We got to skip the line at the Forgotten Journey, anyone else?

[KCNat]

Hi all

We were at IOA and Universal yesterday....Started and ended out day at Hogsmeade. We had ridden the Forbidden Journey twice. My younger son was just an inch shy of riding the Dragon Challenge so we waited while big brother and dad rode it for the last time. The lil guy settled for eating a chocolate wand by the Hogwarts Express fake train.
The conductor was there and inquired about his long face. After hearing his sad story about being a shorty pants....he whispered some magic words that my son was to say to the students working at Hogwarts which would put him at the front of the line to ride the Forgotten Journey. PURE MAGIC! Made his night. Totally worked. And the "students" played their parts perfectly.
Has anyone else had this experience? it was an awesome way to end the day.

 

[KCNat]

FORBIDDEN.....FORBIDDEN journey. Good grief, must be the exhaustion.

 

[dixonsontour]

What a great treat, not heard of them doing that

 

[SpaceMtnGirl]

That's awesome!

 

[Kivara]

Aw, that was so nice! I've not heard of that before, but I love that they are always in character and go that extra bit to make your boy's day! Thanks for sharing!!

 

[Squirlz]

During a very slow time we were riding it over and over, walking briskly through the queue. The student at the entrance told us to take the Castle Tour line and at the end to say "Brian sent me" and they'd put us on the ride. We did that until we were literally dizzy!

 

[bumbershoot]

I would probably edit out the phrase, Squirlz.

 

[sharona]

I thought maybe the magic phrase was "Imperio!"

 

[wilkeliza]

We didn't get a message to give the students but we went during a time that there was no line several years ago now. The students saw that one of our party members couldn't ride due to size and was taken off the ride. At the exit they let the rest of us loop back through the disability entrance so we could get a second ride in with out our other party member noticing so that they wouldn't have to go through the wait again. It was a really sweet thing for them to do for us.

 

[schumigirl]

I think the magic phrase changes regularly......or so I've been told.

Had many magic moments all over Universal.........they know how to give out mummy dust without too much fuss............

 

[Gillbob316]

I have no stories of skipping the line at Hogwarts, or magic phrases... but one time my family and I were riding Men in Black single rider repeatedly (as we often do) and the girl managing the lines took note, and advised us that we should just go through the child swap that connects the upper level of the loading and unloading areas when coming off the ride. To save ourselves the trouble of exiting the building and re-entering the entire queue. It was sound advice.

Single rider usually being mostly empty (other than a slight backup in the final room at times) using the child swap doesn't really interfere with the flow of things or line-jump anyone. We typically do single rider, as we hate riding with one another. We all shoot the best targets, and our conflicting red dots overlap and hurt our respective scores across the board. This was truthfully years ago, but we still take her advice on relatively empty days, when it won't put anyone's shorts in a twist. (If things are backed up, and it would create a hassle for the ride attendants, we forgo it and use the normal lines).

 

[donnajherren]

This happened to us last summer. The employee managing the beginning of the queue had to extend it because things were starting to get busy, and he did so right in front of us. It was only a few extra steps, and we didn't mind, but he gave our kids the "magic words." I think they were more excited to be able to deliver them to the students inside than they were about skipping the line. LOL

 

[kohlby]

No magic phrase - just being told to tell the person there that so-and-so from the such-and-such ride said you could. It happened when a child was too short to ride. My daughter was too short for RRR the first day when she got measured so they offered that up and she then did express for Mummy. (We didn't have express that day and really, it barely saved any time since it was not a busy day. BUT - that's what she wanted to do). She did ride RRR three times later that trip, since we found out she was tall enough in the mornings.

There was also the time my daughter sat in vomit on Forbidden Journey. That was rough and totally not worth it even with skipping the line. But - they said ANY ride so we did Gringotts. I think that situation should have been handled better than it was.

 

[Squirlz]

I would probably edit out the phrase, Squirlz.

I doubt it would work if the guy out front wasn't Brian.

 

[SpaceMtnGirl]

I doubt it would work if the guy out front wasn't Brian.

I thought "Brian" may have been in reference to Dumbledore!

 

[Squirlz]

I thought "Brian" may have been in reference to Dumbledore!

Yeah, it wasn't a secret word. It was just like "Brian says it's okay".

 

[indimom]

We also were told to tell the student at the attraction that "so and so" sent us. Either it's really their name, or they use a different name every day to spread a little magic.
We hadn't had any sort of upset to earn the magic. We were just heading up to the attraction and DH asked a student where we needed to join the line because they had so many options (lockers, tour, ride line). I thought maybe we caught their attention because of our lanyards. We're a family of four and each represented a different house. We got a lot of comments on them throughout our stay.