Hagrid's Coaster Queue Updates / Questions / Reviews

[skylock]

Yes, I believe this is correct too. They were working around the availability of HP cast to be there.

I forgot about that. So they had a lot more pressure than they needed all the way around.

 

[skylock]

We were there 6/10-6/14. On the 12th, the day before the official grand opening, lots of people just "camped out" in the area anticipating a soft opening. We even fell victim to the hype and hung around Hogsmeade a little longer than we planned. We saw and spoke with Youtuber Rix Flix, super nice guy. Glad we had the opportunity to thank him in person for his great tips and info about Universal. Ironically we had just used one of his tips about the outside seating area behind Three Broomsticks. Anyway, he was planning to hang around all day because they were most certainly going to have a soft opening at point in time right? They always do. Well now we know they didn't because of ongoing issues.

We did get to ride Hagrid's on opening day. Yeah, we're part of the 10 hour club, almost sounds crazy to say that out loud . At one point in the queue we saw all three sets of motorbike cars come to a stop mid ride, out on the tracks. That was about an of hour ten hours, minus the 2 rain delays we had, hell we may have been riding within only 7-8 hours. Ha

Anyway I hope all the kinks get worked out soon. If anyone is going soon, I suggest you do whatever it take to ride because it is so much fun. We're big Disney fans but I have to say, Universal set the bar with this one.

Good luck to all

Exactly. On a new ride like this, it would definitely be expected to have soft openings.

No matter how many times they run empty cars, until the ride is run under load, they are never going to catch all the glitches.

 

[Bubbles3621]

Does anyone know what time the ride closed bc of capacity today??

 

[wendyt_ca]

My biggest question is does the ride have any spiders? And if so how are they involved.
I read on article that said it feels like there are spiders crawling all over you and as an arachnophobe that set me into panic mode. But I only saw this in one artlcle.

 

[MeridaAnn]

My biggest question is does the ride have any spiders? And if so how are they involved.
I read on article that said it feels like there are spiders crawling all over you and as an arachnophobe that set me into panic mode. But I only saw this in one artlcle.

Oh my gosh, no. That absolutely did not happen and I would have utterly freaked out. I don't remember even seeing any spiders/acromantulas and I just watched a POV video to confirm and again didn't see any in the video, either. But if there were supposed to be and the effect was off when I rode, someone please correct me, because that would be awful. I can't imagine they would do that, though, with as common as arachnophobia is.

I also realized from watching that POV video that *several* of the effects and animatronics weren't working when I rode it Saturday morning. I'm considering trying again this coming Saturday, and we'll see if I have any better luck this time around.

 

[Disxuni]

Whether they messed up, or not, the fact of the matter is, is that people who know their theme park history know that grand openings for the most part do not work out. Soft openings, or not, there is still always issues in the beginning even after the official opening, whether it's only a few, or a lot of problems. While nothing this drastic has occurred in a long time, all openings had rides with a few kinks in them.

What made me really roll my eyes is the amount of whining, complaining, and groaning of the people on the internet on how much of a disaster it was. While people have the right to feel that way and it only heightens the chances of that happen when you're standing around for hours and having the sun beat on you, I can't help to look away, because these people knew exactly what they were getting themselves into.

Even if soft openings occurred, the grand opening still would have had the same amount of whining.

You still had the abundance of people standing in line, you had the heat, you had the rain, and while you could have lessen the chances of technical difficulties, they still could have happened due to it the amount of frequency the ride was operating, or simply breaking down simply just, because it can, because rides no matter how new, or old do have technical difficulties. They would have still had to operate the ride until after hours due to the amount of people in the queue and still would have had to open late the next day due to maintenance.

 

[wendyt_ca]

Oh my gosh, no. That absolutely did not happen and I would have utterly freaked out. I don't remember even seeing any spiders/acromantulas and I just watched a POV video to confirm and again didn't see any in the video, either. But if there were supposed to be and the effect was off when I rode, someone please correct me, because that would be awful. I can't imagine they would do that, though, with as common as arachnophobia is.

I also realized from watching that POV video that *several* of the effects and animatronics weren't working when I rode it Saturday morning. I'm considering trying again this coming Saturday, and we'll see if I have any better luck this time around.

I only saw it on one article so I was hoping it wasn't accurate. Because that's exactly what I said to my husband! Why one earth would the add an element to make it feel like spiders are crawling on you! I have it timed and close my eyes in Forbidden Journey for the spider section (I've never actually seen it lol). But I could never handle feeling like they are crawling on me lol.

 

[yulilin3]

Currently in the single rider line. Been in it for 30 min, I think I have another 30 minutes to go.
The portion of this queue where it goes down stairs is truly stifling, awful. There's no air flow and it's very narrow. There were about 15 min there where I was about to leave the line it was that uncomfortable

 

[yulilin3]

Total wait time was actually 45 min.

 

[Disxuni]

Currently in the single rider line. Been in it for 30 min, I think I have another 30 minutes to go.
The portion of this queue where it goes down stairs is truly stifling, awful. There's no air flow and it's very narrow. There were about 15 min there where I was about to leave the line it was that uncomfortable

Thanks for the knowledge. So, only do SR if I want to wait only a few minutes. Typically, that is something I aim to do and typically can tell how long the wait will be depending on where the SR has ended, or how many people are in it since I've used all of them so frequently, but I'll definitely be running for the hills if I notice at the minimum of 10 people waiting, as while I can wait a little bit depending on the line, but even waiting 5-10 mins in that situation would probably be too much for me. It doesn't take much to get me sick if I feel hot.

 

[ThistleMae]

I just watched the video someone posted of the ride. It looks amazing, seems really long! I don't do any of the rides in Harry Potter land, and typically don't do coasters except for 7DMT at WDW. This ride looks like something I could do and have a blast riding that motorbike. As a "not a fan" of Universal except for a few rides, this one may make me a believer. And...I do love Diagon Alley, it just blows my mind.

 

[Jrb1979]

Maybe cause I don't get the love for Harry Potter but claiming its the best story coaster is beyond me. From the POV I have seen you fly past almost every show scene.

It's a shame that the best story coaster at Universal is in the studios park but causes its not Harry Potter it gets over looked. That coaster is the Mummy

 

[skylock]

I don't think the mummy gets over looked by most people unless you are one of those people that can only have interest in HP.

I always feel a twinge when someone comes on and states their only interest at universal is potter stuff. They are short changing themselves so much.

 

[Sehsun]

Does anyone know what time the ride closed bc of capacity today??

I don't know the exact time, but they were at least at capacity around 7:00 PM on Tuesday night.

Total wait time was actually 45 min.

That's awesome!

 

[snowwhite84]

I don't know the exact time, but they were at least at capacity around 7:00 PM on Tuesday night.



That's awesome!

At 8:20 the app was showing a 160 minute wait, wasn’t saying closed for capacity. Promising?

 

[Sehsun]

At 8:20 the app was showing a 160 minute wait, wasn’t saying closed for capacity. Promising?

I saw that! Definitely promising.

 

[SummerGirl]

At 8:20 the app was showing a 160 minute wait, wasn’t saying closed for capacity. Promising?

We were at IOA this evening. The ride had been closed due to weather for several hours. We had just rode Forbidden Journey & noticed they started a queue for Hagrid's. The line around 7:20 was almost to the entrance of Hogsmeade. The employees told us from this point "if they opened the ride", it would be a 3.5 hour wait "because the inside of the ride was full of people". We decided to wait it out & see if they were going to open it since storms were clearing. After about 25 or so minutes the ride started up, we were inside the castle at 8:02, & off the ride at 8:33. Total of 1 hour & that included waiting for the ride to even open. I felt like they didn't really want a large queue so they were discouraging people to wait. They also told us that the ride wouldn't start at park opening tomorrow, but to check the app around 12 or so to see what the wait is like. We initially planned to get to the park early tomorrow morning, but not sure what to do now??

 

[Disxuni]

We were at IOA this evening. The ride had been closed due to weather for several hours. We had just rode Forbidden Journey & noticed they started a queue for Hagrid's. The line around 7:20 was almost to the entrance of Hogsmeade. The employees told us from this point "if they opened the ride", it would be a 3.5 hour wait "because the inside of the ride was full of people". We decided to wait it out & see if they were going to open it since storms were clearing. After about 25 or so minutes the ride started up, we were inside the castle at 8:02, & off the ride at 8:33. Total of 1 hour & that included waiting for the ride to even open. I felt like they didn't really want a large queue so they were discouraging people to wait. They also told us that the ride wouldn't start at park opening tomorrow, but to check the app around 12 or so to see what the wait is like. We initially planned to get to the park early tomorrow morning, but not sure what to do now??

Very interesting report. It is a possibility they might have been discouraging people, but the fact that they won't be opening til around 12 is true, as they have officially announced on the website / app that a few days ago that they will not be opening the ride until mid-day for the next couple of weeks.

 

[TongaToast21]

.

 

[JOCCO]

Anybody in the parks who would be willing to mail me a map ? We were there this weekend, and I got my souvenir map with Hagrid's ride on the cover, and it got soaked (just like me!) on Sunday on our way out of the park and I couldn't get another.