We’re arriving the same day! Also a first trip. DS11 and I really want to ride, DH likes rides but isn’t a big HP fan so for him it’s wait time dependant, while DS7 doesn’t like drops and when he saw the going backwards part of the ride on a POV video he went from maybe wanting to do it to a hard NOPE. So I still don’t know what our plan is other than watching the weather forecast closely and maybe jumping in the queue around 1pm or 6:30/7pm. I don’t think the RD mêlée will work for us.
I just hope they actually help! I do a bit feel like we’ve crunched a lot of data to come to the conclusion that “rope drop is helpful” and “it rains in Orlando in the afternoon in summer” 
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We did rope drop today and our total wait was 2 hours, including rope drop. That ride is amazing!! The hold in Suess land was brutal. This morning crew members did pull people that ran. Beware though the free lockers are truly small.
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Good to hear that they did something to discourage the running! What time did you arrive at IOA for that 2 hour wait?
We were at the entrance at 745. Gates opened at 825. Then they let us leave Suess at 850. That part of waiting was pretty miserable with the humidity.
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Has anyone been tracking what time they close the line each day?
I hadn’t been tracking it specifically, but looking quickly through my data, since 25th July when they switched to the later closes there have been 20 days. Of those it closed:
Before 7pm – 5 days (once as early as 4:30!)
Between 7pm and 7:30pm – 5 days
Between 7:30pm and 8pm – 4 days
Between 8pm and 8:30pm – 2 days
After 8:30pm – 4 days (latest close was 8:45)
So maybe 7:30 as the average time? But it’s not settled into any real pattern yet. The other problem with predicting the close time is that, for example, if you look at the wait times for 8/8:
You can see that it did reopen after the afternoon weather closure – but only for about 5-10 minutes. It seems that on some days they reopen, pulse in the crowd that was literally standing around waiting outside the queue entrance, and then close again for the day almost immediately. So trying to hit that right would be a challenge.
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Thank you to everyone for posting their experiences, it was a great help in my planning yesterday
Summary of below:
7:40 arrival
10:50 ride time (about 75 minutes ride downtime)
This morning we arrived at the gates around 7:40. Gates opened around 8:30 and many people were running. We were held at Suess and were next to the food cart on the left until approx 8:45. Once released people were running again but it was so narrow few really could. Once we hit Lost Continent there were ropes to follow. Some people ignored them and would cut the line by going under. These seemed to be very few and were loudly booed by others. Once we arrived at the official entrance a fair number of people were confused about using the lockers and where to go. We were able to save time by not needing a locker. We walked all the way into the castle and weren’t stopped until there was a motorcycle and sidecar for checking guests size on it. We moved at a good pace and were in the final room about 30 people back when the ride broke down. I’d say it was about 9:25 when the delay occurred. It came online at around 10:40. We were on within 10 minutes.
Unbelievable ride!
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I’m glad you got to ride, sorry about the long downtime wait! The rope drop scene sounds like a total zoo but brief, at least? Were most people just walking with purpose vs. running after the hold at Seuss?
From Suess there were very few runners where I was. Most were walking briskly
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Thank you for these post. I’m going in mid Sept. and this helps with my planning and expectations!
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Glad you enjoyed the ride and sorry about the bad luck with the break down. If it hadn’t broken down you were for sure on track to be done well before ten.
I still think on balance we will try to do Hagrid Rope Drop in a couple of weeks on maybe the second of three days that we are there. Hopefully, we’ll just have better luck with the breakdowns.
I want the kids to have a positive experience on the first partial and full day so we will hit Studios and other non-Hagrid rides first.
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By ten for sure. I’d recommend 7:15-7:20 and move fast to suess if you want well before 10.
Thanks!
We’re not going until 9/19, so I’ve been trying to keep myself from obsessing over it because I know that’s a whole different ballgame when it comes to crowds. I’ll start watching more closely after next weekend, but this really helps with a preliminary strategy.
We’ve got 4.5 days with unlimited express and low crowds, and we’re mainly going for HHN so right now we’re thinking that we’ll definitely get up early one morning and do rope drop and ride water rides than go relax at the hotel until HHN time. We don’t actually need to spend 4 full days in the parks with express, so this will help keep us from overdoing it.
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Another Saturday, another update . . .
As always, the actual data is courtesy of the awesome team at Touring Plans! The left axis shows Universal’s average posted wait time at each time of day, while the right axis shows the percent of days on which the ride was open and operating that that time.
This is another week without much new to report. I still see 2-maybe-3 potential strategies, with rope drop being the most reliable of them:
Strategy 1 – Rope Drop
Ride uptime percentage has actually dropped slightly for the period after rope drop this week, with some days recently seeing the ride not open until between 10 & 10:30am. However, this is still the time of day at which the ride is most likely to be operating. If you want to guarantee you get to ride, this is still your best bet.
Pros: most reliable in terms of actually getting on the ride, if something does go wrong and you have to bail you can come back and try again later in the day
Cons: for best results you need to arrive at the IOA gates around 7:30am, eats up valuable morning time especially for guests without Express Pass, can be an unpleasant experience with people running and while waiting in the crowd at Seuss Landing
Strategy 2 – The 1pm “Sweet Spot”
This still sees relatively low posted waits and the best ride uptime of the afternoon period.
Pros: don’t have to wake up before 7am on vacation 
, can rope drop other attractions, can take advantage of Early Entry at USF
Cons: might find the ride not open, might get caught in the queue during a lengthy (read: hours-long) weather delay, waiting in the exterior queue will be extremely hot
Strategy 3 – The Pre-Closing Gamble
It does seem that a pattern is starting to emerge where the ride is likely to be open right around 7pm, with low-ish posted waits. However, this is definitely a risky strategy.
Pros: relatively cooler weather than at mid-afternoon, should be after the storms pass through so no weather delays
Cons: very risky in terms of actually getting on the ride – if you miss the timing and they’ve closed the queue for the day, you’re out of luck, no chance to try and come back later in the day
Good luck to anyone riding this week!
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As we drove down (we’ll arrive in Orlando today, by noon I hope!) I was telling DH about the Hagrid wait times and your analysis. We’re ok if we don’t ride it and neither he nor DS11 wants to wait more than an hour or deal with the rope drop crowd. So we’re keeping an eye on the weather and will go for 1pm or 7pm if either works out between today and Thursday.
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Lol, sometimes I wonder how these conversations go … whenever I talk about the forums here with people IRL the phrase I most often hear is “is that from your weird internet people?” 
I’ll keep my fingers crossed for good luck and good weather for your family @Steenaca!
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Oh, DH has long called any people from internet forums my axe murderers or serial killers (as in, “remember that time we had dim sum with your axe murderers?”) so I phrased it as “one of the serial killers from the theme park forum had been charting wait times.”
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Hi everyone! This is my first ever post on the forums! Just wanted to say thank you so much to you all for this great thread and especially to dunegirl. It made planning our strategy so much easier.
For those not on chat, we did rope drop 2 days ago (Friday). Arrived at taps at 7.30, let in 8.30, held at Seuss until 8.50 then walked to ride by team member.
Walk took us to the left of Seuss land, we lost some ground here as we were on the right at the front of the holding area. They had announced ride opening would be delayed and we walked a winding route and were held just before entrance to hogsmeade. There were people running but not madly so. We ended up just under the arch by the mystic fountain about 100 people back from front of line.
The ride didn’t open until 10.20 but once it did we were onto the ride at about 10.50. So without the delay rd would have been an excellent strategy. Think from posts on lines was open yesterday from the off so great for anyone riding then. This morning not so good. Ride has been down all morning and think few people on lines that tried had to bail after several hours. One person said they were eventually given 2 passes, one of which was good for Hagrid’s but think they had waited around 4hr from park opening for that.
We had small fanny packs and chickened out of keeping them and stowed in locker. Would have been ok to keep them on ride though.
The ride itself was awesome!! We all loved it including ds9 who had never ridden a coaster bigger than flight of the hippogrif before.
Thanks again everyone and good luck!
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