Hagrid's Coaster Queue Updates / Questions / Reviews

[hhoope01]

We road this past Wednesday. The app said 90 minutes, but after 30 minutes we were at the main room just before you get on the ride. Right as we entered the main room, we were asked if we were willing to go through their "test" seating procedure (which took all of a couple of minutes.) We then were ushered right up to the ride. So we had a total of 35 minutes of waiting.

Unfortunately for us, it started to rain just after we got on the ride (and it started raining pretty hard.) Since we were already on the ride, we finished it. But we were totally soaked by the end of the ride. It was an interesting ride in the rain and they did shut it down right after us though.

 

[georgina]

Arrived at IOA around 11 this morning, app said 180. It went down to 150 and then 135, where it has stayed consistently. I got in line at 12:40, single rider was closed but just as we were about to enter the building they let us switch over. My wait was about 90 minutes total. Lucked out again by being paired with a woman who wanted the sidecar.
Parks quite crowded today being Saturday afternoon, FJ is up to 120 min.

 

[auralia]

Saturday October 12 we were at gate at 8 about 40 people back gates opened at 830 for a 9 am opening. General dash through suess straight into a line for hagrids if that was your destination.... we walked it fast pace many went in front of us...... the ride opened at 9 or sooner.... we were off at 945. Wait when we got off was listed at 150 minutes. Right now at 140 pm it says 135 minutes.

 

[MaskedRacer]

First time poster - we live about 2 hours away on the beautiful east coast of Florida and have been going to Universal 3, sometime 4 time a year for close to about 20 years. The last several we’ve enjoyed it with our awesome daughter


So last trip was about a week after Hagrids had opened and that was still when they were experiencing insanely long times (relatively speaking vs. now) and many more technical issues. We attempted to ride back then, got in the line with like 270 minutes showing, decided to shift over to the single rider. We stalled a few times after waiting ~3 hours - finally made it down the stairs, it was a hot one that was back in June! We finally made it into the final staging room and the line stopped and we got the technical issue messages - hung tough for another hour or so And it finally shut down, total time about 4.5 hours

I’ve been following this thread for several weeks, since we were headed back in October, excited about what appeared to be some improvement.

Well, we are here now, came in yesterday evening, our only real plan this trip was to ride Hagrid’s before we leave (on Monday).

We decided on queuing up early this morning - keep in mind it’s a bit crowded this weekend - so when we got to the gates at 8:30a there was already a big line, probably 250+ people packed up at the gate area.

The staff opened a touch early about 8:50a and everyone kind of flowed into lines, or line-like groups . We were into the park and at the end of the Hagrid’s line by about 9:10a at they had ropes starting that led us into the Sinbad attraction (which was kind of fun), by about 9:30a and at that time the app was showing 135 minute wait time.

From there it was an hour - we went through the regular line - got on the ride right at 10:30a. So 8:30a - 10:30a but other course 30 minutes of that was not park time.

The ride is spectacular! I’ll write up some additional thoughts later

Bonus: we hopped over to Forbidden Journey that showed 130 minutes- we went into the single rider line and we’re off it before 11a ! My wife and daughter even rode together

For the rest of the day the times mostly showed 135, there was a small window it was 150, and later this afternoon it dropped to 120 and had been like that till right now - still open at 5:42p.

 

[glamdring269]

Managed to ride this morning before heading to the airport. This time I took the sidecar and now know for sure that I definitely prefer the bike. Either way the ride is awesome and I hope they find a way to create more experiences like it.

 

[georgina]

I will echo the 2 posts above - it is a great ride! Home now and woke up to frost this morning

 

[BruinsDad]

We got in line a little after opening (9:15) and were told 4 hours so we got out. I ran into someone I was in line with later and they said it was actually 2.5 hours. We got back in line at 2:20 with a posted wait of 100 minutes actual wait time was 90 minutes. The water fountains and refreshment cart were handy.

 

[NYDisneyKid]

What I don't understand is why the single rider line doesn't start till half way through the line

 

[Disxuni]

What I don't understand is why the single rider line doesn't start till half way through the line

Well, technically SR queues are typically really short anyway.

They might change so you can go directly into the SR line once it's popularity cools down a little bit. For now, I have a feeling it's a tactic to lessen the chances of people using it strictly to get a lower wait time. Also, like I said, usually the queues for SRs are short, which is done as they're deemed unnecessary as they're not intended to be long and probably to know when a good cut off is when to stop accepting SRs.

 

[AngiTN]

Well, technically SR queues are typically really short anyway.

They might change so you can go directly into the SR line once it's popularity cools down a little bit. For now, I have a feeling it's a tactic to lessen the chances of people using it strictly to get a lower wait time. Also, like I said, usually the queues for SRs are short, which is done as they're deemed unnecessary as they're not intended to be long and probably to know when a good cut off is when to stop accepting SRs.

What does this mean? Is there some rule that says a guest can't opt to go single rider on any ride just to get a lower wait time? Does Universal care why a particular person gets on the single rider line. To my knowledge the only stipulation attached is you will ride single. As in not with your party, though sometimes you get really lucky. I'm unaware that there is any other requirement to use it.

 

[Disxuni]

What does this mean? Is there some rule that says a guest can't opt to go single rider on any ride just to get a lower wait time? Does Universal care why a particular person gets on the single rider line. To my knowledge the only stipulation attached is you will ride single. As in not with your party, though sometimes you get really lucky. I'm unaware that there is any other requirement to use it.

No, there isn't a rule, but we all know very well that a lot of people do use it only to get a lower wait time. Universal created it for a specific purpose and I think Universal is seeing a pattern of it becoming an issue of people excessively using it, which is causing them to shut it down. While it's been two years since I've been to the park, Gringott's was notorious for this issue, even with it being open for a couple of years.

Does Universal care why people use it? Probably not. What we do know is regardless it is a problem and while Universal supports the right for people to use it (as they do not create rules for those lines, nor remove the SR option all together) they might at the same time think it might be necessary to think of other ways on how to keep it under control. As regardless of the rights of the guest, they do not spend the time and effort in creating an SR queue only to use it a minimal of the time due to excessive use and have to have TMs distracted on spending extra time and effort on keeping an eye on it and opening / closing it.

 

[Starlite66]

Our experience was different from what I've followed over the last few weeks so something must have been off. Arrived at entrance at 8:10, followed crowd in, were in line by the Kebab House when queue and ride opened at 9:30. TM had told us it would be 30-45 mins from that point once the ride opened, that ended up being 2 hours and we didn't get on the ride until 11:35. Had we have realized that we would not have waited. We had never ridden before so the queue was very frustrating not knowing what was next or how close we were to the end. We were doing baby swap which was painful, Disney's process is much better as the non riders don't have to wait in line. We hadn't used it all week since we had express pass. Our 5 year old qualifies for a disability pass but again we didn't get one since we had express pass. Now realizing that our 2 and 5 year olds had to wait in line with us at Hagrid's we would have gotten and utilized the disability pass just for that ride.

 

[baseballgal]

Because I followed this topic intently before our trip last week, I decided to post about our experience this past week. We rode Hagrid's twice, so everyone in our party of 4 got to ride in both the motorcycle and the side car. We arrived last Thursday and were staying at Loews for the first part of our trip, so we had both the express pass and early entry on Thursday and Friday. (Not that it helped us ride Hagrid, but did affect the decisions we made as what we wanted to do with our time.) Since we knew we wouldn't have express on our last day (which was Sunday), I knew we could wait in the line without "wasting express pass time" BUT I also didn't want to take the chance of the ride being down and missing it all together. We went to the studios both Thursday and Friday morning for the early entry first. Then despite what I read, decided to try taking the train back to IOA and getting in the line for Hagrid. First mistake was not getting to the train station quick enough. Even with the express pass, we missed the first train of the day. Second, as was mentioned here, once we got to IOA we had to walk down past the line to try find the end as more and more people were getting in the queue. At that point (around 9:25), the cast member was saying to expect at least 2 hr wait. We didn't want to spend our first morning waiting, so we decided to try later. Since it was my kids (ages 9 and 11) first trip to Universal, we instead tried to get on as many rides as possible using the express pass and enjoyed riding their favorites multiple times. On Friday, I knew I wanted to try and get on Hagrids but still didn't want to give up the early morning hours to wait in line, so I set my phone to notify me if the line went below 90 minutes. Around 1:30 (close to the 2:00 parade, maybe??), I saw it was at 85 minutes. We had just finished lunch at 3 Broomsticks, so we headed there. The line queue said 120 but my app still said 85, and we got in line. We waited just a little less than the 2 hours (but more than the 85 minutes) and as far as I know, there were no delays on the ride. So the app was off a good bit. We all LOVED it but the line was back at 180 when we got off and no one wanted to wait again. Sunday morning, we went straight to IOA arriving at the entrance around 8. About 30 people in front of us. They started letting us in about 8:50 and we walked as quickly as possible (with a good many running past us) and got in line. Waited about 35 minutes - with a lot of that being steady walking through the queue. Everyone loved it again but the line was at 4 hours shortly after we got off! We were thrilled we got to ride it twice and decided to head to Volcano Bay to end our weekend. (Unrelated, I loved the tapu tapu system there!) As for the ride - I loved the smoothness (especially after all the jerky motion simulator rides), the speed and without giving away details, it definitely provided the thrills my kids are always looking for. All in all, a successful trip.

 

[georgina]

I agree with the above about single rider lines. If so many people get in it that it is essentially useless, might as well make everyone go through the regular line. As a frequent solo traveler/single rider, I appreciate Universal having SR lines. I don't mind if groups of adults go in it if it is significantly shorter, but if it becomes overwhelmingly long it doesn't do anyone any good. I did see an issue with the SR line at FJ on Saturday, as a whole family with small children were in it, not understanding what it was.

 

[Lashed34]

Maybe they should give out single rider passes for people to use on entry.

 

[mfly]

Rode today. Hagrid’s was listed as opening at park open until a few minutes before the park actually opened - then it changed to delayed. Reopened ~9:30, but the line jumped nearly immediately to 120 minutes. Team Members we’re reporting that they expected the line was closer to 3 hours. We waited to ride until right at 1, since the ride was posted as closing early today. Wait time was still posted as 120 minutes, actually took 75 minutes. We loved it! All of us said it was definitely worth the wait and was the best of the HP rides (even one of us who hates thrill rides).

 

[pepperandchips]

We got in line today at 11:54 with a posted wait time of 105 minutes. We actually waited about 65 minutes and did not hear any announcements of delays or breakdowns. We loved it!!!

The TM who was asking about party sizes was proactively asking the odd numbered groups of people whether the single from that party wanted the bike, and if so, was instructing the person from the single rider line to follow them and take the sidecar.

 

[Disxuni]

I agree with the above about single rider lines. If so many people get in it that it is essentially useless, might as well make everyone go through the regular line. As a frequent solo traveler/single rider, I appreciate Universal having SR lines. I don't mind if groups of adults go in it if it is significantly shorter, but if it becomes overwhelmingly long it doesn't do anyone any good. I did see an issue with the SR line at FJ on Saturday, as a whole family with small children were in it, not understanding what it was.

Yes, this is another issue that gives TM a little extra work / awkwardness to deal with. I've had moments where at the end there is the moment of having to tell a family they would all be separated only for this to be complete news to them, as well as several people starting to head for the SR line simply, because they happen to see one, or two people around the same time go into that line. With situations such as this, I've even seen TMs ask guests if they were SRs with them confessing of being unaware it was a SR line, walking out, and go to the regular queue.

Once again, all guests have the right to do whatever they wish and misunderstands happen all the time, but it's just something else to consider why Universal might want more control on the SR line. Considering how many stories I've heard on this thread of people saying they would be in the regular queue, a TM would randomly ask them if they were a SR and take them off to the side to join the SR line when it was stated it was closed. Whether it was then announced open after the fact and that is why, I do not know, but it's a story I've heard multiple times from different guests.

 

[Spike101]

I rode it last Wednesday, got to the gates at IOA at 7.25 so was right at the front, they let us in at about 8.45, I half speed walked/ran, terrible I knew but got caught up in the frenzy and excitement of it all, anyhoo got to the bit where they hold you just before Hogsmeade about 7th in line behind half a dozen kids, obviously all younger and faster than me!

However, very shortly after, most of these kids were joined by the rest of their families, who the team members let in the front of the queue to join their little darlings, who they'd obviously sent ahead to bag a place at the front, very unfair I thought, it seems petty to moan, but I knew I'd drop back a few places having to put my backpack in a locker, but still, if the ride had gone down after the first couple of cycles, the fact that I'd been pushed even further down the line would have left me feeling a tad unhappy to say the least.

Anyhoo, they let us into Hogsmeade at about 9.20 and I was on the ride at 9.35, I could have had the cycle but opted instead for the sidecar on the back row, much to the surprise of the chap I sat next to, and in hindsight that was the right decision, I wouldnt have felt secure on the bike but in the sidecar I was fine, and wow, in the back row, that ride is FAST!

So all in all loved the ride, glad I got to do it but in all honesty wouldnt put myself through all that again.

 

[MaskedRacer]

Back home! What a __great__ long weekend, HHN '19 was epic We had terrific luck with lines, weather was amazing, food was all delicious (highly recommend checking out Bar 17 on top of the Aventura, it's semi-open and a spectacular view).

So per my post above, we rode Hagrid's saturday, we skipped trying on Sunday, and figured we'd give it a shot Monday. This time, we didn't do an early gate, slept in, figured we'd try a late morning / early afternoon ride. We got over to the park, zero lines to get in (it was kind of quiet-ish), checked the time for Hagrid's saw a 120 minutes, figured we'd give it a shot, walked into the actual outside queue and stopped in line right at 11:45a. The line chugged along pretty decently, a few extra pause here and there - when we got to the SR split, it was closed, we had intended to try that this pass.

At least one time in the first 30 minutes, we saw the wait time drop to 105, but it was mostly 120 (we checked it as long we could before we lost connectivity).

When we got down to the the last part of the line, under the see through ceiling, there were actually people over in the SR line. <meh_face>

Same drill as Saturday, 3 of us, wife and daughter had a car, I was the odd man out I got asked this time if I wanted sidecar or cycle, I almost took the sidecar since I did the cycle previously, but decided to ride it again, the ladies swapped seats this time!

We were off the ride at 12:55p, so 1h 10m with 120 minute wait time shown - I will say we had a couple of what felt like slightly longer pauses in the line movement than I recall from Saturday (even knowing there's a controlled stop in the middle of the line for a mini show). I did check when we sat down at Cowfish around 1:45p, and it was showing 150 minutes.

2nd time was even better than the first, the coaster elements are spectacular, the theming is good, it's nice and long, riding the bike is very open and thrilling, but the wife said the sidecar actually felt faster and a little more intense/kinetic vs. more flow on the cycle. I'll definitely have to try it next time.