Tuck your elbows in - a September / October trip report - day 6 - to the Bay!

[lumosq102]

!OK, so day 6 is an odd one. I took a little over 6500 photos on this trip (don’t worry – I won’t post them all); today I took a grand total of 6, all on my old iPhone 6+. Hercules the camera got a much-deserved day off. We will be keeping this brief and I’ll be posting day 7 in just a moment.

We were awake nice and early, about 6:30, but definitely needed the alarm! Thankfully yesterday’s cocktails, strong though they were, had not left a headache-sized impression and we were both up and raring to go in no time.

We were heading off for something that was a complete first for us today – Volcano Bay. As many times as we have both been to Florida we have never darkened the doors of any of the water parks. As Volcano Bay was being included in the Brit’s Universal tickets at no extra charge we couldn’t resist giving it a go. Aesthetically this place is so up our street it has a Rue R&W street sign outside – its all tiki / mid century loveliness.

Another benefit of being onsite guests was that Volcano Bay was offering early morning access, opening a massive 2 hours before the it opened to the general public. We didn’t quite know this was happening until shortly before we left London. The Universal website had it listed until the week before we travelled and ending there, but thankfully the website updated and voila, 8am access for us. Judging by how many people we saw in the park between 8 and 10am a fair few others hadn’t noticed either, but we’ll get to that shortly.

Volcano Bay was opening at 8am for resort guests; we were faffing despite our efficient start and didn’t get down to the bus stop until about 7:50. There were a large number of convention people starting to check into the hotel & we did have to wait a moment for a Volcano Bay bus thanks to the buses pulling up to take conventioneers over to the Orlando Conference Centre for the Microsoft convention that was in town, however we were soon on our way.

The bus left the hotel at 08:03 and we were pulling up to Volcano Bay at 08:17, not too bad but of course we were both a little worried that we had lost the early entry advantage. It’s a long walk through tunnels and escalators before you are finally seeing this:



How gorgeous is this? The colours, the style, all so perfectly tiki tastic. I love it. Now if you need a primer for all things Volcano Bay I would highly recommend the youtube videos Tim Tracker put out last summer when the park opened and his follow up videos, they were exceptionally helpful to give us our general bearings on what was where.

We were through the gates and had our Tapu Tapu wristbands (like magic bands but much bulkier) in no time. Despite that video orientation we were already lost and our minds blown. That volcano is so much more impressive up close, and it really does dominate the park from all angles. It also helps orientate you though – if you head to the volcano you can get back on track when you’re lost. Not that we would know anything about that, of course.

We went to the first lockers that we found – stupidly – and proceeded to try and charge the locker back to the room. Mistake number 1 was not bringing a credit card. If you want to charge your locker to your room you need to see the cashier who then activates a locker for you. We queued up to see the cashier who sorted out one of the small lockers at the back of the room. Helpfully you don’t need to remember a code or number – just remember the general location of your locker and tap your tapu – the screen then shows where your locker is and it springs open automatically. Nifty.

Cover ups off and in the locker, swim socks on and we were off. Once we left the lockers the cluster of people thinned out and in places it felt like we were the only people in the park. Not to be antisocial, but that was heaven!

We knew where we wanted to head first – Krakatoa. This is the water coaster that runs around and through the volcano. I cannot recommend this ride enough. At this time in the morning there was no line to speak of (everything was showing ride now, so we didn’t need to reserve a place in line) so we went on again. And again. And again. And again. We finally dragger ourselves away to explore a bit more of the park when the standby line made its way up to 5 minutes.

We walked along the winding walkways trying to decide where to go next, chickening out of the big rides at this sage and hopping into the lazy river, Kopiko Wai Winding River. It was delightfully peaceful to just layout in the warm Florida sun and just float along, lovely. Getting out of the river was a different story. The current was so strong that we missed a few exits by literally not being about to get out of the current. We were finding this rather hysterical but if it had taken any longer I might have feared that were never going to escape.

We then decided it was time to try one of the raft rides and prepared for the walk up the staircase to board one of the Taniwha Tubes. Interestingly we had to take off our swim socks here and leave them at the little area they have set up at the front for shoes. Sunglasses / specs were fine through.

The queue has great theming - you have to walk along a wooden suspension bridge and through misting areas before you reach the bottom of the stairs. We started going up. And up. And up. This area has nothing around it to act as visual reassurance, just an exposed tower of stairs that felt like it would never end, sort of like the stairs to heaven in A Matter of Life and Death. I’m afraid the staircase beat my vertigo and we were soon turning around and doing the walk of shame back down to the bottom. Thankfully the park was still very quiet and we only passed 1 other pair of riders in embarrassment.

We quickly found a replacement – the not so lazy river or TeAwa the Fealess River. This thing was amazing; it whips you along in your tube so quickly – the best way I can describe it is that it feels like a cross between a lazy river and a wave pool. It’s utterly brilliant.

We dragged ourselves out of the river (on first attempt! Take that Winding River!) and headed back to Krakatoa for another couple of trips around the mountain before the crowds started arriving as we were now just about 10am and usual day guests would soon be flooding in. The lines were a little longer now, but we still didn’t have to wait more than 10 minutes to ride.

We had now firmly decided that we were water park chickens and would not be braving any of the raft / plunge rides, instead wandering along to the Fearless River for another couple of trips around. This time my sunglasses were sacrificed to the river upon exiting. A sad loss (although not a pricey one, thankfully – they were one of my many pairs of Minnie Mouse branded sunglasses from WDW), but a worthy sacrifice to the Volcano Bay gods.



Next up we headed around to the main pool at the foot of the volcano and headed in to the deep end to bob around in the waves. Its rather a lot of fun, but again – watch that current. It packs a real punch.

By this time it was heading to 11ish and we were starting to think of our stomachs and about heading out for our afternoon activities, but our eyes were caught by a lovely looking pool just alongside the wave pool. This was The Reef, a “leisure pool” apparently. It was quiet, calm, cool and very very deep – over 6 feet deep in some places. It was also just what we needed, a nice quiet swim around the pool, pausing to watch the brave souls plummet down the free drop ride from the top of the volcano. The speed they rush by at is quite eye watering. Needless to say this won’t be a ride I will find myself experiencing anytime soon. Kirsty W – waterpark wuss.

Our tummies were now reminding us that it was after 11am and we had yet to have breakfast so we started wandering round the park in pursuit of sustenance. Now bear in mind that we were not expecting to eat at Volcano Bay so had done no research at all on the food options. We couldn’t find anything veggie friendly and sharable other than a cheese pizza that looked unappetizing. We finally found a little kiosk where we ordered nachos without the meat and a couple of soft drinks. This came in at $16 ish and was the worse food we ate at universal, possibly all trip. Not even the plastic cheese (and I’m a big fan of plastic cheese) could save them.

With unsatisfied tummies we headed back to our locker, grabbed our bits and pieces, dried off best we could and dragged our chlorine soaked selves to the bus stop and boarded the bus just after 12 noon. The bus was freezing and just sat there for what felt like forever, but was in reality 7 minutes.

I keep track of the where and when on an app called Moves – amusingly the name it lists for Universals newest venture is… Vulcano Bay. Perhaps Universal are thinking of a watery Star Trek answer to WDW’s Star Wars?!



The traffic was light at this time of day and we were back at Portafino just 5 minutes later, dashing up to our room to room to shower and change before heading out for the afternoon. We were going shopping.

We called an Uber form Portafino a little before 2pm where Amaury swiftly delivered us to the International Drive Premium Outlets for the princely sum of $6.70. Splendid. First up – that rumbly in our tumblies still needed addressing so we settled on Panera Bread for a light lunch. A first for both of us but it was a pleasant surprise. I went with a kids meal – mac n cheese , R went with half a turkey sandwich. Mine was a meal and came with apple juice & crisps. R took the juice & I ordered a raspberry and lime sparkling water. Ick. The food came with the usual amusing misspelling of my name but was swiftly prepared and we managed to hover & swoop up a table inside (it was getting very very warm now so eating outside held no appeal at all). The food was fresh and flavourful, satisfying all round.



This Panera, or Pantera Bread as it became known (only amusing to a small number of people who may recall a band by this name, we liked to think of Serious Rock Band retiring with their own fast casual chain) takes up half of what used to be the larger of the 2 disney outlet stores, so I enjoyed my lunch whilst giving the store stink eye for daring to shrink what used to be my favourite Character Warehouse.



Next up was a trip to Character Warehouse – we picked either a bad day or a bad time as the store was half empty and very picked over. We left with a fabulous mid century style Christmas tree topper and bauble collection but that was it. I can’t remember the last time we had such a drought at the Character Warehouse…

I’ll skim the rest, but we did find a store here I hadn’t been to before. If you have any affection for kitchen gadgets / equipment beat feet to Kitchen Collection. I bought a cornucopia of small baking gadgets & a few spices / herbs for less than $20. I still regret not purchasing some of the Kitchen Aid accessories they had in there (so cheap! Really, when do you see cheap Kitchen Aid items?).

By 4.30pm we were in our next Uber, this time heading on to Florida Mall. There was a little confusion this time and our driver managed to terminate the fare early. He was super confused but I offered to pay the remainder of the quoted fair in cash which motivated him onwards. Poor soul.

We were, again, feeling hungry so grabbed another snack, this time at Toll House cookies; 3 cookies and a glass of milk each soon sorted us out for a little light shopping at Florida Mall, including a stop at what we call the aisle of expense. In comparison to the Disney Springs Sephora, the Florida Mall Sephora was feeling a little tired but did sort me out with the Fenty primer I was looking for which was rarer than hens teeth everywhere else.

We lumbered around without really doing any damage to the souvenir budget (rare in itself) before we had to grab another Uber to get us to our dinner reservations for the evening. The rather lovely Subdoh picked us up at 7:05pm and proceeded to get stuck in traffic jam after traffic jam – those conventioneers were starting to clutter up I Drive and surrounding areas. Subdoh told us that over 30,000 people were expected for the Microsoft event & we were feeling thankful that we would be heading back to the bubble the following day and not venturing far from property until we headed back to the airport. Well, that was the plan anyway.

The journey from Florida Mall to Point Orlando took a little over 30 minutes and I think the traffic delay was what started R’s migraine, but more on that shortly. Finally, we pulled up at Maggiano’s and were saying hello to Frank a few minutes later, about 10 minutes late for our reservation.

We were soon seated in a booth on the far side of the restaurant. We’ve always been pretty lucky in getting a good seat here, despite being a 2, but tonight I was even more surprised. Remember those convention goers? Well they were here in spades and every table looked like it was overflowing with people and plates. The service was as lovely as usual, but everything took forever and R was starting to look very unwell.

I think we ordered cocktails, but I didn’t make a note or take a picture, but we ordered what is our Maggiano’s usual – Fettucci Alfredo for R, Eggplant Parm for me with a side of spinach. For health.





R now says she ordered badly and should have gone with the chicken parm. The food here is solid all round, good American Italian comfort food, but R came down with a nasty migraine and nothing would have helped that, especially when thinking of the massively crowded and loud dining hall.

By the time our food arrived R had really reached her limit. She attempted to eat her food but ended up taking an extended visit to the rest room to see if she could cool off and feel any better. I got our food boxed up and paid for & we were gone. Thanks to the service delays our aborted dinner still took well over an hour, we were back in an Uber heading for Portafino just after 9pm.



Usually we prefer Uber to Meers taxis, but tonight we found our bad egg – Misael spent the journey on his phone, texting away and not paying anywhere near as much attention to the road as I would have liked. I had never been so happy to see our hotel. We stumbled up to our room and by 9:30 we were back in our room, R heading off to bed as I pottered around the room trying to get a head start on the packing.

A mixed day, but overall lots of amazing new experiences. I couldn’t recommend Volcano (Vulcano) Bay enough. Have any of you been? Did you dare climb up to those big slides?

Day 7 is here, and we are heading back to our (WDW) home.

[MrsSilverStar]

Volcano Bay sounds amazing! Will definitely have to give it a try. Shame the day ended with R feeling poorly but sounds like it was good until then.

[lumosq102]

Originally Posted by MrsSilverStar

Volcano Bay sounds amazing! Will definitely have to give it a try. Shame the day ended with R feeling poorly but sounds like it was good until then.

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It really is - I was surprised. I knew it was going to be gorgeous, but there was plenty to do too, even for water park wusses like me!

And yes, we had a super day, a little cut short thanks to a migraine but these things happen. Thankfully it soon passed & R was up and running again the next morning. Hurrah!

[Goldia]

We enjoyed Volcano Bay, we were there last August. The only issue was we hated the tapu tapu wrist bands. I get the idea that they were trying going for but unfortunately it really didn't work. We ended up walking backwards and forwards to rides to tap in next our wait time go away do something else go back when the ride time opened up...also there were a few one way systems cast members were trying to police which were really annoying. The rides were great the organisation was dreadful. But, ever the optimist, I wonder if this is largely due to the fact we were there within a few months of it opening and so I am hopeful things will have settled down.

By the way I'm shocked at the complete lack of photos today! We have come to expect a particular level of service from you and j really feel you have failed us here!

[lumosq102]

Originally Posted by Goldia

We enjoyed Volcano Bay, we were there last August. The only issue was we hated the tapu tapu wrist bands. I get the idea that they were trying going for but unfortunately it really didn't work. We ended up walking backwards and forwards to rides to tap in next our wait time go away do something else go back when the ride time opened up...also there were a few one way systems cast members were trying to police which were really annoying. The rides were great the organisation was dreadful. But, ever the optimist, I wonder if this is largely due to the fact we were there within a few months of it opening and so I am hopeful things will have settled down.

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I think we got very lucky - that and the fact that we discovered my water ride wuss status. We didn't use the tapu tapu for ride reservation, we just rode Krakatoa whilst it was still ride now, and then had our quality time with the lazy (and not so lazy) rivers. I've seen some horror stories, like how many times it closes for capacity and the multiple hour waits? Nope. Fingers crossed you're right and they will iron things out.

Originally Posted by Goldia

By the way I'm shocked at the complete lack of photos today! We have come to expect a particular level of service from you and j really feel you have failed us here!

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Ha! Don't worry, we're back to business on day 7! It was cameras only day off. Poor overworked camera...

[collybird]

Kirtsy

[lumosq102]

Originally Posted by MissFortune

As a fellow Kirsty, I feel your pain on the mis-spellings.

Don't think i've ever had mine spelled right (or found any personalised items with my name on) in the US.

I usually just say my OH's name now & get a few funny looks when I say Andrew lol.

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Another Kirsty! Hurrah!

The nearest I have ever found on the name plate merch is Kristy. Other Kirsty (R) grew up in LA so is rather used to it, but its always interesting to see what other names starbucks can come up with

Perhaps we should come up with a easier name for orders . . . Jasmine after my cat & the princess maybe?

[Excitedx4]

A good volcano bay day and some shopping! Hope R slept off the migraine there is nothing worse especially when it makes you feel physically sick!