Quick questions about Cabana Bay

[Angeliki19]

Hi! Just two quick questions:

1) Are reservations needed to bowl and dine at the bowling alley restaurant? Is it ok if we just walk in? Going on a Monday night.

2) The lazy river says you must bring your own floats? Does anyone know what the cost of inner tubes there are, or should I bring some from home?

Thanks!

 

[bobbie68]

Hi you can make reservations for the bowling. However, we did not. We decided last minute to do it and there wasn't much of a wait so we did. We ordered something while bowling but I don't remember a wait.
The floats are about $9.00 to buy. There are a couple of different ones and prices. It's up to you. Some people don't like to travel back and forth with them but you certainly could. I have seen people buy them at Cabana Bay and leave them for someone else. We have not purchased the floats. We usually just use a life jacket if we want float but we do see a lot of people buy them.

 

[chmurf]

1) you can contact the hotel beforehand, or you can book at the bowling alley a few days before
but, unless it's crazy busy or you need more than one lane (one lane accomodates up to 4 guests), you will find a lane on the day
worst case scenario, they'll tell you you need to wait for a lane. Nice excuse to have a drink

2) you can also do the river without a float. It's quite shallow (around 3ft) and the current makes it easy. We usually just *run* around the river while our son sits in his float.
you can bring your own tube, they will inflate and deflate it for you at the tube shack (free of charge of course) so space in luggage is not really an issue
as the above poster said, they're rather inexpensive (well $10 is still 10 bucks, but that's still affordable)

but, when I read OP's post, I was under the impression that they implied a "required to bring a float" ( "must bring own float"), and no, you can do the river without one.
it just means that there are no self serve floats like you'd find tubes at a waterpark.

 

[Angeliki19]

Hi you can make reservations for the bowling. However, we did not. We decided last minute to do it and there wasn't much of a wait so we did. We ordered something while bowling but I don't remember a wait.
The floats are about $9.00 to buy. There are a couple of different ones and prices. It's up to you. Some people don't like to travel back and forth with them but you certainly could. I have seen people buy them at Cabana Bay and leave them for someone else. We have not purchased the floats. We usually just use a life jacket if we want float but we do see a lot of people buy them.

Thank you! Sometimes in lazy rivers we do just "run" through but also nice to be lazy. We are doing Cabana Bay after the Disney Cruise so I am wondering if we would also use the inner tubes at the beach.. just thinking about buying some cheap ones on Amazon that we can leave there at the end of our trip.

And thank you for the bowling alley info! This is our first Universal trip, and one of the things I am looking forward to is NOT having every minute scheduled like I feel like our Disney trips have become. So I was hoping that I didn't need to make a reservation in advance and we can just play it by ear, which it sounds like we can. It shouldn't be too busy (Touring Plans is predicting 2's and 3's at the parks the days we are there) and we are just 4 people so I think we will be fine to just walk in!

 

[bobbie68]

Thank you! Sometimes in lazy rivers we do just "run" through but also nice to be lazy. We are doing Cabana Bay after the Disney Cruise so I am wondering if we would also use the inner tubes at the beach.. just thinking about buying some cheap ones on Amazon that we can leave there at the end of our trip.

And thank you for the bowling alley info! This is our first Universal trip, and one of the things I am looking forward to is NOT having every minute scheduled like I feel like our Disney trips have become. So I was hoping that I didn't need to make a reservation in advance and we can just play it by ear, which it sounds like we can. It shouldn't be too busy (Touring Plans is predicting 2's and 3's at the parks the days we are there) and we are just 4 people so I think we will be fine to just walk in!

You're welcome. Yea you should have no problem walking in. We did this on a Saturday afternoon and didn't wait much. It's a small alley but we liked it. We love Cabana Bay and it was hard not staying there this time. We are doing the parks more days this time and in the summer we really need the express pass. I will go back there as soon as I can. It is a great resort.
We love the lazy river. We can spend hours in there. Because it is so low we walk through it or float on a life vest. Enjoy your trip!