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

Feeling a need to do Volcano Bay within the week. Probably arrive mid day and stay till close (9pm). What has the mid-day/evening occupancy been?
 
Can someone compare the fearless river to Roa's Rapids at Aquatica? We can spend hours in Roa's, and are wondering if we will feel the same about the fearless river as we "wait" for the other slides...Thanks!
 
Can someone compare the fearless river to Roa's Rapids at Aquatica?
Roa's Rapids is a little stronger, a little more "rapids" due to the islands in the river. But the Fearless river has occasional 2' or so waves (like a wave pool deal). They are both pretty darn awesome. You are required to wear a life jacket in the Fearless river.

Roa's was my favorite water ride at either place. If they could add the waves to Roa's it would be heavenly...
 
We did at least 5 mornings in June at Volcano Bay. Early Entry is SUPER efficient there. You will be able to get A LOT done by the time the park opens. And they park was relatively quiet until 10am all mornings. And by 10 we just relaxed and then got ourselves and early lunch.

(Dont do the Maku sandwich)
 


Early Entry for July is 7:30am, with park opening at 9am.

Does 645am at the bus stop at HRH sound right? Or is 7am okay? Thanks for your help
 
Early Entry for July is 7:30am, with park opening at 9am.

Does 645am at the bus stop at HRH sound right? Or is 7am okay? Thanks for your help
It just takes a few minutes to get there. 7:00 Will be plenty of time.
 
We are visiting Columbus Day weekend (oct 4-7) and plan on going on Saturday.. is volcano bay an all day event type of park or will we have seen/done everything by mid day? We’re staying at cabana bay so can utilize early entry
 


We are visiting Columbus Day weekend (oct 4-7) and plan on going on Saturday.. is volcano bay an all day event type of park or will we have seen/done everything by mid day? We’re staying at cabana bay so can utilize early entry

Volcano Bay is at least a 3/4 day park. You really need to get there before early entry during the busy summer months. I don't know if Columbus Day weekend will be busy at the water park though. I am assuming it will be fairly busy. We will be there too. I am planning Friday, since I think that will be the least crowded from Friday-Sunday. Even when it's not busy, it's a big boon to do the early entry. Water parks really poop me out, so I am usually exhausted by 5pm at the very latest, especially if I do early entry. The amount of time you spend depends upon how busy it is, if you purchase the Volcano Bay specific Express Pass, how many times you want to do each ride, and how much time you spend in the lazy rivers. I think it can pretty much be a most of the day park. They have a decent amount of slides. They also have 2 different types of lazy rivers. The park hours seem to be pretty short for that weekend. Regular opening is at 10am, and the park closes at 6pm. Early entry will probably be at 9am, but it could be as early as 8:30am. The shorter time and a busy holiday weekend will not help with the crowds. Have you been to the Disney water parks? If so, do you usually spend all day?
 
Volcano Bay is at least a 3/4 day park. You really need to get there before early entry during the busy summer months. I don't know if Columbus Day weekend will be busy at the water park though. I am assuming it will be fairly busy. We will be there too. I am planning Friday, since I think that will be the least crowded from Friday-Sunday. Even when it's not busy, it's a big boon to do the early entry. Water parks really poop me out, so I am usually exhausted by 5pm at the very latest, especially if I do early entry. The amount of time you spend depends upon how busy it is, if you purchase the Volcano Bay specific Express Pass, how many times you want to do each ride, and how much time you spend in the lazy rivers. I think it can pretty much be a most of the day park. They have a decent amount of slides. They also have 2 different types of lazy rivers. The park hours seem to be pretty short for that weekend. Regular opening is at 10am, and the park closes at 6pm. Early entry will probably be at 9am, but it could be as early as 8:30am. The shorter time and a busy holiday weekend will not help with the crowds. Have you been to the Disney water parks? If so, do you usually spend all day?
We’ve never been to the Disney parks but most water parks we make a day of. Thank you for your reply!
 
Hi, does anybody know how the express pass works for VB. I understand it’s loaded on to your Tapu. I just want to know if a ride has a ten minute wait can I still tap in and take the ten minute wait time or do I have to use my express to ride that ride? TIA
 
Hi, does anybody know how the express pass works for VB. I understand it’s loaded on to your Tapu. I just want to know if a ride has a ten minute wait can I still tap in and take the ten minute wait time or do I have to use my express to ride that ride? TIA

I don't know exactly how that's working. The problem is that the EP for VB is one ride per attraction. So, if you tap in, it might register that as your EP ride. Some have suggested that you wait until the wait times get long to have the EP put on your tapu.
 
I don't know exactly how that's working. The problem is that the EP for VB is one ride per attraction. So, if you tap in, it might register that as your EP ride. Some have suggested that you wait until the wait times get long to have the EP put on your tapu.

That kind of stinks. I was hoping to tap in right at park opening for some ride. Seems like I'm being denied the regular benefits of the ticket in that scenario. I thought I would have all the benefits of a regular ticket, plus the add-ons I paid for.

Do you think I have to wait for ALL of my express rides to be done or for example, if we ride the body slide at park opening, as soon as we're done we can tap in?
 
That kind of stinks. I was hoping to tap in right at park opening for some ride. Seems like I'm being denied the regular benefits of the ticket in that scenario. I thought I would have all the benefits of a regular ticket, plus the add-ons I paid for.

Do you think I have to wait for ALL of my express rides to be done or for example, if we ride the body slide at park opening, as soon as we're done we can tap in?

Unfortunately, I don't really know. The only thing I have heard is where someone waited until the crowds showed up to get their EP from concierge put on their Tapu. Before that, they did everything either as a walk-on or with a short return time. You could try asking Universal, maybe through their twitter account or FB page. We are just not hearing much here yet. I'll ask around on an FB group I am in to see if anyone has dealt with it recently.
 
Thanks for trying to help. I do appreciate any bits of advice you have. The advice about waiting a bit until the lines grow seems like a good plan, but it will not work for us I think since we need to be leaving by 2pm at the latest, so I think we need to start right at regular park opening in order to actually use all of the passes, have lunch, and spend some time in the rivers and wave pool.


I have two more questions tonight:
1. Earlier in this thread somewhere, I think it was you that mentioned that I need to go to the concierge hut to get the express pass loaded onto the Tapu. I won't be doing any slides, so I'll take care of this during the early hour while the kids are sliding. On the map I see a concierge hut near the park entrance and one near Bambu (food place). Does it matter which one I go to? I guess the one further in the park is not likely to be open during the early hour.


2. Do you have any advice on seating? I have an unusual request probably. I don't want to be on a beach. I'd like shade, but not a deal breaker. I'd prefer a chair, not a low lounger which is why I'm not going for the reserved seating. I'll have a bag with towels, the kids shoes & shirts, & sunblock. I'll keep everything of value with me. I am mostly looking for a place I can leave the bag and tell the kids if you haven't seen me recently, if you feel lost, head to this spot and wait for me. Mostly I just follow them to the slides and try to find a place a take a photo. If I get bored, I'll sit at this spot and read. Looking at the map, all of the seating looks like it's on a beach.
 
I would get there early and do as much as you can without the express before heading to a concierge desk to load it. That way you'll be in line for concierge at the time when the park starts to get busy (after 10 am) and won't waste any time hitting the slides early in the AM!

2. Do you have any advice on seating? I have an unusual request probably. I don't want to be on a beach. I'd like shade, but not a deal breaker. I'd prefer a chair, not a low lounger which is why I'm not going for the reserved seating. I'll have a bag with towels, the kids shoes & shirts, & sunblock. I'll keep everything of value with me. I am mostly looking for a place I can leave the bag and tell the kids if you haven't seen me recently, if you feel lost, head to this spot and wait for me. Mostly I just follow them to the slides and try to find a place a take a photo. If I get bored, I'll sit at this spot and read. Looking at the map, all of the seating looks like it's on a beach.
Your best bet for non-beach seating is to go left of the Volcano when you walk in. There's a small seating area between Bambu and Ohyah/Ohno slides that doesn't fill up fast and isn't on a beach if I'm remembering correctly. It still sits on sand but you won't be in an area where people are getting in and out of the water around you.
 
Thanks for trying to help. I do appreciate any bits of advice you have. The advice about waiting a bit until the lines grow seems like a good plan, but it will not work for us I think since we need to be leaving by 2pm at the latest, so I think we need to start right at regular park opening in order to actually use all of the passes, have lunch, and spend some time in the rivers and wave pool.


I have two more questions tonight:
1. Earlier in this thread somewhere, I think it was you that mentioned that I need to go to the concierge hut to get the express pass loaded onto the Tapu. I won't be doing any slides, so I'll take care of this during the early hour while the kids are sliding. On the map I see a concierge hut near the park entrance and one near Bambu (food place). Does it matter which one I go to? I guess the one further in the park is not likely to be open during the early hour.


2. Do you have any advice on seating? I have an unusual request probably. I don't want to be on a beach. I'd like shade, but not a deal breaker. I'd prefer a chair, not a low lounger which is why I'm not going for the reserved seating. I'll have a bag with towels, the kids shoes & shirts, & sunblock. I'll keep everything of value with me. I am mostly looking for a place I can leave the bag and tell the kids if you haven't seen me recently, if you feel lost, head to this spot and wait for me. Mostly I just follow them to the slides and try to find a place a take a photo. If I get bored, I'll sit at this spot and read. Looking at the map, all of the seating looks like it's on a beach.

You will have to have all of the Tapus with you in order to put the Express Pass on them. The people don't have to be attached to the Tapus. However, I don't know if you can ride anything without checking in with the Tapu. Even when there's no wait, they sometimes require a tap in. I don't know about early entry though. Maybe you wouldn't need to do it then. You could probably have everyone playing in the rivers or wave pool while you add the EP to the Tapus. You don't have to tap in to those.

Last summer, the concierge hut near Bambu was open at park opening, even during early entry. If it's not a busy time, then they might not open it until later. The hut at the front gets really busy, especially at park opening. You might be able to have someone run back there and see if it's open, or have someone hold your place at the front while you run back there.

The seating that @Cali_Sparrow talked about is right near Bambu and that concierge hut. We sat there multiple times last summer, because they have premium seating there. There were several small umbrellas and a couple of big ones. There were chairs and loungers. The chairs sit lower to the the ground. It is in sand though. I think almost all of the seating is in sand unfortunately. I think there might be some seating in front of the wave pool that's on the concrete not the sand. There are chairs scattered all over the park near the loungers, so it shouldn't be too hard to find some chairs. Most people don't seem to want chairs. Even with the park hitting capacity all 3 times we went last summer, including opening weekend, it looked like there was always plenty of loungers and chairs that were free (no people or stuff) all day.
 
LOL! I know that spot...it was the spot I used last year and the spot I intended to go to again unless someone had a better suggestion!

Thanks for your posts!
 
Hi, does anybody know how the express pass works for VB. I understand it’s loaded on to your Tapu. I just want to know if a ride has a ten minute wait can I still tap in and take the ten minute wait time or do I have to use my express to ride that ride? TIA

We had EPs at Volcano bay on June 20th. My plan was to get the Regular EP, not the EP-plus. The regular EP only allowed you to ride SOME of the rides and the Plus would've allowed us to ride them all. It does only work one time for each ride, but it is NOT attached to your tapu tapu. When you check-in at the concierge desk, you are given a wristband with a picture and name of each ride on it. When you approach the ride to tap in, your tapu will light it up red, which means it's not your turn to ride. You tell the attendant that you want to use your express pass and they will enter an override and now the tapu thing lights up green. The attendant then takes a marker and marks out that ride on your wristband so you can not use it again on that ride.
So, yes, you can be tapped into one ride and use your EP on another ride without losing your place in the first ride. Also, if the ride has a no wait time aka 'ride now', then you don't have to use your express pass to ride. You can save it until later in the day when there are wait times.
The EP does not shorten your line, it just turns every ride into a 'ride now' ride.

But, really, most of the slides on the regular EP were 'ride now'for most of the day anyway. We rode Krakatau right when we got there at 9am and there was no wait. We went on a Wednesday in June. We stayed the entire day! The crowds were bad from 12-6. We used that time to eat and relax. My kids love digging in the sand, so they did that for awhile. We rode every slide once and a few slides more than once. We spent a lot of time in the faster river.

At first, I reserved a Cabana for $450. Then, I decided that I wanted the Express Passes and I couldn't afford both. So, I cancelled the cabana and got the Express Passes and 2 sets of Premium Seating. As I mentioned, the EP's really weren't that much benefit since we spent the whole day there anyway. And, the premium seating didn't offer any shade in the afternoon because those covers are not adjustable. The afternoon sun was SO hot! So, in retrospect, I wish I had just kept my cabana and not gotten express passes. But, we still had a great time! I think it was my favorite day of our 4-day trip!

One last thing to the question about sending one person to get all of the Express Passes for your party. I tried to take the wristbands and the concierge person was adamant about putting them on each person herself. So, in my instance, each person had to be present to receive the EP.
 
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We had EPs at Volcano bay on June 20th. My plan was to get the Regular EP, not the EP-plus. The regular EP only allowed you to ride SOME of the rides and the Plus would've allowed us to ride them all. It does only work one time for each ride, but it is NOT attached to your tapu tapu. When you check-in at the concierge desk, you are given a wristband with a picture and name of each ride on it. When you approach the ride to tap in, your tapu will light it up red, which means it's not your turn to ride. You tell the attendant that you want to use your express pass and they will enter an override and now the tapu thing lights up green. The attendant then takes a marker and marks out that ride on your wristband so you can not use it again on that ride.
So, yes, you can be tapped into one ride and use your EP on another ride without losing your place in the first ride. Also, if the ride has a no wait time aka 'ride now', then you don't have to use your express pass to ride. You can save it until later in the day when there are wait times.
The EP does not shorten your line, it just turns every ride into a 'ride now' ride.

But, really, most of the slides on the regular EP were 'ride now'for most of the day anyway. We rode Krakatau right when we got there at 9am and there was no wait. We went on a Wednesday in June. We stayed the entire day! The crowds were bad from 12-6. We used that time to eat and relax. My kids love digging in the sand, so they did that for awhile. We rode every slide once and a few slides more than once. We spent a lot of time in the faster river.

At first, I reserved a Cabana for $450. Then, I decided that I wanted the Express Passes and I couldn't afford both. So, I cancelled the cabana and got the Express Passes and 2 sets of Premium Seating. As I mentioned, the EP's really weren't that much benefit since we spent the whole day there anyway. And, the premium seating didn't offer any shade in the afternoon because those covers are not adjustable. The afternoon sun was SO hot! So, in retrospect, I wish I had just kept my cabana and not gotten express passes. But, we still had a great time! I think it was my favorite day of our 4-day trip!

Thank you so much for replying. They completely reworked the way that EP is handled since last summer, and I hadn't heard anything about the new one. The wristband is a much better idea if they are only going to let you ride once. Not having to wait to get it on the Tapu is really great.

Where was your premium seating? When we did it for 3 visits last summer, they would sort of pull forward and kind of flip over the the bottom half of the chair. I think it also depended upon where your seats were and what direction they faced. We had a bit of sun on ours, so I draped a towel over the top of the shade and let it hang down. It did cut the useable part of the seat down some. I saw some that were in full blazing sun a good portion of the day though. I like the premium seating when I go with just my son. That way I don't have to go back and forth to the locker every time we sit down or leave.

It's also nice to hear about the crowds. It might be more crowded in July, but I hadn't heard anything about this summer yet. I had assumed it would be insane, because we went opening weekend and then again in July last summer.
 
I apologize if this has been asked before. Going for the first time next May. Can you wear water shoes on the rides or do you have to be barefoot?
 

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