Volcano Bay - 1st Time Visit

[NYG]

Hey All,

So it looks like I will be going to Volcano Bay for the first time ever on Saturday, May 5th.We will be getting to the park around 10:00 or so, since our flight is landing insanely late the night before.

My question is...are we going to have problems reserving good rides like Krakatau by the time we get there, or will we be okay? We can come and leave as we please since we will be at Cabana Bay, but we'd rather not trek back and forth between park and resort if we don't have to.

Not sure how everything works there or even how easy it is to get a beach chair at that time of the day to hang around. Is is possible?

We aren't "dying" to go to the water park, it's just an add on day for us before we go drink at Citywalk for Cinco de Mayo. We definitely want to see what it's all about, and outside of Krakatau, there isn't a slide we NEED to do.

Any thoughts?

 

[bobbie68]

Hey All,

So it looks like I will be going to Volcano Bay for the first time ever on Saturday, May 5th.We will be getting to the park around 10:00 or so, since our flight is landing insanely late the night before.

My question is...are we going to have problems reserving good rides like Krakatau by the time we get there, or will we be okay? We can come and leave as we please since we will be at Cabana Bay, but we'd rather not trek back and forth between park and resort if we don't have to.

Not sure how everything works there or even how easy it is to get a beach chair at that time of the day to hang around. Is is possible?

We aren't "dying" to go to the water park, it's just an add on day for us before we go drink at Citywalk for Cinco de Mayo. We definitely want to see what it's all about, and outside of Krakatau, there isn't a slide we NEED to do.

Any thoughts?

Hi Volcano Bay is a great water park. We went last summer a couple of times when it was crazy. Weekends are going to be busier so you won't get as many rides in. We stayed at Cabana bay last summer and it was so easy to leave and go back. I think you will be able to do some slides or the coaster. You can try out the two rivers and the wave pool. If your going to be there till closing you will probably be able to do at least be able to ride 6 times. Besides the water coaster, if you like body slides the one in the volcano are good I hear. The two best family raft tides are Honu and Puihi.

I would try and get there as early as you can though still. There are chairs all over the place. There are chairs in front of some of the slides, the pools, the rivers. You will find a seat it just maybe in a less desired spot. Look in between spots sometimes there are chairs hidden where you wouldn't think so.

I would search up the Volcano Bay threads as well as some trip reports. I have two days of trip reports in my full report for VB plus there are a few others that post. https://www.disboards.com/threads/summer-trip-report-finally-yay.3642765/

Some of our peeps on here just went back recently after last summer so they have a few new perspectives. You will find their stuff on https://www.disboards.com/threads/volcano-bay-info-and-question-thread.3608057/
However, it was slower this time of year. May will pick up.

Have fun!

 

[chmurf]

My question is...are we going to have problems reserving good rides like Krakatau by the time we get there, or will we be okay? We can come and leave as we please since we will be at Cabana Bay, but we'd rather not trek back and forth between park and resort if we don't have to.

just to clarify

when you enter a park, you are given a *tapu-tapu* that's a wristband you will need to tap at the entrance of a ride to get a return time.

tapping is actually enternig a line (albeit a virtual one). Meaning you can't do any other rides while you are *in line*
you can still use one of the 2 rivers, the wave pool, hang around get something to drink, and get on rides that are *ride now* (= no line)

so choose wisely what you tap for. If it says 180 minutes, it means that it's like you've just entered a 3 hours long standby line in a regular park. I guess you wouldn't do that.


Now, when you say "trek back and forth", I get it that you mean, get a reservation for Krakatau, and if it's too far away go back to CBBR, chill, and come back later for the ride.
Well you can't do that

when you exit Volcano Bay, you need to return your Tapu Tapu. Basically this cancels your reservation for the ride, because when you enter again later, you will get a new tapu tapu, with no ride reservation on it.

I wish they did associate the reservation with the ticket (someone correct me if they did since my last visit) but as far as I can remember, they don't.

 

[GoldmanTrust]

We stayed at the Americana building last September and it was about 3-500 steps from our hotel room and inside the park itself.

For me Volcano Bay is awesome. We started almost every day there. Great food and nice cocktails.

Krakatau is probably my favorite ride in all of the parks. Just a wonderful ride.

There are plenty of other must do slides. Honu is great, and I enjoyed the drop slides. I also did the Ko’kiri trap door slide. LOVED IT.

Now...I am not sure about how busy it will be in early may. I guess no one knows, since the park is so new. But I would guess that at the later stages of the day the crowd level will get significantly lower.

You wont find a better hang out place than Volcano Bay. And you wont have to wait in line THAT long because of the Tapu Tapu system. But there is still some waiting to do.