Say hello to Universal's newest park - and it's a water one. When purchasing our tickets for Universal they had a deal where you bought your pass for the two main parks, and got the third free. Of course we went for this - and this freebie park ended up being one of our favourites from the whole holiday.
What's at Volcano Bay?
Volcano Bay has only been open since 2017, so is a baby in the Orlando park world, but it's definitely up there with some of the best. It is a water park, filled with daring slides, rides, rivers and a couple of beaches - and is great for everyone in the family.
First of all, it looks flipping amazing. You have this giant, fake volcano with water falling down, it's just stunning - and a great photo opp as well! You have the main beach around the volcano - if you don't get a bed early on then look towards the back of the park because beds in shade in this area go super quickly. Then as you move around the park you have loads of different types of rides, slides and areas.
There are also various places to get snacks, drinks or meals - most of which are your typical park food, however, we found one near the entrance that did coconut curry and jerk chicken etc and it was a really nice change.
You also get given a TapuTapu on your way in, which is a bit like a digital wrist watch - but you can use this to get your ride photos, go in a virtual line, and take photos at certain spots around the park.
My Thoughts
We absolutely loved it, and as I said ended up being one of our favourite days of the entire trip. I loved the theme and look of the entire place, made me feel like I was in Hawaii and not in the middle of an Orlando theme park. I also loved that you could walk through the volcano, and there are some great photo opps in there to take advantage of for sure.
I loved pretty much every ride we went on - and I did love the fact that you can do most of them together which is different to every other water park I've been to. I did have some favourites though that I just feel like I laughed and smiled the whole way through.
- Krakatau™ Aqua Coaster - can seat up to 4, but you essentially go in a long log flume type boat, and you're then off with dips, turns climbs, spray, basically everything you'd expect from a normal rollercoaster. It was just so much fun, I screamed, I laughed, I got wet - it was perfect. We may have done this a couple of times!
- TeAwa The Fearless River™ - this is essentially just a river you float around, with a bit of a difference. Different part of the river offers different things, like waves, rapids and speedy tunnels. I became a bit obsessed with the speedy bit and decided I felt like the turtles in the EAC from Finding Nemo, so then decided I was a speedy turtle. We did this one a lot...
- Honu of the Honu ika Moana™ - this was Adam's favourite, and one of mine, but essentially you go in a round float that's based on a turtle shell, and you go down this slide. Sounds pretty basic? Yeah no, there are sections where you literally fly up a huge side and feel like you may fly out. It was epic. There are two slides for this ride, Honu and Moana - we preferred the Honu side as it was a bit more intense!
We loved all the ones we did to be honest. There was a couple I was too scared to do. The body plunge which essentially takes you from the top of the volcano to the bottom in a straight clear tube, and the body slides where you go into a pod and it shot you out onto a slide. I could have done the slides - but I went to get into the pod and it freaked me out. Oh well!
The main negative I would say, the only one really, for the entire park is that we felt like there wasn't enough shady places with sun loungers. After lunch we wanted to just sit and chill somewhere for a while but it was so hard to find a bed with shade.
Top Tips
- If you can, go early - we got early access from our hotel - but this is a great idea if you want those volcano photos without too many people in them, and you want to claim a sunbed for the day. Also, as the day went on the queues got longer and longer.
- Wear wetsuit shoes - we didn't have them and I definitely regret it. The floor gets really really hot, and we found ourselves running a lot to get to the shaded floor.
- Take a waterproof camera or a waterproof cover for your phone, so you can get pictures yourself around the park. Obviously, you can't take them on a lot of rides, but to purchase the ride photos you pay quite a lot, so it's worth it. Plus, you can get your own images inside the volcano, of the rides themselves and great views.
Should you go?
100% yes. I am a water baby, so spending time near any kind of water is always going to be a plus. However, this is definitely the best water park I've ever visited, and made for a really fun different day out. It was also nice to have more of a chilled park day!
No comments
Post a Comment