I’m beginning to question racing to Hagrids for EE. Is it really worth it?
-For an 8:00am opening, being at the gates at 7:00am.
-Getting back to the ride (quickly), and waiting behind the folks who were there even earlier or ran past you, so add an extra 20+ minutes there.
-And that’s if it’s even open!
-We will have express passes, so any advantage gained for other open rides will be minimal.
So I’m getting up at say, 6:15, to get everyone ready and out the door (from Hard Rock), only to end up with a total combined “wait” of 90 minutes for Hagrids? This seems like a lot of hassle, compared to just getting in line between 11:00 and 1:00 when the wait might be around 90 minutes anyway. Granted, we’re traveling during Thanksgiving so maybe that’s pipe dream.
We rode at the end of the day last week and only waited 35 minutes. Of course, Thanksgiving week will be much busier and there is always the risk of the ride being down at the end of the day.
Oh we can get up early. We’re semi-professional WDW rope droppers! But, the dynamics of Disney are a little different for rope dropping, and more consequential.
Maybe we’ll check it out on our arrival day. If there’s a day when the line would be the “shortest” that week, I would think it would be the Saturday before Thanksgiving (crowd level 6). Worst case we suck it up the next day and rope drop it. Of course, we’ll ride it at night though too!
Personally, I’ve never EE’d it. Far too stressful. And it makes no sense to me to get to the parks stupidly early and wait in a boring line. If you’re going to wait in a line, wait in a themed one.
I’ve either done just after lunch, or just before park close. Have sometimes had very surprisingly short waits.
We’ve only rope-dropped it properly once, so it’s hardly based on vast experience but for us it’s the queue later option. I’d just rather have that hour in bed and then snack in line at some point when it’s not too bad during the day. The odds of it being down plus the angling and shoving (I know it’s a minority but I really don’t like it) at early entry make that choice more stressful for me too.
Just before Halloween we were there for just 2 nights.We decided to ride it when we could the day the arrived and then see about the following day. We woke up on our own time and got through near the end of EE (ok so not an actual lie-in but no alarm) with coffees and pastries in hand. The posted wait was 120 minutes and I know normally it’s about the worst time but it looked way shorter to me so we queued. Luckily I was right and it was about an hour and a quarter.
The next day we had friends overlapping our trip who rope-drop every time. We chose not to and decided we’d skip Hagrid’s that day since we were switching hotels and the rope drop was just one thing too many. As we were leaving our room at 8:30 to meet them they’d ridden it once but decided the queue was too long for another go around (I don’t think it was, but I didn’t see it). If we hadn’t been switching we would have rope dropped but it would have been to hang out with them - I’d definitely take that first day!
The benefit of waiting before the park opens (and after the park closes) is that you’re not wasting precious park time waiting for it.
Everything else has EP, so use it to it’s max when the park is open.
You won’t be able to arrive for 7am. Security doesn’t open until about ten past. I’m almost never first at security, but I’m always first at the taps. There are plenty for all the security RDers to take one each.
I agree that the uncertainty of whether or not it’s running at RD is the biggest reason for not going at RD, but UOR have plans to fix that and even as is, the percentages always go in favour of riding Vs bailing.
As for the theming of where you wait, I bloody hate those caves in the Hagrid line
I would choose a fun conversation with friendly gate CMs over that every day of the week!!!
I got stuck in those caves for over an hour the first time I tried to ride Hagrid’s a few years ago and still have mild PTSD about it to this day whenever I’m in that part of the line!
I’m usually team rope drop for most things, but the Hagrid’s experience is its own beast. Unless you’re willing to get there 45 minutes before EE start, it’s not worth it. Nowadays, I go between 11 am and 2 pm when there’s (usually) a dip in the line length or at the end of the night, about 15 minutes before the park closes (I’ve seen them cut the line a bit early).
I honestly would’ve done that if I had ever actually been near Hogsmeade at 11am.
It just never worked out that way
I’m ok with that though.
Mornings and nights are good enough
Next trip I might deliberately aim to do all three in one day though.
You and @bebe80 know I like a challenge
We there at Spring Break peek crowds. Planned to stalk the app between 10:30 and 1:00. At 11:00 I saw the line drop to 55 min and jumped. It was a 50 min wait total.
