mergatroid
Well-Known Member
I do it at Disney with my wife's magic band for FP+. I've had the odd smile and comment but never been a problem.
-
Welcome to the WDWMAGIC.COM Forums!
Please take a look around, and feel free to sign up and join the community.
Volcano Bay
- Thread starter Mike C
- Start date
I do it at Disney with my wife's magic band for FP+. I've had the odd smile and comment but never been a problem.
mergatroid
Well-Known Member
I kind of see where you're coming from but with some of the negative press following the opening (even made the UK very briefly), it might have been a smart move to maybe lower prices whilst people weren't able to enjoy it like they should. I'm sure the suits would have a hard time justifying it as money is their number one priority, but I think it's left a bad taste in the mouth of some of VB's guests.
captainkidd
Well-Known Member
I wish that were true. Then I would never have to deal with traffic again.
EpcotEric01
Active Member
but why? They've been at capacity nearly every day, no need to lower prices.
mergatroid
Well-Known Member
I think you maybe misunderstanding the reasoning or I'm not understanding you properly. Many people have complained that they haven't been able to ride many slides due to the park not being fully working and lots of break downs. A lot have complained and wanted refunds and most people admit they opened the park too early. My suggestion of lowering prices wasn't because it wasn't selling tickets, just because some people were complaining they were getting ripped off by paying full price and not getting what was advertised.
lebeau
Well-Known Member
The earlier the better. If you are staying on property, you do not get EP, but you will get early admission. Take advantage of that! The first couple hours are not very busy and you can ride with no waits. You can also grab a beach chair and locker pretty much wherever you want. We took set up shop by the wave pool. I couldn't say if there are better spots. The park's not all that big so you can get wherever you want to go without much effort.
We didn't get a cabana but from my understanding the only benefit in terms of rides is that you get a tablet you can schedule your rides on rather than actually walking over to use Tapu Tapu. Also, if you want a cabana, book it as soon as you can. Everything sells out weeks in advance.
Good luck! Hope you get in all the rides you want and have a terrific time.
Why is that absurd? You are in effect testing their park. You get in free. they could have given out promo passes or such and allowed certain numbers in daily to test capacity. At the very least charge at least half the normal rate if you must. And no, they didn't do that and we see what happened.
Because the world doesn't work like that. If you want to "test" those water slides for free, I hope you're okay with no water. That costs them money, which in turn will cost you money. Hooray economics.
Disney Analyst
Well-Known Member
While I don't disagree. There is such thing as preview pricing. That's how Broadway shows do their previews.
Universal would have benefited from a month of limited capacity hard-ticket previews, like $45 a pop, test out everything with the risk of things not being up and running.
They could have done a soft open with lower admission, which may not have been a bad idea, but some people are making unrealistic suggestions/demands now that the park is already open for general admission. At the end of the day, going to any new park is a risk, and you know the cost of that risk when you buy your tickets. I'm not saying the criticisms are invalid, but sometimes risks don't pay off. When I went to Pandora, it didn't even stay open all day, but I didn't go to guest services and demand a refund. It was my fault for going when I did... and they wouldn't refund an AP anyway.
Last edited:
andysol
Well-Known Member
Honestly- the thing that would have been the smartest and made the most money would be to charge full price but also offer a free return ticket with a one year expiration date per ticket visited- single tickets and three park tix only- clearly not for AP. One per ticket (meaning a 3 day 3 park would only get one even if they came every day).
That way you get your full money- and at worst- the people don't use the tickets, and at best- they book another trip around it in the future thinking they're "saving money" just getting a two park ticket on that visit with their "free" VB ticket.
mergatroid
Well-Known Member
Can't argue with that too much, it's a very good idea. Not only that but as they're told why they get the extra day when purchasing they can't say they weren't forewarned about potentially having some issues. I like this 'compromise' and as you say Universal would recoup some of the loss by the guests spending on their return.
rushtest4echo
Well-Known Member
If the new paradigm in water parks is that I'll be expected to queue for 30+ mins for minor slides, 90+ mins for family raft slides, and 150+ mins for the headliners then count me out. No amount of theming, food, interactive experiences, beach chairs or lazy river is going to change that.
At this point I'll probably visit as a guest after heavy storms so that I can get in and out and do the slides within a couple of hours. Either that or I'll just run in during hotel hours and get out by 11.
Universal really did upend the water park industry, as in they're presenting a product that I don't care to visit unless it's under special circumstances.
At this point I'll probably visit as a guest after heavy storms so that I can get in and out and do the slides within a couple of hours. Either that or I'll just run in during hotel hours and get out by 11.
Universal really did upend the water park industry, as in they're presenting a product that I don't care to visit unless it's under special circumstances.
mergatroid
Well-Known Member
Disneyhead'71
Well-Known Member
This is the kind of issues that could have been ironed out with soft opens.
https://twitter.com/BrandonBlogs_/status/876300211240480769
https://twitter.com/BrandonBlogs_/status/876300211240480769
mergatroid
Well-Known Member
I'm guessing that's some kind of mechanical glitch that couldn't have been foreseen to be fair. I do know thy had 'trials' of numerous slides weeks leading up to opening as I even posted videos on here showing cast members riding them. Not much compensation for guess affected I know, but maybe an issue that only time would highlight?
trr1
Well-Known Member
what was the capacity for wet and wild
As far as this goes, I don't think the staff would care. I had my son and wife's AP's linked to mine through the Universal app, and all three of our bands would come up with my name when we tapped (I guess it was a weird side effect of that). So I think your plan could work quite well. Because otherwise, my wife was the most beautiful Ralph in Florida last week, lol.
Hey guys! Read here often, but comment rarely.
Just back from a week in Orlando and hit Volcano Bay for four separate days. Here are a few of my observations:
1. You can get plenty of rides in if you commit to getting there early. We stayed at Cabana Bay and were first in on early entry for three of our four days. On each of those early entry days, we rode at least a dozen slides in the first two hours, including multiple rides on the water coaster. On our check-in day, we hopped over around lunch time just to "check things out" We rode one slide that day, the water coaster with a 120 minute tapu wait. For the other three days, we rode every single thing we wanted as much as we wanted and never felt like we didn't get our money's worth for ride time.
2. Premium seating and cabanas are really not worth the money. We got better seating from arriving early and picking out loungers under a large umbrella. I brought an aquabox to lock onto my lounger and it worked great, saved on locker costs. And we didn't lose time by waiting for the concierge to pick out our seat or to wait for a server to bring us something. The food and bar lines were never a big issue to us, and I could grab a meal or a drink much quicker than the premium seats behind me could have it brought to them. We were rarely in the chairs anyway until later in the day due to riding all the slides.
3. Yes, still plenty of construction ongoing. But in the week I was down there, several things were completed and work kept ongoing. The park was solid on our first day and kept getting better as more features came online.
4. Only saw one wait at guest services all week, and that was on my first day when I went to check to see if my glasses had ended up in lost and found (It was entirely my fault that I lost them, do NOT wear glasses in the action river). Maybe about a twenty minute wait there. The rest of the week, I could walk up with no more than a five minute wait to check back again. The glasses never showed up. I honestly didn't see any really upset people there, everyone looked to be having a great time.
5. Ride ops. I think there is still plenty of room to improve this. Some things are design related (weight restrictions on the volcano drop slides and the outer mat racer slides) There's also room on the group slides to add single rider lines to maximize capacity, would be a good "standby" non-tap thing. I honestly think the Tiawahna tubes (spelling?) could be permanent "ride now" standby tubes. They are the last slides in the park to build lines and rarely are they more than 20 minutes. And some slides just have bad ride-through times right now. OhYah and OhNo both will not dispatch the next slide until the pool beneath is completely clear, they could realistically nearly double capacity if the lifeguards would just wait for the swimmer to clear the splashdown area and let the next rider come.
Overall though, we had a wonderful time down there and felt we got much more than our money's worth from our days down there. I felt that going for early entry or as early as possible and/or staying late makes for good use of your time. The park cleared out in the evenings and after rain and the ride times were pretty much walk-ons from 8:00am until 9:30am in the mornings and after 6:00pm in the evenings. If you come from 11:00am until 4:00pm and expect to ride everything, you will not.
Just back from a week in Orlando and hit Volcano Bay for four separate days. Here are a few of my observations:
1. You can get plenty of rides in if you commit to getting there early. We stayed at Cabana Bay and were first in on early entry for three of our four days. On each of those early entry days, we rode at least a dozen slides in the first two hours, including multiple rides on the water coaster. On our check-in day, we hopped over around lunch time just to "check things out" We rode one slide that day, the water coaster with a 120 minute tapu wait. For the other three days, we rode every single thing we wanted as much as we wanted and never felt like we didn't get our money's worth for ride time.
2. Premium seating and cabanas are really not worth the money. We got better seating from arriving early and picking out loungers under a large umbrella. I brought an aquabox to lock onto my lounger and it worked great, saved on locker costs. And we didn't lose time by waiting for the concierge to pick out our seat or to wait for a server to bring us something. The food and bar lines were never a big issue to us, and I could grab a meal or a drink much quicker than the premium seats behind me could have it brought to them. We were rarely in the chairs anyway until later in the day due to riding all the slides.
3. Yes, still plenty of construction ongoing. But in the week I was down there, several things were completed and work kept ongoing. The park was solid on our first day and kept getting better as more features came online.
4. Only saw one wait at guest services all week, and that was on my first day when I went to check to see if my glasses had ended up in lost and found (It was entirely my fault that I lost them, do NOT wear glasses in the action river). Maybe about a twenty minute wait there. The rest of the week, I could walk up with no more than a five minute wait to check back again. The glasses never showed up. I honestly didn't see any really upset people there, everyone looked to be having a great time.
5. Ride ops. I think there is still plenty of room to improve this. Some things are design related (weight restrictions on the volcano drop slides and the outer mat racer slides) There's also room on the group slides to add single rider lines to maximize capacity, would be a good "standby" non-tap thing. I honestly think the Tiawahna tubes (spelling?) could be permanent "ride now" standby tubes. They are the last slides in the park to build lines and rarely are they more than 20 minutes. And some slides just have bad ride-through times right now. OhYah and OhNo both will not dispatch the next slide until the pool beneath is completely clear, they could realistically nearly double capacity if the lifeguards would just wait for the swimmer to clear the splashdown area and let the next rider come.
Overall though, we had a wonderful time down there and felt we got much more than our money's worth from our days down there. I felt that going for early entry or as early as possible and/or staying late makes for good use of your time. The park cleared out in the evenings and after rain and the ride times were pretty much walk-ons from 8:00am until 9:30am in the mornings and after 6:00pm in the evenings. If you come from 11:00am until 4:00pm and expect to ride everything, you will not.