10hr line for Universal's Hagrids vs Disney's line handling for FOP/SWGE

elaine amj

DIS Veteran
Joined
Jan 26, 2012
Curious - what does everyone think of how Universal handled the wait times for Hagrids vs how Disney handled the wait times for other big new rides like FOP or SWGE in DLR?

I must say, there is a bit of a crazy buzz around seeing 10hr lines for a new ride. Even my local news commented on it. Wonder if the comparatively shorter lines at Disney make the rides seem less desirable?

From what I can see, Disney generally never allowed FOP's line to pass 4 or 5 hours. Back at opening, they had 1-2hr waits to even enter the land itself to prevent the queue from growing too long. Then the added a ton of extended hours for quite some time to manage lines. And now in SWGE, they had reservations in DLR and will have a ton of EEMH in WDW.

On the flip side, Universal seems to love the insanely long lines their new rides generate.

I know - a little harder to compare 1 new ride vs opening lands with 2 new rides. Maybe a better comparison is Frozen Ever After's 5 hr lineup on opening day?

What do you prefer and why?
 
Don’t think you compare it really. Disney was opening whole lands and were trying to keep the land capacity down so guests could enjoy the whole experience.

Plus It’s a coaster so it’s going to be a low capacity ride by its nature. By my estimate, it is probably send about 500-600 riders an hour based off the speed the belt is going at. FOP does about 1200-1400 an hour. A 4-5 hour wait for FOP has about as many riders as a 10 hour wait in Hagrids.
 
The first 6-8 months WDW had Anna and Elsa meet and greets at the Norway pavilion, the wait would surge to 8-10 hours. People really did wait that long.

WDW isn't implementing the same reservation system as DLR did. As of right now, the WDW version of SWGE is a first come-first serve free for all. I don't think the EEMH are going to help. I think its going to be a disaster, and that the Orlando WDW execs are making a HUGE mistake.
 


From a marketing standpoint, the insane wait time is a gold mine. No matter how you slice it, a 10 hr. wait is going to give the perception that the ride is in extremely high demand - and more in demand than a ride with a 4 or 5 hour wait time.

Limiting the wait time only serves to benefit the operator, not the customers. Cutting the allowed line for Hagrid's by half on opening day doesn't shorten the wait for the first half and only denies the other half - that was willing to wait longer - from experiencing the ride at all.
 
From a marketing standpoint, the insane wait time is a gold mine. No matter how you slice it, a 10 hr. wait is going to give the perception that the ride is in extremely high demand - and more in demand than a ride with a 4 or 5 hour wait time.

Limiting the wait time only serves to benefit the operator, not the customers. Cutting the allowed line for Hagrid's by half on opening day doesn't shorten the wait for the first half and only denies the other half - that was willing to wait longer - from experiencing the ride at all.

That's what I was thinking. And wondering why Disney is working so very, very hard to shorten the lineups whereas Universal seems to revel in it (in my limited perception). Then I remembered that Disney wants you walking around spending money instead of stuck in line.

I find it very interesting that both parks chose to employ such different strategies and wondered what people prefer and whether you feel one works better than the other.
 
The first 6-8 months WDW had Anna and Elsa meet and greets at the Norway pavilion, the wait would surge to 8-10 hours. People really did wait that long.

WDW isn't implementing the same reservation system as DLR did. As of right now, the WDW version of SWGE is a first come-first serve free for all. I don't think the EEMH are going to help. I think its going to be a disaster, and that the Orlando WDW execs are making a HUGE mistake.

Oh yeah - I remember the reports of the crazy Anna and Elsa meets! I bet the extreme popularity took Disney a bit by surprise.

It sounds like it could be a little like when Universal opened the Harry Potter area. I hear there were 8 hr lineups to enter the Widlzarding World! I do think EEMH will help a little. Especially since it is going on for so long. But there will likely still be long lines.
 


We were there for day 2 of Hagrid's coaster and our wait time ended up being about 7 hours TOTAL (that included us getting to our hotel gate at 5:30 am when they said they would be letting us in). The delay on day 2 we were told was because the first night had people riding well after midnight and had to go through their standard operations that are required which caused a delayed opening the next day (ride didn't start running until about 12:00 as opposed to 9:00 am). The first day also experienced several shut downs because of lightening in the area and it did rain for quite some time in the afternoon. I have never experienced any "new" opening so this was all new to us but I will say that I thought Universal handled it very, very well. There were no issues that we witnessed on line, it was well organized, they handed out water and there were team members available throughout keeping us informed and helping if we needed to leave to get food or use the bathroom.

I do think that some of the 10-12 hour wait times included people getting there super early. I know on Thursday they were lined up at 4:30 am for the parking garage so if you counted all that plus delays in operations due to weather, it very well could have been that long. If WE didn't experience the delayed opening, we would have been off the ride within 45 minutes of park opening but like I said, we chose to get there super early because you know....early bird gets the worm!

If WDW is not planning on doing the reservation system for GE, I cannot even begin to imagine how it will be. I have not been to HS in some time but my kids were there and waited about 2 hours for Slinky (no FP available of course) and while they loved the ride, they were a bit underwhelmed with Toy Story Land and said it could be crowded and claustrophobic. I really hope that GE is not that bad!
 
It's tough to say. First week crowds are always going to be bonkers with those wanting to ride ASAP after a ride opens.

But things are smoothing down now as the ride currently shows 150 min 5 days after opening, which is very manageable. Seems like they needed a few days to hit their stride and work out as many issues as they could (I'm sure there will still be some technical issues in the coming days to sort out).

But basically, outside of the first few days of 6+ hour waits, they've normalized it seems. They're at wait times that FOP is still at daily after 2 years.

So in the end, I think Universal's strategy was fine. No need to get too crazy with temporary crowd abatement measures (although they were ready to employ the return time strategy on the app if lines through the entire park dragged out for many more days). Get through the storm of the first few days/week, and then it's business as usual.

I'm sure the ride will continue to sit between the 2-3 hour mark for the rest of the summer (as it's their busiest prolonged period of the year) and then come fall when things slow down a bit maybe we'll be looking at 1-2 hour waits.
 
@WDW2012 Glad to hear they handled the second day lineups so well and most importantly, kept you informed. There were some not-so-happy reports of Day 1 on here.

It's tough to say. First week crowds are always going to be bonkers with those wanting to ride ASAP after a ride opens.

But things are smoothing down now as the ride currently shows 150 min 5 days after opening, which is very manageable. Seems like they needed a few days to hit their stride and work out as many issues as they could (I'm sure there will still be some technical issues in the coming days to sort out).

But basically, outside of the first few days of 6+ hour waits, they've normalized it seems. They're at wait times that FOP is still at daily after 2 years.

So in the end, I think Universal's strategy was fine. No need to get too crazy with temporary crowd abatement measures (although they were ready to employ the return time strategy on the app if lines through the entire park dragged out for many more days). Get through the storm of the first few days/week, and then it's business as usual.

I'm sure the ride will continue to sit between the 2-3 hour mark for the rest of the summer (as it's their busiest prolonged period of the year) and then come fall when things slow down a bit maybe we'll be looking at 1-2 hour waits.

Makes a lot of sense. And from all reports, it's an amazing ride that will remain popular and generate consistently long lineups. I remember so many times when Dragon Challenge was a walk-on! Somehow I doubt that will happen here.
 
Well it seems I spoke too soon. Universal is saying they're reducing hours of operation for the ride for the next little while to continue to do some ride calibration.

Let's see how the lines are during its limited operations.
 
Once this opening time is past, the wait times will go down. It did for the other Harry Potter Attractions. I seem to remember when FOP at Animal kingdom had really long waits too. Everyone wants to get on the new ride. I will go in September. Kids will be back in school and hopefully wait times will be reasonable.
 
From a marketing standpoint, the insane wait time is a gold mine. No matter how you slice it, a 10 hr. wait is going to give the perception that the ride is in extremely high demand - and more in demand than a ride with a 4 or 5 hour wait time

Or it ‘scares’ potential guests to the point where they don’t visit

Since i have a trip planned to DL with intent to see SW addition, have been following the professional reviews closely.

They went into it with plans of how crowded things would be, 10/10 crowd calendar. Turns out it’s been more of a 3/10 when the reservation system for hotel guests was in place. Could be they will be slammed now that everyone is on same foothold.

New system is you need to check the DL app each AM. It will indicate whether you need to grab a FP/entry time to the land or not.

One thing they did put into play, rather ingeniously IMO as to churning $$$, is those with a same day ADR for Olga’s cantina or the $200 lightsaber making don’t have to worry about grabbing a FP.

I understand why the U onsite resorts don’t offer FOTL to new attractions, doesn’t mean I have to like it. Cancelled split portion of trip to U next week as the kiddo along would be jonesing to experience the attraction. there is absoutely no way at this stage of the game I’m going to wait even an hour in line for any ride/in any park, period.
 
Last edited:
The first 6-8 months WDW had Anna and Elsa meet and greets at the Norway pavilion, the wait would surge to 8-10 hours. People really did wait that long.

WDW isn't implementing the same reservation system as DLR did. As of right now, the WDW version of SWGE is a first come-first serve free for all. I don't think the EEMH are going to help. I think its going to be a disaster, and that the Orlando WDW execs are making a HUGE mistake.


I'm sure its going to be a cluster you know what if Disney is doing it. I love Disney, but the fast pass and dining system have got to be the stupidest things ever done. We were there by luck on the opening weekend of Pandora and it was a such a mess, it wasn't even enjoyable. 45 minutes for the honor to walk into a store so I can spend MY money? Seriously. Stupid waits to get into a restaurant. The rides were nice but Disney didn't even send out an announcement of when Fastpasses would go out for those rides which IMHO they shouldn't have had fast passes for anyway. then they broke their own rule by closing the lines down before closing time which made the point of evening magic hours totally pointless.
 
Once this opening time is past, the wait times will go down. It did for the other Harry Potter Attractions. I seem to remember when FOP at Animal kingdom had really long waits too. Everyone wants to get on the new ride. I will go in September. Kids will be back in school and hopefully wait times will be reasonable.

FOP still has long waits. It hit 300 minutes on Christmas day and hit 210 on July 4.

Over my June 29-July 5 trip FOP consistently had as long of wait as Hagrids when Hagrids was actually up. Those waiting for more than 3 hours for hagrids got in the pre opening queue which, speaking from experience is foolish.
 
Hi! I can answer this question because I have experience with Hagrid and SWGE. I have a Premier AP for Disney and a Premium AP for Universal Orlando. My youngest dd and I waited 8 hours to ride Hagrid the last day of Our WDW/UO vacation because we really wanted to ride Hagrid's Motorbike. It was fun and an adventure, but the ride continually breaking down was an issue. I have now been to SWGE twice. Once on a reservation, once I just walked right in on a Tuesday night. I have not waited longer than 45 minutes to ride Smuggler's Run (the Millennium Falcon ride.) I have ridden it 3 times now. As of 1:00 today, Hagrid is closed (according to my UO app) and SWGE is open and Smuggler's Run is only a 45-minute wait.
Although Hagrid was amazing and I wish I had been able to ride it again, Disney is the clear winner handling this situation.
 

GET A DISNEY VACATION QUOTE

Dreams Unlimited Travel is committed to providing you with the very best vacation planning experience possible. Our Vacation Planners are experts and will share their honest advice to help you have a magical vacation.

Let us help you with your next Disney Vacation!





Top