For our trip in August we have decided to go to Volcano Bay for at least one day.
On our last trip in 2018 we went to Aquatica and really enjoyed it EXCEPT for the fact that the sidewalks were so hot they burned our feet (thankfully we were not the only newbies in the crowd as lots of people were tiptoeing around).
Is it the same at Volcano Bay? Do we need some cheapie slides/flip flops for the park?
Yes, get some water shoes. They have places to leave them at the bottom of the slides.
It’s not 100% necessary because there are lots of water sprinklers across the paths.
I’m a bit mixed on them.
Some slides have to be barefoot, so there are shoe racks at the entrance. However, often the exit to the slide is ages away from the shoe rack to you have to hoof it back to get your shoes.
So don’t wear shoes!!
On the other side of the argument, DD got a nasty cut on the sole of her foot while barefoot. We suspect that she maybe stood on a sharp fallen leaf, which sounds kind of unlikely, but keep in mind that being in the water for ages softens the skin, so perhaps more plausible.
So wear shoes!!
Haha I love how you have given me advice to do both 
sorry!
I don’t think you need to wear them just for the sake of the heat. There were only a couple of areas where it was hard to walk on and perhaps those areas had a blocked sprinkler or something because it’s generally really well serviced in that regard.
And you could possibly get lost in the meantime 
Just hoof it down the sidewalk at home, barefoot in the rain to prep your feet 
Ouch!! 
I don’t know about Volcano Bay. At Disney water parks I must wear water shoes with cushiony sole. I’m not doing any of the major slides which require no footwear anyway, so no problems.
Any water park, I think swim shoes are necessary. For VB I prefer what is actually called water socks. They are more like satin slippers. DD adores the Fierce River (whatever they call the fast one) and the floor of that can eat up my water-softened feet. So I prefer something I can wear while swimming.
At the local water park I’ll wear Birkencrocs and just swim barefoot.
I’ve used croc slides in Volcano Bay. I thought it struck a good balance between comfort and easy to get off for the rides that require it.
Thank so much for your help. I think we will take some cheapie footwear so if someone takes it we won’t be sad 
As Canadians we have pretty soft feet, barefoot is not something we do a lot of