What would you do first - Hagrid's or Velocicoaster?

[steve_rob]

Going back to Orlando for the first time in five years later this year and of course that means both Hagrid's and Velocicoaster are going to be new to me and I am super keen to ride both of them. I'm both a major rollercoaster junkie and also love the Harry Potter universe, so it's hard for me to choose which one to do as a priority, especially given how quickly queues build up at both.

I won't be staying on-site at Universal unfortunately, so no access to early entry or Express Passes (not that I think they're offered for these two anyway), but I'm definitely visiting midweek in either late September or early October, so hopefully crowds won't be too bad. My plan is to be there for regular guest rope-drop a good 30 minutes before scheduled opening, plus I consider myself a reasonably fast walker so I hope that will give me as much advantage as I can get. Also I would be open to using a single rider line if that saves any time - the other half definitely won't ride Velocicoaster and isn't sure about Hagrid's.

So tactically what do you think my best option would be given that both rides are probably equal priority in my opinion - I deliberately haven't watched any on ride videos of either (no spoilers!) but know enough about them to know that both are right up my street!

 

[JungleCruiseFan]

I would ride Velocicoaster first and ride hagrids at the end of the night. We were there this Christmas and spring break and hagrids was a 2-3 hour wait in the morning by park opening every day yet was down to 40-70 minutes by park closing. Velocicoaster seemed to be at 45-90 minutes pretty much the whole day. If you are fast in the morning I could see you getting Velocicoaster in less than 30 in the morning. Plus Velocicoaster now has express so after 4pm the lines get longer with all the APs express after 4 crowd and Hagrids still does not offer express.

 

[CAPSLOCK]

Agree with @JungleCruiseFan

You usually also find mid-afternoon waits for Hagrids to be less than "right after rope drop balloons the line" waits. Morning but not first thing is generally the longest wait.

I would encourage any "on the fence" Harry Potter fans to give Hagrids a try. It is interesting and unique, and not a "thrill" coaster. There are no real heights and no upside down. See if your other half will try the side car, it feels more secure. If the other half enjoys Gringotts and/or Mummy, should be okay to at least try Hagrids.

 

[disny_luvr]

I would ride Velocicoaster first and ride hagrids at the end of the night. We were there this Christmas and spring break and hagrids was a 2-3 hour wait in the morning by park opening every day yet was down to 40-70 minutes by park closing. Velocicoaster seemed to be at 45-90 minutes pretty much the whole day. If you are fast in the morning I could see you getting Velocicoaster in less than 30 in the morning. Plus Velocicoaster now has express so after 4pm the lines get longer with all the APs express after 4 crowd and Hagrids still does not offer express.

I do not want to hijack this thread, but quick question for you. My family has never been to Universal before. We are staying onsite and have Express Pass for two days. I've been reading about very long waits over Spring Break for Hagrids. We do plan on getting to the park at opening and maybe even for early entry, it just depends if I can get my kids moving. That said, do you think we are better off trying to ride Hagrids later in the day? We are not people that like to run through the parks to get to a ride, and we don't even know where we are going since we've never been there before. We know we will need to wait and we are fine with that since we have Express Pass, but we don't want to wait two or three hours. Thoughts?

 

[JungleCruiseFan]

I do not want to hijack this thread, but quick question for you. My family has never been to Universal before. We are staying onsite and have Express Pass for two days. I've been reading about very long waits over Spring Break for Hagrids. We do plan on getting to the park at opening and maybe even for early entry, it just depends if I can get my kids moving. That said, do you think we are better off trying to ride Hagrids later in the day? We are not people that like to run through the parks to get to a ride, and we don't even know where we are going since we've never been there before. We know we will need to wait and we are fine with that since we have Express Pass, but we don't want to wait two or three hours. Thoughts?

The vast majority of people go straight to Hagrids so unless you are up super early and waiting before they even let you in prepare for a long wait in the morning. We rode it both during the day and at night and we enjoyed it more at night plus the wait is shorter so I would use your express all day on the other rides and then get in line for Hagrids near close as long as you are ok with one late ish night.
Also since you have express I don’t see a good value waiting in a non express line first thing in the morning when you can just save that waiting for after park hours.

 

[mamapenguin]

I agree with afternoon for Hagrid’s. IF you want to do morning you need to be at the park at least 30 minutes before EE.

 

[gharter]

We did EE and headed directly to Hagrids each morning unless we were far back in the line (halfway across the bridge or worse), then Velocicoaster instead. At least when we were there, the line at Hagrids consistently was much longer than Velocicoaster.

 

[Jarmo]

We did EE and headed directly to Hagrids each morning unless we were far back in the line (halfway across the bridge or worse), then Velocicoaster instead. At least when we were there, the line at Hagrids consistently was much longer than Velocicoaster.

Velocicoaster has Express pass access now, so if you have Express the only question now is do you want to get to EE early enough for a low wait on Hagrid's

 

[UOAP-Naples]

I wouldn't touch Hagrid's until around 2 pm. It is down too often in the morning to get there an hour before the posted early entry time.

We were there on Sunday for early entry (8 am). We didn't get there to stand in line an hour prior to early entry; we arrived at IOA right about 8 am. They usually open about 15 minutes before the posted early entry time. There was no line at the turnstiles so we scanned right in and went to Jurassic. Hagrid's was delayed due to a maintenance issue. We rode Velocicoaster twice as a walk-on and then rode Forbidden Journey as a walk-on before the park opened to regular guests at 9 am. When Hagrid's finally opened about 10 am, it had a 210 minute wait. So some of those people arrived around 7 am and didn't ride Hagrid's until 10 am or later. We'd already ridden Velocicoaster 2x, FJ, Kong, Spiderman, Doom and Hulk in that time.

 

[wdwrule]

I wouldn't touch Hagrid's until around 2 pm. It is down too often in the morning to get there an hour before the posted early entry time.

We were there on Sunday for early entry (8 am). We didn't get there to stand in line an hour prior to early entry; we arrived at IOA right about 8 am. They usually open about 15 minutes before the posted early entry time. There was no line at the turnstiles so we scanned right in and went to Jurassic. Hagrid's was delayed due to a maintenance issue. We rode Velocicoaster twice as a walk-on and then rode Forbidden Journey as a walk-on before the park opened to regular guests at 9 am. When Hagrid's finally opened about 10 am, it had a 210 minute wait. So some of those people arrived around 7 am and didn't ride Hagrid's until 10 am or later. We'd already ridden Velocicoaster 2x, FJ, Kong, Spiderman, Doom and Hulk in that time.

Just wanted to say we had the exact same Sunday morning as you did! Saturday we walked on Velocicoaster twice as well during early park admission. We typically arrive a few minutes after EE.

 

[UOAP-Naples]

Just wanted to say we had the exact same Sunday morning as you did! Saturday we walked on Velocicoaster twice as well during early park admission. We typically arrive a few minutes after EE.

We love Hagrid’s. We skipped it this trip because we also love doing as much as possible when we’re at the parks. We’d rather ride Velocicoaster and one or two other rides than ride Hagrid’s once.

If you’ve never been, then I understand prioritizing Hagrid’s. If you’ve ridden it before and are willing to skip it, then you can ride a whole lot more.

 

[akadada]

V first ; H second. Velocicoaster is simply a better ride than hagrids if you're a coaster junkie. Hagrid's is super fun, but Velocicoaster is next level awesome. Hagrids was temporarily down every day we were there. We got to ride it, but waits would say 45 which then turns into 75 minutes and turn into 2 hours - this happened to us. Fortunately I just made phone calls for work and it passed the time, but my family was horribly bored because you just stood in one spot for an hour.

And so if I had to miss something due to lines or ride failure, I'd want to miss Hagrids over Velocicoaster as well. I would be super bummed if I missed Velocicoaster.

Don't forget to do Hulk.

 

[steve_rob]

Very interesting - I honestly thought the recommendations might have gone the other way, but everyone's explanations of why have convinced me to give Velocicoaster the priority at rope drop and then see if I can do Hagrids towards the end of the day.

And don't worry - I've ridden Hulk many times and absolutely love it. In all previous visits (e.g. before either of these two rides opened) Hulk was always my first port of call at IoA, so it'll be strange not to do it until later in the day this time!

 

[Mr. Drauer]

Very interesting - I honestly thought the recommendations might have gone the other way, but everyone's explanations of why have convinced me to give Velocicoaster the priority at rope drop and then see if I can do Hagrids towards the end of the day.

And don't worry - I've ridden Hulk many times and absolutely love it. In all previous visits (e.g. before either of these two rides opened) Hulk was always my first port of call at IoA, so it'll be strange not to do it until later in the day this time!

The main thing to understand is that rope drop without EE is not rope drop. You are putting yourself way behind all of the EE people who if they plan correctly, will already be off Hagrids and VC when you are able to go line up. Plus, Single RIder is not open during EE for VC, and they do not accept EP during that time either, so once you hit official park open time for regular guests, the VC line will start to expand and slow down as it allows the EP guests into line. Hagrids will instantly go to 90 minutes at EE open as the vast majority of the EE guests run to the line. AS long as it opens on time and is running, the line won't take too long for those who are in the first 10 minutes. We consistenly road it, jumped to VC, and were able to get back into VC prior to offical open during Spring Break a few weeks ago. Just be prepared that rope dropping either from normal park opening time during IOA EE is not a benefit.

 

[JoJoCal19]

We have APs and had been doing Hagrid's first using the extra 1 hour early admission. The first few times it worked great and had 1.5-2 hour waits. The last time there was an issue or something that caused it to take 3+ hours (plus the line was even longer when we got in it) and it ruined our day as the lines for Velocicoaster and just about everything else spiked way up and I think we got to ride like 3 things that we wanted to by the time we were all just worn out.

I agree with JungleCruiseFan about hitting Velocicoaster first, especially if you get the 1 hour early. You can knock that out with little wait, and then get on with your day, before going back to Hagrid's later on.