Google is not saying (or not easily at least)–are there lockers at BaTM? If so, at what point in the queue do you get to them?
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Nope. It’s not a particularly thrilling ride, so you can just put your bag at your feet on the ride. This was my first clue that the ride was going to be a bit too tame compared to Hagrids, FOP, and Gringotts.
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Thank you, great to know! I guess the thrill is in the scope of the construction, which I do find thrilling.
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Only if you need to store your broom!
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This is how I feel about Rise of the Resistance, which is sort of what I assume BatM was designed to compete with.
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Of the queue line, perhaps. Not of the ride itself.
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I have reached the age, ryan1, where I’m thrilled with unique construction, even in a queue line. Happens to the best of us.
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That’s fair. I just wanted to clarify that the ride itself does not live up to the queue line. But, as I’ve said many times now, the queue line is incredible!
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I wonder what others think (a future poll?!?), but in my opinion, Rise is a much better overall experience than BatM. I’d rate Rise a 9/10 and BatM a 7/10.
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When I’m rating a ride, I take re-rideability into account as well. As a result, I don’t put Rise as high as a 9. Maybe an 8? Not that I wouldn’t re-ride it or anything, but that after the first time, the experience is somewhat diminished. But still highly rated.
BatM was rather one-and-done for me. Meh as a ride goes, so I’m really just upping the marks due to the queue. But the queue wouldn’t be enough to make me want to go back. So, I’ll give it a 5, maybe? Perhaps even a 4.
(Truthfully, though, I struggle with these “objective” subjective ratings.)
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Heh. We ended up doing pretty well, only one real frustration.
Early entried BatM (agree with consensus, amazing queue, ride is fine) and Hiccups Winged Gliders (loved it), and got in line for Mine Cart before the regular crowd was released into park.
Made the mistake of single rider for Mine Cart. Posted wait time for standard queue was 75 minutes, we waited like 85 in single rider line and it just moved so slowly.
Got a PB&J cone in Berk and watched untrainable dragon (great show!), then 15 minute wait for Fyre Drill.
Monsters Unchained was having some technical delays, but we got in line anyway. Wait was about 20 minutes and meant we got to spend real time in the queue, which is phenomenal. Loved the ride, as we got off team member asked if we wanted to go again and we immediately got back on. So 2 rides for a 20 minute wait, worked out perfectly.
Did some snacks and people watching.
30 minute wait for Mario Cart (posted as 50), queue was great, ride was …confusing and somehow both underwhelming and overwhelming?
Our last thing in the park was Cirque Arcanus - too much standing in the queue and pre-show, my feet were killing me. But good show.
Stopped for one more snack, then we left at 4:30. So from 9am early entry to 4:30 exit we did 7 rides, 2 shows, and plenty of breaks. Only the Mine Cart wait felt long. If we had wanted to stay all day, we could have easily ridden everything along with a few repeats (caveat: rain arrived just as we were leaving, hard to say how that would have impacted the ride availability and crowds).
Stardust Racers was closed, we didn’t do Curse of the Werewolf, Yoshi’s, Carousel, or Dragon Rally.
I suspect we benefitted greatly from the overcast, threatening-to-rain-all-day weather.
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I know I am too late to help Amanda but just want to mark that I disagree about which show is better. Circus is sooo much better than dragon show because of the storyline. The puppetry is similar so I wouldn’t even say it’s better at Dragon but I suppose people like Hiccup flying overhead so I’ll give it to them but the storyline is sooooooooo dumb. And the Arcanus storyline is good. So if you prefer story to spectacle and it still has spectacle, Arcanus is the better show by a lot. I mean if I went again I’d see Circus again and I’ll skip Dragons and my entire family felt this way including the 18 and 21 year old.
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Agree that the storyline in Dragon is weak, but Toothless is pretty amazing.
Cirque suffers a bit because it’s almost entirely new characters that we have no connection to.
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All 8 of us felt the opposite. The story for Arcanus felt like there was no real story at all, just a made up bad guy with no reason other than to have one. But it was visually cool.
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But…
How is it Newt is around, unaged, when it seems like years have supposed passed? His presence in the story made zero sense
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Oh Ryan, we could not disagree more; even more than on fastpass systems ha ha ha. Blurring the next bit for those who don’t want to know what the story’s plots are. All the characters are made up but I think what you’re trying to say is not from the films, but he is in fact the cirque owner from the Fantastic Beasts films and he lost his creatures in those films so his circus is struggling is in fact in line with taking up where the films left off. But even then that’s not what makes the driving force behind the story weak or strong imhoI think it’s super relatable if you’re business is failing, someone might go to immoral means to restore it and others might fight them versus why oh why is this dragon so mean and untrainable, oh it’s cuz she’s a mum, but you know despite the fact that I’ve trained a bazillion dragons, let me doubt my entire identity and belief system cuz this one dragon in a ton is hard to train.
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I disagree with this too. But I have very recently read the screenplays and watched all three films. It’s very much in line with his character to be wherever magical animals need his help. It’s his entire identity and why he is was ever anywhere in those films.
Maybe what it is that makes most people like the Dragon show better is that the Fantastic Beasts films aren’t as watched as the How to Train Your Dragon ones, so people don’t know the characters or the motives behind them. But even then my kids have probably seen all the Fantastic Beasts films once and probably the same with the original How To Train Your Dragon cartoon and none of the sequels or the live action remake and all of them they saw when they came out and not recently so they aren’t really engaged in any of those characters or plotlines from those films and they still preferred cirque. So I still think not knowing the movies/characters, the cirque storyline is more followable, something that in other ways happens in the real world, like Nike and Apple have children making their products to keep their companies so well off, I mean that’s real and a similar evil motivation. Shoot even circuses and their using and treatment of animals like elephants and wild cats. There are “bad” guys just like that in the real world. But how many animal trainers are really good at training animals and meet one hard to train animal and doubt their entire skillset or their belief that animals can be trained at all?
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You are the magic.
Meaning…you brought all that to the story yourself. But for us, it just was all very convoluted and a stretch coming out of nowhere.
To each their own. I am not saying we didn’t enjoy the show…but it was the story part that felt completely flat to us. Just cool visually.
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I don’t think any of the queues need you to skip EP to experience it properly
BatM, MU and Mario Kart have the best ones imo.
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I’d rate them the same. Maybe 7.5-8 for BatM because I liked the design. As @motherofdaughtersthree said above, I too have reached an age where I’m fascinated by the construction and mechanics of a ride 
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