open. The girl that asked us how things were (we thought was cabana attendant)l, but was cleaning staff) said she would get someone right away. Things finally started trickling in and my locker issue was eventually resolved, note: cabana lockers are on a different system than the general lockers and ARE tied to a particular Tapu. Only one person in your group can open a lock once it's locked so pick the person that plans to make most use of the cabana.

We began munching on the fruit/snack tray that included some Danishes, banana's, grapes, an apple, an orange, and a wonderful banana cookie. The 5yo was already exploring Runamuka and we could mostly keep an eye on him from the Cabana. Up until now it had only been cleaning staff and our server (who we thought was the cabana attendant) taking care of these issues and it wasn't until much later that the person, who turned out to be our attendant, came along. We only referred to her as clipboard lady and thought she was a supervisor that was seeing if everything had been taken care of. When we had gone through with her what had happened with the lack of amenities and locker issue, she left and came back with her supervisor, who apologized and offered us a set of express passes that we could pick up at the concierge desk. This would have involved standing in that line again and we thought it best to wait until later during peek hour


The tiki tablet is a great feature of the cabana. It is a centralized spot where you can tap in to any attraction from the cabana, as well as to see the current wait times, and ride now lines. Our 44" 5yo however, could not reach the Tapu scanner and we had to keep picking him up for it, a little step stool here would have been nice. We selected Krakatoa Coaster and hit the lazy river. A few attractions later we headed back to the cabana for lunch.



Edit: There were several discrepancies between the tiki tablet and the "official" universal app where attraction height was concerned. Several of the rides on the tablet said 48" minimum where the app said 42". We asked some of our attendants and they thought the tiki should be the accurate one, but no one knew for sure. We skipped several because we didn't think our 44"er could ride. It wasn't until later in the day we discovered the app was more accurate and the tiki was incorrect.

Our food service attendant was fantastic, trouble is, it seems there is currently staffing issues at VB and particularly where the premium seating and cabanas are concerned so he was being stretched thin across the park. Once he was able to get our order we had to wait on him to return with the food. With no time table of how long it might take we were tied to the cabana. When it did arrive, it was fantastic. The boys both had burgers that I had a hard time not eating the left-overs of, my wife and I both had chicken sliders, that were pleasant as well. We also had an appetizer sampler that included coconut shrimp, and my favorite of the day, conch hush puppies.

Now the real trouble started when the afternoon storms rolled in. It was nice to have your own shelter to wait out the elements. Security also likes to really get to know you at this point as well, (never a bad thing.) Then when things were back up and running we chose our next attraction. Moana (whale) raft ride and headed over since our Tapu said 10 minute wait. By the time we arrived it said ride now. It apparently also said ride now for everyone and our virtual line became an actual 70 minute line. This happened over and over and finally we gave up and just played at Runamuka and the lazy rivers. It was also at this time my locker wouldn't open again, and again, until they offered us one of the general lockers to use (kind of defeated the purpose, huh?)



While we loved the comfort of the cabana, it feels to cumbersome to fit in to the day. We would have been much better off arriving at 7:30, claiming a nice spot, and going about our day. A family wi

Figured out how to add photos, so updated the original post.

 

[iteach3rdgrade]

What's the best time to arrive for parking if you aren't staying at a nearby property. We have reserved a cabana and have already purchased tickets with the unlimited express and I'm a little worried about getting in. Thanks!

 

[RalphinSC]

What's the best time to arrive for parking if you aren't staying at a nearby property. We have reserved a cabana and have already purchased tickets with the unlimited express and I'm a little worried about getting in. Thanks!

To ease all fears and ensure you are in and ready to go, be at the garage before 8am for a 9am opening (8am Early park admission for onsite guest). You will not be able to actually do any rides until after nine, but you should be able to get bussed over, get into the park, and get into the guest corral in that hour. Park has been hitting capacity on the busiest days within an hour after general park opening.

 

[ultimatefans]

To ease all fears and ensure you are in and ready to go, be at the garage before 8am for a 9am opening (8am Early park admission for onsite guest). You will not be able to actually do any rides until after nine, but you should be able to get bussed over, get into the park, and get into the guest corral in that hour. Park has been hitting capacity on the busiest days within an hour after general park opening.

Where does the Tapu Tapu get assigned and where is the concierge for the cabana rental located in this process? From what I've pieced together it sounds like:
1) bus
2) enter park and get Tapu Tapu (at this point guaranteed admission into park)
3) wait in guest corral until park opening
4) visit concierge inside park for cabana / premium seating

Is that accurate???