The park opened to much fanfare about the TapuTapu but the little gadgets never really took off, with common complaints about long waits for slides when using Virtual Lines, Tapu falling off on rides like the action river, and technology issues.
This reminds me that during my first trip to Volcano Bay, it took me like 90 minutes to get Express Pass set up on my family’s bands. I was so angry that I complained and they gave us free EP for our next trip. Here’ the original account of this horror story:
The next trip was much smoother. I wonder what’s going to happen to EP for VB?
Yes similar. We had rented a cabana and purchased the more expensive express and we wasted something close to an hour standing in line and getting those things done. Then the very first slide the band fell off and another 30-45 min gone. Luckily we had the express or by then the lines would have been out the wazoo. So if we had just done cabana we still would have eaten up all this time and then been in a bad place.
and ditto cuz the band is how you used it. Maybe they are going the way of Disney and no water park express but I can’t imagine they’d just give up that revenue unless the cost of it was more than they were bringing in?
Upon arrival at VB, EP purchasers will be escorted to the implant room from Total Recall. During this special immersive experience, a chip will be implanted in the guest’s right temple which can then be scanned at each EP location. For an additional upcharge, the chip can be preprogrammed with realistic memories of riding Ministry of Magic so guests can enjoy the memories without the lines.
Not to be outdone, WDW creates an implant memory chip of an entire WDW vacation which can be synchronized with the chips of family members. For the low price of $5,000 per family you can now experience "the world’ from your own home for less than the price of a 5 night WDW vacation package! For the cost of less than a Magic Band (additional $19.99 per person), each Guest may select to have their chip designed in the likeness of either (1) chipmunk Chip or (2) Chip the tea cup.
Ugh personally not thrilled about losing the tapu. My favorite part was not having to wait in lines and using that time some other way. It was really nice doing the aqua coaster twice during early entry then keeping a VQ for later in the afternoon.
I wonder if this is their way to increase revenue with express passes for VB? People hate standing in lines. Dropping the tapu and needing to physically wait would certainly incentivize some to purchase the EP.
I’m disappointed about Tapu Tapu, but I get it. It actually can make queues longer when people lose them or leave wearing them if they still have an attraction “waiting” in the device.
It’s probably a significant operating cost as well. It doesn’t cost UOR anything to not use it versus upkeep.
Tapu never clicked or me since I have an Apple Watch, so I just kinda found it more of a pain. Then you factor in the issues I listed above and I think this is a good change. It will be interesting to see how they handle the queue for Krakatau.
That and the aqua coaster was my favorite things about the VB. Our VB time is usually so packed that we start at early entry and leave by 1:30-ish and leave pooped. For the things with long waits we’d do the fearless river a few times.
Maybe we’ve never had trouble getting one because we do early entry?
They could easily handle the unused reservations. One way would be to say that they expire two hours after the Ready Now time.
They could have also still allowed people to ride after two hours, but stop holding availability after two hours. Logic being that most of the people will have left already.
As someone with a fluffy body shape I do appreciate a line when there are many stairs. I do appreciate the excuse of being in line as an excuse to stop and breath.
They would have to completely redo the queues. Can you imagine the line for the aquacoaster? They’d also need to add Express Pass lines or stop selling them. I guess some of them where there was multiple lines on one set of stairs going to different slides, they could reconfigure for one set be for EP.
Kinda unrelated but I wish we’d waited to do our giant Disney World trip. This fall will probably be the best time in the last 10 years to go. I am foreseeing a ghost town.
I agree. It worked well for my family. We’d enjoy the wave pool, sunbathing, action river…then head to the slide and have a relatively short wait. Of all types of amusement parks, I think waiting in line at a water park is the worst!!
I never used the tapus because I would knock out the rides I wanted to do during early entry and then just lounge and do the rivers the rest of the day. I don’t like body slides so there’s only a few I like.
I just did a survey they sent out before my upcoming trip and one of the questions was does VB have a virtual line holding feature (not verbatim) and it was like I was having an existential crisis trying to answer it lol like if I say no is that justifying their decision or just showing I’m up to date on changes.
I admit that every once in a while when get one of their surveys I can yell what they want to know. Then I answer however benefits my personal preferences!!
