Hagrid's, Crowds, and More

[LSUfan4444]

How early is early to arrive at IoA on a Friday (10am opening) if Hagrids with minimal wait is the objective? Staying at Cabana Bay.

 

[SPSRAS]

How early is early to arrive at IoA on a Friday (10am opening) if Hagrids with minimal wait is the objective? Staying at Cabana Bay.

I would recommend parking at 9:15 to arrive at the gates at 9:30

 

[DoryGirl1963]

How early is early to arrive at IoA on a Friday (10am opening) if Hagrids with minimal wait is the objective? Staying at Cabana Bay.

If you're taking the Cabana Bay bus, I'd be at the bus stop at 9 to guarantee getting thru security & Citiwalk & at the gates at 9:30.

And the CBBR buses are awesome!

 

[DisPhanatic]

We just got back from the most fantastic day (8/19)! I was so worried about the crowds but I couldn’t have asked for better. My number one take-away is get there early. It did get crowded later in the day.
We arrived at the parking garage at 8:15. Stopped at Voodoo on the way in. There was a small group waiting for the gates to open and there was a minute of crowd squeezing through. It was our first visit and we actually had to stop and ask if we were going the right way to Diagon Alley because there was literally not another person is sight to follow! We stopped at Ollivanders to sign up and then got on Gringotts and did not see another person until the loading platform. We were the only people in most of the shops. We walked on the HE and had to wait just for the next train. Hagrids was posted 60 min. We waited 35 constantly moving. I loved that ride! We walked on to FJ twice, ate lunch at 3 Broomsticks - walked in. When we came out from lunch there was about 10 groups waiting to get in. We wanted to do Hagrids again but the line was back out to the talking fountain. It was pretty hot so we took a break in Suess land and rode the trolley. We then went back to Hagrids and the line was even shorter than the first time - we waited 15min. We then took HE back -waited about 10 min. We did Jimmy Fallon and Minions on the way out. I was super impressed with Universal and the guests. The employees were attentive and constantly cleaning. Other guests were generally respectful in lines and paying attention to the spacing. I honestly didn’t see more than a few people without masks on correctly. But they were always far away. A couple of times I passed too close with someone but it was really negligible. I hated wearing the mask - worst part of the day Anyway I hope this gives hope to those of you with upcoming trips! I think if you avoid weekends it should be good.

Yay!!!! This makes me so happy and excited to leave tomorrow. It sounds like you had an amazing day. I love Gringott's and cannot wait to check out what Hagrid is up to these days

 

[mrd7896]

We just got back from the most fantastic day (8/19)! I was so worried about the crowds but I couldn’t have asked for better. My number one take-away is get there early. It did get crowded later in the day.
We arrived at the parking garage at 8:15. Stopped at Voodoo on the way in. There was a small group waiting for the gates to open and there was a minute of crowd squeezing through. It was our first visit and we actually had to stop and ask if we were going the right way to Diagon Alley because there was literally not another person is sight to follow! We stopped at Ollivanders to sign up and then got on Gringotts and did not see another person until the loading platform. We were the only people in most of the shops. We walked on the HE and had to wait just for the next train. Hagrids was posted 60 min. We waited 35 constantly moving.

Oh that's awesome to hear! Sounds like a wonderful day.
In general, would you say that the posted wait times (whether in person or on the app) were overstated, accurate or understated?

 

[SPSRAS]

Oh that's awesome to hear! Sounds like a wonderful day.
In general, would you say that the posted wait times (whether in person or on the app) were overstated, accurate or understated?

They were consistently overstated and by a lot. Jimmy Fallon had 15 min posted and we were the only people in the theatre. As we entered Hogsmeade Station a team member told us it was a 30 min wait. We just had to wait for the next train. Hagrids was posted 60 and 75 min both times we rode we waited 30 and 15.

 

[mrd7896]

i can't tell if that's a good thing or frustrating. don't get me wrong seeing hagrids at an hour but it really only being half is AMAZING. but i wonder how many times i will walk away from a queue that is 50+ minutes, when in actuality it is only a fraction of the time. or vise versa, HOPE that it is a fraction of the time and it actually be 50 minutes or more.

guess it is all about expectations. enter a queue thinking it is going to be what the wait time posted and be pleasantly surprised if it is anything less.

 

[andieb0602]

I understand that the wait times posted are just an estimate, but I find them being grossly overestimated frustrating. Even with EPs I look at the wait times to determine whether or not we want to ride something. I know with social distancing it's a bit more difficult to predictably estimate a time (and they don't want to under-estimate) but at this point, I would think the predictions would be a bit better. Maybe they're building in extra cleaning time? I've noticed a lot of media/vloggers reporting the long wait times lately and, if I didn't know that the waits were inflated, I would reconsider going.

 

[SPSRAS]

i can't tell if that's a good thing or frustrating. don't get me wrong seeing hagrids at an hour but it really only being half is AMAZING. but i wonder how many times i will walk away from a queue that is 50+ minutes, when in actuality it is only a fraction of the time. or vise versa, HOPE that it is a fraction of the time and it actually be 50 minutes or more.

guess it is all about expectations. enter a queue thinking it is going to be what the wait time posted and be pleasantly surprised if it is anything less.

We were at Magic Kingdom today and experienced the same thing. The lines look really long but they are just so spread out. And every single line at both parks we were in was constantly moving so it never really felt bad. Today at MK our longest wait was for the Carousel as they stopped to disinfect it right before we got on. You will get used to ignoring the wait times pretty quickly...

 

[cubed]

We don't return to school until mid September so we've decided to head over from Thursday 9/3 - Monday 9/7. Planning on IoA/Hagrid on Friday morning in hopes of catching some weekday relief since we won't have EPs.

We are doing virtual school right now, with Wednesdays having zero live sessions. I am tempted to head to the parks the week of Labor Day but am still nervous about crowds. Weekdays seem to be a great time to go though.