Gringott's issues

[DCDisney]

I feel like I am a pretty informed visitor. I've been to Universal a number of times to the point where I don't need a map I'm somewhat of a ride weenie so I got every spoiler on FJ and tried to not get every detail on Gringotts though I read a number of articles. Important things though that I totally missed....

There are a ton of stairs, some twisting/turning, all dark and hard to see. I fell and broke a bone in my face about a year ago so now I'm insanely careful but these made me very nervous and in a more crowded condition or someone older than myself or with any balance or sight issues---yikes!

The way you sit in the ride vehicle forces your knees in the air and feet off the ground--at least for me and I'm 5'7. It was awkward and uncomfortable and I can't imagine getting stuck on there for any amount of time. I have a knee with a tiny pressure sensitive spot from my fall and it was very close to being extremely painful but I managed to turn a bit but for anyone with knee or hip issues--ouch!

This ride still goes down A LOT. They do NOT tell you the ride is down when you get in line. They do not adjust the wait time on the board until the ride re-starts. Our first EE day we got in line by 7:15 and it said 45 mins on the board. Turns out the ride was down when we got in line and went back up about 15 mins later. Line was really only about 30 mins. Our second EE day we were there at the same time. Board said 45 mins. Line was zigzagged through the whole room with the snack stand--day before no line at all in that room. They made an announcement (very hard to hear and pre-recorded so sounds like part of the ride) so we figured out it was down and walked out to find they were still not telling people the ride was down and it had been for over 30 mins and the board listed it as being well over 2 hours. When we specifically asked they said it would be the posted time once the ride even started up that did not include the outage and it had not been up at all so far that morning. They did close the single rider line when the ride was down though so if you see the single rider line down ASK if the ride is down. I think they just set the board for 45 for EE. I was so glad we had the sense to walk out because I would have freaked wasting over 2 hours in line.

 

[damo]

The ride's been running great the last couple of months but it sure has been having trouble this week.

Each row has you sitting a little bit differently for the stadium seating. There are elevators you can take if you have problems with the stairs. We had a wheelchair with us and the elevators were available to us. Same thing at Hogwart's Express.

 

[kbelle8995]

It went down when I was there as well. It is a new attraction and they have a tendency to do that.

Test Track when it opened broke down a lot. I too wondered about the amount of stairs they had.

I enjoyed the ride when it was working. It only broke down once while I was there. I liked it much better than FJ. I did single rider quite a bit.

 

[jeanico2000]

Each row has you sitting a little bit differently for the stadium seating.

I think you're right, Damo. We were in the 1rst row (2 of us are 5'3", and the other 6'1") and had absolutely no comfort issues. Fun ride, and no motion sickness issues for me (I can't ride FJ without going green, but this was great!)

Happy New Year to all!
xx

 

[HM]

We were there at 9:15pm on Dec 21 when it went down and wasn't likely to come back up, they said. We were just about to the elevators part if the preride . They offered a free express pass for anything else that was good for couple weeks. Unfortunately for us, we thought that was our last ride for the trip. (Turns out we could have gone back and tried again the next morning, but we declined the EP, drat.) they said it was not mechanical, and the ride needed to be rebooted.

 

[RocketCityMama]

So do your knees get jammed into the seat in front of you on this ride? I have 5'11ish and have issues on many rides. Dinosaur about killed me at AK and had to leave the park soon after because I hurt so bad. I also had issues on PoC there and had to turn sideways.

 

[pigletto]

So do your knees get jammed into the seat in front of you on this ride? I have 5'11ish and have issues on many rides. Dinosaur about killed me at AK and had to leave the park soon after because I hurt so bad. I also had issues on PoC there and had to turn sideways.

FWIW I just asked dh who is 6'2 if his knees or legs bothered him all on Gringotts and he said .."I don't recall anything bothering me." We were there the first week of December. Your legs don't touch the seat in front of you , but there is a weird leg restraint system. The second picture on this site shows the ride vehicle and how it works .
http://www.jaunted.com/travel-photo...rry+Potter+and+the+Escape+from+Gringotts+Ride

 

[damo]

So do your knees get jammed into the seat in front of you on this ride? I have 5'11ish and have issues on many rides. Dinosaur about killed me at AK and had to leave the park soon after because I hurt so bad. I also had issues on PoC there and had to turn sideways.

Ask to sit in one of the rear rows where your seat is higher and there is more legroom.

 

[RocketCityMama]

FWIW I just asked dh who is 6'2 if his knees or legs bothered him all on Gringotts and he said .."I don't recall anything bothering me." We were there the first week of December. Your legs don't touch the seat in front of you , but there is a weird leg restraint system. The second picture on this site shows the ride vehicle and how it works .
http://www.jaunted.com/travel-photo...rry+Potter+and+the+Escape+from+Gringotts+Ride

Ask to sit in one of the rear rows where your seat is higher and there is more legroom.

Thank you both so much, great information and very helpful!

 

[truck1]

From talking to someone that works at Gringotts, one of the main reasons for the sporadic running (for lack of a better term) is the ride safety sensors. Basically they are way too sensitive, and the only way to get them to perform as advertised it to put hours on them. When a sensor senses an issue, it basically stops the ride in a safe manner. Once the ride techs confirm that there was no issue, the ride has to be reset. Each time a sensor throws a fault.

For a long time, and probably still, they were running the ride 24/7 to break in the sensors.