Volcano Bay

cheezbat

cheezbat

Well-Known Member
Evolution said:
What's the capacity of their water parks? I've seen a few say 6,000 just like VB. If that's indeed true: unless TL and BB are closing everyday, they aren't hitting capacity.
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Supposedly Typhoon Lagoon is 6,000 and Blizzard Beach is 5,000. So a brand new waterpark that had no soft opening test time pulling around 6,000 guests a day is definitely going to be busier and more stressed than a 22 or 28 year old seasoned Disney waterpark. Heck, Disney's waterparks tend to only hit capacity a month or so out of the entire year...and Volcano Bay has been doing it for two weeks straight already.
 
captainkidd

captainkidd

Well-Known Member
cheezbat said:
Supposedly Typhoon Lagoon is 6,000 and Blizzard Beach is 5,000. So a brand new waterpark that had no soft opening test time pulling around 6,000 guests a day is definitely going to be busier and more stressed than a 22 or 28 year old seasoned Disney waterpark. Heck, Disney's waterparks tend to only hit capacity a month or so out of the entire year...and Volcano Bay has been doing it for two weeks straight already.
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Of course. It's brand new. Pandora's been pulling in absurd crowds too. I would expect anything new from Disney or Universal to pull in massive crowds upon opening. The real test is whether they can continue doing it for years.
 
E

EpcotEric01

Active Member
flynnibus said:
??
Volcano Bay was never built to be as big as the Disney parks.

Does everyone forget already the early discussions how people thought the park may even be ONLY for hotel guests? Volcano Bay is not huge... this is not news. Volcano Bay does not need to 'beat' or be bigger than Disney's parks.
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while yes Disney's water parks are slightly bigger in size, Volcano Bay has way more attractions.
 
lebeau

lebeau

Well-Known Member
captainkidd said:
Of course. It's brand new. Pandora's been pulling in absurd crowds too. I would expect anything new from Disney or Universal to pull in massive crowds upon opening. The real test is whether they can continue doing it for years.
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VB is performing beyond any reasonable expectations. You would have to think if Universal expected to hit capacity this often, they would have blacked out passes for more than the month of July.

Yes, the true test will be how VB performs in the long run. But there is no reason to believe that the park will be less popular after some fine-tuning and expansions. Universal has a massive hit on their hands.
 
misterID

misterID

Well-Known Member
captainkidd said:
Of course. It's brand new. Pandora's been pulling in absurd crowds too. I would expect anything new from Disney or Universal to pull in massive crowds upon opening. The real test is whether they can continue doing it for years.
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Yeah, the crowds will even out a year from now, but it's a good addition for the resort to keep people on property. It offers more for resort guests. Those reviews will get better in a year also. But I don't expect the crowds will stay like this.
 
captainkidd

captainkidd

Well-Known Member
lebeau said:
VB is performing beyond any reasonable expectations. You would have to think if Universal expected to hit capacity this often, they would have blacked out passes for more than the month of July.

Yes, the true test will be how VB performs in the long run. But there is no reason to believe that the park will be less popular after some fine-tuning and expansions. Universal has a massive hit on their hands.
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Capacity wise, yes. Review wise, not so much. And that could hurt them. My guess is, they'll get their act together and all will be good. But I don't see attendance staying as large. It's still new. It's right at the start of the summer holiday season. Hopefully, they can get all the issues fixed by next summer. But there's no doubt, the clay is there for a continued success. Just needs to be molded successfully.
 
lebeau

lebeau

Well-Known Member
captainkidd said:
Capacity wise, yes. Review wise, not so much. And that could hurt them. My guess is, they'll get their act together and all will be good. But I don't see attendance staying as large. It's still new. It's right at the start of the summer holiday season. Hopefully, they can get all the issues fixed by next summer. But there's no doubt, the clay is there for a continued success. Just needs to be molded successfully.
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Those negative reviews are not reflective of my experience. When I was there, I saw an awful lot of people who seemed to be having a lot of fun. I didn't see one person who looked remotely dissatisfied. The ones who were clearly ran to TripAdvisor and other sites to air their grievances and that is fine, but I don't think it accurately reflects the opinion of the majority of guests at VB. If it was as bad as those reviews suggest, word of mouth would have put a dent in attendance by now.

For what it's worth, the reviews are inching upwards. It's up to two and a half stars on TA.

I have absolutely no doubt they will fix the operational issues. The problems are not nearly as severe as some people would have you believe.
 
cheezbat

cheezbat

Well-Known Member
lebeau said:
Those negative reviews are not reflective of my experience. When I was there, I saw an awful lot of people who seemed to be having a lot of fun. I didn't see one person who looked remotely dissatisfied. The ones who were clearly ran to TripAdvisor and other sites to air their grievances and that is fine, but I don't think it accurately reflects the opinion of the majority of guests at VB. If it was as bad as those reviews suggest, word of mouth would have put a dent in attendance by now.

For what it's worth, the reviews are inching upwards. It's up to two and a half stars on TA.

I have absolutely no doubt they will fix the operational issues. The problems are not nearly as severe as some people would have you believe.
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Agreed. From my expierence and from talking to others, the majority of people really like Volcano Bay. I'd say TripAdvisors negative reviews reflect 5% or less of guests that visit.

The place is a hit. It's been at capacity every day for weeks. I got to the park at 9:10 am today and it was already closed. Insane seeing as how it only opened to the public ten minutes beforehand. (Of course hotel guests suck up tons of the capacity by getting there an hour early.)
 
mergatroid

mergatroid

Well-Known Member
An interesting video from Tim Tracker here comparing VB, TL, BB & Aquatica.

A few stand out points are .........

He likes VB best overall.
He thinks TL has the best themeing of any water park.
He thinks VB has the more exciting slides overall.
He rates BB's 'Summit Plummet' as the most thrilling individual slide out of all the parks.
He rates TL as the best park for those who don't want 'thrilling slides'
He thinks VB is the most relaxing park on a vacation due to Tapu, Tapu.

Also at the end he rightly agrees that it's all subjective to the individual and depends on what you're looking for in a water park. An interesting watch really.

 
RSoxNo1

RSoxNo1

Well-Known Member
captainkidd said:
Not sure if those numbers are correct, but if they are, it's actually on par with Disney's. Each of Disney's water parks hits over 2 million guests per year. Each park is closed for at least 1 month per year. That's about 6,000 guests per day. I've read differing reports on the actual size of VB. Some say 25 acres, while others say 53 acres. I'm guessing it's got to be closer to the latter, or it would get really tight.
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No, Typhoon Lagoon averaged around 8000 guests per day last year. Remember it's closed for a refurb every year.
 
captainkidd

captainkidd

Well-Known Member
mergatroid said:
An interesting video from Tim Tracker here comparing VB, TL, BB & Aquatica.

A few stand out points are .........

He likes VB best overall.
He thinks TL has the best themeing of any water park.
He thinks VB has the more exciting slides overall.
He rates BB's 'Summit Plummet' as the most thrilling individual slide out of all the parks.
He rates TL as the best park for those who don't want 'thrilling slides'
He thinks VB is the most relaxing park on a vacation due to Tapu, Tapu.

Also at the end he rightly agrees that it's all subjective to the individual and depends on what you're looking for in a water park. An interesting watch really.

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I don't know what it is, but this guy annoys me. Probably jealousy that he gets to go to the parks whenever he wants.
 
raven

raven

Well-Known Member
misterID said:
Yeah, the crowds will even out a year from now, but it's a good addition for the resort to keep people on property. It offers more for resort guests. Those reviews will get better in a year also. But I don't expect the crowds will stay like this.
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With VB being a part of the hopper pass, crowds won't subside soon. And Universal just released plans on their 2 new resorts being built on the old Wet-N-Wild site which will add a couple thousand more guests staying on property and utilizing that early hour of entry to VB as well.

Universal is really stepping up their game and giving Disney some good competition for getting guests to stay on their property. And the best part about it? They build things at twice the speed of Disney.
 
lebeau

lebeau

Well-Known Member
TheDad said:
Is VB's attendance coming from Disney or is it cannabolizing guests from its own theme parks?
It's probably too early to tell. Was just wondering whether anyone has noticed a decrease in wait times at the Universal Theme Parks.
I have a friend that works at Universal and has stated that ride lines at the theme parks appear to be more manageable since VB has opened. I have no idea if this is true or not. Was wondering what everyone else has observed regarding ride line patterns at both Universal parks since the opening of VB.
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The parks seems busy as ever. A coworker of mine just got back and he was complaining about how packed it was at the parks,

No hard data to contribute, but it doesn't seem to me that VB is siphoning off guests from the dry parks in meaningful numbers.
 
mergatroid

mergatroid

Well-Known Member
JoeCamel said:
Then this should really tick you off. He can deduct the cost of tickets/passes as a business expense or they are often comped.
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I know they pay for AP's (or at least say they do) for the various parks as they vlogged about upgrading their Universal ones to cover VB.
 

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