Volcano Bay Themed Water Park – Universal Orlando

Written By: Gail Clifford | Published By: Weekend Notes | June 28, 2022

https://www.weekendnotes.com/volcano-bay-themed-water-park-universal-orlando/

For one of the rare times these last five years since I started travel writing, I took off one morning without a more specific plan than “I’m going to Volcano Bay.” After all, I am now the proud owner of a Premium Annual Pass to Universal Orlando’s three parks. It includes parking and all kinds of nice perks. Volcano Bay is Universal’s answer to water parks. I had my sunscreen, towel, sunglasses, and hat. What more could I need?

Know in advance it was still a great and exhausting day. I couldn’t even tell you the last time I’d been out in the Florida sun for eight hours. And I’m certain I’ve never gone to a water park on my own before. There’s a surprising liberation in going to a theme park on your own and I’m leaning into that. The glories of not having a child crying “I want a drink!” or “Carry me! My feet hurt.” Miraculous.

So my expectations were to go to the park, park in preferred parking, go to the water park, get a locker (I learned long ago to expect to pay whatever price and keep a spare set of clothes dry) and had even thought to bring sample size shampoo and conditioner for the shower after getting out of the water so I could go work on another project at CityWalk. I’d go from one ride or beach or lazy river to the next. Simple, right?

1. There is No Great Advantage to Being a Premium Passholder

First thing I learned: there’s not much benefit to being a Premium Passholder at Volcano Bay except maybe days that allow early admission. At the water park, one of the staff members said they’re separate from Universal. Okay. Garage parking for Volcano Bay was on the first level. I’m not certain if it includes the second as well since I arrived within 30 minutes of the park opening. You can arrive earlier and take shuttles over for when the park truly opens, in my case 10 am. But I followed the line of cars for Volcano Bay parking and the directional guides, snapped the photo of the nearest python with my Spider-Man 156 identifier to find the car on my way out, and joined the throngs headed for the Volcano Bay shuttle busses. There are queues for the busses, refurbished city busses that are painted with either Harry Potter or tiki masks for Volcano Bay. Masks are voluntary and everyone was pleasant and good-natured. Perfect start to a theme park day with children excited and well-behaved.

Once filled the shuttle bus ride was just long enough for the videos to explain the Tapu Tapu system. This really is a brilliantly simplified system. Every guest receives a waterproof watch-like apparatus. You use your smartphone to connect it to an account to which you add each person and tap in to reserve your spot, essentially an express pass, for rides that aren’t instantly available. There are two thought processes for this. More on that in just a minute.

2. Make Certain the App is Updated to the Latest Version

In addition, once you confirm the most recent App is on your phone or take the time to connect to Universal’s WiFi and download and open it, you can add your credit card information so that you can pay for things with the tap of your wrist rather than running back to your locker for your wallet. I highly recommend this for adults, especially those not too horrible with impulse buying. That part may be more of a challenge for the kiddos, but you’re going to keep a close watch on them, right? Come to think of it, this may be the first park I’ve attended in a long time that didn’t have a “Lost Parents” section… maybe the kids do better at keeping an eye on us.

Anyway, back to the thought processes for the use of reserved space on a ride. For this day, I took the first, chose the most popular ride, the one with the longest wait, and tapped in for that first, guaranteeing the spot. Then went on all the other available rides. Here at Volcano Bay, this also includes a lazy river with inner tubes and a roaring river with only life vests required and a Wave Pool in the beach with a bell that sounds when the waves are about to start. I learned quickly that you cannot enter a ride with a time listed for the Tapu Tapu. They make you wait until you either complete your reserved ride or clear their entire line.

The second option is to go for the mid-length waits, say the 40- to 70- minute waits instead of the 180-minute wait, and go to more of the popular rides earlier in the day. Be careful with this as several of the rides did fill for the day in the early afternoon, but if you like circling the park, that’s a valid way to do a lot and leave the lazing in the rivers or at the Wave Pool for the afternoon when the children may be more tired and ready for a nap.

And when they did finally tell me, through the Tapu Tapu that it was my turn to ride the Aqua-Coaster, it was less than five minutes between my arrival on the platform (clean shot through the waiting area normally filled with people) and when I was loaded onto my “car.” That was a very pleasant surprise.

3. Look at a Map of the Park Before You Arrive

The main reason I say this is that I broke one of the cardinal rules of travel writing. As admitted earlier, I hadn’t done any research. So I didn’t really have any idea about how many rides, attractions, restaurants, or other events may be occurring here. While I did not find a single show, I did find that they have concierge service, and you can reserve a cabana for your group or small pop-ups for your chaise lounge at the wave pool. All of these should be done in advance. They were sold out by the time I arrived.

If you have a large family group, having a cabana where you can leave your items with some sense of security and have an area protected from the sun with comfy outdoor furniture that includes chairs and sofas and a table upon which to eat … I would consider it if I’m having people over or a party of any kind.

But looking at the map would also have told me where I’d want to focus my time. Which rides would interest me the most, once I learned there were really rides? Or which restaurants might be best to have close by. Or, for me, with my allergy to alcohol, where would it be best to avoid, like the one right next to the bar? The bars I found scattered throughout the park serve no food, but they only allow one alcoholic beverage per person, so I never saw anyone even close to

Long ago I’d read that the best way to get through a theme park queue is to head for the left side when given an option. I don’t know if that’s different in Australia or Great Britain since I think it’s meant for people that drive on the right side of the road. So check it out for yourself. In the United States, that means most of the time, you’ll have a shorter line if you choose to go to the left rather than the right side when given the option.

Oh, except it’s not true in the parking area. There, when they get you through the initial queue from the parking lot line, go to the right. The bus pulls up there and they bring a second one behind it, so you’d have to have more than an entire bus full of people before it’s “worth it” to go to the left side for the initial shuttle.

With that brilliant old nugget of going to the left, after entering the park, I marveled briefly at the Volcano Bay and the map of the park and went for the nearest locker area on the left landing in the Western Market. This was a perfectly reasonable space to be. Near the Wave Pool and shopping and photography areas (your photos are compiled based on your Tapu Tapu also), close to one of the places to grab food. It was also one of the most crowded.