Universal just quietly made some changes to the list of Early Park Admission attractions. Here’s what you need to know.
Spending a day at Universal’s Volcano Bay can be one of the best experiences you’ll ever have at Universal without setting foot inside a traditional theme park. With so much to eat, see, find, and splash your way through, there is plenty to keep you busy. However, if you’re weighing the options of spending a day at Volcano Bay on your next Universal vacation, there’s a significant change that was just announced that you’ll want to consider before your next visit.
One of the biggest perks to staying at one of Universal Orlando’s on-site hotels is its Early Park Admission for hotel guests. If you’re staying at a qualifying Universal hotel, you could enter Universal’s water park, Volcano Bay, up to a full hour earlier than the visiting day guests to the park.
This could be an invaluable perk for those looking to get a head start on some of the rides and slides known to report higher wait times as the day progresses, giving you the chance to experience everything you want to do faster (and potentially over and over again!).
If you’ve ever visited Volcano Bay before, you know there are several rides offered throughout the water park (mostly in the form of slides) as well as a wave pool. However, if you’ve been enjoying this Early Park Admission perk for a while now, you’ll want to check the list of available attractions before your next visit. Universal has announced temporary changes to the list of available Early Park Admission attractions. While the list prior to September 1st lists an extensive amount of offerings…
…you may notice that now, three of those offerings have come off the list. The Ohyah & Ohno Drop Slides, as well as the Puka Uli Lagoon, have been temporarily paused from the Early Park Admission list through at least October 31st.
This means that while the perk will still be available to enjoy, you have a few fewer options to take advantage of before the crowds arrive in the park.
This change comes just before the retirement of the current TapuTapu system implemented throughout the park. This innovative approach allowed each visitor to scan in with the help of an electronic bracelet loaned to them at entry for queue line return times, photos, payment, and to activate interactive features throughout Volcano Bay. TapuTapu is set to be discontinued beginning October 1st.
Additionally, the park is anticipated to undergo an extended seasonal closure for maintenance and upgrades from October 26th, 2026, to March 24th, 2027, which could be when Universal plans to remove some of the existing TapuTapu signs, stands, and instructions for use around the park.
There’s certainly some interesting happenings surrounding Universal’s unique water park, and we’ll continue to keep a close watch over any further changes you’ll need to know about before your next visit.
If you’re looking for a travel agent to help with your vacation, we recommend our friends at Mouse Fan Travel. They’re experts in the field with over 20 years of vacation planning experience, and they can help take a bunch of the stress out of the entire booking process for you!
Be sure to stay tuned with us right here at AllEars for the latest!
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Does your Universal Orlando vacation typically include a day or more visiting Volcano Bay? Tell us why or why not in the comments below!
Nobody in their right mind should be going to those attractions during early admission anyway. It’s likely that those attractions were underutilized during early admission and Universal can save money on staffing and power required to run those attractions.