Hagrid's Coaster Queue Updates / Questions / Reviews

I don't remember if I asked this or not....but is there rider switch on Hagrid's ride? Trying to picture the chaos in the morning with a stroller. Where do they have you park strollers? We won't need a locker because 2 of us will wait with the baby while the other 2 ride and whomever is holding the baby will have our bags. I know the stroller won't go through the line with us but I was just trying to figure out where we will park it?

ETA, if I can find my fanny pack I may just wear that thing and skip a bag.
 
I know there is a rider switch because yesterday morning I noticed part of the party behind us staying back with a baby. I believe it was right at the start of the last room before loading with the motorbikes and Hagrid’s voice overhead. I think. I didn’t pay attention to where strollers were being parked though.
I don't remember if I asked this or not....but is there rider switch on Hagrid's ride? Trying to picture the chaos in the morning with a stroller. Where do they have you park strollers? We won't need a locker because 2 of us will wait with the baby while the other 2 ride and whomever is holding the baby will have our bags. I know the stroller won't go through the line with us but I was just trying to figure out where we will park it?

ETA, if I can find my fanny pack I may just wear that thing and skip a bag.
 
We will have only 1 day at Universal on our trip and it will be this Saturday! We have p2p and express. Can't decide if we will rope drop this or take our chances later in the day. I prefer the flow of the parks working our way through US to Diagon Alley then HE to Hogwarts but based on all of these recent reports, that is not a good plan.

We've been a bunch of times and will be back another time soon so it's not do or die but the reviews of this are so universally good that we want to at least try to ride.. so now I'm thinking we rope drop Hagrids and have a set time limit of waiting should it not be running first thing. Parks are open 9-8. Going to try to convince the family to get to the gate before 8... It will be our first day in Orlando - flying in early the day before - so we should not be dragging.

My main concern with rope drop is my nephew who has anxiety issues and may not handle the rope drop crowds all that well. I'm remembering the old TSMM rope drop race for paper fast passes with a huge mass of people all crowded together and moving at once. I don't think he would be good with that. Back then I would join the crowd and get the FP while they took their time at the back of the pack and got in the standby line. So...what is the rope drop crowd like? And if you're at the back of it, what type of time frame would you be looking at if everything was running?
 
We will have only 1 day at Universal on our trip and it will be this Saturday! We have p2p and express. Can't decide if we will rope drop this or take our chances later in the day. I prefer the flow of the parks working our way through US to Diagon Alley then HE to Hogwarts but based on all of these recent reports, that is not a good plan.

We've been a bunch of times and will be back another time soon so it's not do or die but the reviews of this are so universally good that we want to at least try to ride.. so now I'm thinking we rope drop Hagrids and have a set time limit of waiting should it not be running first thing. Parks are open 9-8. Going to try to convince the family to get to the gate before 8... It will be our first day in Orlando - flying in early the day before - so we should not be dragging.

My main concern with rope drop is my nephew who has anxiety issues and may not handle the rope drop crowds all that well. I'm remembering the old TSMM rope drop race for paper fast passes with a huge mass of people all crowded together and moving at once. I don't think he would be good with that. Back then I would join the crowd and get the FP while they took their time at the back of the pack and got in the standby line. So...what is the rope drop crowd like? And if you're at the back of it, what type of time frame would you be looking at if everything was running?

If it is set in stone that he's going to ride it with you all I really suggest that you attempt to do it later in the day and hope for the best as I definitely think that the rope drop will stir up some anxiety. I do not know how long it would be if you waited if you're at the back of the line, but I wouldn't recommend that, as you might as well at that point wait until later in the afternoon. Since not only you'd be in the back of the line to wait to go through the gate, but also once getting inside will have to wait whatever the queue time is estimated to be. That will more than likely cost more time than if you took a chance in the afternoon.
 


We will have only 1 day at Universal on our trip and it will be this Saturday! We have p2p and express. Can't decide if we will rope drop this or take our chances later in the day. I prefer the flow of the parks working our way through US to Diagon Alley then HE to Hogwarts but based on all of these recent reports, that is not a good plan.

We've been a bunch of times and will be back another time soon so it's not do or die but the reviews of this are so universally good that we want to at least try to ride.. so now I'm thinking we rope drop Hagrids and have a set time limit of waiting should it not be running first thing. Parks are open 9-8. Going to try to convince the family to get to the gate before 8... It will be our first day in Orlando - flying in early the day before - so we should not be dragging.

My main concern with rope drop is my nephew who has anxiety issues and may not handle the rope drop crowds all that well. I'm remembering the old TSMM rope drop race for paper fast passes with a huge mass of people all crowded together and moving at once. I don't think he would be good with that. Back then I would join the crowd and get the FP while they took their time at the back of the pack and got in the standby line. So...what is the rope drop crowd like? And if you're at the back of it, what type of time frame would you be looking at if everything was running?
Before you get through the tapstyles it’s very orderly. After that there can be a lot of running but if you stay to the right it’s not really a whole bunch of people together. There is a choke point as you turn into seussland since there are Construction walls up. But it’s not so bunched that it feels like the MK hub at fireworks or anything. And the choke point is probably a 15-20 feet stretch. After that people aren’t that bunched up (although we were probably in the front to middle of the pack. I don’t know what it would have been like further back in the pack. I would suggest not having him go into the locker room. But it’s easy to wait but the canopy outside.
 
We will have only 1 day at Universal on our trip and it will be this Saturday! We have p2p and express. Can't decide if we will rope drop this or take our chances later in the day. I prefer the flow of the parks working our way through US to Diagon Alley then HE to Hogwarts but based on all of these recent reports, that is not a good plan.

We've been a bunch of times and will be back another time soon so it's not do or die but the reviews of this are so universally good that we want to at least try to ride.. so now I'm thinking we rope drop Hagrids and have a set time limit of waiting should it not be running first thing. Parks are open 9-8. Going to try to convince the family to get to the gate before 8... It will be our first day in Orlando - flying in early the day before - so we should not be dragging.

My main concern with rope drop is my nephew who has anxiety issues and may not handle the rope drop crowds all that well. I'm remembering the old TSMM rope drop race for paper fast passes with a huge mass of people all crowded together and moving at once. I don't think he would be good with that. Back then I would join the crowd and get the FP while they took their time at the back of the pack and got in the standby line. So...what is the rope drop crowd like? And if you're at the back of it, what type of time frame would you be looking at if everything was running?
With Express Pass I would absolutely do rope drop. EP will work pretty much everywhere else to save you time throughout the day.

As far as anxiety around the process, the tapstiles naturally space people out. Other than the idiots running by you it’s very low stress. Unless they change something, it’s nothing like the experience at Disney where they hold you inside the gate and then walk the mass of humanity to a ride with the pushing and elbows. If they could stop people from running, the IoA rope drop would have things setup perfect.
 
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... and at least when I was the the choke point going up to the entrance to Seuss wasn't a bad thing. It is narrow enough that there is very little running through. Once it opens back up people would start running again.

One woman shoved DD9 out of the way so she could keep running through the choke point. Very classy. But we were spaced out across the path there. If we had stayed to the right it would have been fine.
 
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If it is set in stone that he's going to ride it with you all I really suggest that you attempt to do it later in the day and hope for the best as I definitely think that the rope drop will stir up some anxiety. I do not know how long it would be if you waited if you're at the back of the line, but I wouldn't recommend that, as you might as well at that point wait until later in the afternoon. Since not only you'd be in the back of the line to wait to go through the gate, but also once getting inside will have to wait whatever the queue time is estimated to be. That will more than likely cost more time than if you took a chance in the afternoon.
Before you get through the tapstyles it’s very orderly. After that there can be a lot of running but if you stay to the right it’s not really a whole bunch of people together. There is a choke point as you turn into seussland since there are Construction walls up. But it’s not so bunched that it feels like the MK hub at fireworks or anything. And the choke point is probably a 15-20 feet stretch. After that people aren’t that bunched up (although we were probably in the front to middle of the pack. I don’t know what it would have been like further back in the pack. I would suggest not having him go into the locker room. But it’s easy to wait but the canopy outside.
... and at least when I was the the choke point going up to the entrance to Seuss wasn't a bad thing. It is narrow enough that there is very little running through. Once it opens back up people would start running again.
With Express Pass I would absolutely do rope drop. EP will work pretty much everywhere else to save you time throughout the day.

As far as anxiety around the process, the tapstiles naturally space people out. Other than the idiots running by you it’s very low stress. Unless they change something, it’s nothing like the experience at Disney where they hold you inside the gate and then walk the mass of humanity to a ride with the pushing and elbows. If they could stop people from running, the IoA rope drop would have things setup perfect.
One woman shoved DD9 out of the way so she could keep running through the choke point. Very classy. But we were spaced out across the path there. If we had stayed to the right it would have been fine.

Thank you all for the info and advice. I’ll run it past my SIL and nephew and see what they think.
 
Maybe I've been lucky, but I've ridden this 3 times. All 3 times it had a delayed opening for a couple of hours. I hopped on around lunchtime (11-1), and didn't wait more than 90 minutes. The last time was only 45 minutes But each time, there wasn't really any downtime of more than 5-10 minutes
 
Anyone have any experience with a DAS at Hagrids? We weren’t really thinking my nephew would need one with express as that is where they usually send you but for rides without express what do they do? Give you a return time equal to the current wait time?
 
Anyone have any experience with a DAS at Hagrids? We weren’t really thinking my nephew would need one with express as that is where they usually send you but for rides without express what do they do? Give you a return time equal to the current wait time?

Based on a trip report that I read, it sounds like they don't handle it the same way every time. So, the group might be able to ride immediately or might receive a return time that might or might not be equal to the current wait time. Either way, he won't have to wait in the line, if that would be difficult for him.
 
Based on a trip report that I read, it sounds like they don't handle it the same way every time. So, the group might be able to ride immediately or might receive a return time that might or might not be equal to the current wait time. Either way, he won't have to wait in the line, if that would be difficult for him.

Good to know thanks.
 
So, first day at the parks. Got to IoA around 12.30 and queue was half wsy down Hogsmead and had stopped. Went on FJ and after it was open again. We queued and line was only just past entrance. We were on the ride in 50 minutes and they had 3 trains going - so happily shocked. Later we saw the queue was much shorter so we queued again. Got to end if line just after Hagrids hut and was on ride 30 minutes later. Rode cycle first and sidecar second. Absolutely loved it, an incredible experience and well worth waiting for. Can't wait to go on it again and we're here for 2 weeks so plenty more rides planned. Don't be put off by the queues people. with 3 trains running it's so much quicker than you expect.
 
So, first day at the parks. Got to IoA around 12.30 and queue was half wsy down Hogsmead and had stopped. Went on FJ and after it was open again. We queued and line was only just past entrance. We were on the ride in 50 minutes and they had 3 trains going - so happily shocked. Later we saw the queue was much shorter so we queued again. Got to end if line just after Hagrids hut and was on ride 30 minutes later. Rode cycle first and sidecar second. Absolutely loved it, an incredible experience and well worth waiting for. Can't wait to go on it again and we're here for 2 weeks so plenty more rides planned. Don't be put off by the queues people. with 3 trains running it's so much quicker than you expect.
How do you know they were only running three trains? According to ThemeParkInsider, the ride (at full capacity) is able to run up to 12 trains at once so 3 would actually fall woefully short of that. Other sources say 8-10 trains is more realistic. Back in June the ride was running 5-6 trains at a time but apparently putting a 7th on was causing issues. :D
 
How do you know they were only running three trains? According to ThemeParkInsider, the ride (at full capacity) is able to run up to 12 trains at once so 3 would actually fall woefully short of that. Other sources say 8-10 trains is more realistic. Back in June the ride was running 5-6 trains at a time but apparently putting a 7th on was causing issues. :D
Oh it may have been more but we only ever saw 3 running when able to see tracks. Anyway, tbe queue time was brilliant and the ride was incredible.
 
How do you know they were only running three trains? According to ThemeParkInsider, the ride (at full capacity) is able to run up to 12 trains at once so 3 would actually fall woefully short of that. Other sources say 8-10 trains is more realistic. Back in June the ride was running 5-6 trains at a time but apparently putting a 7th on was causing issues. :D

The number of trains being used continues to change all the time due to the fact the they are continuously changing trains out, as well as adding/removing them due to them continuing to work the kinks out of the ride.
 
How do you know they were only running three trains? According to ThemeParkInsider, the ride (at full capacity) is able to run up to 12 trains at once so 3 would actually fall woefully short of that. Other sources say 8-10 trains is more realistic. Back in June the ride was running 5-6 trains at a time but apparently putting a 7th on was causing issues. :D

Wow. I had no idea they had that many trains on the tracks at once. They have that very well hidden. I wasn't looking for it - I assume if you were you could see it but to the casual observer it looks like 3-4 trains.
 
Wow. I had no idea they had that many trains on the tracks at once. They have that very well hidden. I wasn't looking for it - I assume if you were you could see it but to the casual observer it looks like 3-4 trains.
They apparently have 2 of the “cave” scene (sorry I don’t know exactly what that is called).
With all of the launches and brake points and stoppages they have a TON of zones so I’d believe that 10-12 trains is possible. I think the problem is when they try to push the system too hard, if 2 trains get too close together it causes a snowball affect. The capacity on this thing when fully functioning is insane though! I’m not sure they’ve ever got it to full capacity yet.

Here are some articles about it:
 

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