Hagrid's Coaster Queue Updates / Questions / Reviews

[CJK]

Well, today was our final day, so we decided to give Hagrid's one last whirl. There has been threat of rain all day, so we knew it was a risk. We got in line at 12:55pm, and the wait time was 105 minutes. We were off the ride at 3pm, so the estimated time was pretty accurate. I rode in the side car the first time and the motorbike the second time. What a difference in experience! I wasn't expecting it to be so different. Glad to have had both experiences. We never, ever wait in lines like that, but, we can go home satisfied now! Thanks to everyone on this thread for all the info!

 

[GoofyDad_4427]

We were at Universal from Feb 22-25. It was closed for 90% of the first three days. The morning of the 25th (Tuesday) we rope dropped as did a few others in this thread already. We got to the park at 8:13 and went for the far right line closest to the bathroom. There was exactly 54 people in front of us (because what better do I have to do at that time then count and recount the people). Park gates opened at 8:41. We went straight to Hagrid, walking quickly but never running. I took my wife's purse to the locker and was in and out of the locker area in less than 10 seconds. We kept moving through the line until we stopped just outside the castle. The delay was announced, there were many other announcements over the next few hours. We progressed to inside the castle where finally at exactly 10:53 the ride started operating. We were off the ride at exactly 11:32.

Reviews from my family of four (me41, DW41, DS13 and DS10) are that it was absolutely worth it to wait in line. It was everyone's favorite ride at Universal, and we are not HP fans. With that said, everyone agreed also that it would not be worth waiting more than 60 minutes for the next time, and we would not ride it again until it is more reliable.

 

[acarsme123]

Disheartened to hear the lines are that long at that time of day. I had kept hearing that between 12-2 were good times to try and ride, I imagine from lots of people eating lunch around those times. I don't intend to try rope drop for this ride as it seems super unpredictable still, but stinks that waits are still this long in the early afternoon. Just may give up on trying to ride this for this trip. We've already prepped our son that we may not get on it. I don't think he's going to handle standing in a line that long.

Still surprised they haven't implemented a virtual cue for this thing yet.

Well, today was our final day, so we decided to give Hagrid's one last whirl. There has been threat of rain all day, so we knew it was a risk. We got in line at 12:55pm, and the wait time was 105 minutes. We were off the ride at 3pm, so the estimated time was pretty accurate. I rode in the side car the first time and the motorbike the second time. What a difference in experience! I wasn't expecting it to be so different. Glad to have had both experiences. We never, ever wait in lines like that, but, we can go home satisfied now! Thanks to everyone on this thread for all the info!

 

[damo]

Right now the lines are going to be very long because they are only running it at half capacity while they work on the drop track problem. There are two drop tracks and one is closed while they work on the second one. And once the second one is operational, they will work on the first.

My son rode the single rider line with a one hour wait yesterday. He had a two hour wait in the regular line the day before.

 

[MamaKate]

Right now the lines are going to be very long because they are only running it at half capacity while they work on the drop track problem. There are two drop tracks and one is closed while they work on the second one. And once the second one is operational, they will work on the first.

My son rode the single rider line with a one hour wait yesterday. He had a two hour wait in the regular line the day before.

Any idea how long it will take repair each track. Will it be like a month each track or more like several months each. I'm not ride engineer expert so I haven't a clue how involved the process is...

 

[damo]

Any idea how long it will take repair each track. Will it be like a month each track or more like several months each. I'm not ride engineer expert so I haven't a clue how involved the process is...

No idea.

 

[MamaKate]

No idea.

I figured as much. I guess I'll just cross my fingers that all will be fixed by May

 

[damo]

I figured as much. I guess I'll just cross my fingers that all will be fixed by May

I would imagine they are working as hard as possible to get it ready for Spring Break.

 

[Reese'smom]

So what time should we be at the park to rope drop this ride? We are at Royal Pacific.

 

[Dakota Dexter]

So what time should we be at the park to rope drop this ride? We are at Royal Pacific.

8:30 is the absolute latest, and even then you'll be near the back of the pack... We did rope drop yesterday, and it's a mad dash back to the ride, we ended up waiting @30 min for the ride. One young member of our party couldn't ride, he's not really heavy, but he is big - nearly 6 feet tall and muscular... His LEGS were too big for the restraint, he was devastated!!! They did give our party fast passes for any other attraction. There is a "test" seat at the beginning of the queue, but it's not rope drop friendly.

 

[acarsme123]

So I’ve been randomly checking the app as our trip approaches and watching the Hagrid’s wait times. They were normally always in the 120-160 min range...up until a couple days ago. I’ve noticed the last two days when I’ve checked I’ve been surprised to see times as low as 60 mins even now at noon. Did they fix something to increase ride capacity? Someone mentioned earlier that they had been working on something.

 

[TommyJK]

So I’ve been randomly checking the app as our trip approaches and watching the Hagrid’s wait times. They were normally always in the 120-160 min range...up until a couple days ago. I’ve noticed the last two days when I’ve checked I’ve been surprised to see times as low as 60 mins even now at noon. Did they fix something to increase ride capacity? Someone mentioned earlier that they had been working on something.

I've noticed this too. At first I thought it was maybe that the park has been dead crowd wise, but Forbidden Journey is also showing 60 minutes, Kong 50 minutes ....

So crossing my fingers that they may have actually "fixed" things....

 

[Reese'smom]

Got to the gates about 8:30 this morning. I would have been there earlier but couldn’t get my family moving. There were a good many people rushing back there. The workers said it was about a 45 min wait and that seemed to be accurate. We were constantly moving which made it better. The ride was awesome. I wanted the sidecar but both kids picked that so I was on the motorcycle as was my husband. So glad we got to ride.

 

[SpecEdismyLife]

We were there Feb 22-28. As stated, it was closed all day Sun 2/23 and Mon 2/24. My husband went over the next evening (Tues 2/25) and hopped in line 5 min before park closing and waited the posted 135 min while I stayed at the hotel with our son. We were at the hotel (Endless Summer) on Wed afternoon when it started raining. At about 5:30 pm it was a 60 min posted wait. That was the shortest I had seen it that week so I ran out of the room, hopped on the bus and got in line by 6:05. By then it was posted at 70 min but I waited 60. It was sprinkling/light misty rain when I rode it but it was great! I rode the motorbike side. Oh also when my husband rode the single rider line was not open, but when I rode it was. I asked the TM how long the single rider line was running and was told that single rider "could be shorter, could be longer or could be the same". I was willing to wait the posted 60 min so I decided to just do that as I had done single rider on Gringotts the day before and it took forever...

 

[Josh & Laila Harbour]

Was at IOA today (March 10). Was hoping for a 1pm dip as has been reported...was finishing lunch at Mythos around 12:15pm and saw the line was at 75 min per the Universal app and an expected wait of 60min on the TP lines app...so we went for it! Got in line at 12:30pm and was off the ride at 1:35pm. For us, that was a great outcome as we were expecting to wait so much longer and/or do an early arrival rope drop tomorrow morning. So very happy...with the wait (compared to what we have been reading about/planning for) and even more so with the ride, which was amazing!

 

[Splat10]

Was at IOA today (March 10). Was hoping for a 1pm dip as has been reported...was finishing lunch at Mythos around 12:15pm and saw the line was at 75 min per the Universal app and an expected wait of 60min on the TP lines app...so we went for it! Got in line at 12:30pm and was off the ride at 1:35pm. For us, that was a great outcome as we were expecting to wait so much longer and/or do an early arrival rope drop tomorrow morning. So very happy...with the wait (compared to what we have been reading about/planning for) and even more so with the ride, which was amazing!

Thanks, there hasn't been much activity on this thread recently. I don't know if that means it's operating well, or what. I've also noticed that crowds at USF/IOA have been lower in wait times. Hoping this continues into my april trip but still planning on Rope dropping it day 1.

 

[TommyJK]

Thanks, there hasn't been much activity on this thread recently. I don't know if that means it's operating well, or what. I've also noticed that crowds at USF/IOA have been lower in wait times. Hoping this continues into my april trip but still planning on Rope dropping it day 1.

Haven't seen much chatter recently either, but have been checking the wait time regularly throughout the day and it's seemed consistently 60-75 min over the last week so perhaps things have smoothed out.

Will be trying rope drop this Saturday so I'll report back in here with how it goes.

 

[acarsme123]

We were here this week and got to ride Hagrid’s once. Got in line around lunch time on Wednesday when the wait was showing 75 minutes. I’d say we were in line for only an hour total. The line moves pretty quick up to the point you get to the pre-show room. Probably because they can cram a bunch of people in that room at once. After that things slow down.

The ride stopped while we were on it. My son and I made it to the end just before the unicorn. My wife was on the coaster train behind us and hers got stopped further back along the ride. I’d say we were stopped for about 5 minutes. Kinda breaks the immersion factor.

Today (Thursday) we got in line again when it was showing 75 minutes. The line was moving unusually quickly. We were blowing past areas that we had been stopped at before when it was showing a 75 min wait. We noticed one ride vehicle stopped on the tracks with people. I figured it was just another several minute hiccup. Well, the ride went down hard for a good hour. Everyone eventually left the line. About another hour later we could hear it running again. So it was down for about two hours total. I’m glad we got to ride it once. It is a good ride, but it is in no way the best ride in Orlando. Flight of Passage still takes that honor in my opinion, although I haven’t been on Rise of Resistance yet. They need to seriously get the reliability improved on Hagrid’s. I was kinda ticked they don’t offer any kind of front of line pass vouchers for when the ride breaks down after you’ve wasted an hour of your day in line. In my opinion that should be standard protocol to offer the guests another opportunity to ride it without having to wait all over again.

 

[Cherryb]

I was kinda ticked they don’t offer any kind of front of line pass vouchers for when the ride breaks down after you’ve wasted an hour of your day in line. In my opinion that should be standard protocol to offer the guests another opportunity to ride it without having to wait all over again.

Last week I was already in the ride about to start and it went down (took us 45 min and the app said 60 min). We had to wait first in the loading area, then they moved us to the first part of the line and they told us they didn't know when would it be back up but were welcome to wait. We decided to wait because we were tired, we only made 45 min to get there and they had air conditioning. About an hour and 10 min later they told us that it was "an extended delay" so we had to leave the queue BUT we were given two pass vouchers, one for Hagrid and one for any other ride. About two hours later the ride went up and we only waited 10 min to ride. So in total it took me 2 hrs 10 min aprox to ride .

I felt bad for the people that left just 5 min before this happened, they wasted two hours for nothing. I think these vouchers should be given to anyone at a point where you have already waited at least an hour as soon as the ride goes down.

 

[Disxuni]

It would be interesting to know if they have any plans to do any work on Hagrid's while they are closed. I doubt it as it would be counter productive to the reason why the parks are closed. However, it would be a good time to do it during all this.