According to Twitter you don’t have to go through metal detection like RRR or Hulk. You do still need to store small items and bags in the lockers by entry similar to most other USF / IOA rides.
Having favorites is not allowed.
(or, if you prefer to spell it incorrectly “favourites”)
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To be fair she was only my favourite for about an hour. Now I hate her. Not as much as, say, Ryan — because I’m very consistent: it’s my hallmark.
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On the radio on the way to work they were talking about it and said it was 10 hours but that the virtual queue had started. My kid is so spoiled by all the tricks I’ve learned here I’m quite certain even a 1 hour wait would be greeted with disdain and a “could we just go back to the pool”! But good luck to those with more patience!
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The virtual queue hasn’t started - it may start today but wasn’t in use yesterday. The ride was down most of yesterday, it didn’t start running until after 12 and was down most of the afternoon according to a chat liner who was waiting. He got on it in 9 hours (after the first 4 hours they were told it was about a 2 hour wait from there but ended up being another 5 because of the down time!!).
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Ouch!!! Such harsh words! I thought you Brits were supposed to be more friendly!
Sooooo…I was right???
Perhaps. The Mousematt’s Favourite Liner programme has been suspended pending further research, viz me going on the bloody tour and finding out if I get to ride Hagrid.
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I know a big part of the problem with Steel Vengeance (and it could very likely be the case with Hagrid, or any new ride) is that in the beginning they weren’t running the ride at full capacity because they hadn’t got the intervals down yet (I know that through most of June last year they were running Steel Vengeance with just one train much of the time).
Also with new rides they expect a considerable amount of downtime and might build that into wait times in order to prevent people getting upset over waiting twice as long as expected. Every new weather pattern seems to bring up some new thing to work out, and then you get a problem with spiders really liking to build webs over a certain sensor, or wheel dust collecting on another sensor or any number of little things like that. They can’t work out all of that stuff or the real-life timing for load/unload before it’s in continual operation. It can take a few months before all of the little things get smoothed out.
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I thought Aragog was a WANTED part of the ride?
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LOL… Aragog’s progeny are part of EVERY ride!
HMCMA Strategy During Turbulent Times:
Not being anywhere near the park, I am having difficulty understanding all the data points I am seeing in the lines app and from comments posted here. Please help educate and summarize for a family that really wants to go for a motorbike ride.
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Pattern right now looks like the ride opens up between 10AM - 12PM.
Hard to interpret the data I am seeing in the historical trends on the touring plans website; as to when the ride is online versus offline…might be a nice addition to the graph.
-Where do you currently wait before it opens?
-Should you throw away morning touring to queue up?
-The blog says it reaches capacity at several points during the day…when are people seeing the line typically being cutoff at the end of the night (no more people in the queue)? is it 7pm, 8pm, 9pm?
Trying to see if an end of the night strategy may be the best bet and when to get in line for that -
Virtual queue is not implemented yet, so forget about that!
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Adjusted wait times are typically 2 to 3 times larger that the initial predictions in the lines app right now. How much more time will be needed before those get assessed again based on the live data being collected.
or are they waiting until issues are worked out;as not to skew the data.
I think the idea of “historical trends” can’t be fully realized for a new attraction until it’s been open a couple of months and has time for trends to actually become visible. Like, right now it’s been open less than 2 weeks, and there’s just not enough data points to even form a trend since each day is weighted too heavily.
They’re also really still in a period where there is no “normal”, because A. normal is established over time and B. they’re sorting through all of the typical little things that come up whenever a complex new ride is opened. They didn’t do any soft opens at all for this one, so those things that might have been caught during that time are being worked out now and any data from this period is going to be next to useless.
This is pretty frustrating for those of us who are trying to plan for trips within the first 90 days, but it’s really unaviodable and at least you don’t have to worry about ADRs and FPs at Universal, so it’s easier to do things on the fly if it turns out your plans aren’t going to work. It seems I’m nearly always planning trips that just happen to fall within that window after a new big thing opens at WDW (7DMT, FEA, RoL and later hours at AK, and Pandora) and sometimes it gives me fits trying to plan all the set times, and also guess at how much it’s going to affect crowds at other parks or waits at other rides in the same park. I’ve gotten to where I build in a 30 minute break immediately after any new attraction (even with FP) and also add in a time when I might be able to come back and use my FP later in case the ride goes down during my FP window.
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The ride is opening 12-1, they have announced that it won’t be opening until 12 until further notice. Some people are getting in line at park opening, some not until around 11. Either way you’re in for a long wait. There are TMs with signs for the end of the queue - where it is depends how many people are in it obviously! But it has been around Sinbad, or Poseidon’s Fury. Between weather and tech issues, it has been shutting early - no chance right now of getting in line at park close. You’d be lucky if it’s still open at 5pm.
It will take at least a year to start seeing more accurate predictions for the wait time.
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Just for reference to figure out how long the wait might be based on where the end of the pre-opening line is watch the Tim Tracker video called “I finally rode Hagrid’s Magical Creatures Motorbike Adventure”. He arrives, joins the line near the entrance, and times the whole thing.
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Anyone have any updates on this?
We’re going to UOR for 3 days in 2 weeks and we’d love to do this ride, but with the unknown of when they open the lines and the waits being 3 hours+, it’s seeming like it would be a waste of nearly an entire day to try to ride this. Sounds like they aren’t using the virtual lines and while we are paying for Express Unlimited, that’s not in use for Hagrid’s yet. Lines are especially rough for us as we have two relatively young kids.
There is a thread dedicated to watching opening and closing times - yesterday it opened before 10 but it’s 4pm now and I don’t believe it’s been open, unless it was first thing.
Yes, I am watching that thread as well 
Well that’s the thread that we’ll be updating. I can add wait times to it when I see it open, but I’m in the UK so it’s still open - or at least the park is - when I go to bed so I can’t do it after that.
We’re there 7-9th August so I’m hoping it gets sorted out too - the virtual line would be perfect, but we’re willing to wait 3 hours. I’m just not sure it’s ever been open for 3 hours in a row 