We leave for our UOR trip in just over two weeks. I’m very excited. But I’m a little concerned about our VB day. How does anyone remember all of those names?? It’s important because we have some swimmers that aren’t the strongest and I don’t want them landing in the 10 ft pool but I can’t even remember the name of those slides. I wish they had easier names to remember!
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I wrote a list and grouped them to hopefully have some recall.
It didn’t work.
DH and two Littles got to the top of a slide before they realized it was one of the too-big-drops for DD9…
The 11 and 9 yos ended up sticking to raft rides.
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I hear ya. It’s even difficult for me to remember the names. Associating the slide colors to the names can help.
My only solution was to have a map handy. This gives me an idea for a simplified pocket map with just the main attractions on. Small enough to laminate and fit in a pocket. 
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How old are your not-so-strong swimmers?
If you tell them the names of the ones they can go on NOW I bet they will remember. Kids are way better at that than adults are.
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The names are so hard to get to grips with!!
I only know Krakatau because when the kids were watching a you tube video with subtitles on, it turned it into ‘Crack a towel’ which amused us and made the name stick 
I know ‘Honu ika Moana’, and that it’s a turtle riding a whale, but I don’t know which one is Honu and which one is Moana 
That’s literally the full extent of my knowledge.
I would love some kind of mnemonic to help the names to stick.
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For me, I just called them by slide type. They have each type in it’s own area. Then I just used the volcano and beach to orient me. (Cabana Bay was a good landmark too)
The trap door slides are in the volcano, the drop slides area is to the left of the wave pool, the water coaster is behind the volcano…
I know some of the names as they are cute puns, like “OhNo & OhYah”
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Even the colors don’t make sense. We went last Thu/Fri. I know that Honu is the blue one, but it’s supposed to be the turtle. And Moana is the green one, and it’s supposed to be the whale. Wouldn’t it make more sense if the whale was blue and the turtle green?
But I agree that the names are hard to remember! For those littles, be sure to avoid Ko’Okiri or whatever it is. That’s the one where the bottom drops and you plummet 125’ down a 70 degree incline! I wear contacts so I had my eyes closed the entire time. I plugged my nose, but my son didn’t and got a bunch up his nose. The other two slides where the bottom drops aren’t that bad, but I couldn’t tell you their names to save my life.
And the Fearless River was one of our favorites. They make you wear life vests, so even if you aren’t a super strong swimmer, you should be okay.
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Ko’okiri is terrifying but other than the floor dropping out, the other two are big standard water slides. And I can’t remember their names either but I think you got the first right 
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The thing about the names is that if I had been a headquarters person when these names were being discussed, I would have liked the idea. It fits with the theme, which fits with water-based vacation. But, I don’t think I remember a single ride name properly. Well, I guess I got “Wave Pool” and “Lazy River” down properly.
Cabana Bay and the volcano do make excellent navigation points. Once I learned to make note where those were in relation to where I wanted to go, navigating became much easier.
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I would have names them after different islands or something. Different animals. Etc. not made up things like O’no and O’yah.
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Thanks for all the feedback everyone! I’m glad I’m not the only one that can’t remember the names.
After hearing everyone’s feedback, I think it will be easier to determine the small handful of slides we can’t do and assign DS10 to remember those! I think it will be easier than remembering the ones we can do! Lol!
Oh good idea on using the volcano and cabana bay as landmarks!
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I completely agree with you! Known cute names would be so much easier than a very creative naming scheme!
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Last post I promise. Here’s the list of slides we’re avoiding. We’re avoiding the top two because my family doesn’t like drop slides. And we’re skipping ohyah, etc because they’ll land in 10 ft water.
- Ko’okiri Body Plunge
- Kala and Tai Nui Serpentine Body Slides
- Ohyah and Ohno Drop Slides (10 ft)
I used this website to get slide info: https://www.universalorlandoyouth.com/Pdf/volcano-bays-guide-for-rider-safety-and-accessibility.pdf
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Those are all of the extreme slides. Everything else is in a tube with others or a typical slide. Sounds like you are good to go!!
If you are staying on-site, the Early Park Admission, is so important. Otherwise, still get there as early as possible. Finding your “perfect spot” to set up camp and get everybody ready often takes a good chunk of that time. That’s ok because you’ll most people will still be coming in. However, after the first hour or so it’s gonna get busy.
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Thank you! I’m glad I didn’t miss any of them.
How early would you suggest arriving at VB for early entry? We’ll be coming from Dockside that day. I think you all suggested going left and towards the back to get to free covered seating. Do you think that will be open during early entry?
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I’m wondering the same. Taking a bonus trip next week, and going to hit up volcano bay for the first time on Friday. Guess this will be a trial run for our September trip! Hoping to find the covered seating quickly, and then get over to Krakatau. Want to make sure we are there early enough to be at the front of the RD crowd 
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The back isn’t open during early entry. I forget where the line is.
We wanted the shaded chairs at the entrance to the Fierce River, and they weren’t open yet. What we did was dump our stuff at some random non-shaded chair near the Kraka-whatever coaster. Then rode that until EA was over. Then I moved our towels while the family did a slide.
I wish I’d heard Crack-a-towel before we went. That is the perfect name.
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I always stay at Dockside. I’m a big fan of getting on the first bus to VB. You’ll have to wait in an uncovered “holding” area outside of the VB security entrance, but I can not stress how important being 100% set-up before the park opens to everyone else is to a successful day.
They do not open 100% of the park. If you go left, as I do too, you’ll only be able to go as far as the OhNo & OhYa drop slides. There is literally a “rope drop” there you can’t go past.
So I tend to get my spot under the free covered areas that are available during EPA, get settled and start my day right before regular guests enter. IMHO - This is really important if you’d like to do the water coaster more than once that day.
It is a bit of a hike to the water coaster at the start of the day as you have to backtrack a bit, but IMHO totally worth it
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Early entry is 30 minutes prior to park open, I arrived 45 minutes prior to park official opening and was one of the first into the park. We got a few rides on Krakatoa.