Universal Orlando is home to three theme parks that are incredible to explore throughout the day, not to mention CityWalk connecting two of them, but what about when it’s hot outside, and you’re looking to cool off? That’s where you’ll find lots of guests head to Volcano Bay, a fan-favorite water park in all of Orlando!

Volcano Bay Nights are back!

During summer days, you’ll find that the water park is pretty packed, thanks to the promise of cool water and epic water slides to bring joy to people of all ages. What if you want to bypass the crowds, though, and maybe you don’t want to be swimming (or waiting in line for slides) in the heat of the day? That’s where Universal’s $99 Volcano Bay Nights experience comes in, but is it really worth the cost? We found out!

Volcano Bay Nights takes place on select nights May 3rd through August 21st, and yes, the bulk of the event takes place after the sun has gone down and the heat of the day is long gone. The event is limited-capacity, meaning that lines for rides, food, and characters will be shorter than during the day. Yes, we said characters! You’ll be able to say hello to some of your favorite characters from Shrek and Madagascar, and we even spotted Hiccup and Astrid from How to Train Your Dragon!

It’s Hiccup and Astrid!

Feeling like you want to dance? Don’t miss checking out the Beach Bash at Waturi Beach with a live DJ — this is actually where we spotted Skipper from Madagascar breaking it down!

Skipper is ready to dance!

If you’ve been to Volcano Bay, you know that one of the most popular water slides is Krakatau. It’s essentially the Hagrid’s Magical Creatures Motorbike Adventure of the water park — it’s THAT popular! Yet, with the limited capacity of this event, we were able to walk right on MORE than once!

Ride Krakatau as many times as you’d like!

When it comes to the food you’re able to grab at the event, we loved that there was such a great variety! Our reporter has a few dietary restrictions and was concerned about what they’d be able to grab, but found that the Chorizo Tacos at the Feasting Frog are made with plant-based chorizo, so they were able to fully enjoy them! In our reporter’s experience, they were better than almost anything vegan at Disney World quick service restaurants — they just tasted like incredible tacos.

Chorizo Tacos

Not in the mood for tacos? Don’t worry, there are plenty of other dining options available, which we really appreciated. Snacks and a Coca-Cola Freestyle cup are included in the price of admission to this event, and to us, that’s an INCREDIBLE deal! Especially since the Epic Universe specialty flavors are available at the Freestyle machines, so if you haven’t yet been to Epic, or have visited and have been missing the flavors, you can snag them easily here.

The Epic Universe flavors are available!

Considering the fact that it can cost up to $199 to skip the lines at Volcano Bay during peak dates, we feel like you can’t afford NOT to spend $99 to skip the scorching midday sun, get included snacks, a Freestyle cup, and experience this fantastic park with so few people. This is a no-brainer if you don’t have a Universal Annual Pass that includes Volcano Bay. We understand how it would be hard to stomach paying an additional $99 when you’ve already paid so much for your pass, but we really believe this is a valid extra expense and still might be worth it. And even if you don’t have an Annual Pass, we feel this is the ONLY way to do Volcano Bay if you’re concerned about crowds, the heat, and getting to experience everything you want to. We’re so happy the event has been brought back, and hope it continues to be available for years to come!

Such an incredible event!

Looking for more recent Universal Orlando news to help you plan your upcoming trip? Check out our posts below!

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Disclosure: In nearly all circumstances, Disney Food Blog writers and photographers pay full price for their own travel, hotel, food, beverage, and event tickets. We do this because it’s important to us as journalists to ensure not only that we give you unbiased opinions, but also that you can trust us to do so since we’re paying our own way. On rare occasions, when we are invited by a company to attend a preview as media, and when we choose to accept that invitation, we will always make you, our readers, aware of that situation. Today, we were invited by Universal Orlando to attend Volcano Bay Nights. Note that when we attend events as media we are 1) Not required to review that event/food on any of our channels, and 2) Not required to review that event/food favorably. You can always count on DFB to give you a 100% unbiased and honest review of any event that we attend, food that we eat, or beverage that we drink. You can see more in our Disclosure Policy. Thank you for reading. — AJ