Volcano Bay

[Disneyhead'71]

There is a major difference between a 300 minute wait in a regular line and a 300 minute wait in a virtual line with no other slide you can go on. The difference with fast pass plus is you can be on more than one line at a time. Using an example above with fast pass plus you are on 3 lines before you get to the park. With the new universal offering you can only be on 2 but during the wait are limited to the wave pool, lazy river and shopping. Also unless they severely limit the attendance or massively expand the park the number of rides one can experience in a day will be very limited. And think of the price for tickets and parking. Universal did not properly plan for this, unless it is going to be only for those staying in a universal hotel.

Remember, they had no soft opens for this park. Give the ride ops time to get up to speed before declaring the system a failure.

They cold opened on a holiday weekend. And it didn't go all that well. Go figure.

 

[sunsetblvd26]

Absolutely the park was not ready for prime time.

But I was talking about people being angry about long return times like they have never ever in their lives seen a 5 hour return time. I was just pointing out that we have seen them for years and on a daily basis at DHS. They are nothing new, and to be expected on crowded days such as Grand Opening weekend.

It will be. But with untrained ops (no soft opens) getting less than half the planned capacity through the attractions and new tech, an opening day cluster was all but guaranteed.

How long did Disney torture it's guests with the roll out of MBs? A year? And everyone expected Universal's system to be flawless on Day 1? Really? Or is everyone just having a hoot pointing out the obvious?

I guess if you're going to have a standard, may as well make it a double.

This has absolutely nothing to do with Disney. People are allowed to criticize this, as it should be considering how big of a cluster it is.

Constantly trying to make excuses for Uni here and then throwing the shade back on Disney isn't going to make things go better for VB. But have fun doing so anyway I guess.

 

[lazyboy97o]

It will be. But with untrained ops (no soft opens) getting less than half the planned capacity through the attractions and new tech, an opening day cluster was all but guaranteed.

How long did Disney torture it's guests with the roll out of MBs? A year? And everyone expected Universal's system to be flawless on Day 1? Really? Or is everyone just having a hoot pointing out the obvious?

I guess if you're going to have a standard, may as well make it a double.

You are the one who keeps bringing up Disney. It has nothing to do with double standards because you're the one who, despite claiming others, seems to only want to talk about Disney. Disney is completely irrelevant, but do please try to find my praise for the MagicBand.

Remember, they had no soft opens for this park. Give the ride ops time to get up to speed before declaring the system a failure.

They cold opened on a holiday weekend. And it didn't go all that well. Go figure.

Again, Universal's own fault for making such an basic mistake.

 

[mergatroid]

I guess if you're going to have a standard, may as well make it a double.

In fairness Disney's MB's got slaughtered on here so why shouldn't Volcano Bay's, not doing so really would be double standards surely?

 

[danpam1024]

There is a major difference between a 300 minute wait in a regular line and a 300 minute wait in a virtual line with no other slide you can go on. The difference with fast pass plus is you can be on more than one line at a time. Using an example above with fast pass plus you are on 3 lines before you get to the park. With the new universal offering you can only be on 2 but during the wait are limited to the wave pool, lazy river and shopping. Also unless they severely limit the attendance or massively expand the park the number of rides one can experience in a day will be very limited. And think of the price for tickets and parking. Universal did not properly plan for this, unless it is going to be only for those staying in a universal hotel.

Not at DHS

 

[Disneyhead'71]

This has absolutely nothing to do with Disney. People are allowed to criticize this, as it should be considering how big of a cluster it is.

Constantly trying to make excuses for Uni here and then throwing the shade back on Disney isn't going to make things go better for VB. But have fun doing so anyway I guess.

Wait. Didn't I say that the park was absolutely not ready to open, and that not having softs set them up for the cluster that happened? It happened, it was not pretty. And it was entirely Universal's fault. That is not making excuses.

And I wasn't throwing shade at Disney. Just pointing out that they rolled out a similar system and it took them a year to get it all sorted out. They did get it working and so will Universal. To declare the entire system a failure after one day as some here are doing is ridiculous.

 

[dreamscometrue]

Wait. Didn't I say that the park was absolutely not ready to open, and that not having softs set them up for the cluster that happened? It happened, it was not pretty. And it was entirely Universal's fault. That is not making excuses.

And I wasn't throwing shade at Disney. Just pointing out that they rolled out a similar system and it took them a year to get it all sorted out. They did get it working and so will Universal. To declare the entire system a failure after one day as some here are doing is ridiculous.

I don't have an issue with tech problems from opening early...that's true of all theme park lands and attractions. I simply don't like this virtual queue system the way it is set up at all. I'd be happy to Tapu Tapu for a slide, while getting to wait standby for another. I don't want to camp out on the beach or at the bar, only to run off every hour or two to ride a ride. I would rather actually queue for slides all day and not go to the lazy river or beach. I'm there to ride slides. I can stay at the resort if I want to chill by the pool.

 

[BubbaQuest]

Tim's video of his visit. Sadly he also believes they've opened this park too early with stuff not ready and major problems throughout the day. It does look great in parts though and hopefully they'll sort it all out over the coming weeks. One interesting thing he mentions is that to use the 'lazy river' it was compulsory to wear a life jacket even though it's shallow water and you're already on a flotation device?

To be fair, he did say he had a blast even with all the issues and breakdowns.

My biggest concern is the still long wait at the slides even after waiting for hours in the virtual queue. Hopefully they are just new park issues that can be worked out. The park didn't look particularly crowded in the video. Not sure how bad it might get this weekend.

 

[Disneyhead'71]

Volcano Bay is closed due to capacity right now.

 

[Disneyhead'71]

I don't have an issue with tech problems from opening early...that's true of all theme park lands and attractions. I simply don't like this virtual queue system the way it is set up at all. I'd be happy to Tapu Tapu for a slide, while getting to wait standby for another. I don't want to camp out on the beach or at the bar, only to run off every hour or two to ride a ride. I would actually rather actually queue for slides all day and not go to the lazy river or beach. I'm there to ride slides. I can stay at the resort if I want to chill by the pool.

After the ride ops get up to speed, there shouldn't be 4-5 hour wait times. If there are, then capacity will need to be adjusted.

 

[mergatroid]

To be fair, he did say he had a blast even with all the issues and breakdowns.

My biggest concern is the still long wait at the slides even after waiting for hours in the virtual queue. Hopefully they are just new park issues that can be worked out. The park didn't look particularly crowded in the video. Not sure how bad it might get this weekend.

Indeed he did and apologies for not pointing that out. As for the queues, hopefully they'll get that sorted over time. I'm guessing the software for tapu, tapu can be adjusted to change how it operates. By this I mean if they want to adjust it to limit the number of slides or increase them, or to add an app so you can book in advance etc that they can? If so they have different options to try and maximise its efficiency and make it more customer friendly, just a thought.

 

[Notes from Neverland]

Not having a soft opening, or any sort of major testing, is a major error regardless of which company we're discussing. That's basic common sense.

 

[Eckert]

I think the hardest job Volcano Bay is going to have is re-educating people who are used to a system like Fastpass+ who think TapuTapu allows them to do the same things.

Spoilers: It doesn't. It is a virtual standby line and Express still exists. You can't physically wait in 3 standby lines, so why would you be able to virtually? The lines would be even longer. The issue here is how many guests are allowed in the park and the natural low capacity that water slides have. I believe Krakatau can only get around 720 people through an hour, which would be unheard of with any major attraction at the dry parks. And that's with it allowing multiple rafts to be on the slide at the same time.

 

[BubbaQuest]

Volcano Bay is closed due to capacity right now.

Sounds like they are still letting in hotel guests, but I doubt anyone else is getting in today.

 

[flynnibus]

Absolutely the park was not ready for prime time.

But I was talking about people being angry about long return times like they have never ever in their lives seen a 5 hour return time. I was just pointing out that we have seen them for years and on a daily basis at DHS. They are nothing new, and to be expected on crowded days such as Grand Opening weekend.

Because a 5hr return time in FP in a Disney park is not the same as a "all FP" park. The point of the article is about working out the processes of a all virtual queue system.

The park basically has three tiers right now... the concept of the system is new to guests... uni needs to figure out their distribution rates... and may need to figure out balancing if there needs to be capacity changes or rebalance their tiers

 

[flynnibus]

There is a major difference between a 300 minute wait in a regular line and a 300 minute wait in a virtual line with no other slide you can go on. The difference with fast pass plus is you can be on more than one line at a time. Using an example above with fast pass plus you are on 3 lines before you get to the park. With the new universal offering you can only be on 2 but during the wait are limited to the wave pool, lazy river and shopping. Also unless they severely limit the attendance or massively expand the park the number of rides one can experience in a day will be very limited. And think of the price for tickets and parking. Universal did not properly plan for this, unless it is going to be only for those staying in a universal hotel.

I believe it's three groups. The coasters, the other slides, and then the things that don't require a reservation.

 

[Rob562]

One interesting thing he mentions is that to use the 'lazy river' it was compulsory to wear a life jacket even though it's shallow water and you're already on a flotation device?

From reading through this thread, that's the "adventure river" but its water level is currently lower and most of the "adventure" is turned off. The true lazy river is across the park but not open yet. They have the adventure river in lazy mode so they have one for guests.

Presumably they're forcing people to use the vests now so that people (both guests and staff) are used to vests on this particular river.

-Rob

 

[BubbaQuest]

According to Orlando Informer, VB Express Passes are no longer on the Uni website. They're not sure if that is intentional or not.

And just for random comparison, if I'm reading my twitters correctly, Pandora has a 30-90 minute wait to enter the land and the 3-4 hour standby time for FoP.

 

[felipenor]

Absolutely the park was not ready for prime time.

But I was talking about people being angry about long return times like they have never ever in their lives seen a 5 hour return time. I was just pointing out that we have seen them for years and on a daily basis at DHS. They are nothing new, and to be expected on crowded days such as Grand Opening weekend.

I don't really think you can compare a water park to a theme park. You go to a water park epecting to do the rides multiple times a day, and as soon as you get there. Most people who go to HS don't expect to go on most rides more than once, or to watch Beauty and the Beast three times.

 

[opshannon]

I'm someone who was at IOA for the original Harry Potter opening day. I get that going to a new place means lines and that once you're in them you're committed to the line you're in and aren't riding anything during that time. But the concept of Tapu Tapu means you will always be locked out of riding things even when the park isn't insane. I tap and have to wait 35 minutes for a slide means I'm doing nothing while waiting to go on that ride. I realize that if I were standing in line for 35 minutes I'm not on any rides. But if I'm waiting for 35 minutes, then have to go climb the stairs and wait for the other people who have that wait time, too to get on their tubes, etc. I'm not waiting 35 minutes. I'm waiting longer. It's a conceptually good idea, but I don't think it leads to a satisfying experience in reality. I'll reference Jimmy Fallon again. I rode it 2 times during softs and the system worked pretty well. During hard opening I went once, and will not seek it out for a very long time. The reason is that a "lineless" system with a large number of people can't work. There are bottle necks. Some people, bless their hearts, can't tell their right hand from their behind and just wander aimlessly in the way keeping others from getting where they need to be. People talk about educating the riders, but there are always going to be people who haven't or won't take the time to be educated about it who cause the system to back up or fail. At VB I can only imagine the number of people who are going to start queuing up 5 minutes before their time causing a bottle neck. Some of you are very optimistic about it. That's fine. Go and have a blast and float around the lazy river looking at the uncovered steel bones of the mountain while laughing at what a rube I am for not having faith.