Orlando Florida Day 7 - Volcano Bay + Medieval Times

Day 7 and it was another water park, this time Universal's Volcano Bay which is another new park that didn't exist back in the day. In fact from what I read "Wet'N'Wild" which used to be on International Drive was purchased by Universal and then subsequently closed down in pace of "Volcano Bay" which was built to take on the might of Disney's "Blizzard Beach".

Volcano Bay is a pretty large water in comparison to Typhoon Lagoon which we went to earlier in the week and the park was absolutely heaving on the day we went. Needless to say it made it more difficult to let the kids go off on their own as we feared you'd never be able to find them.

At Volcano Bay they have a digital wrist band type of system which allows you to scan for access to a ride and it then flashes up on your wrist when your allocated slot is ready. This system seems like a good idea except it has one major issue in that you can only scan one ride/attraction at a time. The 2 or 3 major attractions all had 90+ minutes waits meaning that once you had scanned for them, you were very limited in what you could go on. So we found ourselves just messing around in the wave pool and lazy river, or trying to get on some of the lesser attractions which had walk on slots available.

The weird thing about our visit to Volcano Bay is that whilst messing around in the wave pool we bumped in to one of Joshua's friends, Ethan, and his family. What are the chances of travelling 4000 miles to another country and not making any plans to meet up with someone who lives a mile away from your home, yet bumping in to them in the middle of a very busy water park.

Anyway we had a great day in the water park and as usual soaked up too much sun until late in the afternoon when the now familiar inclement weather came over and everything shut up early. Luckily we had an evening meal booked at Medieval Times so getting out of the water park early was not such a bad thing. However to bridge the gap between the two we also managed to squeeze in a quick shopping trip at the Florida Mall. It is amazing that at home you cannot get the boys to go shopping for blood or money, but in Florida where they knew there was Nike, Adidas, Reebok, UnderArmour outlets etc, they couldn't get enough of the shopping.

Medieval Times was really good fun. We were supporting the white knight and Holly in particular had an absolute blast. The meal was really good, simple food but very will cooked and plentiful. Simple jacket potato with baked corn on the cob and half a chicken which I think none of us managed to finish. That's not including bread rolls, unlimited drink and desert. Our knight unfortunately lost, but it was still great watching all the jousting, sword fighting, horse skills, falconry etc.

Yes another water park day at Volcano Bay.

Nice lush green entrance.

Getting excited, the scale of the Volcano is not really apparent from a distance.

Once we have tagged our smart watch thingy in to one of the bigger slides we head for some of the smaller walk on ones.

I use the word "smaller" lightly though. They are still bloody good fun.

Joshua is first down.

Then comes B.

I got told off for taking my camera up so had to wait at the bottom and take pictures until I put it away in a locker.

Having fun whizzing around the rapid river.

The rapid river is really fun with fast currents amd even waves.

Under the bridge we go.

And around the Volcano.

I think we will be getting wetter.

View down one of the slides across the vast water park.

Sneaky picture in one of the tubes.

The other side of the Volcano features multiple slides and a water coaster.

The boys heading in to the wave pool.

That's one impressive pool.

Waterfalls down the Volcano.

With a bridge to walk through the Volcano.

Family fun in the wave pool.

Who would have thought Josh would meet his mate Ethan here.

Splash time.

Kids were all absolutely loving the water parks ore than the theme parks I think.

Life jacketed up for the rapid river.

Me, H and Tina.

View of part of the rapid river.

And more.

Holly trying to figure out how to get in her ring.

Brandon chilling on the lazy river.

Holly preferring to just run through the lazy river rather than float.

Big jump and throw yourself back to sit in the ring.

Under the Volcano we go.

In to the illuminated cave.

So cool with the lighting effect in the cave.

Tina chilling on the lazy river.

Holly guiding everyone under the waterfall.

One of the longer waits we had was for the river rapid coaster thing which seemed to defy the laws of physics. An inflatable roller coaster on water!

The Volcano about to erupt.

One of the drop slides from the top of the Volcano drops down through this clear viewing tube.

Me and H at Volcano Bay.

Holly in the children's play area.

After Volcano Bay and a bit of shopping it was off for dinner at Medieval Times.

To think me and Tina were last here about circa 29 years ago.

This time we are not on our own, we have 3 kiddies to enjoy the experience.

My little family at Medieval Times.

Some suits of armour in the lobby area.

A knight in shining armour.

Holly and Tina in another matching outfit.

The show begins with an opening from the Queen

Out come some of the horses and knights.

All of the warriors before the battle commences.

Our white knight.

Holly had an absolute blast at the dinner show.

Let the battle commence.

After some warm up skills tests it was time for the jousting.

Victory for our white knight in this battle.

Holly booing the opposition.

More action from the jousting tournament.

And some hand to hand combat.

Brandon thought the fighting was real as he could see sparks off of the weapons as they clashed together.

By the time the show is over it is late at knight and the castle is illuminated outside.

Souvenir picture at Medieval Times - great night out.