Volcano Bay

[raven]

The massive flaw in the arguments of the Universal apologists responses to 2-4 hour queues is that those are NOT NORMAL for any water park on planet earth, virtual queueing or not. The biggest slides at any other water park on the busiest of days rarely exceed an hour. I've been to water parks all across the country on busy days and I've never ever queued more than an hour for anything.

I was at Dolly's Splash Country yesterday (beautiful park with a decent slide collection) and we did not wait more than 15 minutes for anything. And that park uses Tapu Tapu's exact same wristbands for thier paid line jumping scheme (so innovative, just like VB's exact same bands, lol). Thier lazy river had rockwork throughout that just made VB's river look outright stupid in comparison.

Honestly, Universals launch of VB is more a product of terrible design than it being 'rushed'. They chose low capacity models for several slides (water coaster and mat racer should both be twice the capacity that they are). The quality and type materials used for the wave pool and lazy river are well below most of the best parks in the industry. And then there's the whole 'take in a show, see some of the great entertainment, relax, see the volcano erupt, grab a drink and some excellent food' narrative that kept being pushed as an excuse for the terrible queueless blunder everyone saw coming. Most of those other choices ended up being duds or simply equal to the offerings that other parks already have without the broken queueing system. None of those offerings (the few that bothered to materialize out of all of Unis broken promises), is helping one bit.

I really hope they have time to massively overhaul/upgrade the slides, the theming and the operation of the park before the bad rap sticks with the park. This smells a lot like Animal Kingdoms first few years where people liked the park but found offerings to be lacking and just shockingly bad areas in operations and entertainment. Lets hope it doesn't take Uni the decade plus to fix the place like Animal Kingdom needed.

Lest you forget it was opening weekend...on a busy holiday weekend...in Orlando Florida.

Wait times will even out. But I think those wait times show how popular this place will be.

 

[captainkidd]

Lest you forget it was opening weekend...on a busy holiday weekend...in Orlando Florida.

Wait times will even out. But I think those wait times show how popular this place will be.

Normal kinks are understandabe and excusable. The main issue at VB is not. TapuTapu was never going to work. Not without being able to book multiple slides or having standby lines. Universal should really be embarrassed by this mess. They have enough experience to properly plan an operating system that would work. Plus, It's been well over a week and they haven't fixed it yet. Said it before, can you imagine booking a FP for Space Mountain for 1:00 and not be able to do anything until then? There would be anarchy and chaos. Universal should close the park, make the proper adjustments to allow for standby queues, and open when they're ready.

 

[raven]

Normal kinks are understandabe and excusable. The main issue at VB is not. TapuTapu was never going to work. Not without being able to book multiple slides or having standby lines. Universal should really be embarrassed by this mess. They have enough experience to properly plan an operating system that would work. Plus, It's been well over a week and they haven't fixed it yet. Said it before, can you imagine booking a FP for Space Mountain for 1:00 and not be able to do anything until then? There would be anarchy and chaos. Universal should close the park, make the proper adjustments to allow for standby queues, and open when they're ready.

Wait wait wait. How long has it taken Disney to fix their Fast Pass + system? Years? And they still cause major headaches for their guests.

I don't think "a week" is fair enough time to give Universal to fix their problems. It's a new system they've never tried and obviously there will be lessons to learn.

 

[captainkidd]

Disney hasn't had any major issues with FP+, other than people not liking have to book ride reservations in advance. Other than that, there may have been individual occasional issues. Nothing that literally ended someone's day at a park. Personally, I've had nothing but excellent experiences with Magic Bands.

 

[mergatroid]

Normal kinks are understandabe and excusable. The main issue at VB is not. TapuTapu was never going to work. Not without being able to book multiple slides or having standby lines. Universal should really be embarrassed by this mess. They have enough experience to properly plan an operating system that would work. Plus, It's been well over a week and they haven't fixed it yet. Said it before, can you imagine booking a FP for Space Mountain for 1:00 and not be able to do anything until then? There would be anarchy and chaos. Universal should close the park, make the proper adjustments to allow for standby queues, and open when they're ready.

Whilst I think you're being a bit overly harsh on the new park, the bit highlighted I certainly agree with. Imagine wanting to go on the coaster slide (most will) and then being given a return slot 3 hours later only to discover that you can't go on multiple other slides that only have 15 minute waits or so without losing your reservation for the coaster! Surely the technology exists whereby a scenario like this can be avoided?

I remember turning up at Typhoon Lagoon once and it was so busy that they wouldn't let us in until a number of people had left, so it must have hit capacity that day. When we eventually got in there were no slides with queues for 3 hours whilst others were 10 minutes etc, lines yes but nothing that crazy. I realise that TL had no fast pass system before anyone points that out to me and so yes, this does change the dynamics of both scenarios somewhat. However Tapu, Tapu is intended to improve the visitor's experience meaning less time queuing and one would assume, more time enjoying the slides. Unfortunately it appears currently to mean less time physically queuing but being unable to actually enjoy many other slides whilst waiting, that's not really a great system in principle or execution.

I suppose the best way around it is to get there early and just go on the slides with low wait times and not book any with long waits til later on when you've ridden those others first? Of course this tactic may mean spending longer in the park than you'd like, but I guess it's a work around of the current system. Does anyone know if you can leave the park and return later for your Tapu, Tapu slot or once you leave VB have you lost your reservation for later on?

 

[captainkidd]

That's not how dealing with the public works. Some times you have to say S**** it and so what you have some angry people. If you are planning for millions of people a year a few grumpy ones are not to worried about. You have an inflated opinion of what people running large businesses care about. Fix what you can and move on, so what if 10,000 hate what you have done? There are probably a 100,000 people a year who will hate Orlando and anything to do with it.

This isn't just a small percentage of people unhappy. Of course some will always complain, but this is a legitimate cluster you know what. I love Universal. I'm an AP holder, but I'm not giving them a free pass. Of course, my opinion doesn't mean anything in the scheme of things, but as far as discussions on message boards or Facebook, I'm speaking my mind. They screwed this up on an almost unimaginable level.

 

[JoeCamel]

This isn't just a small percentage of people unhappy. Of course some will always complain, but this is a legitimate cluster you know what. I love Universal. I'm an AP holder, but I'm not giving them a free pass. Of course, my opinion doesn't mean anything in the scheme of things, but as far as discussions on message boards or Facebook, I'm speaking my mind. They screwed this up on an almost unimaginable level.

And they are fixing it. Longest wait time observed today was the big one at 220 and the coaster is under 2 hours. They are preserving even numbered and odd number parties so they can load them faster. Nothing is set in stone here, ops will adjust and they are. It is not the end of the world and the sky is not falling no matter what chicken little is shouting

 

[UCF]

Normal kinks are understandabe and excusable. The main issue at VB is not. TapuTapu was never going to work. Not without being able to book multiple slides or having standby lines. Universal should really be embarrassed by this mess. They have enough experience to properly plan an operating system that would work. Plus, It's been well over a week and they haven't fixed it yet. Said it before, can you imagine booking a FP for Space Mountain for 1:00 and not be able to do anything until then? There would be anarchy and chaos. Universal should close the park, make the proper adjustments to allow for standby queues, and open when they're ready.

You keep saying this, but you can't explain yourself. How would having standby queues with lines that are 3-4 hours long for a slide improve the situation? The slides are all operating as fast as the ops can load them... they aren't sitting waiting for people to show up while there is a 3 hour wait on them.

Last time I was on space mountain, there was more than a 2 hour wait. Can you imagine when I went on that line, I wasn't able to do anything else until I completed that 2 hour wait? I couldn't stand on another line at the same time?

 

[captainkidd]

You keep saying this, but you can't explain yourself. How would having standby queues with lines that are 3-4 hours long for a slide improve the situation? The slides are all operating as fast as the ops can load them... they aren't sitting waiting for people to show up while there is a 3 hour wait on them.

Last time I was on space mountain, there was more than a 2 hour wait. Can you imagine when I went on that line, I wasn't able to do anything else until I completed that 2 hour wait? I couldn't stand on another line at the same time?

With all due respect, that's more of poor planning on your part than a failure in the system on Disney's. Fastpass it. We've got all our Fastpasses booked for July, Space Mountain obviously being one of them. There's a way to properly use Fastpass+ where you can avoid the lines for the most popular attractions. And at least you have other options in the meantime. I've never waited more than 30 minutes for a ride at Disney. Before or after Fastpass+, and I hit everything I want to during the day. If I was told "Sorry, you can't ride Pirates of the Caribbean" for 4 hours until you ride Space Mountain, I'd be furious.

Secondly, they may be loading as fast as ops can load them, but not as fast as they can be loaded. That's been very well documented. That however, is fixable.

Having standby lines would divide however many people are in the park at one time up by 18 different attractions. Instead of waiting 4 hours before doing anything, you could hit 4 or 5 slides (at the minimum) in the interim. This is a water park. It's not some new concept that has never been attempted before. There are thousands of water parks in the world, all which get crowded during the summer. Typhoon Lagoon is the most visited water park in the world, with fewer attractions than Volcano Bay, yet people (myself included) spend a day there and manage to do see everything. If Disney can operate a water park with more people and fewer attractions successfully, why can't Universal?

 

[lazyboy97o]

Having standby lines would divide however many people are in the park at one time up by 18 different attractions. Instead of waiting 4 hours before doing anything, you could hit 4 or 5 slides (at the minimum) in the interim. This is a water park. It's not some new concept that has never been attempted before. There are thousands of water parks in the world, all which get crowded during the summer. Typhoon Lagoon is the most visited water park in the world, with fewer attractions than Volcano Bay, yet people (myself included) spend a day there and manage to do see everything. If Disney can operate a water park with more people and fewer attractions successfully, why can't Universal?

You seem to be confusing a virtual queue with a reservation system more like FastPass. With a virtual queue, the people are already divided as if they were in a stand-by line, they're just not in that line. The park is essentially already all stand-by. If operations is not getting people through the attraction, then it doesn't matter what type of line system you are using and there will be problems.

 

[JT3000]

With all due respect, that's more of poor planning on your part than a failure in the system on Disney's.

So if Universal has long lines, it's a failure in the system, but if Disney has long lines, it's poor planning on the guest's part? I see... Interesting logic.

Fastpass it.

Fastpass only makes the stand-by wait longer than it otherwise would be. Great if you have one, bad if you don't... and most don't. It's also not comparable to a virtual queue system.

 

[mergatroid]

You seem to be confusing a virtual queue with a reservation system more like FastPass. With a virtual queue, the people are already divided as if they were in a stand-by line, they're just not in that line. The park is essentially already all stand-by. If operations is not getting people through the attraction, then it doesn't matter what type of line system you are using and there will be problems.

But fastpass let's you ride other attractions whilst you're waiting for your reservation whilst a virtual queue doesn't appear to? It sounds like they've invented a new system that's worse than fastpass and at best no better than no system at all, that's quite an accomplishment.

 

[JT3000]

But fastpass let's you ride other attractions whilst you're waiting for your reservation whilst a virtual queue doesn't appear to? It sounds like they've invented a new system that's worse than fastpass and at best no better than no system at all, that's quite an accomplishment.

That's the point. A virtual queue is just waiting in line without actually waiting in line. It's not meant to get you on the ride any quicker.

 

[mergatroid]

That's the point. A virtual queue is just waiting in line without actually waiting in line. It's not meant to get you on the ride any quicker.

But it also seems to prohibit you from riding anything else whilst you're waiting, that's a flaw isn't it?

 

[lazyboy97o]

But fastpass let's you ride other attractions whilst you're waiting for your reservation whilst a virtual queue doesn't appear to? It sounds like they've invented a new system that's worse than fastpass and at best no better than no system at all, that's quite an accomplishment.

First, this is not a new system. Other parks have been using Accesso's technology for years. An all FastPass system would still be all FastPass with no standby and only allow you to ride at your pre-booked times. If your FastPass times were separated by hours, then you're also not doing anything for that time. A virtual queue allows more flexibility in a non standby system by not fixing everyone to a set return time.

 

[lazyboy97o]

But it also seems to prohibit you from riding anything else whilst you're waiting, that's a flaw isn't it?

You can you ride anything if you are standing in line for something else?

 

[JT3000]

But it also seems to prohibit you from riding anything else whilst you're waiting, that's a flaw isn't it?

No, because waiting in line also prohibits you from riding anything else whilst you're waiting. That's going to be a common characteristic of any queue, virtual or otherwise. But the virtual queue actually is better, at least in theory, because you're not actually standing around doing nothing. There are other activities available to you while waiting, just none that could be considered rides.

 

[mergatroid]

First, this is not a new system. Other parks have been using Accesso's technology for years. An all FastPass system would still be all FastPass with no standby and only allow you to ride at your pre-booked times. If your FastPass times were separated by hours, then you're also not doing anything for that time. A virtual queue allows more flexibility in a non standby system by not fixing everyone to a set return time.

Ah so we're restricting the discussion to an 'all fastpass system' but why? Fastpass isn't like that, I can have a fastpass for 2pm and from 10am ride other things till 2pm. Why invent a system like Tapu, Tapu that restricts you so much? I get it stops you physically waiting in line but it also stops you doing other things whilst waiting, meanwhile there's other systems that seem to already work better that are being ignored.

 

[lazyboy97o]

Ah so we're restricting the discussion to an 'all fastpass system' but why? Fastpass isn't like that, I can have a fastpass for 2pm and from 10am ride other things till 2pm. Why invent a system like Tapu, Tapu that restricts you so much? I get it stops you physically waiting in line but it also stops you doing other things whilst waiting, meanwhile there's other systems that seem to already work better that are being ignored.

Yes, we are restricting the conversation to a no stand-by system because that is what is being misunderstood. FastPass is a reservation and it just spreads your wait out elsewhere because it decreases available stand-by capacity.

 

[mergatroid]

Yes, we are restricting the conversation to a no stand-by system because that is what is being misunderstood. FastPass is a reservation and it just spreads your wait out elsewhere because it decreases available stand-by capacity.

Saying it;'s being misunderstood seems a way of justifying a system which doesn't appear to do anything other than create longer waits? I've been at Typhoon Lagoon during full capacity and still had the ability to ride slides without 2 hour + waits. I'm guessing they'd be better scrapping Tapu, Tapu and trying it old school rather than being told 'You're not actually queuing" as though not riding anything for 2+ hours is a fantastic system?