Strategy for Hagrid's when staying offsite?

[ctl]

Universal has had 10/10 crowds this week, because of Easter break. Even with express passes many rides have had over an hour wait. My kids are there now and even with early entry (they are staying on site) by 11am the place is jam packed. Some lines are 120 minutes or more. Also several rides have broken down. (Probably just because of overuse). I would prioritize the rides you absolutely want to do and get them done first, in case things break down again. (Hagrid was one the rides that broke down). It will hopefully be not just as busy, but honestly every theme park seems to be packed this year. It's like everyone who had to be locked down for COVID has decided to visit. Especially overseas guests. Good luck!

 

[Smugpugmug]

Universal has had 10/10 crowds this week, because of Easter break. Even with express passes many rides have had over an hour wait. My kids are there now and even with early entry (they are staying on site) by 11am the place is jam packed. Some lines are 120 minutes or more. Also several rides have broken down. (Probably just because of overuse). I would prioritize the rides you absolutely want to do and get them done first, in case things break down again. (Hagrid was one the rides that broke down). It will hopefully be not just as busy, but honestly every theme park seems to be packed this year. It's like everyone who had to be locked down for COVID has decided to visit. Especially overseas guests. Good luck!

Yikes! I'm very glad both of us bought our Express Passes a few months ago - we bought the one time use ones since we want to make sure we do everything once each time. They were about $90-100 on UndercoverTourist but I don't think that price is that bad if the parks are as packed as everyone is saying. I have even been looking at the wait times on the app and I'm sitting here in shock that Dudley Do Right has a 80 minute wait xD

I'm hoping that the second week of May sees slightly lighter crowds. We're stuck on the May 11th date due to our other Disney plans so we're hoping the early closure might deter a massive crowd from coming. But thanks! I'm more excited to ride Hagrid's and Velocicoaster than anything else at Disney.

 

[boxer]

Yikes! I'm very glad both of us bought our Express Passes a few months ago - we bought the one time use ones since we want to make sure we do everything once each time. They were about $90-100 on UndercoverTourist but I don't think that price is that bad if the parks are as packed as everyone is saying. I have even been looking at the wait times on the app and I'm sitting here in shock that Dudley Do Right has a 80 minute wait xD

I'm hoping that the second week of May sees slightly lighter crowds. We're stuck on the May 11th date due to our other Disney plans so we're hoping the early closure might deter a massive crowd from coming. But thanks! I'm more excited to ride Hagrid's and Velocicoaster than anything else at Disney.

We there 5/12, and usually go for a day or two this time of year--and it is usually very good crowd-wise. Busy, but in no way 'spring-break' busy, or unmanagable.

 

[Smugpugmug]

We there 5/12, and usually go for a day or two this time of year--and it is usually very good crowd-wise. Busy, but in no way 'spring-break' busy, or unmanagable.

That's great to hear! I went to Disneyland the same week pre-Covid and the crowds were really manageable, so I'm hoping the same for Universal. The last time I went was the month Escape from Gringotts opened and I waited an eternity for it so I'll take anything over that.

 

[JAG107]

Thank you for the warning - it's a bit of a running joke between us that we want to see how bad that ride us since we have seen the hipe/ignored the spoilers on purpose so we are willing to wait a tiny bit to experience it even if that means missing out on some other stuff at the park. The shows aren't that important to us and we don't care about Minions. It would be nice to ride ET but we would 100% hustle over to Islands to ride Hagrid's and Velocicoaster if we end up doing Studios first.

I think that if you enjoy ET the movie at all, you should definitely make time to ride it. It's an aging attraction (the last remaining opening day ride if I recall?), and is a wonderful dark ride that's fun for everyone. It has some... ahem, unique scenes at the end, and has some Pirates-esque smells as well. I'd absolutely pick ET over F&F.

 

[Smugpugmug]

I think that if you enjoy ET the movie at all, you should definitely make time to ride it. It's an aging attraction (the last remaining opening day ride if I recall?), and is a wonderful dark ride that's fun for everyone. It has some... ahem, unique scenes at the end, and has some Pirates-esque smells as well. I'd absolutely pick ET over F&F.

I've been on ET before and I liked it, even if it's a bit weird. We probably will end up doing it along with Fast and the Furious since we have Express Pass. Neither of us really care about any of the IPs at Universal (ET included), we're really just there for the rides. My friend joked that this day will be cheaper than Disney since we won't be buying any merch lol

 

[Smrtalec33]

Got in line tonight around 9:50 (10 pm close), wait said 80 min - we were on in 45-50.

 

[mom2rtk]

Got in line tonight around 9:50 (10 pm close), wait said 80 min - we were on in 45-50.

Very similar to what we experienced getting In line close to closing in January.

 

[Smugpugmug]

Got in line tonight around 9:50 (10 pm close), wait said 80 min - we were on in 45-50.

Very similar to what we experienced getting In line close to closing in January.

That sounds completely manageable, thanks for sharing your experience! The day I'm going Islands is going to be closing early for a company event. Does anyone know if they'll let us queue up before park close or will they stop people an hour early?

 

[mommajen08]

We were there the week of Easter. Hagrids had a posted 100 minute wait both times we rode it, but I really don't think we waited more than 60-ish minutes. We rode Velicicoaster first both times we went to IOA and the wait was 40 minutes both times (10:00 am one day, 11:00 am the next). According to touring lines, the crowd level was 10/10 when we were there. I would hope going mid-May you should see much smaller crowds.

 

[JAG107]

Yikes! I'm very glad both of us bought our Express Passes a few months ago - we bought the one time use ones since we want to make sure we do everything once each time. They were about $90-100 on UndercoverTourist but I don't think that price is that bad if the parks are as packed as everyone is saying. I have even been looking at the wait times on the app and I'm sitting here in shock that Dudley Do Right has a 80 minute wait xD

I'm hoping that the second week of May sees slightly lighter crowds. We're stuck on the May 11th date due to our other Disney plans so we're hoping the early closure might deter a massive crowd from coming. But thanks! I'm more excited to ride Hagrid's and Velocicoaster than anything else at Disney.

We'll be there May 10th through 13th! Very excited for our first trip. The crowd calendar looks very manageable, 4-5 on Wed-Fri and 7 on Saturday. It could be a LOT worse than that!

 

[Smugpugmug]

Just wanted to give an update that I just got off Hagrid's and the ride is AMAZING! Probably one of my favorite coasters alongside Velocicoaster - the motorbike seat is awesome. I waited about an hour but that was lower than the 70-90 average today. Thanks for all the tips!

 

[georgina]

Just wanted to give an update that I just got off Hagrid's and the ride is AMAZING! Probably one of my favorite coasters alongside Velocicoaster - the motorbike seat is awesome. I waited about an hour but that was lower than the 70-90 average today. Thanks for all the tips!

Yay! I waited about an hour yesterday evening also.

 

[jgl130]

Just wanted to give an update that I just got off Hagrid's and the ride is AMAZING! Probably one of my favorite coasters alongside Velocicoaster - the motorbike seat is awesome. I waited about an hour but that was lower than the 70-90 average today. Thanks for all the tips!

Curious about what time you ended up getting in line? I’m doing the same thing on Sunday, offsite, 1 day park to park with Express pass. What time did you end up doing Velocicoaster?

 

[Smugpugmug]

Curious about what time you ended up getting in line? I’m doing the same thing on Sunday, offsite, 1 day park to park with Express pass. What time did you end up doing Velocicoaster?

I got on line around 4:30 when I saw the line drop to 60 and when I picked up my phone from my locker it said it was 5:40-5:50 so the wait time/ride was fairly accurate.

So here's the thing with Velocicoaster. My friend and I entered the park right when early entry started and we went into the offsite holding area (in the Seuss area) We were casually talking to the employees over there (we were the only ones in there and they were jokingly picking on us lol) and they VERY VERY kindly let us in early so we actually got to ride Velocicoaster twice before the park actually opened. I wasn't expecting that to happen and I wouldn't anticipate that to happen for you either. We just got extremely lucky.

 

[jgl130]

I got on line around 4:30 when I saw the line drop to 60 and when I picked up my phone from my locker it said it was 5:40-5:50 so the wait time/ride was fairly accurate.

So here's the thing with Velocicoaster. My friend and I entered the park right when early entry started and we went into the offsite holding area (in the Seuss area) We were casually talking to the employees over there (we were the only ones in there and they were jokingly picking on us lol) and they VERY VERY kindly let us in early so we actually got to ride Velocicoaster twice before the park actually opened. I wasn't expecting that to happen and I wouldn't anticipate that to happen for you either. We just got extremely lucky.

Gotta love whatever Universal park goers call Pixie Dust! Floo powder maybe?

This was helptul to keep an eye on Hagrids, thanks,