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Wow you in the middle of driving down there? How long is the drive?
There are no metal detectors at Hagrid, right? I don’t use a fanny pack, but I have a traveler’s belt (lays flat under my clothes, with zipper pockets) that I use to hold credit cards, tickets, etc. and my phone if there are no metal detectors. It’s also mostly waterproof, so I would like to use it when we do our Hagrid + water rides day but I don’t want to have to get a locker for it when we RD Hagrid.
No metal detector, you can bring a fanny pack on so your belt should be fine.
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Thanks brklinck! I certainly made use of the no character limit! 
Aug 19 Hagrid’s - My 3 grown up kids arrived at IOA just before 9AM. They decided to either try to get in single rider line if open or ride other rides if delayed. They rode several rides, ate lunch then just after 12PM sat on benches near Hagrid’s. They saw staff start moving around and looked as if they were prepping for ride start up at 12:30PM. They lined up immediately. At 12:37 they could hear the ride being tested. They were 15th in line. They got on the ride at 12:54 and were in the second roller coaster train. We had set an alert for the ride on Universal’s app and did not receive notification that the ride had opened until 1:15PM and was posted as 210 min wait. Interestingly they had already finished the ride before the ride alert. (Worth noting for future riders) Our son in law was visiting for the first time and so every ride was new to him. He said he rated this ride his 3rd favourite with Gringott’s 1st and Mummy 2nd. Hope this is helpful for you all.
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Also, my kids did not use lockers. They hid their water bottles under a bench and were willing to risk losing them if necessary. They were still there after the ride which worked out for them.
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We lucked out and got to ride Hagride on our trip to Universal. I had the Universal app notify me when the ride was open that day. The day I went, it did not open until almost 5pm (no real weather to note), and was quickly filled to capacity. As soon as the app texted me, we ran straight there, and waited about 2 hours.
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We just got in line at noon, posted time 120 minutes and we’re at the inside part of the queue after walking for 6 min. Single rider queue closed.
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Exciting! Good luck!!! 
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We were moving slowly but steadily until about 5 minutes ago. I think we’re in the last room before loading. They just said “we’re experiencing a slight delay in today’s lesson. We should be ready to go shortly. Thank you for your patience.” No rain yet and posted wait is still 120.
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“Good news” and everyone cheered and clapped. Back on our feet and moving slowly.
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Total wait about one hour 20min, off and at the lockers by one thirty. Both kids gave it ten out of ten, I loved it too.
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Wow congrats Steenaca and thanks for the report!
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Exciting! Sounds like you had great luck. We’re aiming for that time tomorrow and my fingers are crossed!
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Good luck! If the ride hadn’t gone down for that ~35min stretch it would have been a 45 minute wait and moving slowly but steadily the whole time. As soon as I saw the 120 minutes in Universal’s app I knew it was as good a time as we were going to see, thanks to this thread.
My kids were a bit impatient during the moving slowly phase of the wait, but not excessively, and then they were somewhat frustrated during the closure though DS11 took it more in stride than DS7. The kids were the ones who made the call that they were willing to wait the posted 2 hours for it, after the people in front of us at Poseidon’s Fury were talking about how it was their favourite and worth the wait. DS7 rated the wait 0 out of 10 and I’m happy I had an absorbing library book on my phone to read to him when the queue stopped moving and everyone sat down. Libby is my favourite app for the parks now.
DH thought the ride was great too but isn’t a Harry Potter fan so he ranks it after Hulk. As a ride I might too but the story elements of Hagrid’s are so good. Also it’s really fast – I felt like my earrings were going to fly off my ears – but it felt very smooth to me.
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Thanks for that explanation Steenaca, we are not the biggest Harry Potter’s fans either, so we’ll get up one time in the morning and if is not better than the Hulk, we may just chill out for the rest of the vacation and don’t wake up early. 
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Hulk is a great roller coaster, but it has pretty much zero theming other than the name. From what I’ve seen of Hagrid (but not having ridden it), it is light years ahead of Hulk. It’s like comparing Maliboomer to Tower of Terror.
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Thanks Jeff_AZ, theming is great, I loved how immersived some of the Disney World’s rides were, but if there is not enough thrill to a ride, the level of immersion can’t make up the deficit. Example when we were at Disney we didn’t understand the hype behind Seven Dwarfs Mine Train, we rode it twice during early magic hour and my kids we’re asking me to change the upcoming fast pass because it was boring to them, even though they loved the theming.
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