Volcano Bay Construction & Preview Discussion

[Disneyhead]

The Mexican government will gladly volunteer to pay for it. Two walls for the price of one. The deal of the century. They're feeling especially generous.

Yep. Universal can pick up the check at the Mexican Pavilion in Epcot.

 

[Doug A.]

That's an impressive feat. If you're prepared to share, I'd still be interested to read some retrospective views and about what's what.

Thanks it took most if not all of my free time the past 3-4 days to read it all, if I can find all the pictures in the thread I will try to put together an exposé if you will. May take me some time to find all the pictures and such

 

[JoeCamel]

Thanks it took most if not all of my free time the past 3-4 days to read it all, if I can find all the pictures in the thread I will try to put together an exposé if you will. May take me some time to find all the pictures and such

Search function will allow you to search a single thread but I don't know if you can show only those with images.

 

[Scott W.]

 

[Imagineer83]

Don't know if this has been brought up before but...Universal lists the following 7 attractions as having express pass.

• Ko’okiri Body Plunge™
• Kala & Ta Nui Serpentine Body Slides™
• Honu ika Moana™
• Taniwha Tubes™
• Maku Puihi Round Raft Rides™
• Punga Racers™
• Ohyah and Onno Drop Slides™

I find it interesting that the aqua coaster is not on the list. That would be the one ride I would want express for! Probably why it is not on the list.

Universal Orlando

On a side note, is this a new universal website design that hasn't 'launched' yet? I stumbled across it by accident. The old website shows up at Welcome to Universal Studios.com I don't really understand the technical side of websites so forgive me.

 

[JoeCamel]

Don't know if this has been brought up before but...Universal lists the following 7 attractions as having express pass.

• Ko’okiri Body Plunge™
• Kala & Ta Nui Serpentine Body Slides™
• Honu ika Moana™
• Taniwha Tubes™
• Maku Puihi Round Raft Rides™
• Punga Racers™
• Ohyah and Onno Drop Slides™

I find it interesting that the aqua coaster is not on the list. That would be the one ride I would want express for! Probably why it is not on the list.

Universal Orlando

On a side note, is this a new universal website design that hasn't 'launched' yet? I stumbled across it by accident. The old website shows up at Welcome to Universal Studios.com I don't really understand the technical side of websites so forgive me.

Yeah that is the new design, I don't think I am a fan but the old design was pretty poor as well.

 

[adjjb]

Is anything else not on the list or just the aqua coaster? If that's the only one, makes sense to use tapu tapu for that and then express pass everything else to spend the day not going back and forth to waiting in wave pool.

 

[Viator]

From WGT,

Volcano Bay Waterpark Construction Update #21 ~ Universal Orlando Resort - WildGravity Travels

 

[Doug A.]

Here is what I can gather from the Internet as I found a better way to find pictures. The dark gray/black pipe seen in the pictures I found are Schedule 80 which is usually standard for all commercial pool applications. Schedule 80 is the thickest and most heavy duty of all underground plumbing. All pipes and layouts are predetermined and engineered for optimal efficency, flow rates, filtration rates, PSI etc. The image below is from Google Maps.

The building that's about center on the left you can see all the pipes leading to and from is the main supply for that set of slides and presumably the lazy river (1 of 2).

Second image is from Google Maps as well. Here you can see the drains laid out for the wave pool and I would venture a guess and say that's how they fill the tanks before releasing a wave. As you can see all the pipes lead to the "basement" of the volcano and that's where the pump/filter room would be located.

This image also from Google Maps, the building to the right about center would be the pump room for the black, red and yellow slides as well as the big slide set up at the bottom of the image. The one at the bottom is believe is green in color.


These two images are courtesy of Alicia Stella and one of her blogposts Volcano Bay Construction Update: Volcano Rises Higher – Plus Wave Pool, Lazy River and Water Slide Progress | Alicia Stella's Blogosaurus The top image is the completed building as seen in the last Google Maps picture. The bottom image is the start of what can be seen in the last Google Map image (the large concrete slab to the left by the lazy river. This would be the drains for the splashdown/end section of the slides. Also in the last picture the little green machine to the left of the excavator is a Pipe Fusion machine. Basically it cuts both edges of the SCH 80 pipe to ensure a perfect cut and clean edge, then heats both ends and fuses them together with pressure to create the sealed joint. Normally with PVC you would use glue and primer and an assortment of fittings but in instances like this you have to fuse them together.

I can't seem to find any specs or pictures of a Proslide pump building but to give you an idea I found these pictures:


Found these pictures at NewsPlusNotes: Summer Fun at Dorney Park During PAPA's Summer Meeting these pictures were taken inside of Dorney Parks pump room. Kind of gives you an idea of the scale what's inside the 'rooms' albeit there are 4 (to my knowledge and educated guesses) pump buildings/rooms on the VB site. In the second picture you can see that they use a UV system which is gaining popularity in the pool maintenance world. Inside there will be (depending on size) one or multiple UV bulbs that kill a lot of microorganisms and bacteria at a very efficient rate. The system works by simply having the water flow by the light tubes which then destroys the bacteria and microorganisms. It does not take the place of sanitizer like chlorine just aids in the sanitization and cuts down on the amount of chlorine sanitizer needed. I would venture a guess and say there would be a comparable system in place here at VB but I have no insider knowledge. The level of detail and engineering that goes into these systems is truly mind boggling when you get down to the nuts and bolts of it all. It mostly comes down to simple physics, you need X amount of water to travel X amount of distance equals X size plumbing and X size pump and filter.

Sorry for the long post but I hope this answered most of the questions that @Teebin and @scott_walker and anybody else had. If there are any other questions I will be happy to try and answer the best I can.

Edit: fixed spelling and grammatical error

 

[Dan B]

Here is what I can gather from the Internet as I found a better way to find pictures. The dark gray/black pipe seen in the pictures I found are Schedule 80 which is usually standard for all commercial pool applications. Schedule 80 is the thickest and most heavy duty of all underground plumbing. All pipes and layouts are predetermined and engineered for optimal efficency, flow rates, filtration rates, PSI etc. The image below is from Google Maps.
View attachment 3667
The building that's about center on the left you can see all the pipes leading to and from is the main supply for that set of slides and presumably the lazy river (1 of 2).
View attachment 3668
Second image is from Google Maps as well. Here you can see the drains laid out for the wave pool and I would venture a guess and say that's how they fill the tanks before releasing a wave. As you can see all the pipes lead to the "basement" of the volcano and that's where the pump/filter room would be located.
View attachment 3669
This image also from Google Maps, the building to the right about center would be the pump room for the black, red and yellow slides as well as the big slide set up at the bottom of the image. The one at the bottom is believe is green in color.
View attachment 3670
View attachment 3671
These two images are courtesy of Alicia Stella and one of her blogposts Volcano Bay Construction Update: Volcano Rises Higher – Plus Wave Pool, Lazy River and Water Slide Progress | Alicia Stella's Blogosaurus The top image is the completed building as seen in the last Google Maps picture. The bottom image is the start of what can be seen in the last Google Map image (the large concrete slab to the left by the lazy river. This would be the drains for the splashdown/end section of the slides. Also in the last picture the little green machine to the left of the excavator is a Pipe Fusion machine. Basically it cuts both edges of the SCH 80 pipe to ensure a perfect cut and clean edge, then heats both ends and fuses them together with pressure to create the sealed joint. Normally with PVC you would use glue and primer and an assortment of fittings but in instances like this you have to fuse them together.

I can't seem to find any specs or pictures of a Proslide pump building but to give you an idea I found these pictures:
View attachment 3672
View attachment 3673 View attachment 3674
Found these pictures at NewsPlusNotes: Summer Fun at Dorney Park During PAPA's Summer Meeting these pictures were taken inside of Dorney Parks pump room. Kind of gives you an idea of the scale what's inside the 'rooms' albeit there are 4 (to my knowledge and educated guesses) pump buildings/rooms on the VB site. In the second picture you can see that they use a UV system which is gaining popularity in the pool maintenance world. Inside there will be (depending on size) one or multiple UV bulbs that kill a lot of microorganisms and bacteria at a very efficient rate. The system works by simply having the water flow by the light tubes whack then destroys the bacteria and microorganisms. It does not take the place of sanitizer like chlorine just aids in the sanitization and cuts down on the amount of chlorine sanitizer needed. I would venture a guess and say there would be a comparable system in place here at VB but I have no insider knowledge. The level of detail and engineering that goes into these systems is truly mind boggling when you get down to the nuts and bolts of it all. It mostly comes down to simple physics, you need X amount of water to travel X amount of distance equals X size plumbing and X size pump and filter.

Sorry for the long post but I hope this answered most of the questions that @Teebin and @scott_walker and anybody else had. If there are any other questions I will be happy to try and answer the best I can.

Welcome to the thread, damn you had a marathon getting through all these pages however In one way its like me a TV series, I love binge watching and catching up rather than waiting for the weekly episode so you have had the chance to start from scratch and see progress right to near completion in days rather than a year! I almost wish I could have done that too! Thanks for the insight and info above, when the site started out I had no knowledge with pumping systems etc so having a read above was pretty interesting and would have helped me knowing what I was looking at!

Just looking back again at the latest updates and it has never occurred to me where the entrance to the drop slides really starts. I suspected it was the walkway with he hut that leads from the volcano wave pool but I initially thought this was just a walkway to the centre of the volcano. However after seeing the news video last week showing that the stairs really do extend down the face of the volcano internally towards the wave pool they seem to lead to roughly where the walk way enters the volcano. We have always seen the exposed stairs but never really had a good photo showing where those exposed stairs go from the last platform where they turn until the news video managed to get some closeups inside the volcano, normally aerial photos don't pic this up because of the shaded internals of the volcano are hard to see. See the photo below for reference:

Finally a shot of the lower section of stairs that seem to run around the internal face of the volcano which is what many were hoping the stairs would do, obviously they had to then stop the stairs doing this due to lack of space between slides and the face of the volcano but it looks like the lower half we get to walk around the inside and obviously look down at people in the rapids river:

 

[Andysol]

In the second picture you can see that they use a UV system which is gaining popularity in the pool maintenance world. Inside there will be (depending on size) one or multiple UV bulbs that kill a lot of microorganisms and bacteria at a very efficient rate. The system works by simply having the water flow by the light tubes whack then destroys the bacteria and microorganisms. It does not take the place of sanitizer like chlorine just aids in the sanitization and cuts down on the amount of chlorine sanitizer needed.

Great first couple posts in the thread @Llrocknroll87
Lots of learning on pipes- I appreciate the write up.

I did just want to casually mention that UV can take the place of chlorine sterilization- as many smaller (<2 Million Gallon a Day) wastewater plants use them exclusively instead of chlorination/dechlorination (SO2). And keep in mind, that's wastewater that is almost assuredly required to have zero detection of E. coli and/or fecal coliform.
But the problem with a water park is likely the flow rate. If the flow was slower or if the unit were intense enough, UV would suffice for sterilization. The problem that would come from such a large unit that would be required are heat, smell, feel, appearance, and maintenance. Chlorine is pretty much your only option at a water park- its also happens cheapest and easiest.

 

[Nick]

This is from a couple days ago, but I don't feel like I saw anyone post this:

 

[Dan B]

This is from a couple days ago, but I don't feel like I saw anyone post this:

Yeah no one posted it, along with he below post too. However that construction was featured in the new WildGravity Travels update that was posted here yesterday.



A video update too from another YouTube user:



And another...

 

[JoeCamel]

Yeah no one posted it, along with he below post too. However that construction was featured in the new WildGravity Travels update that was posted here yesterday.



A video update too from another YouTube user:



And another...

I like how "BrandonBlogs" documented he was outside the fence. Those are some good angles

You are really sifting the interwebs for these - nice work

 

[Dan B]

I like how "BrandonBlogs" documented he was outside the fence. Those are some good angles

You are really sifting the interwebs for these - nice work

Its so much easier to sift through updates daily rather than weekly etc, especially now it is really progressing many more people are creating updates to find and searching twitter becomes overwhelming anymore than a couple days due to the amount of tags in crappy advertising posts for volcano bay.

 

[Doug A.]

Welcome to the thread, damn you had a marathon getting through all these pages however In one way its like me a TV series, I love binge watching and catching up rather than waiting for the weekly episode so you have had the chance to start from scratch and see progress right to near completion in days rather than a year! I almost wish I could have done that too! Thanks for the insight and info above, when the site started out I had no knowledge with pumping systems etc so having a read above was pretty interesting and would have helped me knowing what I was looking at!

Thank you and yeah I like binge reading and binge watching tv shows, it cuts all the waiting and trying to be patient for the next update or show. On the flip side I could have pointed things out as I saw them which might have been better as the thread progresses. I love all things construction and because of that I am always trying to learn how they build this, how does this work and things like that. It shows because I have an extensive knowledge of all things construction related from ground up basically. (shameless self promotion)

Great first couple posts in the thread @Llrocknroll87
Lots of learning on pipes- I appreciate the write up.

I did just want to casually mention that UV can take the place of chlorine sterilization- as many smaller (<2 Million Gallon a Day) wastewater plants use them exclusively instead of chlorination/dechlorination (SO2). And keep in mind, that's wastewater that is almost assuredly required to have zero detection of E. coli and/or fecal coliform.
But the problem with a water park is likely the flow rate. If the flow was slower or if the unit were intense enough, UV would suffice for sterilization. The problem that would come from such a large unit that would be required are heat, smell, feel, appearance, and maintenance. Chlorine is pretty much your only option at a water park- its also happens cheapest and easiest.

Thanks I enjoyed putting some of my knowledge of these systems into an informative post for everyone to learn something. I did not know that this was common practice in wastewater treatment but would make sense as there is a lot more harmful bacteria and the likes. In this case it would be up to the local or city health department to mandate what they can and cannot use. They are usually very strict and have guidelines so to speak for commercial applications like this. I don't know for sure but this could be the case where they use both or just UV, I'd hazard a guess and say that because there is people involved that it would be just sanitizer (chlorine) or both.

 

[Scott W.]

Here is what I can gather from the Internet as I found a better way to find pictures. The dark gray/black pipe seen in the pictures I found are Schedule 80 which is usually standard for all commercial pool applications. Schedule 80 is the thickest and most heavy duty of all underground plumbing. All pipes and layouts are predetermined and engineered for optimal efficency, flow rates, filtration rates, PSI etc. The image below is from Google Maps.
View attachment 3667
The building that's about center on the left you can see all the pipes leading to and from is the main supply for that set of slides and presumably the lazy river (1 of 2).
View attachment 3668
Second image is from Google Maps as well. Here you can see the drains laid out for the wave pool and I would venture a guess and say that's how they fill the tanks before releasing a wave. As you can see all the pipes lead to the "basement" of the volcano and that's where the pump/filter room would be located.
View attachment 3669
This image also from Google Maps, the building to the right about center would be the pump room for the black, red and yellow slides as well as the big slide set up at the bottom of the image. The one at the bottom is believe is green in color.
View attachment 3670
View attachment 3671
These two images are courtesy of Alicia Stella and one of her blogposts Volcano Bay Construction Update: Volcano Rises Higher – Plus Wave Pool, Lazy River and Water Slide Progress | Alicia Stella's Blogosaurus The top image is the completed building as seen in the last Google Maps picture. The bottom image is the start of what can be seen in the last Google Map image (the large concrete slab to the left by the lazy river. This would be the drains for the splashdown/end section of the slides. Also in the last picture the little green machine to the left of the excavator is a Pipe Fusion machine. Basically it cuts both edges of the SCH 80 pipe to ensure a perfect cut and clean edge, then heats both ends and fuses them together with pressure to create the sealed joint. Normally with PVC you would use glue and primer and an assortment of fittings but in instances like this you have to fuse them together.

I can't seem to find any specs or pictures of a Proslide pump building but to give you an idea I found these pictures:
View attachment 3672
View attachment 3673 View attachment 3674
Found these pictures at NewsPlusNotes: Summer Fun at Dorney Park During PAPA's Summer Meeting these pictures were taken inside of Dorney Parks pump room. Kind of gives you an idea of the scale what's inside the 'rooms' albeit there are 4 (to my knowledge and educated guesses) pump buildings/rooms on the VB site. In the second picture you can see that they use a UV system which is gaining popularity in the pool maintenance world. Inside there will be (depending on size) one or multiple UV bulbs that kill a lot of microorganisms and bacteria at a very efficient rate. The system works by simply having the water flow by the light tubes which then destroys the bacteria and microorganisms. It does not take the place of sanitizer like chlorine just aids in the sanitization and cuts down on the amount of chlorine sanitizer needed. I would venture a guess and say there would be a comparable system in place here at VB but I have no insider knowledge. The level of detail and engineering that goes into these systems is truly mind boggling when you get down to the nuts and bolts of it all. It mostly comes down to simple physics, you need X amount of water to travel X amount of distance equals X size plumbing and X size pump and filter.

Sorry for the long post but I hope this answered most of the questions that @Teebin and @scott_walker and anybody else had. If there are any other questions I will be happy to try and answer the best I can.

Edit: fixed spelling and grammatical error

Excellent post! Some really interesting stuff that I'm sure went way over my head the first time I saw these images.

 

[Andysol]

Thanks I enjoyed putting some of my knowledge of these systems into an informative post for everyone to learn something. I did not know that this was common practice in wastewater treatment but would make sense as there is a lot more harmful bacteria and the likes. In this case it would be up to the local or city health department to mandate what they can and cannot use. They are usually very strict and have guidelines so to speak for commercial applications like this. I don't know for sure but this could be the case where they use both or just UV, I'd hazard a guess and say that because there is people involved that it would be just sanitizer (chlorine) or both.

My line of work is wastewater testing. In particular with industrial and municipal wastewater facilities. UV has gotten pretty big in the last 5-7 years- but it still has very limited applications. We've been using it in our organism culturing for years- as have aquafarms all over the country- and its effective for certain things such as ecoli and fecal coliform. Where it lacks is parasites and algae control. And even with sporadic use of algaecides- algae would cause maintenance nightmares with those pipes without chlorine.
I'm not sure what the regulations are for water parks- but I'd bet they are actually less than wastewater or drinking water plants. But that's the good thing about chlorine- it's cheap and it does literally everything you need it to do- kill everything.
UV seems like it would kind of be a waste outside of promotional purposes to be honest- unless you're wanting to drop your chlorine a half mg/l. But the cost wouldn't get close to outweighing the benefit. Those UV systems were likely just engineers acting smarter then they needed to or they are the ones selling the systems and subsequent maintenance. Our industry- particularly the consultants- are all about the upsell

 

[Lolo]

My line of work is wastewater testing. In particular with industrial and municipal wastewater facilities. UV has gotten pretty big in the last 5-7 years- but it still has very limited applications. We've been using it in our organism culturing for years- as have aquafarms all over the country- and its effective for certain things such as ecoli and fecal coliform. Where it lacks is parasites and algae control. And even with sporadic use of algaecides- algae would cause maintenance nightmares with those pipes without chlorine.
I'm not sure what the regulations are for water parks- but I'd bet they are actually less than wastewater or drinking water plants. But that's the good thing about chlorine- it's cheap and it does literally everything you need it to do- kill everything.
UV seems like it would kind of be a waste outside of promotional purposes to be honest- unless you're wanting to drop your chlorine a half mg/l. But the cost wouldn't get close to outweighing the benefit. Those UV systems were likely just engineers acting smarter then they needed to or they are the ones selling the systems and subsequent maintenance. Our industry- particularly the consultants- are all about the upsell

Just few information.As a microbiologist, working for a tap water research lab, and i'm pretty sure the regulation for pool and recreation area are realy strict, more than wastewater regulation, specially for the microbial part.

Usually (in europe, but it's the same thing in US) you need to do some filtration step (like sand filtration) to remove suspended matters, and also some pathogens who are not killed by chlorine. UV lamp is more and more used, specially for elimination of some viruses who are not monitored by regular fecal indicators, that's look normal for a state of the art water treatement plant and control of the water Quality. Chlorine is important for controling biofilm formation inside plumbing.

 

[Andysol]

Just few information.As a microbiologist, working for a tap water research lab, and i'm pretty sure the regulation for pool and recreation area are realy strict, more than wastewater regulation, specially for the microbial part.

Usually (in europe, but it's the same thing in US) you need to do some filtration step (like sand filtration) to remove suspended matters, and also some pathogens who are not killed by chlorine. UV lamp is more and more used, specially for elimination of some viruses who are not monitored by regular fecal indicators, that's look normal for a state of the art water treatement plant and control of the water Quality. Chlorine is important for controling biofilm formation inside plumbing.

Interesting. In America- all water and wastewater facilities are regulated mainly based on state regulatory bodies although a few are regulated by their specific EPA region. They are issued permits that are specific to them that have certain regulations they have to abide by. Wastewater plants are heavily mandated with the clean water act and CWA2. So not only do they have to pass their analytical parameters (bod, tss, Tds, metals, etc)- they also have to pass a biological toxicity test with organisms proving they can grow and reproduce and survive in their effluent (that's actually what I do). In America- you almost never see chlorine allowed in drinking water permits although they do allow higher levels of chloramines. That's why everyone should use some type of charcoal (as simple as a Britta) for their drinking water. Water is another ballgame for me- my specialty is wastewater toxicity on the biological end- not the chemistry side.
So I'm not really sure how much UV gets used on the water side of things but do know it on the wastewater side. Interestingly enough- we do have some filter media- but almost all of our solids (mostly poop for those not in the know) are actually pressed out through a belt press after they add a polymer/dewatering agent to the "sludge". Then that all goes to a landfill- although in a few cases it's used for compost. It's actually sad how much poop- literally- is in our landfills. But such is the blessing of all our land :/

I would love to know the actual regulations though for these parks just being in the business. I'd either love it or hate it. Hah

For anyone wandering out of curiousity- that lake you swim in is likely treated wastewater. And that water your drinking from the Tap has been pulled from that lake and treated again.


Yes- were WAY off topic. But all it takes is one photo update and we're back in business