TP estimates for Hagrid's...can they be believed?

Ah. Very good! One less thing to worry about.

I had to! You are so wise and organized, that I had to point this one little thing out! :slight_smile:

Ah. I see my Jedi mind tricks are working! :wink:

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.

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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.

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This is such good news to me. Thank you.

I would also add that we rode FOTH right after Hagrid and… well… the timing is just not good.

FOTH is lame compared to Hagrid.
You have a decent rush of adrenaline with Hagrid, and than you hop on a kiddie coaster.

In my opinion, FOTH is a « ok » ride that is not a must do even for Potter fans, it REALLY get worse if done AFTER Hagrid.

It is like riding the Barnstormer right after Expedition Everest…

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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.

Nice if FJ could be done with a 30 mins or less wait in the afternoon !
May could (should?) be less crowded than right now.

And I agree with you: the line for FOTH can really go crazy… better do it after Hagrid with no wait than at a better time with a 45 mins wait !

Yes…the time we’re going, CLs are relatively low (second full week of May). But even if the wait is twice that, it still made more sense to add that extra time in the afternoon to save time in the morning on Hagrid’s and FOTH.

Is there still an advantage of doing EE at USF and then taking HE to ride Hagrids when IOA opens?

I don’t know from experience, but looking at the numbers, I would say so. Hitting Hagrid’s at park opening still has lower wait times than waiting until later in the day. So, if you do EE at USF to ride a couple things with the low crowds, and then head over…even if you’re behind the RD crowd from IOA itself, you’ll still be ahead of most people.

But, again…just conjecture.

There is no advantage, in fact you are a leg behind everyone at the park entrance of IOA.

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No, that’s never been an advantage. It doesn’t start running till IOA opens and you’ll have to go to the back of the RD queue.

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Thanks for the feedback. Not really what I wanted to hear :laughing:

The question isn’t really about if it is the best idea for Hagrid’s alone, but whether you can take advantage of it in general.

If EE gets you on two or thee rides without the long waits, and THEN gets you to Hagrid’s just behind the RD crowds, you might still end up being better off in general. You might just RD IOA and do Hagrid’s, but then you’ll only get a single ride done versus potentially several.

So, it really depends on your larger plans.

True, but if you are behind the RD crowd in this particular instance for Hagrid, you might be better off waiting until the afternoon sweet spot to ride it because the line builds quickly in the morning. You could very possibly end up waiting longer for Hagrid when you could be doing shorter lines at other rides around the park, thus ending up with an overall net longer wait time than if you had done RD at IOA and gone right to Hagrid.

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That’s where looking at the data for the particular day matters.

In the day we plan to go, for example, RD Hagrid wait time is 40 minutes.

Thirty minutes later, the Hagrid wait time is 50 minutes. So, you save 10 minutes getting ahead of RD crowd…so if you used EE at USF first, and then hit Hagrid after RD crowd, it is only losing out on 10 minutes, compared to saving a lot more than that using EE in USF.

But other days, the data might paint a different picture entirely.

That is absolutely true! But, of course, the data is fairly flexible, so I think it’s a crapshoot no matter what! And that pretty much sums up riding Hagrid in a nutshell!

While Hagrid’s was our favorite ride, it did break down every single day (sometimes more than once) while we were there in December. It is a very technologically sophisticated ride so rebooting it, and getting it back online can take them significant time sometimes. Perhaps, that might account for why sometimes the wait times get backed up compared to the touring plans times?

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