Volcano Bay

[umichigan10]

i think having a standby line in addition to the Tapu Tapu line would kind of negate the whole point. It would drive up the wait time a ton as you'd be splitting it between two lines now. I don't think it's unfair or stupid to not be able to jump in another line and it's not taking away from what you can do any as compared to jsut having a standby line. Might not be as much to do but you can at least relax, grab food, go in lazy river or wave pool while waiting the 2 hours versus jsut stainding in a line for 2 hours. It'd be the same wait either way so not cutting into what you can do at all by not having a standby line. If anything having those woudl make the reserved lines all even longer as still get as many people queueing but now having to wait for them to load some standby folks. And the standby lines would probably all be extremely long if they jsut focused on teh reserved lines, even if the number of people in that line was low.

I really think the whole thing is gonna get mostly mothballed. I'm sure they're trying to adjust it and fix what they can, but ultimately "no lines" is really only something that can exist in a perfect world

 

[TheMaxRebo]

i think having a standby line in addition to the Tapu Tapu line would kind of negate the whole point. It would drive up the wait time a ton as you'd be splitting it between two lines now. I don't think it's unfair or stupid to not be able to jump in another line and it's not taking away from what you can do any as compared to jsut having a standby line. Might not be as much to do but you can at least relax, grab food, go in lazy river or wave pool while waiting the 2 hours versus jsut stainding in a line for 2 hours. It'd be the same wait either way so not cutting into what you can do at all by not having a standby line. If anything having those woudl make the reserved lines all even longer as still get as many people queueing but now having to wait for them to load some standby folks. And the standby lines would probably all be extremely long if they jsut focused on teh reserved lines, even if the number of people in that line was low.

I think they need to have more options for things you can do without a reservation - so maybe just keep the top 5 or so attractions as Tapu Tapu only, and then other rides you can just get in line for so it isn't just waiting around for hours for your reservation to come due with minimal amount of things to do

 

[AtlantaDisneyDreamer]

I think they need to have more options for things you can do without a reservation - so maybe just keep the top 5 or so attractions as Tapu Tapu only, and then other rides you can just get in line for so it isn't just waiting around for hours for your reservation to come due with minimal amount of things to do

This seems to be an issue that just about anyone could have foreseen. With a ride reservation system like this, in a park with slides that cannot handle even close to park capacity, people need something to do while they wait.

It's a good idea to have some slides you wait for.

What else could they provide for people to do while they wait? Outdoor movies? A live show? A dance party? Carnival games?

They certainly need to make some changes if they want the public to keep coming.

 

[gottalovepluto]

spent the day at VB today. the fact that you can only book 1 ride at a time and all rides don't allow standby lines is really really stupid. i got there at 10:30 and rode 2 rides in 6 hours. the tiles on the walls in the pools and lazy river are falling off and i kept stepping on them also.

many many many people requesting refunds upon exiting

Were they getting them?

 

[disney1474]

Sounds like they rushed the opening??

 

[DLgal]

Has any waterpark ever had rides with 4-6 hour standby lines? I don't recall that being rampant. I feel like water slide wait times at regular waterparks max out around 90-120 minutes, and that is only for super low capacity high drop slides (one at a time riders).

I just wonder what problem Universal was trying to solve here...people know how to wait in lines and it's the norm at waterparks. I have been to both Blizzard Beach and Typhoon Lagoon at capacity and lines rarely even hit the 60 min mark. People are smart enough to skip over lines that long and do something else without being forced to.

 

[publix subs]

Were they getting them?

they were

 

[rteetz]

Volcano Bay was at capacity today

 

[beer dave]

I was interested to see how the virtual line system would go but so far not so good. Reports are that guests are complaining that they have to tap and find something to do across the park to wait for their time since all the slides use this system and you can only have one at a time(plus the water coaster). They go back and then have to wait in a 30 minute line to ride.

Listen. No lines sounds like a great idea but I am not sure if its functional. You need lines sometimes to keep people busy. How many times can you go back to the wave pool waiting on your magicband to ring so you can run back to the ride.

This is what was expected (what I expected). When everyone is special, no one is......

 

[AtlantaDisneyDreamer]

i think having a standby line in addition to the Tapu Tapu line would kind of negate the whole point. It would drive up the wait time a ton as you'd be splitting it between two lines now. I don't think it's unfair or stupid to not be able to jump in another line and it's not taking away from what you can do any as compared to jsut having a standby line. Might not be as much to do but you can at least relax, grab food, go in lazy river or wave pool while waiting the 2 hours versus jsut stainding in a line for 2 hours. It'd be the same wait either way so not cutting into what you can do at all by not having a standby line. If anything having those woudl make the reserved lines all even longer as still get as many people queueing but now having to wait for them to load some standby folks. And the standby lines would probably all be extremely long if they jsut focused on teh reserved lines, even if the number of people in that line was low.

I think that what makes the lines so long is that now people are willing to tap their bands and wait more than an hour or so in a line to ride a slide if they can do it while eating, playing, etc.

Still, I can't stand waiting in line and could not imagine standing in line more than 20 minutes for a water slide. I don't even want to wait in line more than 20 minutes for a ride like Soarin' or EE. I'd rather just hang out all day at the wave pool or the lazy river than stand in those awful lines.

So I agree with you that the idea of not physically standing in line is a good one. I think where the implementation at VB fails is that there is not enough to do while waiting, and there are not enough slides with enough capacity to accommodate park capacity. I do think a lot of people saw that one coming.

I do not think, however, that Universal should just scrap the idea of a water park with no waits and go back to the old fashioned way of sucking it up and standing in a line. We have come too far with technology (and too short with attention spans and patience) to accept that.

 

[soniam]

Volcano Bay was at capacity today

We were there. It was kind of like Epcot on New Years Eve but in a water park. We had a great time, but we are crazy. Once the crowds and newness have died down next summer, I think the Tapu system will work well.

 

[Planogirl]

I have to admit that I never thought I'd see people say that they'd rather wait in physical lines. It's interesting.

 

[wareagle57]

Has any waterpark ever had rides with 4-6 hour standby lines? I don't recall that being rampant. I feel like water slide wait times at regular waterparks max out around 90-120 minutes, and that is only for super low capacity high drop slides (one at a time riders).

I just wonder what problem Universal was trying to solve here...people know how to wait in lines and it's the norm at waterparks. I have been to both Blizzard Beach and Typhoon Lagoon at capacity and lines rarely even hit the 60 min mark. People are smart enough to skip over lines that long and do something else without being forced to.

I think this problem they were trying to solve was the fact that it's the norm to have to wait in long lines at water parks. That's the main reason I don't like them. I think the only way to solve long lines at water parks is to discourage people from coming, by charging as much or more than you would for a theme park. That, or max the capacity extremely low. Giving everyone a free ride reservation system just means even more people with wait in the long lines instead of deciding it is too long.

 

[mikeamizzle]

Can anyone confirm if they followed through on the stargazer's cavern portion of the concept art that was shown off? Can't seem to find any info on this.

 

[rteetz]

Can anyone confirm if they followed through on the stargazer's cavern portion of the concept art that was shown off? Can't seem to find any info on this.

Are you talking about the lazy river cave?

 

[mikeamizzle]

Are you talking about the lazy river cave?

Yes, it seemed to have some glowing LEDS along the roof in the 1:38 long preview video Universal Orlando Resort put out on youtube about 6 months back.

Found it, I guess thats part of the Kopiko Wai winding river. that must be it..

 

[rteetz]

Yes, it seemed to have some glowing LEDS along the roof in the 1:38 long preview video Universal Orlando Resort put out on youtube about 6 months back.

Yeah videos I've seen show just a cave basically with nothing really special. I bet they ran out of time and will look to add it in later.

 

[soniam]

Yes, it seemed to have some glowing LEDS along the roof in the 1:38 long preview video Universal Orlando Resort put out on youtube about 6 months back.

Found it, I guess thats part of the Kopiko Wai winding river. that must be it..

No lighting inside. I was disappointed about that. I am hoping they just ran out of time and are actively working on it. I am hoping they have it working by our late July trip. The photos looked amazing.

 

[onetoescape]

Couple of thoughts. They should of took the advice of there partners Nintendo "A delayed game is eventually good, but a rushed game is forever bad." While it will not be forever bad it will create a bad impression which will last a long time. Volcano Bay has just opened and is rushed by all accounts it looks like they should of delayed for a couple of months. Adding into this is that there is a great deal of hype and is running at capacity. IMO the virtual queue system should only be on some of the rides not all of them and its more a psychological reason. If you tell me or a child I cant ride any rides for 2 hours they will get bored however if theres a big queue you would just swim around the pool waiting for the queue to go down or queue up for a change.

 

[Killer Fish]

I mean they are absolutely getting ripped to shreds on Tripadvisor.....what a poor opening. Someone should probably be fired.