good morning
we visited Volcano Bay yesterday. We stayed at the Cabana Bay which has a special access to the volcano bay park, well worth it .
They told us to go as close as 8.00 AM as possible. We were not thrilled, my teenagers like to stay up very late and start their day at noon, but we made an effort and were in the park at 8.20 AM
It was not really crowded at that time , the hotels guests could go left while entering the park, non hotel guests were heading right where they could wait on the beach from what we saw.
We had unlimited express passes that we purchased online 1 month ago, there was a lot of people at the concierge booth at the entrance of the park, so we went to the one at the back. The employees are not well trained we were told there were no such thing as express passes, finally we found someone that uploaded them in our tapu tapu.
We were really not happy with our day!
First we came for the thrill attractions, everything was closed : the three launch rides at the top of the volcano closed
later like at 10.00 am they closed another 2 slides, krakatau broke down and the wave pool closed
by that time we decided to leave the park at soon as possible.......after doing a few other rides
The wait times were decent from 9.00 to 9.30, as from 9.30 there was a line of 30 - 45 minutes in most of the slides we entered , the tapu tapu prevent a part of the queue but not all
we were told at each ride that our express passes were not loaded correctly so we had to go back to the concierge several times, and it was never fixed .
our express passes were great to enter any queue at any time once the employees finally realise we were entitld to use them
We paid $60/ person for this express pass
we never got to do rides more than once because too many people
when we exited the park at 11.00 the wait times were at 2 hours for most rides and long lines in each of the staircase to the top of the slides , the best rides still closed ( they opened that day really late like 4.00 from what we heard later)
mot of the beach chairs, cabanas were empty and the park was far from being at capacity, we never want to see it when it is crazy busy!!!!!!!
on our way out we stopped at guest servies : 2 employees to service 40 furious guests ..... I waited
I heard many people complaining they were in the park for 4 hours and couldn't ride anything , the rides breaking down and extending their wait time on tapu tapu ......
they were given out paper fastpasses to access rides
some were there wanting to buy fastpasses but employees said they are not on sale anymore
I asked to be refunded for my quick queues tickets , and they gave me instead 5 park ticket to come back anytime
they were lovely and helpful
My kids both said that they prefer aquatica : real express tickets with no queues , better rides ( at the exception of the volcano bay thrill rides that look insane, and we will be back to do just those)
the kids didn't like that you mandatory have to stay in a tube on the fast river ( which is not so fast)
also in most of the rides we were asked to leave our shoes at the entrance, well I do not like to walk without my water shoes ..... I want to use them in the queues and hold them in the slides
they won't let you do that in Volcano Bay
the park is lovely , they are already working on the extension , and yes there were some areas of volcano bay that were not finished, with tools, and unfinished constructions spots , but globally so all in one gorgeous but really not ready imo to welcome guests.
the cabana bay is great for volcano bay , it was not our first time at this hotel but now that it is all finished it is one of the best hotel of universal