I know there is a thread devoted to wait times for Hagrid’s, but I haven’t been following along and most of the thread is older.
So, I was looking at the predicted wait times for Hagrid throughout the day in Touring Plans for various days, including the day we plan to ride it. But the wait times look unbelievably low. Is TP even TRYING?
Yesterday, I glanced a couple times in the morning, and in the Universal App, wait times were well over 100 minutes (I believe at one time it was nearly 3 hours)…but in TP, it never shows it was above 100 minutes.
Not sure how to plan. Currently I have Hagrid’s in our afternoon of HP day, which predicts 74 minutes (May 14). If I move it to the following day (May 15) the longest wait for the day is 39 minutes, and in the morning, it is 23 minutes.
Unfortunately, this thing is all over the board. In my December trip, my wait times ranged from under 20 minutes first thing in the morning to just over an hour later in the day. It is still discussed on chat on an almost daily basis and recent reports still have people riding both in the morning and the afternoon, and waiting anywhere from 30 to 90 minutes, so by that account, TP is not off. Of course, these are only the people who are reporting back. When you are looking at the app, I would only look at reported wait times because Universal has historically been drastically over-inflating the wait times themselves, so Universal’s wait times are horribly inaccurate.
The ride has also had a whole lot of downtime lately, which has caused some major problems for people. I’m not sure why they can’t seem to get this thing figured out, but it is extremely frustrating!
Also, the link you put in your post is for Escape from Gringotts, not Hagrid!
In my past trip to Universal, I found Universal’s posted wait times were FAR more accurate than TPs. TPs were all over the place…but Universal’s was usually correct to within 5-10 minutes.
Huh. What kind of idiot did that?
This explains things better. I don’t know what I was thinking to have clicked on Gringott’s. Uh…both have “Gri” in them? When I look at the correct calendar for Hagrids, it does seem more reasonable.
I feel better now…about the crowd calendar…not about my sanity.
Normally, I would agree with this to some extent, but I do believe that Hagrid is the exception. I have been in the park, standing in line, and waited for 60 minutes when they had 120 posted. Other people have been reporting this as well.
Edited: I actually think that the post time in my particular instance was 120 Minutes, not 180. My apologies!
I’m trying to figure out when, exactly, to do Hagrid’s in the plan, so knowing that the wait times for Hagrid are at least somewhat reasonable in TP is good to know.
We’re at Universal for 2 days at the end of March. First day is starting at USF then to IOA - will try to get on Hagrid’s in the afternoon. Previous reports had indicated a relative dip in wait times around 1pm. If that doesn’t work, we’ll rope drop the next morning.
Much like RotR, the uncertainty on getting onto the most innovative ride in the park is stressful!
So, here’s my plan now. On May 13, we are doing “Harry Potter Day”…starting at IOA.
We are RD’ing IOA because UOR has Early Entry, which we won’t have access to. I’m not sure what this will do to riding Hagrid’s, though…will people show up and do Gringott’s during Early Entry, then train over to IOA for Hagrid’s? I don’t know…
Anyhow, by getting to IOA at RD and then hustling it to Hagrid’s, TP estimates a 40 minute wait. If we take our time getting to Hagrid’s, the time jumps up to about 50 minutes, so not a huge difference.
Once done with Hagrid’s, we’ll do FOTH and Olivander’s, look around Diagon Alley, eat at Three Broomsticks, and then train over to Diagon Alley. There, we do Gringott’s, watch Beedle the Bard, and tour around for a bit. Train back, do Forbidden Journey. Then done.
Hopefully.
If Hagrid’s isn’t open immediately, I’ll just hop onto FOTH and Olivander’s first and hope Hagrid’s opens shortly thereafter…although…I’m not sure if it is advisable just to stand outside Hagrid’s and wait for it to open rather than come back to it.
Hogwarts Express doesn’t open till both parks are officially open, IOA usually lets guests in a few minutes early and lets you position closer to Hagrid. You will likely beat everyone trying to take HE over from USF.
This definitely seems to be the way to go. Most people reporting back on chat are saying that being at rope drop for IOA gives you the advantage for Hagrid over taking HE.
We were there last week with early morning access in USF.
At 8:40, there was a decent line for Hogwarts Express: Many thinks that you could beat the crowd coming from the gates of IOA.
However, we RD Hagrid on three other days and everytime, we were let in the park at 8:40 (9:00 opening) and crowds coming from HE were nowhere to be seen.
We arrived at the IOA gate between 8:10 and 8:20 each morning and we were out from Hagrid at 9:17, 9:22 & 9:35.
Very easy to RD.
Everytime, Forbidden Journey was at 10-15 mins at 9:30, so maybe do it just after Hagrid ?
Forbidden Journey was at 60 mins from 11:00 to 6:00.
I hear what you’re saying. Originally I wanted to do FOTH first thing. I do like the queue. Coaster is meh. But when I decided to move Hagrid’s to the morning, FOTH had to be moved. But FOTH can get stupid long lines for such a bland coaster, so I want to do it early before lines build.
FJ is estimated to be a 15 minute wait in the afternoon the day we will be there. Seems like a nice way to finish out the WWOHP for the day.
