With our three day Universal Orlando park-to-park tickets, we enjoyed in a day of fun in the sun at Volcano Bay Water Theme Park!
At this water theme park, thrills and relaxation flow in perfect harmony. Here, the TapuTapu™ wearable lets you hold your place in the ride lines and reveal wondrous surprises with just a wave of your wrist. It’s a tropical paradise just steps away from everything Universal Orlando Resort™ has to offer.
Volcano Bay Water Theme Park
We took a quick bus ride from the resort and continue to be impressed with the tropical theme. No detail was left untouched here! You enter through a tunnel…
… and then take an escalator up to the entrance!
Touring Volcano Bay Water Theme Park
Welcome to Volcano Bay! Before you enter the park you are given a TapuTapu to wear on your wrist. It’s your key to having an amazing day—you’ll use it to ride most of the attractions, activate interactive surprises, open rental lockers, make cash-free payments and more.
One huge perk of staying on-site was that we got a half hour early entry before the other guests. This was key in hitting two major rides before day guests arrived.
We stored our stuff in a rented locker for the day, and I highly recommend doing the same. Our favorite attractions:
- Krakatau Aqua Coaster – this is like a much longer aqua duck and so much fun!
- Ko’okiri Body Plunge – this was absolutely TERRIFYING before doing it; You basically get in a tube, they shut the door on you and the bottom falls out.
- Honu of the Honu ika Moana
- Ohno Drop Slide (Ohyah will have a lower wait time, but it drops you only four feet. Ohno drops six feet.)
- Punga Racers – because we all love a competition
- Ika Moana of the Honu ika Moana
Once the park opens and rides start moving from Ride Now to the TapuTapu Virtual line, we continued doing the virtual waits and filling in with the smaller slides.
One thing I absolutely love about this park is that lifts carry up the giant, heavy rafts!
There is both a lazy river, Kopiko Wai Winding River, and a CRAZY river, TeAwa The Fearless River! Both are so much fun and a great way to pass the time while you wait in virtual lines. We could do a lazy river all day and be happy!
Now, after seeing the waves at Typhoon Lagoon, my kids weren’t raving fans of the Waturi Beach wave pool. The waves were very calm, but also family friendly.
The kids play area is large and has a lot for younger guests to do!
We’ve yet to rent a cabana here and I always regret that when I see how nice they are!
The food at Volcano Bay is also quite good – we’ve been impressed each time. We ate at Kohola Reef Restaurant & Social Club and love that mobile ordering saves so much time here. Favorites are the Mango BBQ Pulled Pork Sandwich, sushi, chicken curry and Hawaiian Ribs.
The Dancing Dragons bar had the longest line we saw all day. Thank goodness we weren’t there for the cocktails. :-)
How To Use TapuTapu
All the rides at Volcano Bay feature a Virtual Line. It’s the new way to wait that leaves you free to float, swim, splash, eat, shop or just relax until it’s your time to ride. Here’s how it works:
- Tap in at an attraction with your TapuTapu wearable and you’re in the Virtual Line.
- You’re free to explore the park while your TapuTapu counts down the minutes to your return time.
- When your TapuTapu vibrates, it’s time to return to your attraction with just a short wait before you ride.
This system works wonderfully and we enjoyed the lazy river and crazy river and play areas while we waited. So, it doesn’t feel much like waiting at all! After returning to the attraction, our waits averaged about 15 minutes.
Volcano Bay Overall Thoughts
I’ve mentioned that every detail was thought of in building this park, and I mean that! It is beautifully landscaped, it has fun modern touches like interactive experiences with your TapuTapu, all of the walkways are sprayed with water to keep your feet cool and there is not a single ride where you have to lug a giant tube up 47 flights of stairs – they are all automated!! We loved our day here so much.
After an epic day at Volcano Bay!
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