Volcano Bay Tips

[sparklegem]

We are staying onsite at Portifino for 3 days in October and we are really excited about Volcano Bay. We only did Disney on our 2015 trip and absolutely loved the water parks.

I've read some info on here and we will deffo take advantage of the early entry, but the website currently states that it's only open 10-5 in October. No idea when early entry will be?

We tend to not really make use of the loungers and just spend our time going ride to ride and relaxing on the lazy river. Will prob just dump a couple of towels on the loungers incase we do want somewhere to sit later.

Top tips I'm hoping you can help with are...

1) do we have to link the band to our card before we arrive or do we do it on arrival? I like the idea of not taking any valuables with us.

2) we have a 5 year old in our party, any particular recommendations for him (or all of us together).

3) how do the bands work? Do you have to actually go to each ride to put yourself in the virtual que?

4) any good food options? We will prob eat lunch there.

Your wisdom is greatly appreciated.

[justacey]

As we got off a ride we'd tap for that ride again before moving off. If we passed another ride with a shorter queue we'd swap to that one and so on. We always had "one in the bank".
You don't need to all go to tap a ride, someone can take all the Tapus.
We found a spare Tapu and one of our party left theirs with us, so while our husbands were in a massive queue for the big drop slide me and my friend tapped 4 of them for Ohno so the husbands wouldn't need to wait another 2 hours for their next ride.

[sparklegem]

OMG it's so confusing 🙃

[traeth]

Been today. Went with an open mind after reading so many negative comments but we had a fab day! We arrived at parking at 8.30. Caught bus and was in before 9. Hired a locker ($12) for a medium size. Used credit card. Easy. Found beds under an umbrella. Loads of choice everywhere. Went to Aqua coaster first and had return time of 15 mins. A lot just walk on. overall in the day we managed 8 different rides, spent ages in lazy river and wild river, wave pool, etc. Lovely kids area to right as you go in but eldest was too tall to take youngest on so couldn't stop there which was a shame. Dinner queue was massive but moved quickly. Meals av $10 -$14 Had a refill cup but not many stations. Long queues every time. wild river is WILD. take your life into your own hands just getting a tube! And getting out with kids is a bit hairy. Found a spot which was just an exit under the volcano so no-one fighting for your tube. It is a massive park. Clocked up over 20000 steps. Feel exhausted now as you tapu then go somewhere else, then go back so a lot of walking. Walk through volcano lovely with interactive stuff. All family type raft rides were ace. Love doing rides which we can all fit on. so overall as a family it was a definite great day & would go back.

[sparklegem]

Great, thanks for taking the time to reply. Are the family raft rides suitable for a 5 year old?

[Waveney]

We went today and would agree with previous post that it's a great park, the family raft rides are excellent (saw plenty of small kids on th with their parents), food was your usual - pizza, burgers, sandwiches, hot dogs, tacos etc. Used our refillable but as said long queue for refills. We rode every ride on offer either with tapu virtual que or ride now (early on or later on) and arrived at 8.30 - 6pm. Planning a 2nd visit next week as whole family loved it

[sparklegem]

Ohhhhh I'm very excited. We loved the Disney waterparks last time and I'm extremely excited about Volcano Bay.

[sparkles18]

We are here now and caught the 7am bus for 7.30 opening. Done quite a few rides and it's now getting busier as they are letting in the other guests. Only planning on staying until about 12pm and then we are going to hit one of the parks.

[rocknrollsoul]

Adding to what others commented already, we are here now and Volcano Bay surprised us on how great it was. That being said, last night we arrived at 5pm to get a few hours in before closing. All the main rides were 'full' (meaning no one else can ride the rest of the day) and the queues to refill drinks were really too long. Shame as it was our last chance to go. Get there early, can't recommend that enough.