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Volcano Bay Water Theme Park - Universal Studios Orlando


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Stupid question but how are water slides having frequent downtime issues? They're water slides...

 

Problems with the plumbing?

 

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But I'm sure there are still a million sensors that say "someone is currently on the slide--don't send anyone else down yet."

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If the conveyor for the mat racer slide is down I don't really get why people cant just carry their mats up the stairs to keep that slide operational, ya know like how every other mat racer slide at every other water park in the world does it?

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A full reservation based system is always going to be challenging because there's no handbrake on people "joining" the queue.

 

People can tap at the totems at a far higher rate than the rides dispatch interval, so its clear how virtual queue slots would be eaten up very quickly.

 

With a standby queue there is a natural reality check when you see the line and ask yourself ”Can I really be bothered waiting?" and that works as a natural handbrake, and people naturally distribute themselves more evenly around the park, to attractions with spare capacity.

 

Id agree with other posters about it limiting choice....

Id be annoyed at any park if there was a key ride I came for that I was totally booked out, with no option to suck it up and standby.

 

'No lines' only works too if there is enough to do during the virtual wait.

To be fair they do have a lazy river and wave pool, but I think a good proportion of visitors would get bored with doing passive activities such as those for long periods.

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The gasp I made when I found the TripAdvisor page with 2/5 stars... I get that they're going through some pretty intense growing pains into a new system, but it's quite unfortunate that they're getting hammered like this until they work things out. I couldn't help but feel some things were rushed so they could get the park open, and now seeing the results of that.

 

Edit: It's good that Universal has someone responding to virtually all of the reviews though!

 

Disney uses a conveyor for their belly mat slides too. It's fun to see them zip up the mountain super quick.

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The gasp I made when I found the TripAdvisor page with 2/5 stars... I get that they're going through some pretty intense growing pains into a new system, but it's quite unfortunate that they're getting hammered like this until they work things out. I couldn't help but feel some things were rushed so they could get the park open, and now seeing the results of that.

 

Edit: It's good that Universal has someone responding to virtually all of the reviews though!

 

Disney uses a conveyor for their belly mat slides too. It's fun to see them zip up the mountain super quick.

 

 

Oh boy, the TripAdvisor page is actually very comical.

Pictures of closed or delayed rides, of an injured little girl, of a traffic jam in the lazy river...

 

I do hope this will be resolved once they've worked logistic out. I also hope they reduce park maximum capacity because clearly it's been overestimated!

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I see the issues stemming from two things:

 

- Lines are needed. They create a perception of value. In this fast moving world, I think people start to feel bored sitting around on a beach chair or such waiting for their time. Whereas standing in line you literally see progress being made as you get closer, and it gives you a perceived value of the park. I hate lines, but also hate the idea that I basically have to sit around and do nothing for most of the day (lazy rivers/wave pool are only fun for so long).

 

- Length of stay. I feel like the park was designed with capacity and the mindset that it would take 6+ hours to see everything since you can only "Virtually" queue for so many things at once. Even if the lines get down to 30-45 mins it would still take close to that to see the whole park. I'd have to guess the average water park guest, in Florida or wherever, probably only spend 4/5 hours tops in a water park. You can only be in water, half naked, baking in the sun for so long. Heck, that's probably why Disney has after 2 discounts/passes.

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^A system meant to reduce/eliminate lines gets a system to reduce/eliminate lines. Do you see the conundrum in this?

 

It wouldn't be that much different than the regular vs. gold flash pass levels at Six Flags. One could get you on faster.

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They did have Universal Express that let you bypass the reservations and join the slide line directly but not sure if it's stopped until they fix some of the problems.

 

Hi yes they have stopped selling at on line and at the park. I did purchase them before they stopped and Universal says they will honor any that were purchased prior to stopping. I am not sure when they would go back to selling them. I am going in late July/early August and hoping that it will have some of the kinks worked out.

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  • 2 weeks later...

I'm not a super heavy-set person. I fit on virtually every roller coaster I've wanted to with absolutely no problems whatsoever. I don't even look "heavy-set." But when watching a vlo

on YouTube made at Volcano Bay, he noted how he wasn't able to ride Kala and Ta Nui (the blue and green "twisted" body slides in the volcano) because the weight restrictions changed for the slide restricting riders to a max 200lbs weight limit. (It was also updated on their Rider's Guide PDF posted online; page 10) Last I weighed myself (this past weekend), I was at 205lbs...

 

Like I said, I'm not a super heavy-set person, but seeing as my family is humoring the thought of paying a visit sometime this year, it was a little bit of a wake-up call for me to maybe consider working out more... because I reeeeally want to try the slides and see how intense people claim them to be.

 

Speaking of which, if any of you have been on it, how was it?

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Unless they have scales at the top of the slide (or at the entrance), I'm not sure how they really enforce that weight policy... I mean, if somebody's even borderline overweight, especially if they're female, I don't see the slide ops being comfortable asking them about their weight, or telling them they can't ride because they're "too fat", essentially. Regarding myself, I weigh about 15 pounds more than said limit, but I don't look that heavy at all, and I'm sure I wouldn't get a second glance from a slide op, especially since I wear swim shirts. As an aside, I really should do the Guess Your Weight/Age booths at parks, because I'm pretty sure they wouldn't be able to guess correctly on either one of them! At any rate, I'm really curious about the enforce-ability of this policy, given the sensitive nature of people's weight...

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I think most, if not all ProSlide capsule drop slides have them. Deep Water Dive at KK certainly does, and it has a 300lbs weight limit.

 

See, 300 pounds is reasonable! Obviously somebody of that size is going to have trouble with a capsule drop slide. But 200 pounds??? That's ridiculously low! I mean, perfectly slim people who are tall, and have muscle on them, will tip the scales over 200 pounds! Like I said, I am not very large, but I weigh more than that. I guarantee you I'm not going to get stuck in a waterslide or cause it to break though! It's just another strange policy at Volcano Bay to me, and one that also hopefully gets rectified over time...

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Wait, there's really a 200 lb restriction for 2/3 rds of the drop capsule body slides? That's just absurd, I mean you can be in insanely good shape with a reasonable amount of muscle and easily weigh over 200 lbs. Maybe if half the daily attendance can't ride the slide it helps to keep Tapu Tapu return time low hahaha.

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Wait, there's really a 200 lb restriction for 2/3 rds of the drop capsule body slides? That's just absurd, I mean you can be in insanely good shape with a reasonable amount of muscle and easily weigh over 200 lbs. Maybe if half the daily attendance can't ride the slide it helps to keep Tapu Tapu return time low hahaha.

 

200lbs does seem like a ridiculously low weight limit for a water slide. We have a drop capsule slide at Cowabunga Bay here in Vegas and the weight limit is 260lbs. However, Cowabunga Bay does have scales at the top of all the slides, so I don't find that very unusual. But I've never seen a 200lb weight limit on any water slide at the dozen or so waterparks I've visited.

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  • 6 months later...

Visited the park Dec 27. At almost 200lbs, I was worried I might have to do my first walk of shame, but I’m happy to report that the weight limits have been raised to 230lbs for the 2 drop slides! The single drop slide is still at 300lbs.

 

The park opens for Universal guests at 9am and 10am for the rest (and us Disney resorters). We took an Uber and arrived at 9am. A shuttle bus was waiting right at the drop off location to take people over to the park. Your allowed to enter the park and get changed. By the time we were ready at 9:30am, they dropped the rope and we had the next 1/2h to ourselves in an almost deserted park! So get there early and you might have the same luck. Lines were all quite manageable, with most walk ons, until noon. We bought an express pass (selling them again), which we didn't really need since the morning went so well. We only used it for all re-rides in the afternoon, as lines were all approaching 100 minutes. All around a great day, even during busy Christmas.

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Opening shot, 9am. Park empty!

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  • 1 month later...

Very minor note: I came back to this thread to check out some things involving Kala and Ta Nui serpentine body slides in the volcano, and checked the Rider's Guide PDF (page 9) to see if the max weight limit was still at 200lbs, and saw they raised it a little to 230lbs.

 

Not a significant change, but hey, now I can definitely ride it if I ever get to the park someday!

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  • 1 month later...
Very minor note: I came back to this thread to check out some things involving Kala and Ta Nui serpentine body slides in the volcano, and checked the Rider's Guide PDF (page 9) to see if the max weight limit was still at 200lbs, and saw they raised it a little to 230lbs.

 

Not a significant change, but hey, now I can definitely ride it if I ever get to the park someday!

 

They upped it to 270 starting this morning. I was told I was the first one they thought that was over the old limit to go up.They only get a red or green light, but I weighed 265 last week at doctors appointment.

 

I know that it's employees bit they said that they will start a new tower very soon (may?) In that little triange of expansion space.

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Very minor note: I came back to this thread to check out some things involving Kala and Ta Nui serpentine body slides in the volcano, and checked the Rider's Guide PDF (page 9) to see if the max weight limit was still at 200lbs, and saw they raised it a little to 230lbs.

 

Not a significant change, but hey, now I can definitely ride it if I ever get to the park someday!

 

I had no problem getting on those slides last August and I weighed around 215 lb.

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