Hagrid's Coaster Queue Updates / Questions / Reviews

Well, if you get there well before opening the concept is once it's officially open and there is no delay in opening, you can be done within 9:30-10AM since you're one of the first groups there. That way you spent all your time waiting prior to the park being open and once you're done you can do the rest of what you want to do.

However, at the same time, people have been having good luck in the afternoon and due to them having an over estimation of wait times (to compensate if there is a delay), guests have been having a less wait time if there is no delays, or weather interruption.

At this point, it's the question of how much you wait to wait, when you want to wait, and what kind of risk you want to take, because both methods are still not 100% yet.
I agree and typically like to do my extra waiting before a park opens. We’re coming from western Canada so with the 3 hour time difference the afternoon seems more appealing rather than the early morning! We have Express Pass so I’m hoping that will help us get the other rides done quicker to allow for the wait for Hagrid.
 
We were at both parks on Saturday. Upon park opening the line immediately was showing 210 minutes on the app so we decided against it. We were at US about 1:30pm when the app started showing shorter wait times with the shortest being 100 minutes. We left US and arrived at IOA via Hogwarts Express at 3:11pm and the time had jumped up to 180 minutes. Got in line anyway. Several delays, assuming they were technical issues since they didn't say weather delays, but we were off the ride within two hours. Not bad in my opinion.

The only complaint is several of the fans in the line were not working. It's so extremely hot this time of the year, they all should be on. It was really unbearable at some points without them but we managed. Hopefully they will be fixed soon. If you are entering the line now and have a wait, be sure to get something to drink before entering or take a water bottle that you don't mind throwing away (before you board the ride) through the line with you. You'll need it until you get to the inside portion. We had to buy a $5 bottle that they sell during the wait. It was worth it but hate I didn't go prepared.

This is the third time we've ridden. I still like the sidecar best. I'm not a thrill ride person but if you are, ride the motorbike.
 
I've tried a quick search but nothing has come up.
Is this ride included if you do a public VIP tour?
I am guessing it's not since there's no EP but really not sure since we've never done a VIP tour. Not sure exactly how they work
 
I've tried a quick search but nothing has come up.
Is this ride included if you do a public VIP tour?
I am guessing it's not since there's no EP but really not sure since we've never done a VIP tour. Not sure exactly how they work
It’s included in the tour. You’ll just enter the exit rather than wait in queue.
 


We are going to be there Friday the 30. Do you think it'll be slower because of SWGE? We do have EP but I'm assuming it can't be used on Hagrids. We just have one day there before going to Disney and I don't want to miss this ride! We're probably getting to Uni around 10. What's the best strategy? All the other rides take EP right?? Thanks!
 
No EP and I don't believe GE will have any impact on Uni at all.
Or, it may make it more crowded. We are going to GE and we are tacking on a day at Uni since we are there anyway.
But I don't think or see how it will shift crowds away from Uni.
 


No EP and I don't believe GE will have any impact on Uni at all.
Or, it may make it more crowded. We are going to GE and we are tacking on a day at Uni since we are there anyway.
But I don't think or see how it will shift crowds away from Uni.
Okay thanks. So you suggest doing that ride first so I make sure we can ride? Is any other ride excluded from EP? I'd love to ride the other HP rides multiple times and drink butterbeer. Thanks!
 
We were there on this past Saturday. After following this thread for the past several weeks, I decided to try the early afternoon approach. We spent the morning at Volcano Bay, left around noon to the hotel to change, then went to Universal. We arrived at the Hagrid's line at exactly 2:00pm. The posted wait time was 150 minutes. The line moved smoothly and we were nearly on the ride when they announced a delay. Luckily, the delay lasted only 5 minutes and we were on the ride after exactly 65 minutes. Everyone enjoyed the ride and we were pleased with the wait time strategy.
 
Good luck!
We are at the gate to IOA right now - been here since 7:45 am, it’s now 8:20 and rhe gate is not yet open.
I estimate that we are about 30 people back in line. I’ll post our results when we get them.
we were off the ride at 10:45. Considering that I was with teens that were hard to herd, I’ll take it. I think if I had been at the gate 30 minutes earlier, I would have been off it 90 minutes sooner.
 
My family rode this morning, Tues 8/13. We had originally planned to do it in the early afternoon but it just didn't work out.

Got to the gates at 7:30, about 15 people from the front. We moved up to Seuss Land at 8:30. At 8:50 me moved towards The Lost Continent and were in the ride que by 9:00. We got on the ride at 10:00.

Unfortunately, when you move from the gates to Seuss Land a large portion of the crowd will run, disregarding everyone but themselves. Also, when moving to the Lost Continent many people will run again, until you are corralled in a narrower roped off walkway. One woman actually put her forearm into my wife's back and pushed her out of the way so her family could "get around the outside". The couple standing next to us at the gates were runners. I saw them on the ride as we got to the main ride que. So acting like an animal did save them an hour.

Great ride!!!
 
We were crazy and stood in line for 3hrs on Sat in the heat. We got there at 9:04am and joined the line when you just came over the bridge from Seuss land. The line moved very quickly but slowed when we hit the talking fountain. There was one spot where people "joined" the line that really ticked me off. The staff didn't notice as they had their back to the area so hard for them to see but they should rope it off. It was where the Kebab house is I think. They joined the line behind us and some people made comments that they were jumping the line but they didn't care. Single rider was open and we were going to go that route but decided just to wait it out.

We got off the ride at 12:04pm and all of us thought the ride was worth the wait. And totally appreciate the maintenance the ride must have. It is fantastic.

We did notice the line didn't seem as long later in the afternoon so if you don't want to wait go that route. On Sunday it seemed to be down several times but when we were there late afternoon, the line was inside the ride so don't think it was more than 1hr 30mins.

It is a great ride!
 
I'm really surprised they haven't tried to incorporate a line concept from the beginning like they used to do during EE when IoA was open for it ages ago. I think that would stop a lot of the running in front of everyone else issue. You could go to the direction of Marvel (where people with no EE stood), or go towards Suess Land, where they had a roped line / queue, that could probably fit 3-4 people if they stood from one rope to the other.

I would imagine if they adopted that concept, as well as had a line of TA's in front of you, it would definitely decrease the rope drop issue of people running and essentially cutting everyone who had actually waited, especially if it was packed in like a queue, as there would essentially be nowhere to run unless you literally want to plow and purposely shove everyone to get to the front.

While rope drops are just as crazy as Disney, I do notice that when things are officially "open", that in the areas where CMs have held off people, that once they start moving forward (depending on what area and park you're in) people will respect that CM and not plow through, or past them. Sometimes it works, sometimes it does, but I would imagine if there were a line of TAs it would definitely lessen the running, especially if they had a big 'ol speech prior to opening the park.
 
I hate the running. It’s going to take someone getting hurt for them to put a stop to it. And it won’t be the people running getting hurt. It’ll be someone else.

I just don't understand why they're doing it that way. During opening weekend, they had fencing set up so that it was a narrower pathway that prevented people from passing each other (and let them fill up most of the line right away without having to hold the crowd at Seuss).

It's unsafe for people to run, but with the current system, it's the only way to get on the ride quickly, so Universal is causing it to happen - they're telling people not to run with their words, but their actions (doing nothing to enforce that) tell people to do the opposite. Universal is not helpless here - they are causing the running by not having a better system in place.

It's also utterly unfair to anyone with physical/health difficulties that make it impossible to run. Bad enough that they're punishing those of us who choose to follow the rules, but they are making it impossible for someone with a cane or wheelchair, etc. to get to the ride in the front of the group, no matter how early they are at the gate.

It would be such an easy fix - either put the extra fencing back up and keep people in a line right from the start, or at least block off one of the two paths through Seuss and actually walk the group back to the line the way they do at Disney. This free-for-all is dangerous and unfair and starts off a lot of peoples' days with a bad taste in their mouth (for missing out because they're trying to do the right thing). And it's just totally unnecessary.
 
I just don't understand why they're doing it that way. During opening weekend, they had fencing set up so that it was a narrower pathway that prevented people from passing each other (and let them fill up most of the line right away without having to hold the crowd at Seuss).

It's unsafe for people to run, but with the current system, it's the only way to get on the ride quickly, so Universal is causing it to happen - they're telling people not to run with their words, but their actions (doing nothing to enforce that) tell people to do the opposite. Universal is not helpless here - they are causing the running by not having a better system in place.

It's also utterly unfair to anyone with physical/health difficulties that make it impossible to run. Bad enough that they're punishing those of us who choose to follow the rules, but they are making it impossible for someone with a cane or wheelchair, etc. to get to the ride in the front of the group, no matter how early they are at the gate.

It would be such an easy fix - either put the extra fencing back up and keep people in a line right from the start, or at least block off one of the two paths through Seuss and actually walk the group back to the line the way they do at Disney. This free-for-all is dangerous and unfair and starts off a lot of peoples' days with a bad taste in their mouth (for missing out because they're trying to do the right thing). And it's just totally unnecessary.

Not only that, but even let's say they did not do this at all, I do think (believe it, or not) that if they had a little announcement prior to "releasing the hounds" so to speak I think it would set a different tone.

It's one thing to release everyone and then suddenly shout, "don't run, don't run" as all the guests zoom past everyone and TMs really do nothing against it (more than likely to prevent themselves from getting hurt). However, while it wouldn't prevent everyone, I do believe guests would act differently if TMs did a little announcement prior to letting guests in and would help if at the minimum had a TM 4-5 feet apart from each other leading people to the charge, their arm out if anyone passes.

Do not know what exactly happens now, as I've never been there to see it for myself, but people have mentioned more than once that TMs are involved, but don't do anything, so I wonder where they're walking, or standing when chaos happens, but I have a feeling that if they did even something similar to this, that it might lessen the blow / running a little bit.
 
Not only that, but even let's say they did not do this at all, I do think (believe it, or not) that if they had a little announcement prior to "releasing the hounds" so to speak I think it would set a different tone.

It's one thing to release everyone and then suddenly shout, "don't run, don't run" as all the guests zoom past everyone and TMs really do nothing against it (more than likely to prevent themselves from getting hurt). However, while it wouldn't prevent everyone, I do believe guests would act differently if TMs did a little announcement prior to letting guests in and would help if at the minimum had a TM 4-5 feet apart from each other leading people to the charge, their arm out if anyone passes.

Do not know what exactly happens now, as I've never been there to see it for myself, but people have mentioned more than once that TMs are involved, but don't do anything, so I wonder where they're walking, or standing when chaos happens, but I have a feeling that if they did even something similar to this, that it might lessen the blow / running a little bit.

On my last visit, they did have a pretty extensive shouted speech right before releasing everyone explaining that the ground was wet and that for safety reasons everyone needed to walk and not run. They repeated this multiple times in the 15 minutes leading up to the release and it had absolutely no impact on the runners.

There were, I think 4-5 TMs at the holding place leading into Seuss, but they stepped out of the way when they released the crowd, a few more TMs at the entrance to the holding area at Sinbad, and some TMs getting ready at shops and other areas along the route in between, but no one doing anything to actually lead/control the line other than occasional shouts of "please don't run".
 
This may have been asked somewhere in the previous 32 pages but I do not have the time to read thru all of them :confused3 soooooo we are going to have 2 pre-teen kids with us. With the long wait time is there consideration to take kids from line for bathroom breaks or is it you leave you cannot go back in?
 
On my last visit, they did have a pretty extensive shouted speech right before releasing everyone explaining that the ground was wet and that for safety reasons everyone needed to walk and not run. They repeated this multiple times in the 15 minutes leading up to the release and it had absolutely no impact on the runners.

There were, I think 4-5 TMs at the holding place leading into Seuss, but they stepped out of the way when they released the crowd, a few more TMs at the entrance to the holding area at Sinbad, and some TMs getting ready at shops and other areas along the route in between, but no one doing anything to actually lead/control the line other than occasional shouts of "please don't run".

Good to know a little more insight on what actually happens.

It doesn't help them breaking away once the release happens. While it's the smartest thing to do to prevent themselves from getting hurt, at the same time them breaking away like that invites the idea of guests to make a break for it and run after all and essentially not take it seriously. It's easier said then done, but if they do not trust them and move away, then they're going to give them a reason to not trust them and run.

Going back to Disney rope drop experiences, I noticed that in areas in which are narrower and CMs have their arms out, or bonus if there are two CMs doing that once the official release happens it tends to keep people at bay. It doesn't tend to get hectic until the area gets wider and the CM, or two CMs moves out of the way.

It depends on what park and what areas you're trying to get into the park as some are just purely crazier than others. However, I do believe it's a combination of them standing their ground, how many CMs, or TMs are involved, and how narrow, or big the area is.
 

GET A DISNEY VACATION QUOTE

Dreams Unlimited Travel is committed to providing you with the very best vacation planning experience possible. Our Vacation Planners are experts and will share their honest advice to help you have a magical vacation.

Let us help you with your next Disney Vacation!






Top