Volcano Bay: General Discussion

[Brian G.]

Any changes to the Stargazers Cavern?

It's a lot better looking in person, but still a bit upsetting that it's not cavernous. Effects still off - but I'm thinking the concept art we saw was during the night hours of the lazy river.

 

[wizwit]

Is the "everyone-must-have-a-tube-in-the-river" Rule in place purely for safety reasons, or is it a way for them to control the number of people in the river?

 

[Evan]

It's a lot better looking in person, but still a bit upsetting that it's not cavernous. Effects still off - but I'm thinking the concept art we saw was during the night hours of the lazy river.

It seems like during the day it has a red, fire, inside a volcano feel. I wonder if it will still turn starry at night.

 

[Brian G.]

Is the "everyone-must-have-a-tube-in-the-river" Rule in place purely for safety reasons, or is it a way for them to control the number of people in the river?

Bit of column A and B.

 

[12th Man]

Crap. I've been calling Stargazer's Tavern... (Guess that just sounded better in my head. Lol) I WISH there was a tavern in there!

 

[P@n!K_Sw1tC#]

I'm just really surprised that Universal got this far without realizing that you need to compensate for people not being in queue lines.

 

[epcyclopedia]

I'm just really surprised that Universal got this far without realizing that you need to compensate for people not being in queue lines.

That was the hard lesson for Disney with Fastpass. People not in one line get in other lines.

They do not do mythical shopping and dining.

People go to theme parks for theme park attractions. Who'd have thought?

 

[12th Man]

I'm just really surprised that Universal got this far without realizing that you need to compensate for people not being in queue lines.

Don't think this will really be such a problem in a few weeks. (Well, we'll partially see tomorrow when there's low-to-moderate crowds.) They were kinda in a nightmare scenario with no softs and a grand opening on a holiday weekend. So, just hold out criticism for a few more weeks. Don't think it'll be that bad.

 

[Evan]

Crap. I've been calling Stargazer's Tavern... (Guess that just sounded better in my head. Lol) I WISH there was a tavern in there!

Now you're talking! A hidden tavern inside the cavern, which only those who believe in the mythical stars can find.

 

[bob albert]

I know a couple that were there today, arrived early, had a cabana chair reserved, did the coaster twice early and spent the rest of the day having a blast. It is like any park, if you come at noon on a holiday on opening weekend you are not going to have a good time. You could have spent 5 hours in hot Pandora waiting for FOP with the same plan.

There's a certain point where you can't blame guests for not planning well enough.

 

[Evan]

Yikes, what did I step into?!

Universal's Volcano Bay (Orlando) - All You Need to Know Before You Go - TripAdvisor

 

[sparky]

Yikes, what did I step into?!

Universal's Volcano Bay (Orlando) - All You Need to Know Before You Go - TripAdvisor

first weekend opening on a holiday? some people create their own misery and lash out when they end of feeling stupid for a wasted day and money.
I love the one where the guy was mad after admitting he didn't arrive till after noon, he was mostly mad for being an idiot blaming the park was convenient.
I took a girls trip last August and knew it was going to be miserable hot, crowded etc. If I had not gone into it with tempered expectations I could see being one of those disgruntled people.
I feel bad they lost a vacation day, that sucks, but they chose unwisely.

 

[wizwit]

Yikes, what did I step into?!

Universal's Volcano Bay (Orlando) - All You Need to Know Before You Go - TripAdvisor

"Crapu, Crapu" - now that is funny!

 

[Evan]

first weekend opening on a holiday? some people create their own misery and lash out when they end of feeling stupid for a wasted day and money.
I love the one where the guy was mad after admitting he didn't arrive till after noon, he was mostly mad for being an idiot blaming the park was convenient.
I took a girls trip last August and knew it was going to be miserable hot, crowded etc. If I had not gone into it with tempered expectations I could see being one of those disgruntled people.
I feel bad they lost a vacation day, that sucks, but they chose unwisely.

I never think it's a wise business move to blame guests, regardless if they are right or wrong. Especially when the reviews on a popular travel site are all like that...

I'm sure Universal is working overtime to turn things around from a PR perspective.

 

[P@n!K_Sw1tC#]

^ Exactly.

As much as some of you want to defend Universal to the grave, sometimes it's okay to take a step back and acknowledge that maybe the folks that paid $72 bucks at the gate have a point. Hopefully the entire resort operations team learned their lesson this time and will reevaluate how they treat their guests. Mind you, this isn't a fluke, Universal has been inconveniencing guests for years and has always had their blemishes protected by their strong brand. Time to adopt a more service friendly approach and become more like (dare I say it) Disney. From sloppy ride openings to TSA screenings in ride queue lines, to over zealous security and pr team members, it's about time they reset their strange behavior if they want to deliver a product of quality instead of quantity. It's really quite amazing to see how much lackluster operations can spoil a land of world-class theme park technology.

 

[quinnmac000]

^ Exactly.

As much as some of you want to defend Universal to the grave, sometimes it's okay to take a step back and acknowledge that maybe the folks that paid $72 bucks at the gate have a point. Hopefully the entire resort operations team learned their lesson this time and will reevaluate how they treat their guests. Mind you, this isn't a fluke, Universal has been inconveniencing guests for years and has always had their blemishes protected by their strong brand. Time to adopt a more service friendly approach and become more like (dare I say it) Disney. From sloppy ride openings to TSA screenings in ride queue lines, to over zealous security and pr team members, it's about time they reset their strange behavior if they want to deliver a product of quality instead of quantity. It's really quite amazing to see how much lackluster operations can spoil a land of world-class theme park technology.

Really now? How many times have Magic band system gone down at all 4 parks causing huge problems? Multiple times and still happens. People pay even more then yet if people complained about that, the answer was sorry we are working out the the issues. This isn't a Disney vs Universal or Universal needs to be better. This is a technological/implementation issues. If you buy an iphone first day, its going to have issues. Same thing with every major launch of any product that is based off technology so no Universal doesn't' need to take the brunt of the blame. Also, Disney CMs aren't all good. Due to high turnover, I have had disgruntled CMs, dealt with lazy CMs, CMs who have actually questioned me when I went to GS for giving a positive review of workers and said I shouldn't come to GS to commend workers because its their job.

As for Universal's strong brand, it wasn't that strong 8 years ago so they weren't protected from their blemishes. They actually tried to get better than sitting on their laurels.

 

[Brian G.]

Amazing that all the complaints don't mention anything else negative other than their experience with Virtual Queue.

^ Exactly.

As much as some of you want to defend Universal to the grave, sometimes it's okay to take a step back and acknowledge that maybe the folks that paid $72 bucks at the gate have a point. Hopefully the entire resort operations team learned their lesson this time and will reevaluate how they treat their guests. Mind you, this isn't a fluke, Universal has been inconveniencing guests for years and has always had their blemishes protected by their strong brand. Time to adopt a more service friendly approach and become more like (dare I say it) Disney. From sloppy ride openings to TSA screenings in ride queue lines, to over zealous security and pr team members, it's about time they reset their strange behavior if they want to deliver a product of quality instead of quantity. It's really quite amazing to see how much lackluster operations can spoil a land of world-class theme park technology.

I'm not saying the customer isn't right, and Universal has to do whatever it takes to make them happy - but it being opening weekend over Memorial Day Weekend with everyone itching to go utilizing new tech isn't solely on Universal. Customers shouldn't blame Universal for the crazy crowds, but the lack of "Real World Testing" - but I would gather maybe 90% have no idea how manic the race to finish was. I'd imagine Universal would have preferred to have a month of actual testing with a complete park instead of rushing to complete before opening. I'm sure it's a hard lesson and maybe a few heads will roll.

 

[P@n!K_Sw1tC#]

See the problem with that theory is that 95% of the paying guests didn't monitor the construction of the park like you or I did. It's to be assumed that a well established destination resort (as stated on trip advisor) will have their ducks in a row prior to showing it off to the paying customer. Volcano Bay isn't a case of hiccups, it's an infrastructure problem that someone at Universal making important decisions shrugged off at the expense of the guest.

Notice how people accepted the hysteria when it came to the record breaking lines at WWoHP on opening day. This isn't even remotely the same scenario.

 

[Brian G.]

See the problem with that theory is that 95% of the paying guests didn't monitor the construction of the park like you or I did. It's to be assumed that a well established destination resort (as stated on trip advisor) will have their ducks in a row prior to showing it off to the paying customer. Volcano Bay isn't a case of hiccups, it's an infrastructure problem that someone at Universal making important decisions shrugged off at the expense of the guest.

Notice how people accepted the hysteria when it came to the record breaking lines at WWoHP on opening day. This isn't even remotely the same scenario.

Isn't that what I kind of said?

EDIT - You were probably referencing the post above mine.

 

[P@n!K_Sw1tC#]

^Great minds think alike?

Nice B Roll shots.