Going to experience an attraction on opening day is always a bit of a gamble. Though Disneyland’s recent opening of Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge went really smoothly, most times there is a fair amount of confusion and a LOT of waiting. However, as someone who attends day one attraction openings pretty regularly, I know to bring a book and a fully charged cellphone, because waiting is definitely the name of the game when it’s opening day.
However, that being said I can’t say I have EVER experienced something quite like the opening day of Hagrid’s Magical Motorbike Adventure. Note, if you want to know our feelings on the actual ride, you can click here. Right now we’re ONLY discussing what it was like waiting in line for 14 hours straight.
A morning arrival
Although we were advised that Universal would be opening its parking garage at 4:30AM, due to personal reasons we weren’t able to actually get to the park until 8:30AM. However, once we got there we instantly found an extended queue winding all the way from the attraction through Hogsmeade, The Lost Continent, and Seuss Landing down to the waterfront edge at the tail end of the Port of Entry. Right away, a Team Member told us that the wait time was 600 minutes, and reminded us that we would have to stand up the whole time. This Team Member was clearly trying to dissuade us from jumping in the line but ooking at the time (it was right before 9:00 AM) we worked out that it would be around 7:00 PM when we reached our destination if the 10 hour estimate was accurate, worst case scenario. But the good news was the line started moving pretty quickly, and before we knew it, we were in Seuss Landing.
Running ahead of schedule
We then moved through Seuss Landing at a pretty fast clip, with some very nice Team Members letting us know about how much time was left in front of us. In only two hours we had made up 4 hours of wait time space, and we were feeling very good about how the day was going. However, storm clouds were gathering in the distance…
Heading backstage
Though things were starting to get a little dark, around noon, we arrived in The Lost Continent area of the park, and then made a sharp turn into the Poseidon’s Furty queue. And though we were delayed in this area for around 30 minutes, after that we headed into a backstage area, which was pretty cool. After a long walk, we ended up next to the theater that used to house The Eighth Voyage of Sinbad show on the other side of The Lost Continent. The time was around 1:00 PM, and a Team Member told us we were 75% of the way there. Based on our rough calculations, we figured that meant we’d be riding between 3-4:00 PM, which sounded like great news. However, those projections turned out to be inaccurate. VERY inaccurate.
The weather turns foul
Right after we turned the corner around where the Sinbad theater is, the weather suddenly turned very bad (as it is wont to do in Florida), with heavy rain, thunder and lightning happening for the better part of two hours. Unfortunately, while lightning was in the area, the attraction couldn’t run, and between 2:00 – 4:00 PM, we simply stood in the rain, getting soaked to the bone, but hoping it would clear up soon.
The ride breaks (but no one is told)
Though we had initially been hoping to be on the ride by 4:00 PM, by this time the weather was just starting to clear and we were unfortunately still stuck in The Lost Continent. However, by 5:00 PM Hogsmeade was in sight, and by 6:00 PM, we were in the proper queue for Hagrid’s Magical Motorbike Adventure, watching other guests zoom past on the tracks and taking in the details.
However, around 7:00 we stopped, right at the entrance of the interior queue. The rain was starting up again, and we, as well as many of the other guests around us, assumed that the weather was to blame for the delay. However, an hour later the rain slowed, and the line still had not moved.
Around 8:30 PM, more than an hour after we had stopped, a Team Member came out and told us that the attraction had gone down for technical difficulties an hour earlier, and with the park scheduled to close very soon, they would be running tests until 8:59 PM, and if the attraction wasn’t back on line by then, they would be sending everyone home.
This was obviously not a very popular thing for guests to hear, especially as we had all been waiting over an hour with no word as to what was going on with the attraction. However, even though the situation was frustrating (and we were all VERY damp and cold from all the rain), we decided to continue to tough it out.
Entering the interior queue, 12 hours later
Image: Universal
Fortunately, just before 9:00 PM (a whopping 12 HOURS) after we first got in line, we finally entered the interior queue. We were rushed into a pre-show room (we were only able to watch about half of the pre-show), and then quickly shuffled out into a series of long, thin corridors, stuffed to the gills with guests, almost all of whom had been waiting 12 hours or longer. Though this was (of course) our first time in this area, these rooms seemed far too stuffed with people, and one young guest had a severe reaction to the packing in of guests, and had to run out of the room to catch his breath.
Riding the ride, 14 hours later
Though it was initially supposed to take about an hour from the pre-show room to get to the actual ride, the ride again went down around 10:00 PM, just as we were rounding the 13 hour mark. However, the good news was it didn’t take long this time to fix the issue, and we were able to ride the ride just after 11:00 PM, an agonizing 14 hours after we first entered the line.
Though we thouroughly enjoyed the ride, we have to say that the queue system on day one felt totally mis-managed. Back in 2010 most guests waited “only” 8-10 hours to experience Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey, and when Harry Potter and the Escape From Gringotts opened, the wait time was similar, despite extreme technical issues.
Though there was nothing that could have been done about the weather, Team Members were not able to tell guests what was going on, which led to a lot of confusion. If the line could have been managed a little better (and potentially cut off a little sooner), there wouldn’t have been so many guests waiting 12-14 hours for this attraction. Waiting this long was definitely an endurance test, and though we came home tired and sore, the ride was 100% worth waiting for. But hopefully when the next new attraction opens, things will be managed a little better and we won’t have so many guests waiting this insane amount of time to experience one attraction.
