What you'll love about Universal Orlando's Volcano Bay water theme park

Disclosure: I attended the 2017 Family Forward blogger conference at Universal Orlando Resort. I paid for my and my family’s transportation and conference admission, which included lodging at Loews Sapphire Falls Resort, discounted park tickets, some meals and several special events. This post contains affiliate links.

Universal Orlando Resort’s making a new splash this year with Volcano Bay, the resort’s first water theme park! During our recent trip to Universal, we spent a day at the new park to check it out. When you hear “water park,” you likely envision flume slides, tube rides, a wave pool — and Volcano Bay has all of those things. However, they’ve upped the traditional water-park game with a host of features you’ll love.

TapuTapu

TapuTapu is a digital wristband that you receive when you enter Volcano Bay. Link it to your credit card, and you can use it to shop within the park, pay for dining, and rent a locker. Your TapuTapu also serves as your locker key, and you can tap it to open and re-open your locker all day.

The Tapu Tapu is also your key to avoiding lines at Volcano Bay. When you see an attraction you’d like to ride, tap the TapuTapu against the station in front of the attraction. The sign notes the earliest time you’ll be able to return and ride. Then, you’re free to swim and enjoy other park attractions while your spot in line is “held” for you.

When it’s time to ride, your TapuTapu will show you the name of the attraction you chose, along with a “Ride Now” message! When you return to ride, your TapuTapu resets, and you can select another ride.

There are also many areas around the park where you can tap your TapuTapu to activate fountains or other interactive play areas — the kids loved this!

TapuTapu only works inside the Volcano Bay park, and it’s not yours to keep. When you exit the park, an attendant will collect your band and deposit it into a collection box, which automatically wipes the band’s memory — especially important if you attached a credit card to it, as I did.

I asked the attendant how I would know that the band’s memory had been cleared, and she was kind enough to explain that the collection box automatically erases each band placed inside. To demonstrate, she dropped it into box while still holding onto the band. When she pulled it back out, my band displayed a message showing its current battery level and a notice that it had been deactivated, ready for another guest.

Teawa: The Fearless River

In addition to Kopiko Wai Winding River, which is a traditional “lazy river” tube ride, Volcano Bay had something exciting that our family absolutely loved. What’s the opposite of a slow, relaxing river tube ride? A wild, fast-paced one! Teawa, The Fearless River, is Florida’s first high-speed torrent river attraction. Teawa simulates white water rafting, with rapids, waves, water jets, and high speeds.

I cannot even count how many times we went around Teawa. It was riotous fun, cruising around bends, over waves, and crashing into fellow tubers! I did not take any digital photos because I was truly afraid of dropping my phone in there. (I took these photos of the river with a waterproof disposable camera — remember those?)

There’s only one exit point to Teawa, and if you’re unable to fight the current and pull yourself into the beach area alongside the river, you’ll glide right by and go all the way around the river again. (Yes, this happened to our family. Twice! The second time, our family almost made it out. Our son was unable to pull out of the current, and he was swept back into the river, so we had to get back in and catch up with him!)

Cool pathways

Walking barefoot throughout a waterpark in the Florida heat can be a painful task if the pavement has been baking in the sun all day. Volcano Bay has thoughtfully installed water sprayers every few feet along the side of each pathway so you can walk in cool water instead of on hot concrete. It seems like a small thing, but after hours of walking around, it’s a wonderful, very appreciated “small thing.”

The water jets along the path are also very helpful for rinsing sand off your toes after walking through the beach areas. Your trip back to your hotel room or vehicle will be a sand-free one.

The park? It’s beautiful!

While water parks traditionally feature a great deal of steel and fiberglass, Volcano Bay is lush and tropical. It’s beautifully landscaped with a tropical theme guaranteed to put you in a vacation kind of mood.

There are beautiful tropical plants and flowers, rivers, ponds, and water jets all around the park. It makes for a very relaxing atmosphere as you play, ride, or lay in the sun.

The landscape is so lush that there’s plenty of shady spots around the park — impressive, considering Volcano Bay just opened in May 2017 and the plants haven’t grown to maturity yet.

In addition to rental cabanas and beach clamshells, there are also a plethora of free beach umbrellas in the public areas too, so if you prefer to sit in the shade, you’ll find plenty of it.

The volcano is an attraction in its own right.

At the center of Volcano Bay is its namesake, the Krakatau volcano. Not only is it the focal point of the park, there are several attractions inside it! The Ko’okiri Body Plunge slide features a 70-degree drop through the body of the volcano. Look closely at the photo above — I’ve marked the start of the slide with a purple star, and it’s a long way down from there.

Riders fall 125 feet through the volcano, then shoot through a clear tube that passes through the wave pool! As you can see, this is a popular place for kids to hang out on either side of the tube and watch the slide riders blast through.

The volcano is also home to the Krakatau Aqua Coaster, which is a motor-driven water coaster that takes you inside the volcano, blasting you uphill so that you can drop down, splash, and go right back up again!

Our family had a fantastic day at Volcano Bay. If you plan to go this year, be aware that the lines get long quickly, even when you’re using TapuTapu to reserve wait times. I recommend getting there as early as possible and having a little flexibility with your TapuTapu “Ride Now” times. Keep in mind that when your wristband says “Ride Now,” hundreds of other people’s bands also say the same thing, and we noticed that if we immediately went to a ride when our bands said to go, we were met with crowd congestion getting into the queue area. We learned to wait for a little while after the TapuTapu notified us a ride was ready, then head over to it.

If you’re staying at a Universal resort hotel, you will also get early admission to Volcano Bay one hour before the general public. As we attended Volcano Bay as part of the Family Forward Universal blogger conference, we were given a special early entry to the park prior to it opening to resort guests. This meant waking up at 6:00am to get inside so we could take photographs before the park filled with people, as well as enjoy some of the park’s most popular rides before Volcano Bay became crowded! One of the staff members told us that the park usually fills to capacity mid-morning each day, and when this happens, the gate closes to additional guests. Definitely plan to be at the park early in the day if you’d like to go.

Volcano Bay was busiest between 9:00am and 2:00pm. However, late afternoon to early evening was a great time to go back to the park, as the crowds lessened as we got closer to dinnertime.

If you enjoyed reading about Volcano Bay at Universal Orlando Resort, you may enjoy reading more about our trip:

We love the Wizarding World of Harry Potter at Universal Orlando!
Universal Orlando’s VIP Experience, CityWalk fun, and Sapphire Falls Resort

Interested in an Orlando theme park vacation? Undercover Tourist is an authorized discount ticket seller for many Orlando-area theme parks and attractions! Right now they’re offering “Buy 2 days, get 2 days FREE” passes for Universal Orlando, Islands of Adventure, and Volcano Bay — that’s $68 off gate prices!