Volcano Bay Construction & Preview Discussion

[SeventyOne]

Yes nobody has ever seen a totally imersive water park and with all the money they got rolling in sky's the limit this could really take the water park game to another level and make current ones look outdated

But for what gain? IIRC, both Disney parks top out at around 5k guests.They pretty much go to near capacity most Summer days (same true of Aquatica). So you're counting on "the next level" to bring in, what, 500- 1K guests per day in the off-season? More people ride PotC in an hour. And that's guests who have never considered buying a water park ticket before that day. It's a huge outlay and risk for little potential reward.

Water parks are niche, always will be.

I do agree Disney appears to be slacking on upkeep, which is odd. I remember thinking after last year's Typhoon upgrade that I couldn't believe the park was 25 years old. Everything looked immaculate, seemed to run perfectly.

 

[Scott W.]

But for what gain? IIRC, both Disney parks top out at around 5k guests.They pretty much go to near capacity most Summer days (same true of Aquatica). So you're counting on "the next level" to bring in, what, 500- 1K guests per day in the off-season? More people ride PotC in an hour. And that's guests who have never considered buying a water park ticket before that day. It's a huge outlay and risk for little potential reward.

Water parks are niche, always will be.

I do agree Disney appears to be slacking on upkeep, which is odd. I remember thinking after last year's Typhoon upgrade that I couldn't believe the park was 25 years old. Everything looked immaculate, seemed to run perfectly.

I wonder what the capacity will be. The land being used is about the size of both Disney water parks combined.

 

[UAN17]

I think the gain for Universal is one-upmanship over Disney and to make people know that anything Disney can do, they can do better. That will have further benefits down the line as Universal seeks to expand, in terms of hotel occupancy and becoming the go to destination in Orlando. That takes work, Disney has a hold over the masses.

To paraphrase Thierry Coup when quizzed on making the Harry Potter projection show a permanent fixture "the technology's there...so why not". I think that's Universals overriding mentality now...lets just go for it.

 

[Mad Dog]

It'll be interesting to see what Universal does at VB to coax more guest spending. That's a category they've been pretty good at recently. But, I think the main reason behind VB is to get tourists to stay longer for their vacations. I doubt there were "substantial" numbers of Universal hotel guests visiting Wet & Wild. I think there will be a large percentage of hotel guests stopping at VB, especially those with families, and those visiting from March through October. If they can get another day or two or three of vacation time, that's going to be some huge revenue increases.....,trickle down effect, hotel room, meals, merchandise, entertainment etc. ....That's where the money is.

 

[*Q*]

It'll be interesting to see what Universal does at VB to coax more guest spending. That's a category they've been pretty good at recently. But, I think the main reason behind VB is to get tourists to stay longer for their vacations. I doubt there were "substantial" numbers of Universal hotel guests visiting Wet & Wild. I think there will be a large percentage of hotel guests stopping at VB, especially those with families, and those visiting from March through October. If they can get another day or two or three of vacation time, that's going to be some huge revenue increases.....,trickle down effect, hotel room, meals, merchandise, entertainment etc. ....That's where the money is.

Three words: "swim up bar"

 

[anihilnation]

Three words: "swim up bar"

Clever!

 

[*Q*]

Clever!

Just make one of the lazy rivers one long bar.

 

[Scott W.]

It'll be interesting to see what Universal does at VB to coax more guest spending. That's a category they've been pretty good at recently. But, I think the main reason behind VB is to get tourists to stay longer for their vacations. I doubt there were "substantial" numbers of Universal hotel guests visiting Wet & Wild. I think there will be a large percentage of hotel guests stopping at VB, especially those with families, and those visiting from March through October. If they can get another day or two or three of vacation time, that's going to be some huge revenue increases.....,trickle down effect, hotel room, meals, merchandise, entertainment etc. ....That's where the money is.

Giving the guests an easy method of paying that doesn't require carrying cash has to be top priority

 

[anihilnation]

Just make one of the lazy rivers one long bar.

Brings a whole new meaning to pub crawl. Strong currents, you hang on to a chair, manage to sit yourself down: beer please!

 

[Mike S]

I think the gain for Universal is one-upmanship over Disney and to make people know that anything Disney can do, they can do better. That will have further benefits down the line as Universal seeks to expand, in terms of hotel occupancy and becoming the go to destination in Orlando. That takes work, Disney has a hold over the masses.

To paraphrase Thierry Coup when quizzed on making the Harry Potter projection show a permanent fixture "the technology's there...so why not". I think that's Universals overriding mentality now...lets just go for it.

 

[Mad Dog]

Mike: You find the funniest video responses. :thumbsup: And, I still laugh when I see that Thanks Shanghai!!!' video :thumbsup::thumbsup::thumbsup::thumbsup::thumbsup:

 

[Viator]

Well,

 

[TJwny]

Well,

So for those in the area is this close to the top height of the volcano or still going higher?

 

[Mad Dog]

So for those in the area is this close to the top height of the volcano or still going higher?

I think Teebs said it would be apx. 200 ft. high. From the scale of what's in the picture, it looks like it's got a long ways to go yet. Just guessing though, since I'm in Pittsburgh, not Orlando.

 

[Teebin]

I think Teebs said it would be apx. 200 ft. high. From the scale of what's in the picture, it looks like it's got a long ways to go yet. Just guessing though, since I'm in Pittsburgh, not Orlando.

Yessuh. I would estimate that is 1/8 of the steel going up at a similar angle. That entire concrete base structure must be surrounded with steel. The height thus far is 1/2 of what it will be by my estimate.

 

[TJwny]

Yessuh. I would estimate that is 1/8 of the steel going up at a similar angle. That entire concrete base structure must be surrounded with steel. The height thus far is 1/3 of what it will be by my estimate.

Thanks for the perspective and good to see you back

 

[Dan B]

To compliment Alexshows post, a couple more pics from Bioreconstruct. I would agree the opening represents the cave on the concept drawing. Does anyone else think the brown steel structure in the center maybe some sort of center area for stairs or a lift system to the top?



More pictures:

 

[Dan B]

Yessuh. I would estimate that is 1/8 of the steel going up at a similar angle. That entire concrete base structure must be surrounded with steel. The height thus far is 1/2 of what it will be by my estimate.

Terrible image below but you will get the idea, just browsing some photos and this seems to be the closest angle to the concept art we have to date, also the opening forming on the right seems to line up with the concept art showing what looks like a cave, just from this image I would presume we are only around half the height. The one steel highlighted on the real photo in the center would represent what I would presume to be the ledge created in the middle for the waterfall area. I tried photshopping these overlay-ed onto each other but it got too busy to really make out what was going on, so I end up going simple, ms paint style . Not sure if the slide pieces that have been attached to the structure are related to the one shown sticking out from the right of the concept but there may be a good chance they are.

 

[JungleSkip]

Terrible image below but you will get the idea, just browsing some photos and this seems to be the closest angle to the concept art we have to date, also the opening forming on the right seems to line up with the concept art showing what looks like a cave, just from this image I would presume we are only around half the height. The one steel highlighted on the real photo in the center would represent what I would presume to be the ledge created in the middle for the waterfall area. I tried photshopping these overlay-ed onto each other but it got too busy to really make out what was going on, so I end up going simple, ms paint style . Not sure if the slide pieces that have been attached to the structure are related to the one shown sticking out from the right of the concept but there may be a good chance they are.

Nice work!

 

[Parkscope Joe]

It'll be interesting to see what Universal does at VB to coax more guest spending. That's a category they've been pretty good at recently. But, I think the main reason behind VB is to get tourists to stay longer for their vacations. I doubt there were "substantial" numbers of Universal hotel guests visiting Wet & Wild. I think there will be a large percentage of hotel guests stopping at VB, especially those with families, and those visiting from March through October. If they can get another day or two or three of vacation time, that's going to be some huge revenue increases.....,trickle down effect, hotel room, meals, merchandise, entertainment etc. ....That's where the money is.

VB will be using wrist band payments. "They're magicbands!" idiots will say not understanding this has been a common off the shelf system available and used by water parks for many many years.