Volcano Bay: Cabanas versus Premium seating

[BroadwayHermione5]

Hi All!
As always first and foremost I hope you are all safe and doing good.
Second off thank you all for your help so far with this staying on UOR property newbie-I truly appreciate it.
As per the post title, we are going to Volcano Bay for the first time! We are extremely excited. Whenever we visit a water park, we always try and reserve a cabana or premium seating area. (And for premium seating we have used what we call the clamshell and the regular old chairs and umbrella). There are only three of us, so we are leaning more towards premium seating. Does anyone have experience in either? I know both give a locker and towels and some form of an attendant for food and drink purposes, and that the cabanas add water and a private tapu tapu. So I guess my question is does anyone have any insight on to either of these and which they prefer?
Thanks again.

Best,
BroadwayHermione5

 

[Grumpy92]

We have done both. But if you have three people you will need to do the Cabanas. If you do the premium you will need two. They are sets of two. They are both good. More room in the cabana, you get the fruit breakfast platter, mini fridge, larger safe, tapu tapu at your cabana and you can fit more in the cabana. Friends joined us and it made the hefty price tag more affordable. We enjoyed both but decided when we go back to get the premium next time when it is just the two of us. We picked a location near one of the lazy rivers, had a fabulous server, shade and a smaller locker for our wallets. Worked out great. You really cant go wrong with either. You will love it!

 

[shawthorne44]

One thing I wondered about. DD never sits. DH and I will only sit occasionally to eat. Would they let all of us into the premium seating area to use the towels, etc? Even though there would be more than 2 of us. We wouldn't want a Cabana just the assigned premium seating. I just like the idea of a home base to leave the towels to dry in the sun and a locker and our own place to gather to eat. I am starting to worry that the crowds will be bonkers (late April) while we are there.

 

[BroadwayHermione5]

We have done both. But if you have three people you will need to do the Cabanas. If you do the premium you will need two. They are sets of two. They are both good. More room in the cabana, you get the fruit breakfast platter, mini fridge, larger safe, tapu tapu at your cabana and you can fit more in the cabana. Friends joined us and it made the hefty price tag more affordable. We enjoyed both but decided when we go back to get the premium next time when it is just the two of us. We picked a location near one of the lazy rivers, had a fabulous server, shade and a smaller locker for our wallets. Worked out great. You really cant go wrong with either. You will love it!

Thank you so much-the breakfast platter is definitely a plus! We will definitely be choosing one we dont know which one yet!

 

[BroadwayHermione5]

One thing I wondered about. DD never sits. DH and I will only sit occasionally to eat. Would they let all of us into the premium seating area to use the towels, etc? Even though there would be more than 2 of us. We wouldn't want a Cabana just the assigned premium seating. I just like the idea of a home base to leave the towels to dry in the sun and a locker and our own place to gather to eat. I am starting to worry that the crowds will be bonkers (late April) while we are there.

See I can easily share a seat with someone, but I am also wondering if pandemic and post pandemic will that be allowed. It might be better to do the cabana to be safe than sorry

 

[Eeyore1220]

We loved our day with the cabana. We had six people, three super into the water park and three who just wanted to chill. It was such a relaxing and stress free day knowing we had the home base. There was a storm at one point and it was great to wait it out in our cabana with the sides down!

 

[shawthorne44]

See I can easily share a seat with someone, but I am also wondering if pandemic and post pandemic will that be allowed. It might be better to do the cabana to be safe than sorry

Well, these would be people with me in a long car ride.

The Cabanas are outrageously priced for what we need. So, I guess I'll risk it.
Hopefully the crowds will be less bonkers in few weeks.

 

[BroadwayHermione5]

Well, these would be people with me in a long car ride.

The Cabanas are outrageously priced for what we need. So, I guess I'll risk it.
Hopefully the crowds will be less bonkers in few weeks.

See we have always found the value in the cabana as we have had as little as 3 and as much as 8. After discussing it we are most likely going with the cabana just because we do have someone who needs the space and we dont want to risk just having two seats in these times.

 

[BroadwayHermione5]

We loved our day with the cabana. We had six people, three super into the water park and three who just wanted to chill. It was such a relaxing and stress free day knowing we had the home base. There was a storm at one point and it was great to wait it out in our cabana with the sides down!

I always love the feeling of having a home base! even with premium seating, knowing we have somewhere to go is awesome!

 

[becauseimnew]

I reserved premium seat for our up coming trip, I was told that a max of 4 people per one set of chairs. We did it back in 2017 and we didn't have any issues, we rarely all needed to sit. I really enjoyed the locker and dedicated server.

 

[BroadwayHermione5]

Hi all-so my family and i recently made a cabana reservation! Thank you all for the help-we appreciate it!

 

[firrefly]

Well, these would be people with me in a long car ride.

The Cabanas are outrageously priced for what we need. So, I guess I'll risk it.
Hopefully the crowds will be less bonkers in few weeks.

I just priced a cabana for 5 in August…..over $750!! I was wondering if they allowed more than the max 4 in the premium seating? Or are they really strict? I don’t want to buy two premium seatings for 8 when I only have one extra person.

 

[soniam]

I just priced a cabana for 5 in August…..over $750!! I was wondering if they allowed more than the max 4 in the premium seating? Or are they really strict? I don’t want to buy two premium seatings for 8 when I only have one extra person.

4 people is a real squeeze in the premium seating. It's really one set up for 2. We usually only get the pair, but it's me, my husband, and our son. My husband and son don't hang around all day. I tend to stay more. You have to get a wristband to enter the seating area, so I don't know if they would give you 5 or not. I don't know if they are strict about looking for the wristbands or not on everyone in the group.

 

[BroadwayHermione5]

I just priced a cabana for 5 in August…..over $750!! I was wondering if they allowed more than the max 4 in the premium seating? Or are they really strict? I don’t want to buy two premium seatings for 8 when I only have one extra person.

Wow ours was nowhere near that price. Even at WDW or Water Country USA in Williamsburg, VA. Have you tried calling universal directly? We were able to get a good deal on a Cabana and its on a saturday too!

 

[Beckyb3]

I just priced a cabana for 5 in August…..over $750!! I was wondering if they allowed more than the max 4 in the premium seating? Or are they really strict? I don’t want to buy two premium seatings for 8 when I only have one extra person.

i called today and got quoted $400 for a Friday and $450 for a Thursday. I wonder what the pricing is based on. Like as more are booked do the prices go up. Was it for one of the larger cabanas or the single ones?

 

[firrefly]

It was for the smaller cabanas, I even called Universal Florida today and was still quoted $749 for a single cabana and $179 for premium seating for 2 for August 5th. I even told them I’m a Florida resident thinking that would lower the price, nope!

 

[sparky68]

It was for the smaller cabanas, I even called Universal Florida today and was still quoted $749 for a single cabana and $179 for premium seating for 2 for August 5th. I even told them I’m a Florida resident thinking that would lower the price, nope!

Is it more because you have 5 people?

 

[firrefly]

Nope….today I asked what it would cost for 3 people, told the same price by a different employee.

 

[BroadwayHermione5]

Nope….today I asked what it would cost for 3 people, told the same price by a different employee.

I wonder if there is an event or something going on that day making that price what it is. It is also probably around the first day of school or last day of summer vacation for most Florida schools so that could also be the case.

 

[Erica Ladd]

How many people can go in a cabana? Do you pay by the person or is it by groups