Is it difficult to get Hagrids VQ

[aeasterling]

Hi all - we are planning a Disney trip the last week of October and will spend one day at Universal. I think I am going to splurge on Express Passes. Harry Potter is our highest priority - we've been but it was 5 years ago, so we haven't ridden Hagrids. Because I'm an obsessive planner, I've been looking at the Virtual Queue website that someone here shared. I notice that the ride usually switches to VQ shortly after the general opening, but that it seems to go to unavailable within an hour. I don't think I've seen it available when I've looked later in the day.

What's the best method to get to ride if we only have one day? If we arrive before general opening, can we get in the physical line? TIA for all of your tips!

 

[serenitygr]

Also interested!

 

[MarcIsMe]

Unless you have early entry from staying onsite, your best bet will probably be the website virtual queue if they are still using it. When we went last month we got morning spots on both a Saturday and Sunday. I had bookmarked the website on my phone and about 15 minutes before official park opening; set up my party (how many people you want tied to the QR code) then kept refreshing until the queue opened. On Saturday we got an immediate line slot and on Sunday we got a 10:30 slot.

 

[gharter]

How crowded is it at early entry? Is this the ride most of the early entry run to? We aren't going till early next year, so I realize things may change by then.

 

[serenitygr]

If you have early entry, is there anyone allowed to just get in line? Or is it strictly virtual cue only?

 

[DoryGirl1963]

During early entry, anyone can get in line as long as the VQ hasn't gone into effect. Once it switches to VQ, then that's the only way to get in line & ride.

This assumes VQ continues to not go into effect until at or near regular park opening.

ETA: Yep, this is usually where most of the IOA EE crowd is going.

 

[BVarn]

I was able to ride multiple times each day using the VC. generally right after normal park opening then in the late afternoon. Didn’t do early entry.

 

[fivikse]

This seems to be a brand new system they are testing that changes daily, so things might be different in October. We were there Wednesday (Aug 4) until today (Aug 8). We had mixed results, but most days were able to get a spot (or two). It obviously depends on how crowded the park is. Our first day wasn't as crowded. I asked a worker if they dropped at specific times - he said yes and listed off some times. A lady near me overheard and after he left, she said he was wrong - that they release throughout the day. (?) She and I stood there and both got a time (We weren't near one of the times he had listed). That day was great and it let me reschedule a little when I needed.

The next few days it was more challenging. The ride goes down fairly often. That delays the times and then they have to move everyone. The app constantly changes the ride time without notifying you even if the ride doesn't go down. It would move me forward in time or backwards in time. Usually small amounts, but sometimes over an hour. If my phone is in a locker in the other park because I'm in line for a ride like RRR and it jumps me forward by an hour - that can cause a problem! It says it will let you push the time back. After that first day, it never let me. Either it just wouldn't adjust it, or it would and then a minute later bump it back forward. That was incredibly frustrating.

I had the best luck getting a spot right around 9:00 am. I was successful most days at other times, but some days it was just too complicated with dinner reservations etc. I like the system in theory, but in reality, there are some flaws. You do have to reset the app each day. Also, not sure you can reliably check if you are not on property while checking - you have to allow location services and you must be on site, so your tests might not be accurate. But I would just constantly refresh throughout the day and it would randomly pop up. If it goes down for a long time, your chances will be smaller.

That said - the ride was amazing! We loved it and got to ride multiple times!

 

[fivikse]

One other thing-

DH and I both set it up on our phones. That way we could both try for times and ride both times. (It doesn't care if you are in the same party). We could have also used the kids' phones, but they didn't carry them often. Even with all of the glitches, we were able to ride 2-3 times a day on three of our five days. The other two days I did get times, but they conflicted with other things after the app moved my time and it wouldn't let me reschedule so we couldn't use them.

 

[cschaaf]

It wasn't difficult for us to get a VQ reservation; it was hard for us to get one that worked out to a time we could use it.

We tried getting VQ on out three park days and got one each day. The initial times were never ideal (conflicts with meal reservations, etc.). We'd keep moving the reservation out as far as we could, but would get impacted by storms and/or the ride hitting capacity for the day.

We could have chosen to have been more flexible and tried to make one ore more of the times we got, we just didn't prioritize getting there.

 

[soniam]

I found doing it right when they release them in the morning to be the best. They release them before or at official park open time. Sometimes up to 10 minutes before that. So just start trying 15 minutes before opening casually, not every second, maybe every minute or so. If you are one of the first at the gates for EE (arrived ~1 hour before EE), then you may be able to just walk on for the first ride and have a slight wait for the second ride. If riding again, just leave your stuff in the locker. You can still get a shorter wait arriving closer to the EE start time. However, it fills up quick and will be a long wait by around 30 minutes into EE.

 

[laughinplace199]

Thanks for this info. We'll be there in a few days and we are looking forward to trying this ride for the first time!

 

[puffkin]

We had 1 morning to do IOA on our Disney trip last week. We have done several Universal trips over the year, so didn't feel a huge need to do anything except Velocicoaster which we just missed in April. We have AP's. We ended up booking a throwaway room at Endless Summer (cheapest option) for 1 night to get access to Early Entry. We were there last Wednesday. We had checked in and did dinner at City Walk the night before so we had our room keys. We drove over from our DVC resort that morning. Parking and security were very quick. The line was VERY long to get in IOA and stretched back to Big Fire, but once they started letting people in (about 7:45am) it moved very quickly and we were in and went straight into the Hagrid's queue about 7:55am. After getting through the lockers, we walked through most of the queue and waited less than 10 minutes to get on the ride. We then did the other two Harry Potter rides, hit the restrooms and were in line for Velocicoaster by 8:50am. We did a few other things standby, had lunch and were back at our Disney resort by 1pm. This worked out well for us as we didn't want to spend tons of time in the parks and mess around with virtual queues.

 

[CarolynFH]

Are the UOR hotels close enough to get a VQ? We'll be at RP, not likely to use EE, so I'd rather try for a place in the VQ from the hotel, but if I have to be in the parks, so be it!

 

[puffkin]

Are the UOR hotels close enough to get a VQ? We'll be at RP, not likely to use EE, so I'd rather try for a place in the VQ from the hotel, but if I have to be in the parks, so be it!

Yes you can do it from the room. The only hiccup will be that you won't know when/if they switch off standby to VQ so you will need to keep checking.