I know!! I only have two days at Universal in December and if I run into the issues it’s had this week I might legitimately cry.
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Very disappointing for our trip, but Hagrid’s doesn’t seem to be in the cards for us. I wish luck for everyone else and will continue to monitor this thread in the hopes we can ditch a Disney day for the chance to ride in a few days before we leave 
Good luck!
I hope whoever is going gets a chance to ride it. Normally, I’m a go with the flow type of girl, but to go all the way down to Florida, and not have a chance because it’s closed, I think I’d be a little bummed. Go away bees!
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Yay! Got to ride this morning! We rope dropped yesterday, but it didn’t open. After waiting in line for about 4 hrs they gave us express passes that were good until December. We had our last morning in the park today and gave up hope around 10, but kept checking the app to see if it would open. Shocked the heck out of me around 11 when it opened!!! We raced there and used our express passes. Then loved it so much we got in line to ride again. The expected wait on the Lines app was 57 min when we got in line, but it ended up being about 110 min. We would totally wait that long again… but we hadn’t planned on the wait and we were all practically starving by the time we rode. No regrets though. We were so happy it opened in time for us to ride twice before a mad-dash to the airport!! It’s like Universal Magic (similar to Disney magic, but rougher around the edges and saltier).
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Currently standing in line for Hagrid’s. Tried on Tuesday, it was closed all day. My friends were able to ride it with a 30 minutes wait on Wednesday night. It was closed Thursday night. On Friday, around 7pm, we saw a commotion around the ride entrance and test runs, after it being closed every time we checked. So we stayed around the door for 10 minutes, they opened the queue, we had ridden it 20 minutes later. Today I went in the queue with 120 minutes posted wait, was out of it 50 minutes later. Entered it again and have been in line for 50 minutes, it looks like there is still 30 minutes to go. SR line was closed.
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And I am out, so second time today was 90 minutes
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This is exactly how I feel! I just assumed that by December, all the kinks would be worked out. As it turns out, this not a guarantee. 
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After this week my recommendation for Hagrid’s is: if the line is open, go. Posted wait times are not to be trusted, the queue itself is quite pleasant and it is not reliable enough for waiting for a shorter line. And it is that good.
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I second this.
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Your Saturday update (slightly later than normal since I’m off work for once and slept in 
):
As always, the data is from the hard-working team at Touring Plans. Left axis is Universal’s average posted wait time at that time of day, while the right axis is the percent of days on which the ride was open and operating at that time.
The two biggest pieces of news this week are, first, that the issues with the bees seem to be resolved, and Hagrid’s is back to just having is normal/baseline level of operational issues. Full-day downtime has stopped, and the ride has been operating at a minimum between about 11am & 3pm. Second, Universal has started putting this notice in its app:
A liner on chat first flagged the notice on Thursday, and it was also present on Friday and today (Saturday). So it seems that Universal is not promising/planning that the ride will be open past 3pm. Interestingly, it was actually open until 4:30pm or so on Thursday. So it’s possible that Hagrid’s will be open after 3pm on a day with this notice, but I wouldn’t count on it. It did in fact close shortly after 3pm on Friday.
Other than that, rope drop–if the ride is running–and early afternoon around 1pm remain the best options for riding. However, there’s been enough morning downtime this week that I’m starting to prefer the later time slot. The ride only opened with the park two days this week, and was closed until at least 10am on four days. At this point, if you are attempting to rope drop and they are not cycling trains by 9:15am or so, I’d bail and come back later once you know the ride is open.
Frankly, it’s been bad enough lately that @alicescarpa and @BeckyT13 have the right of it. If Hagrid’s is a priority for you, go whenever you see that it’s open.
Hopefully next week will bring some better news – maybe the 3pm closures are so they can do maintenance in the daylight now that the days are getting shorter?
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This is making nervous, December is coming fast and Hagrids is still an unreliable ride. At this rate we are just going to rope drop in our 4 days, every morning in front of Island of Adventure and forget about Universal Studios early hour. I guess visiting Diagon Alley in early morning hour, to increase the chances of hour kids being pick up in the wand show, is not going to happen.
I have a Grinch and Friends breakfast one morning. There is some speculation that it might be an advantage. I did not book it for that reason. I booked it because my sister really wants to do it but I am wondering if it will be.
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I wouldn’t RD Hagrid’s unless it gets more reliable. Let’s look at cases:
Scenario 1: You enjoy Early Access in Diagon Alley. Stay there until 9am, take the bus to IOA, arrive at Hagrid’s around 9:30am
a) Hagrid’s is closed. You go do other things
b) Hagrid’s is opened. Posted time will be 120 or 180 minutes, actual time will be shorter. You will stand in line and get to ride it, the line itself is pretty.
They are both sound like pleasant mornings to me.
Scenario 2: You rope drop Hagrid’s
a) If it is closed, it sounds like a very frustrating morning.
b) If it is opened you get to ride it with low lines.
RD doesn’t increase your chances of riding it, it just makes lines shorter if you do ride it. For me that’s not worth the feeling of “what if is not even opened”. But I don’t care that much about lines (found Hagrid’s pleasant, even) and don’t like uncertainty at all.
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PrincipalTinker what is Grinch and Friends a Restaurant in IOA? They let you in before the park opens?
I booked this for 8am
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Thanks alicescarpa, That is a very convincing point, for the first day at least so my kids can get their wand
Go to Daigon Alley do the wand’s show and enjoy that area with less people, then take the train to IOA and just stay on the queue for Hagrids, it will be a longer time but at least i got the Diagon Alley with less people once, and then if Hagrids was down on the morning, who cares
I still will do rope drop the rest of the days, but try to check with the staff while on queue if it’s going to be open on time, just in case they happen to know.
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Wow PrincipalTinker you can be inside the park by 8:00 am!!! I’ll look into it more. I’ll call guest services and ask if we could go to the Hagrids queue after we are done with our breakfast, and if done could be around 8:40 AM
What are express passes? Are they the ones that would come with a room reservation at Loew’s Pacific?
Yes, you get express pass if you stay at Royal Pacific. You can also purchase it if you are not staying at one of the three deluxe resorts. It is a dedicated entrance that reduces your wait.
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