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Universal Orlando | Volcano Bay | Water Park

TheCoasterCruiser

Giga Poster
The rumored third park at the Universal Orlando Resort has finally been officially announced today!

ANNOUNCING UNIVERSAL’S VOLCANO BAY – A WATER THEME PARK UNLIKE ANY YOU’VE EVER EXPERIENCED

Today, we are announcing a project of incredible vision – bringing to life an entirely new water theme park experience for our guests. This addition will join Universal Studios Florida and Universal’s Islands of Adventure as our destination’s third highly-immersive park and will be called Universal’s Volcano Bay.

This is one of the most exciting projects we have had the opportunity to be part of because Volcano Bay will completely redefine the water park experience for our guests.

The park will feel as if it is set in picture-perfect tropical islands, formed by a massive volcano – and it will have something for every member of the family. It will feature radically-innovative attractions, peaceful moments of relaxation and an experience that we hope will change the way guests think about water theme parks.

We’ve already broken ground on Volcano Bay, just south of Universal’s Cabana Bay Beach Resort. Construction will move quickly, and the park will open in 2017.

Volcano Bay shows how Universal Orlando is continuing to evolve at an unprecedented rate that will not slow anytime soon. Since 2010, we’ve launched more than 18 remarkable experiences across the destination – from new attractions and theme park lands to new on-site hotels and restaurants. Our team will continue delivering new guest experiences that push the limits of theme park entertainment.

More details on Volcano Bay will be announced at a later date. Follow us on Twitter, Facebook or via email for the latest news.

Source: http://blog.universalorlando.com/whats- ... d=14563714

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Pink Cadillac

Giga Poster
Re: Universal Orlando Announce Volcano Bay Water Park

Oop! Watch it open before Avatarland. I expected they were going to re-develop Wet N Wild, but this is seems much more sensible.
 

peep

CF Legend
Re: Universal Orlando Announce Volcano Bay Water Park

Wow, I wasn't expecting this announcement today. Slightly annoyed I'll be missing it (going next year). From the rumours ive seen though this will completely change the idea of what you'd expect from a water park. Also love the speed of which Universal are doing things <3
 

GuyWithAStick

Captain Basic
Re: Universal Orlando Announce Volcano Bay Water Park

I KNEW IT!!!

Can't wait to see how this'll turn out. The volcano looks huge.

Sent from my VS840 4G using Tapatalk
 

PeskyTrimBrake

Hyper Poster
Re: Universal Orlando Announce Volcano Bay Water Park

Pink Panther said:
I expected they were going to re-develop Wet N Wild, but this is seems much more sensible.

I thought they were going to demolish Wet N Wild and develop a whole new park which was also part of another rumor version I saw on other sites. :/


A week ago I was snooping around Universal on Google Earth (don't ask me why, I have no clue either) and I noticed medium sized pieces of land that were cleared next to Cabana Bay which is now used for storage. I assumed it was for a future Cabana Bay expansion. This answers my expansion theory. Sounds fantastic, BTW. Really like the concept art of the volcano with the waterfall. Hope it comes out as envisioned.
 

peep

CF Legend
Re: Universal Orlando Announce Volcano Bay Water Park

I think it's interesting that about a year ago rumours were strife that wet n wild was going for good. Apparently it's staying as it is for the time being, maybe their plan changed?
 

owentaylor121

Giga Poster
Re: Universal Orlando Announce Volcano Bay Water Park

I always thought Wet n Wild was the top water park in Orlando, what started the rumours about it being going?
 

peep

CF Legend
Re: Universal Orlando Announce Volcano Bay Water Park

Universal owns it, with plans for a new water park closer to the rest of the resort it was deemed redundant. It's also got a fair amount of land left around it so original rumours were that it was the original location for Volcano Bay. It's also deemed unfit for the Universal brand so it could still either close or get a complete makeover.
 

gavin

Moderator
Staff member
Moderator
Social Media Team
Re: Universal Orlando Announce Volcano Bay Water Park

They also own quite a lot of land around Wet 'n' Wild. It makes more sense to keep the whole area available for another park at a later date.
Replacing Wet 'n' Wild with another water park will block off all that land.
 

SilverArrow

Certified Ride Geek
Re: Universal Orlando Announce Volcano Bay Water Park

It sounds like they might get rid of wet n wild after this new park is up and running. That would be a shame though as wet n wild is a nice classic water park. Themeing is all good but it's nice to have the classic experience available. I expect they'll want to swap volcano bay in for wet n' wild on the flexticket as 3 water parks is a lot and even Disney couldn't manage to get people to 3.

I keep seeing people saying that is it going to be better than any other water park yada yada but I can't actually find any info on what people mean by this. Has anything actually been released? They have very tough competition immersive themeing-wise with Aquatica and the Disney water parks.
 

SilverArrow

Certified Ride Geek
It seems pointless to demolish what is a perfectly decent and good waterpark but because it is universal owned and they're building a competing park I doubt they'll want to sell it to anyone and will probably go out of their way to dismantle it.

Wonder what their plans are for the site. It is a very good location.

Personally I'm a bit annoyed about this (seemingly inevitable news) as I like the classic feel of Wet n' Wild and it's got some nice history so this is a shame.

*Controversial statement coming!*
As much as I like theming I don't think it is necessary for a good day out at a water park and Orlando is full to the brim with themed water parks. As I said before I like the classic american waterpark feel that it has. Theming is of course the new way of doing things so this is just an "out with the old" in with the new shift in ideas. Still a shame.
 

GuyWithAStick

Captain Basic
^I couldn't agree more. Theming for a waterpark is ok. Sure, it sets the 'tone' and such, but American waterparks are designed to cool you off in an exciting way. Wet n' Wild Orlando did that perfectly. Such a shame Universal wants to close it.
 

peep

CF Legend
May I ask why people regard Wet n wild so highly? To me it's just another bog standard water park with all the same attractions that you can find in any of the other parks in America.
 

gavin

Moderator
Staff member
Moderator
Social Media Team
Nobody will be complaining and posting sad faces when they use the land, including loads of it surrounding Wet 'n' Wild, to build a third theme park, which common sense tells you HAS to be happening somewhere down the line.

The quicker they close down the water park, the sooner we'll see it.
 

Chris Brown

Mr CoasterForce 2016
Im pretty happy Wet n Wild is going. When I last visited in 2009 it wasn't even comparable to Siam Park even though it probably had a much higher turnover, hopefully they can do something decent with the land they now have.
 

mcg0ughchris

Mega Poster
Wet'N'Wild is terrible compared to Typhoon Lagoon, Blizzard Beach and Aquatica. It doesn't fit with Universals high standards and will be completely redundant if they open up another, much higher quality, water park less than a mile away from it.

Alot of Universal ticket packages currently give you access to both theme parks and Wet'N'Wild. It'd be completely pointless to add Volcano Bay and still have Wet'N'Wild as the visitor numbers would drop to nearly zero.

Much better to use the space for other things, If Universal open up a third park I wouldn't even like to imagine how amazing it'd be given how much they've upped their game recently
 

SilverArrow

Certified Ride Geek
Can't quote properly on mobile so this will have to do.

Peep- For most of of the foreign visitors Wet N' Wild is the only opportunity to visit a classic American water park.

Gavin-How does them closing their competing inferior water park mean that they're going to build a third theme park? Maybe they will but it doesn't seem like the only option for the land. It is probably years and years off.

Mcg0ughchris- It may not be on a par with the Orlando water park standard in terms of theming but that doesn't mean it wasn't a decent park in it's own right. Nobody is questioning the business reasons behind the decision because these are very very clear.

I think the closing of a perfectly good park with a bit of history (which is unusual for a waterpark) that offered a nice day out to be a shame regardless of what might be coming next. In an ideal world it would be nice to keep both waterparks (and get a third theme park) open but obviously not everyone here liked the park enough to even want that it seems. The park has some merits, like the largest number of family rides and a large number of slides (which we may see relocated) and made a refreshing change from corporate branding and IP galore at the other parks.

I am a fan of classic Florida attractions as well as big corporate IP parks that could be situated anywhere in the world and you wouldn't know but obviously this is a theme park forum so most people here will undoubtedly be keen for new super-themed attractions even if other things have to go.
 
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