Today we have a great update from our first visit to Universal Orlando's Volcano Bay Water Theme Park. 

If you haven't seen this park yet, you're in for a treat. If you have seen this park chances are you haven't seen it as empty as it was during our visit. 

So pull up some waves and enjoy a look at this next generation water park. 

Written by Renée Girard

​We’re on the bus to our first visit to Universal’s Volcano Bay water park! 

Learning how to use Tapu Tapu reservation system on the bus ride over to Volcano Bay.

Nice view of Aventura Hotel upon exiting the bus at Volcano Bay.

​Travel through a few tunnels and walkways to get to the Volcano Bay entrance.

We are here! Volcano Bay looks gorgeous so far!

Got my Tapu Tapu, time to go exploring and ride some slides! 

Here’s a map of Volcano Bay. It’s pretty easy to navigate, even if you can’t correctly pronounce the slide names.

​Kohola Reef is one of the park’s quick service food restaurants. Haven’t decided where to dine yet but this place looks really good!

​Stopping by one of Volcano Bay’s two full service bars, Dancing Dragons.

​Got the beer exclusive to the park, Volcano Blossom. Dancing Dragons bar also has the perfect view!

​We’re really not using Tapu Tapu at all to reserve rides because there’s no need to! Today is a perfect day to visit Volcano Bay!

Bambu Jungle Kitchen, another quick service restaurant at Volcano Bay.

​Bambu Jungle Kitchen, another quick service restaurant at Volcano Bay.

​Feasting Frog and Kunuku Boat Bar at Volcano Bay.

​No one is here today! It’s awesome!

The Krakatau aqua coaster is probably the most fun we’ve had ever on a water slide! 

​Taniwha Tubes is almost like a normal water slide except there are some pretty good g forces on the twists and turns!

Throughout Volcano Bay, you can use your Tapu Tapu to activate different things, like this fountain in the lazy river.

If you walk through the volcano, you’ll find even more fun stuff. This isn’t an ordinary fountain, it actually talks and interacts with you!

​It’s fun to find the things you can use your Tapu Tapu for. This one lit up one of the cave walls inside the volcano.

​Venturing inside the volcano also gives you some unique things to look at, as well as seeing how huge the structure is!

Seeing these Tapu Tapu stations near the rides made me curious to how the system works on a busy day, but I’d much rather be here on a day like today!!

​The wave pool is quite large, and we also enjoyed the smaller pool beside it that overlooks the area.

​We almost missed this slide since it’s tucked in the back, but we enjoyed the Ika Moana and Honu raft slides, especially Honu where you get some crazy height going up the wall.

​Kala & Tai Nui serpentine slides are intense! We climbed forever to the top of the volcano for these but wow was it worth it. The speed on these takes your breath away.

​Ohyah and Ohno slides were probably my least favorite slides in the park, but there’s honestly nothing wrong with them. We still liked it, and the drop off at the end is cool.

​Something unique at Volcano Bay is having your photo taken without the need of a photographer. Using the Tapu Tapu, you just stand in front of certain locations, and it takes your photo. On ride photos are automatically added too.

We had such an amazing day at Volcano Bay! Loved all of the attractions, and the park itself is beautiful. Forgot photos of the Fearless River, which was one of our favorites as well. I’m glad we waited till now to visit, it was worth it! 

​And we had to part with our Tapu Tapu friend before exiting the park. Thanks for a great day! 

This past Wednesday night we were invited out to Universal Studios Hollywood for the latest addition to Wizarding World Hollywood. The AMAZING "Nighttime Lights at Hogwarts Castle". 
While the show doesn't debut until June 23 we hope you'll enjoy this sneak peek which includes video and a LOT of pictures. 

Before we get started with the update we wanted to give you a heads up that Universal Studios Hollywood on Facebook will host a Facebook Live event to stream the all-new “The Nighttime Lights at Hogwarts Castle” experience at “The Wizarding World of Harry Potter” on Friday, June 23 at 8:45pm PST

Welcome to Hogwarts

We'll start off with a few of our favorite shots of the show 

It's quite simply the best projection mapping we've ever seen. 

Full video of the all new show. 

Just a quick note: We attempted something new during the show which was mounting a GoPro on top of the DSLR so we could make sure we got great video and pictures during the event. While we are VERY pleased with how this came out visually, unfortunately the shutter on the DSLR made the audio a bit more muddled than we'd like. We'll be coming up with ways to remedy this in the future. But we hope you enjoy the video nonetheless. =) 

Some more of our favorite shots of the show 

The show is simply stunning 

We took so many pictures we didn't know which ones to include, so we included about 90 of them in the slideshow below. We hope you enjoy!! 

This show is truly amazing and unlike some other shows it won't take a lot of time out of your evening at the park, it's only about 5-6 minutes long. Which IMO is long enough for those of us who don't enjoy dedicating hours and standing in one spot for long periods of time to see a nighttime show. 

Be sure you check it out soon. The show officially opens on June 23 but you may be able to catch a preview before then.

A few more random pics from our visit. 

A new Despicable Me photo spot is up on the upper lot 

Looks like they are doing some work near Universal Plaza 

The back wall for the new storefront/restaurant is up 

Because why not 

Shrek 4D soon to be ... 

You know =) 

Don't look sad ... Banana!! 

Even though it's been soft open for a few weeks, last Thursday was the official grand opening of Margaritaville at Universal Studios Hollywood. The awesome event included lots of food and drinks and a performance by none other than Jimmy Buffett himself. 
We also headed back to Margaritaville later in the weekend for some more food and fun. They've priced the food and drinks to attract locals to the restaurant and it seems to be paying off. Lots of great fun to be had. 

​We'll also have a small park update as well at the bottom. 

Looks like we're in the right place 

They streamed the Jimmy Buffett performance out at CityWalk so everybody could see. 

We still get kind of shocked to be included in such awesome events. Hope we never lose that. =) 

It was almost 5 O'Clock 

Lots of food to try 

Watermelon Margarita ... soooooo good 

Added some Carne Asada 

Had to add some Lava Lava shrimp, Cheesburger in Paradise slider and Ahi Kale salad. All were amazing. 

Oh, and Jimmy Buffett performing. 

Stilt walkers/dancers 

Dine on a surfboard 

Still need to find this sign 

Some of the decor of the restaurant 

We decided to head back to Margaritaville a few days later on Sunday. We had a great meal and everything is very reasonably priced. They are pricing the food and drinks to attract locals which is VERY smart. 

This was only $10 and fed both of us, and we didn't even finish it. 

Some additional event pictures courtesy of Universal Studios Hollywood. Thanks again for inviting us out!! 

We were going to do a separate update for the park but we have a lot of updates this week, so we figured we'd just include it here. 

Some Fate of the Furious vehicles are now on display outside Unviersal Cinema 

Wow, a nice looking security area. =) 

They've added X-Ray machines to the security checks 

The Universal Globe is almost done with it's refurb 

On Thursday they were doing some more work around Universal Plaza 

By Sunday it was all done 

One of the dino's at Jurassic Park: The Ride is ill. =) 

Not sure if we ever showed you the new Mummy Treats, but here it is. 

Work continues on the 4th Starway 

Beetlejuice says thanks for reading!! Have a great week everybody!! 

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