Yesterday, April 12, was the first official date for the new Volcano Bay Nights special ticketed event. We purchased tickets for the inaugural night to experience all of the food, activities, attractions, and more.
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Volcano Bay Nights
Volcano Bay is Universal Orlando Resort’s tropical-themed water park. Volcano Bay usually closes at either 6 p.m. or 7 p.m., making this nighttime event a rare opportunity to experience the park after dark. The event officially runs from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m., but guests with a Volcano Bay Nights ticket can enter the park as early as 4 p.m. without needing to purchase a regular park ticket. Tickets are $99 per person, and Annual Passholders get 10% off the regular price.
Universal previously announced that a total of 10 attractions would be operating during the event. These attractions include:
- Krakatau Aqua Coaster
- Ko’okiri Body Plunge
- Kala and Tai Nui Serpentine Body Slides
- Ohyah of Ohyah and Ohno Drop Slides
- Ohno of Ohyah and Ohno Drop Slides
- Honu of Honu ika Moana
- ika Moana of Honu ika Moana
- Waturi Beach
- Kopiko Wai Winding River
- Runamukka Reef
Included with the purchase of a ticket are some event-exclusive complimentary “island treats,” including:
- Complimentary Coca-Cola Freestyle souvenir cup and refills (Refills are limited to no more than one pour from the Coca-Cola Freestyle machine per 10 minutes, valid on selected date only at participating Coca-Cola Freestyle locations)
- Spicy Island Shrimp:
- Spiced shrimp with pineapple vinaigrette blue jasmine rice, mango cucumber salsa, crisp plantain, and sriracha Thai chili sauce
- Cheesy Cliffside Seashell Pasta:
- Cliffside seashell pasta with parmesan and white cheddar cheese
Our Experience
Check-In and Pre-Event Hours
To take full advantage of the Volcano Bay Nights ticket, we arrived at 4 p.m., when the park was still operating normally. Guests arriving at the park specifically for the event can check in near the primary bus drop-off location.
Event guests receive a blue wristband to help identify them as staying for the night. The wristbands had the standard Volcano Bay logo.
Folding signs were placed around the park to warn regular guests that the park was closing at 5 p.m. for the event.
We also received our complimentary Coca-Cola Freestyle souvenir cup. The design of the cup was also the usual generic Universal Orlando Resort design and was not event-exclusive.
It is important to note that check-in stations for Volcano Bay Nights were also located inside the park. Guests who purchase a regular day ticket (or have admission included in their Annual Pass) along with an event ticket can receive their event wristbands without exiting the park.
Near the front of the park, by Waturi Marketplace, a display with special merchandise for Volcano Bay Nights was already set up. These items are normally available at Universal Studios Florida, but they are not normally sold at Volcano Bay.
A nearby Team Member informed us that some additional merchandise items may be set up closer to the official event start time. However, when we checked back later in the evening, there was nothing new. We found no Volcano Bay Nights-specific merchandise.
One positive note for the event is that there is a two-hour cleanup period between the day’s closing time of 5 p.m. and the official event start time at 7 p.m. Universal uses this period to remove all of the regular guests from the park and set up for the event.
Guests staying for the night can take advantage of any attraction listed to stay open for the event during this two-hour period before sunset. Universal also started serving some of the event’s food and beverages before 7 p.m.
By about 5:30 p.m. to 6 p.m., the park was largely devoid of day guests, so the majority of areas were extremely quiet. The wait times for most attractions also became much shorter.
Event Food
As we mentioned, the Volcano Bay Nights ticket includes some select complimentary “Island Treats.” Universal started serving these treats before 7 p.m., and we received ours around 6:30 p.m.
The complimentary snacks were all being served at the North Beach Pavilion of Kohola Reef Restaurant & Social Club. The line seemed to be longest right when the restaurant opened, but we never waited longer than about 10 minutes.
Another important note is that guests are not supposed to grab multiple snacks at once, even though they are complimentary. Each guest is expected to get one snack and leave the line. To get both food items for our review, we had to stand in line twice. However, the snacks are still all-you-can-eat, so you can get multiple dishes if you are willing to get in line again. Additionally, we hardly waited for our second dish.
Spicy Island Shrimp
Spiced shrimp with pineapple vinaigrette blue jasmine rice, mango cucumber salsa, crisp plantain, and sriracha Thai chili sauce
We were very pleasantly surprised with the quality of the shrimp included in this dish. The shrimp was served cold, but they were not chewy or overcooked. The dish is served with a fried plantain, which is a nice nod to the tropical theme and improves the overall visual. The rice has a strong coconut flavor, but the mango was still present. It was well-seasoned and overall a great value, considering it is included with the event.
Rating (out of 7): 6
Cheesy Cliffside Seashell Pasta
Cliffside seashell pasta with parmesan and white cheddar cheese
For a quick snack, this was actually a very good mac & cheese. The pasta shells were not overcooked and covered in plenty of melty cheese sauce. The sauce is heavy on the parmesan flavors, but we enjoyed it. The mac & cheese was served warm and included a pretty decent serving size for a single person. It may be a bit simple, but this would be perfect for picky eaters as well.
Rating (out of 7): 5
While only those two items were complimentary, several other snack locations were still operating during the event. For example, Whakawaiwai Eats was still serving pizzas and salads.
Also special to Volcano Bay Nights were some special DreamWorks snacks, such as these Poppy-Licious Pink and Brozone Berry ice cream cones at Koka Poroka Ice Cream Kona. These are not included with the event ticket price and must still be purchased. However, these items are not normally sold at Volcano Bay and can only be found at DreamWorks Land in Universal Studios Florida, making them somewhat event-exclusive, at least to the water park.
The list of DreamWorks snacks at Volcano Bay Nights included the two “Trolls” ice cream cones and the “Shrek” themed Swamp Snacks. If you want to read more, we have a complete review of the Brozone Berry and Poppy-licious Pink cones from their usual location. We also have a complete review for all of the “Shrek” snacks, including the Swamp Dog and Shrekzel.
The only other location serving anything special for the event was Dancing Dragons, which was not listed on any of the menus. A Team Member informed us that the drink was similar to a Blue Hawaiian with boba pearls.
Character Meet and Greets
Included with Volcano Bay Nights is the chance to meet several characters who do not normally appear in the park. Keeping with the DreamWorks theme of the merchandise and some of the snacks, all of the characters were from DreamWorks animated films. We first spotted Shrek and Fiona dancing together by the wave pool.
Several of the characters also started appearing in the park prior to the official event. Beginning at 7 p.m. Poppy from “Trolls” was wearing her iconic knit-style blue dress.
Both Kitty Softpaws and Puss in Boots from the film of the same name also appeared by the guest walkways.
Unlike other theme park events, these characters did not stand in one specific location to form a line of people for a meet and greet. Instead, many of them were wandering the front half of Volcano Bay. In addition to Poppy, both Branch and Guy Diamond from “Trolls” waved hello.
Alex from the “Madagascar” films was also dancing close to the wave pool.
Finally, we spotted King Julian near the end of the night.
By the end of the event, we were able to take photographs with each of the characters Universal advertised as being part of the night.
Volcano Bay at Night
As for the rest of the park, Volcano Bay developed more of a party atmosphere as the sun began to set and the 7 p.m. start time finally arrived. A DJ set up a stand made of a Jeep outfitted with large speakers to the side of Waturi Beach wave pool. The DJ continued to play exciting music for the entire night.
By 7 p.m., all of the open attractions had practically no wait. We spent a much longer amount of time simply climbing the stairs to the slides rather than waiting on other guests.
Guests at Volcano Bay Nights are encouraged to stay mainly toward the front half of Volcano Bay, and some Team Members are stationed to keep guests away from certain closed areas.
Volcano Bay Nights is definitely a photographer’s dream. We were able to take some excellent pictures of Krakatau volcano as the sun was setting.
As seen from the nearby hotels, Krakatau is lit with some additional blue spotlights at night.
The DJ vehicle was also outfitted with some special screens and blue lights.
The event officially ended at 10 p.m., so we collected our belongings and headed back to the bus stop.
At this point, there was no line at the bus drop-off location. We immediately got on the next bus and headed home.
Final Thoughts
Overall, we were very impressed with Volcano Bay Nights. The ticket price is slightly more expensive than some similar events, with one example being Disney H20 Glow Nights After Hours priced at $85 for adults. However, we think the additional event benefits and longer time warrant the extra cost for Volcano Bay Nights.
Both water park events last for three hours once they officially start, but Volcano Bay Nights includes another three hours from 4 p.m. to 7 p.m., leading to a total event ticket time of six hours. On the other hand, H20 Glow only allows guests to enter the park at 6 p.m., meaning the ticket is worth five hours of total time.
An added bonus is that Volcano Bay Nights only includes one hour of regular park operation, meaning five of the hours have lower attraction wait times once the park “closes.” This gives guests more time to complete more of the normal Volcano Bay attractions during the waiting period. As a result, guests can focus on experiencing the event-exclusive activities and food once the event officially begins at 7 p.m. Nearly all of the attractions had no wait.
We also thought the quality of the included food and activities for Volcano Bay Nights was impressive. Many of these after-hours-type events have included food options, but they are usually only pretzels or ice cream. Having actual snacks like shrimp or mac & cheese included with the ticket price is a great bonus because these could easily stand in for dinner, especially since you can go back for more. Likewise, there were plenty of characters wandering the park, and they were all extremely enthusiastic.
One final note is that we really appreciated the Universal Team Members working the event. All of them were extremely kind and went above the usual level of interaction to make sure everyone was having a great night. The Team Members standing near the DJ or guiding the costumed characters were all dancing and helping to create a very fun atmosphere.
If we had to pick any small complaint, the weather for this event wasn’t perfect. By 8 p.m. or so, the temperature dropped, and getting in the water became uncomfortably cold. But this is hardly Universal’s fault, and we expect the events taking place later in the year will have no problem.
In conclusion, we would rate our complete Volcano Bay Nights experience as a 7 out of 7.
Volcano Bay Nights has more dates throughout most of April and May, including April 26 and May 3, 10, and 17. Tickets for all of these dates are still available at the time of writing. Tickets can be purchased on the Universal Orlando Resort website.
Will you be attending one of the remaining Volcano Bay Nights dates? Let us know in the comments.
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