lvcourtneyy
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Nov 24, 2012
Attempt #1 to ride Hagrid's
Very reluctantly, I left Diagon Alley in search of food that would appeal to everyone. We ended up going to Fast Food Boulevard in the Simpsons area, just because it had the biggest variety of options.
If you're unfamiliar, it's basically a Simpsons' themed food court with one big line that you wait on to get food from 4 or 5 (I think?) different places. The good news is generally it's easy for everyone to find something they want. The bad news is that the line is usually long because it's one line for so many places.
Today was no exception. The line was long and we were all getting hangry. I went into the Universal app on my phone and discovered they had their own version of mobile ordering that I didn't know about previously.
(I'm not really sure what's happening in this gif but it's a little creepy and made me laugh hysterically)
The mobile order process went smoothly enough and we hopped out of line to find a table. I went to the pickup window before it said the order was ready because I had a question and I found a very nice TM being harassed by 4 young men trying to get beers filled in their refillable cups. They were claiming to only speak Spanish and the poor TM was trying to fill orders and also find someone to come speak to them in Spanish but eventually they walked away laughing and said (in perfect English), it was worth a try.
My question was- when we mobile ordered, the only drink that came up as an option to order was Buzz Cola which I guess is a drink in the Simpsons (never watched the show
) and it was described basically as a cherry flavored Coke. Mike and Steve were fine with this but I really just wanted Diet Coke. So I just wanted to know if I could have that instead of the Buzz Cola and the TM was so frazzled that he was confused about why I ordered Buzz Cola if that's not what I wanted. Finally, I got him to understand that the app didn't give me another option and all was well and i got my Diet Coke. I hope that young man had a break coming soon!
Apparently, I only took a picture of my own food but I ordered the Basket O' Shrimp combo with Kurly fries.
As you can see it was given to me with tater tots at first but the TM just gave me an order of Kurly fries in addition.
Mike got the Krusty Burger combo with Kurly fries and Steve got the Buffalo Chicken Arms combo with Kurly fries. Everyone enjoyed their deliciously unhealthy fried lunch and was ready to enjoy some more fun afterwards.
Our plan was to go over to Islands of Adventure to try our luck at getting on Hagrid's. I wanted to take the Hogwarts Express over but the wait time was over an hour so we used the good old-fashioned walking path.
On our way out of the park, we saw Beetlejuice outside meeting and meeting him was on my must-do list so I was very excited!
He was on the run inside because the Horror Makeup Show was starting. I think Steve said he'd seen it but Mike and I hadn't so we decided to watch it.
There was no time to hang out in the lobby since the show was starting soon but it looked cool from the glance we got.
I had no idea what to expect from the show but - oh my, it was HYSTERICAL. I was laughing almost the whole time. One of the lines they used was "This isn't Disney- I don't have to be nice to the kids"
I was dying. If you're going to Universal, I definitely recommend seeing it!
The gift shop afterwards had all kinds of Universal Monsters props and merchandise.
There was also Gremlins merchandise and I almost bought one of the stuffed ones because they're so cute and we loved this movie as kids!
We also saw this Stranger Things set-up which I'd seen on social media as something that was open only during HHN so I told Mike we had to come back.
As we continued towards the exit, Steve pointed out the UOAP lounge.
They sell AP exclusive merchandise there as well as Coke products and there's some limited seating. They also give out a pin and a magnet each month so we went in quickly to pick up the pin (the magnets had run out).
We also passed the building where the Bourne Stuntactular will be opening soon (I hear they're having TM previews now).
I'm excited to see something new but it seems an odd choice to me. I remember going with my dad to see the first Bourne Identity movie when I was in middle school and had a random day off that my other siblings didn't have so it felt really special lol but um... that was a really long time ago.
I was very excited to see the ice cream truck outside the Killer Klowns HHN house! It was my favorite scare zone last year so I couldn't wait to see it as a house this year and of course had to pose for a picture with the truck.
Our last stop before leaving for Islands of Adventure was at Shrek 4-D because we walked past and saw no line.
Some of the posters in the line poked fun at Disney and this one particularly entertained me.
The show is fun (similar in concept to the Philharmagic and It's Tough to Be a Bug) except the seats move too so it's a little more thrilling. It doesn't make our must do list but I like Shrek and will do it once a trip especially with no wait.
We stopped for a picture on our way out to use our photo package for the first time.
At the time we didn't know it but we quickly learned that the Universal photgraphers have 4 standard poses they run you through: normal, peace sign, thumbs up and a hug. The novelty wore off quickly.
Then we walked over to Islands of Adventure and entered the park just before 4:30.
We veered right towards Seuss Landing and found some construction walls.
Mike was making fun of me because I watch vloggers all the time and he asked what the construction walls were for and I said I didn't know lol. But afterwards, I saw Tim Tracker had posted a video from Universal around that time and said he didn't know why they were there either so I made Mike watch it too lol.
Soon enough we were entering Hogsmeade.
It was crowded but not the worst I've ever seen it.
We got to the entrance of Hagrid's at 4:35 to a posted 90 minute wait.
This was the lowest we'd seen it all day and Mike's nephew said usually 90 minutes means closer to 45-60 minutes so we figured now was the time to try.
The line had some gorgeous views of Hogwarts castle.
Of course, I took the opportunity to pose for a picture which apparently irritated the people behind us. Everyone else was doing it and it's a 90 minute line, I don't think waiting an extra 30 seconds to walk is going to make a difference. #justsaying
Hagrid's hut was in the queue which was cool but I think it'd be even cooler if they'd made it that you walk through the hut in the line!
We were moving almost constantly and were feeling good about our wait.
I loved this wall with Buckbeak on it!
Things were going well until about 5:20 which Steve said we had one more hallway and one more room before the loading area. And we stopped moving. We were indoors and had no way of seeing what was happening outside but eventually an announcement came that the ride was delayed for weather.
We decided to wait it out since we'd already invested almost an hour and we were pretty close. The weather radar looked like the storm should pass quickly.
So we sat. And waited. We played endless games of heads up.
We made friends with the groups of people in front of us.
Little by little, people left the line and we moved up a little.
And then it was 6:30. We were all getting cranky in line and debated what to do. If we left the line at this point, we got nothing for all the time we wasted in line. If Universal dumped the line, we got passes to come back another day to the ride. If the ride reopened, we'd be on in about 15-20 minutes based on Steve's estimate.
In the end, we decided to wait it out. The park was closing at 8 pm and we had dining reservations back at Disney at 8:25 that we pushed back to 8:45. In our wait time, we learned that they had to wait 30 minutes after a lightning strike to run the ride again. Finally at 7:30, there was lightning in the area again and the call was made that the ride couldn't reopen again that day and we'd all get Ruby passes to come back another day. I felt terrible for the family in front of us with two young girls who waited it out until about 7:10 and decided to leave the line and ended up with nothing for all that time.
However, the group that had been in front of them was 5 DCP girls who had rode already and said they wouldn't make it back to Universal before the end of their program and they gave us their passes also! It was so sweet!
Very reluctantly, I left Diagon Alley in search of food that would appeal to everyone. We ended up going to Fast Food Boulevard in the Simpsons area, just because it had the biggest variety of options.
If you're unfamiliar, it's basically a Simpsons' themed food court with one big line that you wait on to get food from 4 or 5 (I think?) different places. The good news is generally it's easy for everyone to find something they want. The bad news is that the line is usually long because it's one line for so many places.
Today was no exception. The line was long and we were all getting hangry. I went into the Universal app on my phone and discovered they had their own version of mobile ordering that I didn't know about previously.
(I'm not really sure what's happening in this gif but it's a little creepy and made me laugh hysterically)
The mobile order process went smoothly enough and we hopped out of line to find a table. I went to the pickup window before it said the order was ready because I had a question and I found a very nice TM being harassed by 4 young men trying to get beers filled in their refillable cups. They were claiming to only speak Spanish and the poor TM was trying to fill orders and also find someone to come speak to them in Spanish but eventually they walked away laughing and said (in perfect English), it was worth a try.
My question was- when we mobile ordered, the only drink that came up as an option to order was Buzz Cola which I guess is a drink in the Simpsons (never watched the show
) and it was described basically as a cherry flavored Coke. Mike and Steve were fine with this but I really just wanted Diet Coke. So I just wanted to know if I could have that instead of the Buzz Cola and the TM was so frazzled that he was confused about why I ordered Buzz Cola if that's not what I wanted. Finally, I got him to understand that the app didn't give me another option and all was well and i got my Diet Coke. I hope that young man had a break coming soon!Apparently, I only took a picture of my own food but I ordered the Basket O' Shrimp combo with Kurly fries.
As you can see it was given to me with tater tots at first but the TM just gave me an order of Kurly fries in addition.
Mike got the Krusty Burger combo with Kurly fries and Steve got the Buffalo Chicken Arms combo with Kurly fries. Everyone enjoyed their deliciously unhealthy fried lunch and was ready to enjoy some more fun afterwards.
Our plan was to go over to Islands of Adventure to try our luck at getting on Hagrid's. I wanted to take the Hogwarts Express over but the wait time was over an hour so we used the good old-fashioned walking path.
On our way out of the park, we saw Beetlejuice outside meeting and meeting him was on my must-do list so I was very excited!
He was on the run inside because the Horror Makeup Show was starting. I think Steve said he'd seen it but Mike and I hadn't so we decided to watch it.
There was no time to hang out in the lobby since the show was starting soon but it looked cool from the glance we got.
I had no idea what to expect from the show but - oh my, it was HYSTERICAL. I was laughing almost the whole time. One of the lines they used was "This isn't Disney- I don't have to be nice to the kids"
I was dying. If you're going to Universal, I definitely recommend seeing it!The gift shop afterwards had all kinds of Universal Monsters props and merchandise.
There was also Gremlins merchandise and I almost bought one of the stuffed ones because they're so cute and we loved this movie as kids!
We also saw this Stranger Things set-up which I'd seen on social media as something that was open only during HHN so I told Mike we had to come back.
As we continued towards the exit, Steve pointed out the UOAP lounge.
They sell AP exclusive merchandise there as well as Coke products and there's some limited seating. They also give out a pin and a magnet each month so we went in quickly to pick up the pin (the magnets had run out).
We also passed the building where the Bourne Stuntactular will be opening soon (I hear they're having TM previews now).
I'm excited to see something new but it seems an odd choice to me. I remember going with my dad to see the first Bourne Identity movie when I was in middle school and had a random day off that my other siblings didn't have so it felt really special lol but um... that was a really long time ago.
I was very excited to see the ice cream truck outside the Killer Klowns HHN house! It was my favorite scare zone last year so I couldn't wait to see it as a house this year and of course had to pose for a picture with the truck.
Our last stop before leaving for Islands of Adventure was at Shrek 4-D because we walked past and saw no line.
Some of the posters in the line poked fun at Disney and this one particularly entertained me.
The show is fun (similar in concept to the Philharmagic and It's Tough to Be a Bug) except the seats move too so it's a little more thrilling. It doesn't make our must do list but I like Shrek and will do it once a trip especially with no wait.
We stopped for a picture on our way out to use our photo package for the first time.
At the time we didn't know it but we quickly learned that the Universal photgraphers have 4 standard poses they run you through: normal, peace sign, thumbs up and a hug. The novelty wore off quickly.
Then we walked over to Islands of Adventure and entered the park just before 4:30.
We veered right towards Seuss Landing and found some construction walls.
Mike was making fun of me because I watch vloggers all the time and he asked what the construction walls were for and I said I didn't know lol. But afterwards, I saw Tim Tracker had posted a video from Universal around that time and said he didn't know why they were there either so I made Mike watch it too lol.
Soon enough we were entering Hogsmeade.
It was crowded but not the worst I've ever seen it.
We got to the entrance of Hagrid's at 4:35 to a posted 90 minute wait.
This was the lowest we'd seen it all day and Mike's nephew said usually 90 minutes means closer to 45-60 minutes so we figured now was the time to try.
The line had some gorgeous views of Hogwarts castle.
Of course, I took the opportunity to pose for a picture which apparently irritated the people behind us. Everyone else was doing it and it's a 90 minute line, I don't think waiting an extra 30 seconds to walk is going to make a difference. #justsaying
Hagrid's hut was in the queue which was cool but I think it'd be even cooler if they'd made it that you walk through the hut in the line!
We were moving almost constantly and were feeling good about our wait.
I loved this wall with Buckbeak on it!
Things were going well until about 5:20 which Steve said we had one more hallway and one more room before the loading area. And we stopped moving. We were indoors and had no way of seeing what was happening outside but eventually an announcement came that the ride was delayed for weather.
We decided to wait it out since we'd already invested almost an hour and we were pretty close. The weather radar looked like the storm should pass quickly.
So we sat. And waited. We played endless games of heads up.
We made friends with the groups of people in front of us.
Little by little, people left the line and we moved up a little.
And then it was 6:30. We were all getting cranky in line and debated what to do. If we left the line at this point, we got nothing for all the time we wasted in line. If Universal dumped the line, we got passes to come back another day to the ride. If the ride reopened, we'd be on in about 15-20 minutes based on Steve's estimate.
In the end, we decided to wait it out. The park was closing at 8 pm and we had dining reservations back at Disney at 8:25 that we pushed back to 8:45. In our wait time, we learned that they had to wait 30 minutes after a lightning strike to run the ride again. Finally at 7:30, there was lightning in the area again and the call was made that the ride couldn't reopen again that day and we'd all get Ruby passes to come back another day. I felt terrible for the family in front of us with two young girls who waited it out until about 7:10 and decided to leave the line and ended up with nothing for all that time.
However, the group that had been in front of them was 5 DCP girls who had rode already and said they wouldn't make it back to Universal before the end of their program and they gave us their passes also! It was so sweet!
). Needless to say, I was happy to see the change.
Steve got a soda since he's not of age lol.
If I ever need to eat quick service there again maybe I'll try Simpsons although in Dec I did Louie's and it wasn't that bad 
