We are heading to VB on our upcoming trip in NOVEMBER (praying at least one of our days is warm enough to do this). Have a few questions:
1. The slides that have tapu tapu...is there also a standby line or is getting a tap tapu time the ONLY way you are permitted to ride?
2. What attractions do NOT have tapu tapu (in other words, which things can you do while waiting for your return time)?
3. When you get a tapped return time, say 40 minutes...when you come back to the ride in 40 minutes and tap in, do you literally walk right on the ride? Or is there now an additional small wait like FP sometimes has (like 5-10 minutes)?
3. Tell me November will be warm enough LOL!
How big is the water park crowd in NOVEMBER? You'll probably be fine
You can ONLY ride any of the slides via tapu tapu -- so if you are in the virtual queue for one ride, you cannot ride anything else, correct. There are no regular or standby lines. BUT -- you can go on any rides that says "ride now." If it's low crowds, just about every ride will say "ride now."
I was there last week just after labor day, and most rides were "ride now -- I didn't have to get a return time for anything. Which is good, because I would have been bored out of my mind with just the rivers and wave pool...... arrived shortly before 9am, stayed there for about 4 hours, and when wait times started to increase, I left for the day. Came back again a different day after a rain storm and also about an hour before closing-- got in a handful of rides that way.
In many cases -- you do NOT literally walk right on to the ride. Once you get past the virtual queue part and it's your turn to ride, that's when you can actually join the physical line, if there is one. This can range from being able to just walk on to quite a lengthy wait.
So if the park is crowded, you could wait several hours to be able to join the actual physical line....where you will then wait an additional 30-60 minutes.
Remember I mentioned I only did "ride now" stuff last week? I still had to wait 30+ minutes to ride one of the raft slides. Probably my longest wait time for any ride at any park for my entire Universal vacation. It would really have sucked to have waited for my turn to ride....only to then join a 30+ minute line. And this was with a not that crowded park..... the wait time would be even greater at other times for this and other rides.
Honestly, unless lounging around a pool or lazy river are your thing, I see this as a half day park at most. Get there first thing or get there soon before closing, or after it rains. But I have no idea what sort of crowds to expect in November... probably minimal?
For what it's worth, I hated the trap door slides. I tried one of the serpentine ones. I immediately got water in my eyes, up my nose, and in my mouth the moment the bottom was removed.... I honestly had trouble breathing and imagined that it might be a similar sensation to drowning. But it was over quick enough. Definitely was NOT going to do the almost straight down plunge after that.
But I enjoyed the raft and tube slides, for the most part.
I did get slightly injured on the mat racer slide. And my friend got injured enough on the "oh no" slide that he had to go to first aid.